Four themes emerged from last year’s Kansas City Nurturing Care grant participants as congregations explored how children of all abilities could belong, worship and grow in faith.
A child looked forward to church because a worship buddy helped him feel known. Classmates learned to recognize when a friend needed a seat that allowed movement. Families found support in conversations with others navigating similar experiences.
These moments, described in the 2025–26 final reports of ten Nurturing Care grant participants, reveal the personal significance of a year spent making congregational life more accessible. The churches approached the work through different projects: volunteer training, sensory tools, changes to worship spaces and gatherings designed around children’s varied needs. Across those efforts, four themes emerged: belonging as a foundation for discipleship, flexibility in worship, care as a shared responsibility and the continuing need to learn from children and families.
Belonging as a Foundation for Discipleship
At Christ Community Church of the Nazarene, the year’s work helped leaders reconsider the relationship between behavior and belonging. Children helped choose sensory tools, families shared strategies that worked at home, and a weekly buddy supported one child’s participation in worship. His family reported that he loved coming to church and having someone there especially for him.
For children’s pastor Amy Schlepp, the experience illuminated a deeper purpose.
“Belonging (knowing and being known) is proving for us to be a far more effective focus for discipleship than behavior modification,” she wrote.
Understanding a child’s needs and the reasons behind behavior helped leaders respond with greater care. That shift also appeared in other congregations, where training challenged assumptions about autism, ADHD and participation in church.
At New Hope, staff and volunteers developed a common vocabulary around neurological differences. Training corrected misunderstandings and prepared the congregation for changes that included a quiet room, sensory tools and a rocker in the sanctuary. Leaders described growing acceptance of people whose brains work differently.
At The Light KC, JoBeth Crank connected this work with the Christian conviction that every child bears God’s image. Writing from her own experience as a neurodivergent leader, she asked how churches could help children accept themselves when everyday activities were difficult for them.
Her reflections also acknowledged the loneliness some families experience. She recounted learning about a family that had stopped attending church after repeatedly struggling to find a safe setting for their daughter. Against that experience, Crank expressed a hope rooted in Psalm 139: children would come to know that they are deeply known and loved by their Creator. Congregational belonging could help make that assurance tangible.
Making Worship Accessible Through Flexibility
The reports repeatedly showed how changes to familiar routines opened opportunities for participation.
At 8th Street Church, elementary ministry incorporated rotating centers for prayer, Bible stories, games and creative activities. Movement and hands-on learning gave children several ways to engage the same biblical material. Visual timers, headphones and other sensory supports helped address individual needs.
At Olathe’s Westside Church of the Nazarene, alternative seating allowed leaders to arrange the worship space more flexibly. Wobble chairs and other seats that permitted movement helped children remain engaged, including those with attention needs. The Light KC reported similar experiences. One child began seeking out a movement seat each week, and other children learned to help him find it. They appeared to understand that the seat helped their friend participate in the conversation.
Other congregations extended these practices into worship with the whole church. New Vision Church of the Nazarene in Raymore, Missouri, used a portable ministry cart during monthly intergenerational services. Children explored biblical stories through building, drawing and sculpting. At 8th Street, sensory carts made supports available during Family Worship Sundays.
Second Presbyterian’s move toward intergenerational worship prompted reflection on how children encounter God. The congregation welcomed children’s movement in the pews, their questions and their leadership in passing offering plates. Leaders considered what worship offers children even when they cannot fully understand a sermon. Together, these experiences encouraged a broader understanding of participation. A child might listen while moving, respond to Scripture through art or contribute to worship through a practical act of service.
Sharing the Work of Care
Equipment mattered, but the reports also emphasized the people who learned to use it thoughtfully.
At Living Hope, leaders shifted from relying primarily on designated “Sensory Sundays” toward making supports available in ordinary ministry settings. Teachers gained resources to respond when a child needed headphones, a different seat or an adjusted activity. That approach helped spread responsibility. Care could happen through the teacher already present, with tools close at hand. Families asking about those supports also began connecting with one another and sharing experiences. Living Hope’s leaders asked how nurturing care could become a sustainable expression of Christian discipleship across the congregation. The story of the Good Samaritan helped them interpret the practical significance of noticing someone’s needs and responding.
Engage Church explored shared care through its Food, Fun and Faith gatherings for elementary-aged children and their families. The community included households without a connection to a faith community, alongside Catholic and Protestant participants. Gatherings combined meals, play, prayer and Christian formation. Leaders shortened lessons, incorporated movement and breath prayers, and invited children to help lead prayer with their caregivers. Faith formation continued beyond the gathering itself. After a lesson on reconciliation, a playground conflict gave a parent an opportunity to model a response. Further conversation followed when the child was ready to engage.
These reports suggest that care grows through relationships and repeated practice. Volunteers gain confidence, parents contribute knowledge, and children learn how to support one another.
Continuing to Listen and Learn
The year also exposed limitations and raised questions that equipment alone could not resolve. At 8th Street, transitions between activities remained difficult for some children, and multiple activities could become overstimulating. Leaders continued learning how to balance movement, quiet and individual needs.
Norman Community Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma refreshed its sensory bags and made them more visible to arriving families. A modified sanctuary space helped some children, but it did not provide lasting support for every family. Leaders began planning another setting for a child who needed a different way to engage during worship.
New Hope identified the need to support an autistic teenager transitioning into sanctuary worship and the youth group. Leaders also recognized families’ needs for respite care and community resources.
Other questions concerned children’s spiritual contributions. At Westside, Nate Owens reflected that his initial project had concentrated on the worship environment. He wanted to move further toward giving children opportunities to express how they sensed God at work in that worship.
New Vision similarly asked how the congregation could practice mutual hospitality. Leaders wanted members to receive the gifts of neurodivergent children and families and create opportunities for them to serve and contribute.
Several reports identified unfinished projects, further training and broader congregational involvement as priorities for the following year. Those hopes remained next steps, building on the experience of 2025–26.
A Welcome That Continues to Grow
Last year’s Nurturing Care reports describe congregations learning to connect practical accessibility with the Christian call to love one another.
A quieter room, a sensory tool or a different seat could open a path into worship. Listening to families helped churches understand which changes mattered. Training gave volunteers greater confidence, while children’s responses helped leaders recognize what still needed attention.
The work also invited congregations to reconsider whose gifts they expected to receive and whose voices they needed to hear. For these churches, nurturing care became part of the continuing work of discipleship: knowing one another more fully, sharing responsibility and helping every child participate in the life of the body of Christ.
