Helping Our Children Grow in Faith: How the Church Can Nurture the Spiritual Development of Kids

Children have serious faith questions that require serious answers, answers that adults often find themselves under-prepared to give. But the Christian community has a responsibility to help its children develop a three-dimensional faith--a faith that affects their heads, their hearts, and their spirits.
Helping Our Children Grow in Faith is designed for children's ministry and worship leaders, Sunday school teachers, and pastors--as well as parents--who want to nurture the spiritual development of the children in their lives. It shows how to integrate children into congregational worship, how to teach them the Bible but leave room for the mystery of God, and how to distinguish the difference between faith development and moral development.

From the Back Cover

You can guide children to a deeper, life-long faith

Whether you are a Sunday school teacher, volunteer, leader, or parent, you and your church play a vital role in nurturing children's faith. In this practical book, you will find six principles for fostering the kind of three-dimensional faith that affects a child's head, heart, and spirit. Glean from both theory and theology to explore how to

• make your children's ministry effective
• distinguish between building faith and teaching morals
• tailor your teaching to children's developmental levels
• give children a faith foundation that stands through doubts and questions
• balance age-specific programs with the full life of the church

Helping Our Children Grow in Faith offers great ideas for turning your church into a child-friendly community--a place where children develop faith that affects every aspect of their lives.

"A thoughtful, accessible, and practical introduction to the basic building blocks of effective ministries with children. Keeley takes seriously children and their spiritual development, challenging congregations to move beyond simplistic approaches that don't fully engage children."--Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, codirector, Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, Search Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota

"Keeley offers practical suggestions for welcoming children into the faith community as authentic participants. He envisions church as a 'child-friendly culture,' an environment healthy for the spiritual growth of children. And he points the way to forming such a community."--Cathy Stonehouse, dean, School of Practical Theology and Orlean Bullard Beeson Professor of Christian Discipleship, Asbury Theological Seminary

"I loved this book! It is a delight to find someone with a clear vision of how the entire life of the church needs to be developed if we want our children to have a healthy, growing faith in Jesus Christ. This is a must-read for every children's pastor and lay leader who cares about the spiritual nurture of children."--Kevin E. Lawson, director, PhD and EdD programs in Educational Studies, Talbot School of Theology; editor, Christian Education Journal


Robert J. Keeley is a professor of education at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and codirector, with his wife, Laura, of children's ministries at Fourteenth Street Christian Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan.