Columbia Theological Seminary’s Wonder of Worship program offering $1,000 grants to congregations

The ‘Quick Wins’ grants will help faith communities that are working to nurture children in their worship and prayer lives

by Columbia Theological Seminary | Special to Presbyterian News Service

Photo by Robert Collins via Unsplash

DECATUR, Georgia — 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 in any denomination through the Lilly Endowment and are part of an allotment to Columbia to provide for the nurturing of children in their worship and prayer lives.

Dr. Kathy L. Dawson

“Churches in the 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 in order to help ascertain where the greatest need is for the grant money. Congregations need to identify three to five areas in which they may make simple changes that can be done in the next year to engage children more fully in worship. The audit is available here.

After the audit, congregations need to fill out a short registration form, including an itemized budget, to explain how the funds will be spent. That application is available here. The application deadline is July 15.