The Wonder of Worship program at Columbia Theological Seminary is offering a second round of grants of $1,000 to congregations nationally looking to enhance the engagement of children in their corporate workspaces.
Wonder of Worship is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative. The aim of the national initiative is to support faith-based organizations as they help children grow in faith and deepen their relationships with God.
The $1,000 “Quick Wins” grants are available to congregations of any denomination through the Lilly Endowment and is part of an allotment to Columbia to provide for the nurturing of children in their worship and prayer lives.
“Churches in our first round of these grants have proposed many creative ways of using this money from building worship training resources to hiring consultants to aid in writing more child-friendly liturgy,” said Dr. Kathy L. Dawson, project director for the Wonder of Worship grant program. “Some are renovating cry rooms to enhance family participation in the service and others are developing programs for child leadership of worship. I’ve been amazed by the creativity in our partner churches so far and look forward to what this second round of Quick Wins grants will bring.”
In this round, congregations looking to apply should conduct an inventory on what they are already doing and to help ascertain where the greatest need is for the grant money.
Congregations need to identify three-to-five areas they may make simple changes that can be done in the next year to engage children more fully in worship. That audit is available at https://www.ctsnet.edu/wp-content/uploads/WOW_audit_inventory-2024.pdf.
After the audit, congregations would need to fill out a short registration form, including an itemized budget, to explain how the funds would be spent. That application is available at https://forms.office.com/r/X9XLSZzRVE. The application deadline is July 15, 2024.
About Columbia Theological Seminary
Columbia Theological Seminary “exists to educate and nurture faithful, imaginative, and effective leaders for the sake of the Church and the world.” As a diverse, graduate educational institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Columbia Seminary is a community of theological inquiry, leadership development, and formation for ministry in the service of the Church of Jesus Christ. Columbia Seminary offers six graduate degree programs and dozens of courses and events as a resource for church professionals and lay people through The Center for Lifelong Learning. For more information, please visit www.CTSnet.edu.
