Listening to Children on the Spiritual Journey : Guidance for Those Who Teach and Nurture

by Stonehouse, Catherine

• ISBN13: 9780801032363
• ISBN10: 0801032369
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-01
• Publisher: Baker Academic

Summary

How do children experience and understand God? How can adults help children grow their life of faith? Throughout more than a decade of field research, children's spiritually experts Catherine Stonehouse and Scottie May listened to children talk about their relationships with God, observed children and their parents in learning and worship settings, and interviewed adults about their childhood faith experiences. This accessibly written book weaves together their findings to offer a glimpse of the spiritual responsiveness and potential of children. Through case studies, it provides insight into children's perceptions of God and how they process their faith. In addition, the book suggests how parents, teachers, and ministry leaders can more effectively relate to work with children and pre-adolescents to nurture their faith, offering a helpful picture of adults and children on the spiritual journey together. This book also includes colour illustrations created by some of the children the authors observed.

Author Biography

Catherine Stonehouse (PhD, Michigan State University), author of the award-winning book Joining Children on the Spiritual Journey, is the Orlean Bullard Beeson Professor of Christian Discipleship and dean of the school of practical theology at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Scottie May (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is associate professor of Christian formation and ministry at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Both authors speak regularly on children's spirituality topics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Why Listen to Children?	p. 11
Knowing God in Childhood	p. 25
Experiencing God in Everyday Life	p. 41
Experiencing God at Church	p. 55
The Formative Power of God's Story	p. 73
Let the Children Come: Loving, Knowing, and Following Jesus	p. 91
Celebrating Compassion	p. 107
The Church Partnering with Parents	p. 123
The Research Designs	p. 139
Resources and Ideas	p. 151
Notes	p. 161
Index	p. 169
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