Seminario Evangelico de Puerto Rico

The Nurturing Children through Worship and Prayer program will engage pastors, parents and congregational leaders in a design process to develop and test strategies for engaging children more intentionally in worship practices that nurture their faith. Previous research has shown that have “spiritual preferences” which they use to nurture their faith. Using the “Spiritual Style” assessment tool (SSAT, children and adults versions), SEPR will enhance children’s faith through a three step process: (1) identify children’s spiritual style; (2) identify adult’s spiritual style so they might; (3) train adults to go beyond their spiritual types and communicate with children through their own spiritual types. The initiative has drafted Spanish versions of the SSAT for both adults and children and is in the process of pre-testing them with a sample taken from our target churches. The team is composed of two full-time members (the Director & an Administrative Assistant) and three part-time members (children’s special needs educational consultant, specialist in children’s dysfunctional behavior and a technical assistant), with lay persons helping survey at the local congregations. The program has secured a space at the SEPR physical facilities for the project’s main office, as well as a temporary workshop at a nearby facility to conduct all pre and post activities related to the field work. A permanent workshop facility is under re-construction.