Azusa Pacific University received a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the initiative “Sowing Seeds for God’s Harvest: Cultivating Worship, Faith and Calling in Children.”
The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative, a national initiative designed to help Christian congregations more fully and intentionally engage children in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices.
The goal of this project, which will be co-led by Jennifer Graffius, DMin, executive director of the Center for Vocational Ministry (CVM), and Freddy Rivas, director of mentoring and formation in the CVM , is to support children’s spiritual formation and to assist parents and caregivers in promoting worship in children’s lives. By engaging families in worship, reflection, and learning experiences that cater to diverse developmental stages and needs, these initiatives will foster connections between different generations within the church and at home. This intergenerational engagement will increase the spiritual growth of individuals of all ages, creating vibrant communities centered on a lived faith.
To accomplish this, the team will focus on three main objectives: developing digital formational resources, establishing congregational cohorts, and fostering collaborative learning communities for ongoing practice. The project will create a culture of mutual support and knowledge exchange among participants, as well as foster greater connections between the academy and the church.
“We are honored and overjoyed to partner with congregations in the Southern California region, to create spaces that respond to Jesus’s command to ‘let the children come to me,’ and to facilitate new and innovative ways to welcome children and their families to the center of congregational life,” Graffius said.
APU is one of 91 organizations funded through the latest round of the initiative. They represent and serve congregations in a broad spectrum of Christian traditions, including Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, Orthodox, Anabaptist and Pentecostal faith communities. Several organizations are rooted in Black Church and Hispanic and Asian American Christian traditions.
“Congregational worship and prayer play a critical role in the spiritual growth of children and offer settings for children to acquire the language of faith, learn their faith traditions and experience the love of God as part of a supportive community,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “These programs will help congregations give greater attention to children and how they can more intentionally nurture the faith of children, as well as adults, through worship and prayer.”
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. The principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.