Date of Award
12-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Primary Advisor
Dr. Ron Bruner
Secondary Advisor
Dr. Amanda Pittman
Committee Reader
Dr. Tera Harmon
Abstract
This project thesis was designed to foster the spiritual formation of children in a multicultural church. A diverse team was assembled to design a curriculum to be used with volunteers in a children’s ministry context. Through seven two-hour sessions held over eight weeks in the spring of 2022, the curriculum development team first examined what it means to embody a multicultural perspective of the gospel while at the same time investigating the negative impact of a White, Eurocentric expression of Christianity. Next, they collaborated to develop a theological construct that centered around (1) the idea of being created in the image of God, (2) love of God and love of people, as demonstrated in Matt 22:36–40 and echoed in Eph 2, and (3) the vision of a multicultural church as witnessed through Acts 15. Finally, they constructed practical application components within the curriculum to address two goals for the children’s ministry volunteers: (1) to facilitate movement from a monocultural mindset to a multicultural one and (2) to be used as equipping strategies as volunteers prepare children’s ministry lessons. As the curriculum development team considered the dissonant perspectives generally inherent within a discussion about race, they also clearly recognized the spiritual significance for both children of color and White children. As a result of the potential impact, they did not shy away from the challenges of this difficult study. The resulting artifact, Inclusive Conversations for Children’s Ministry: Journeying from Diversity to Multiculturalism, is intended to be the start of a continuing conversation that will hopefully guide multicultural churches toward expressing the fullness of God and thereby remove the spiritual barriers that occur when the gospel message is presented through a dominant-culture lens.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Schroeder, Jennifer Reinsch, "An Inclusive Framework for Ministry: Fostering the Spiritual Formation of Children in a Multicultural Church" (2022). Doctor of Ministry Theses. 49.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/dmin_theses/49
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