What is Growing Faith?
Growing Faith is the movement that exists to put children, young people and families instinctively at the heart of all the mission and ministry of the Church by changing the culture of the Church of England.
As a Diocese, we are championing Growing Faith in the hope that all of us will move towards including and valuing children, young people and their households in every aspect of church as second nature. We see children and young people as individuals who are able to know God, talk to God and grow in faith just as much as any adult – and we seek to nurture and encourage their personal spirituality and journey of discipleship.
As a key aspect of valuing children and young people, we want to see a change in how we lead and make decisions – not just thinking about children and young people in our decision making, but creating meaningful opportunities to hear their voice and seek their feedback too.
Growing Faith in our Diocese
Many churches will already be instinctively living out some or all of these values – for others it will be more of a journey. We want to support all of our churches as they grow and develop a culture that includes and value children and young people as Christians, and as full members of the church community. We're doing this in a variety of ways:
- Supporting churches to employ, and invest in the development of, workers with a particular focus on Children, Young People and their families.
- Ensuring that the Growing Faith ethos informs the content and delivery in all of our lay training Pathways – most especially the Children, Youth and Families Pathway.
- Seeking to raise the profile of the voice of children and young people.
Want to know more?
The Growing Faith Foundation
Click here to find more about the Growing Faith Foundation and their national work.
The Growing Faith Foundation have also produced a learning resource called 'What is Growing Faith' which you can read through on your own, or explore as part of a group from a church or school. This short module contains questions and inspiration to help you start your Growing Faith journey and think through how to apply the ideas in your context. Click here to access the 'What is Growing Faith' resource.
The Growing Faith Foundation have also commissioned further research including the Growing Faith Connections report which investigates good practice for implementing the ethos in parish life. The report and a summary can be found here.
Our resources and training
You will find further resources and upcoming training sessions on the Diocese of Coventry Equip Hub Click here
Growing Faith Enabler
The Diocese of Coventry employs a Growing Faith Enabler to support churches, clergy and lay ministers. If you would value a conversation about Growing Faith in your context, please get in touch via james.henney@coventry.anglican.org