Discipleship Commons

On the West Coast wing of the Nurturing Care initiative, the stories coming in from congregations don’t read like a single program rollout. They read like a movement learning, week by week, what it takes to make worship and prayer accessible for children—and what happens when adults trust kids with real spiritual agency.

Singing As Belonging

In Bend Church of the Nazarene, that trust is sounding a lot like music. Pastor Jason Visser reported the release of the church’s first children’s worship album—Kids Worship, Vol. 1—with a Spanish version and a bilingual release close behind. For Bend, the project isn’t just a production milestone; it’s an intentional picture of belonging. Visser wrote that worshiping in a bilingual setting regularly places children side-by-side with peers who “look different” and speak different languages, training them to see that diversity as normal rather than threatening. 

That same conviction—that children can shape a congregation’s worship life rather than merely observe it—surfaced again in Palmer Church of the Nazarene show in this picture rehearsing the song “There is a River of Life.” In a note from Palmer Family Church of the Nazarene, Monica Gaige described a worship moment that carried extra weight: a student facing difficult circumstances at home, previously reluctant to participate up front, decided he wanted to join the church’s worship leadership and play trumpet during It Is Well. The child’s decision came after sustained encouragement and a worship pastor’s affirmation that singing with the kids had become his favorite part of church. Gaige noted that the congregation’s support has been steady—and that children’s joy has a way of catching. 

Kids making a Difference

Across the West Coast reports, this theme of kids as contributors shows up in more than music. As noted in a previous story, in Southern California, the GratiGrow project at the Church of the Nazarene in Hesperia leaned heavily into service—building spiritual formation through hands-on outreach. Coordinator Lucia Y. Babb-Rodriguez reported volunteer training that included youth from the community, many of whom had never attended church before. In January, the group’s first outreach brought families together to clean and assist a pastor with physical limitations; the work drew a neighbor’s gratitude and prompted parents to say their kids returned home proud—some having helped for the first time. The experience, the report said, was marked by prayer, order, and what they described as the presence of the Holy Spirit, with momentum growing as more children signed up for the next month. 

If Hesperia’s story highlights formation through service, a report titled “Gratitude is the new attitude” underscores formation through emotional regulation and relational repair—the kind of discipleship that happens establishing trust before the first song even begins. At Sandia Valley Church pastor Patti Rivas reported that a child arrived dysregulated and struck at his grandmother/guardian, a scene that previously might have escalated the room’s anxiety. Instead, a leader guided him to a “God’s time” space, explaining that it was his place to pray, write, read, sing—or simply color. The child chose coloring, and the moment de-escalated in a way leaders hoped could become repeatable: giving children a structured, spiritually framed choice before worship so they can settle and connect with God in the way that works best for them. 

In Arizona, the SWLA Church of the Nazarene in Chandler offered a quieter update—but one that still reveals how grassroots this initiative can be. Scheduling conflicts kept leaders from meeting monthly or starting regular time with the children, yet the report emphasized that both kids and parents remain eager to launch the prototype. At the insistence of one child, pastor Vanessa Hernandez reports an early start to the effort. In Nurturing Care work, momentum sometimes looks like weekly programming; other times it looks like sustained enthusiasm that outlasts a complicated calendar. 

Further north, Sonoma Valley Church of the Nazarene showed another side of the same reality: behind every “successful” children’s moment is a less visible workload of planning, writing, and revising. Rev. Elaine Briefman reported curriculum development so extensive that the initial printout came to 89 pages—an amusing moment that led the team to shift plans and print professionally so volunteers would have durable copies. The church is also developing motions for a new song and exploring quarterly performances that would bring parents and children into worship together more regularly—especially meaningful after a former drop-in daycare program ended. 

Worship as a Training Ground for Trust

And running beneath many of these updates is a regional emphasis on worship as a training ground for trust. A separate report from the Southwest Native American District—centered at New Life Church of the Nazarene in Sanders, Arizona—described district-wide training where leaders introduced “trust” alongside worship, creating space for children to sing and recite scripture in front of congregations. In one service, children stepped into an unscheduled gap in programming and still flourished; in another, two children volunteered as offering ushers and prayed publicly, drawing amazement from adults across multiple districts. 

Pittsburg Church of the Nazarene noted they have made progress with intergenerational worship and their “prayground” is set to open next Sunday. The church hosted a “set up party” after service last week where adults, teens, and even little ones jumped in to help. One 4 year old exclaimed in the middle of all the excitement and seeing the new items, “this is the best day of my life!!” Leadership celebrated that even in this preparation the participants demonstrated their commitment to worship as an inter-generational church that values everyone and their contributions.

Taken together, the West Coast Nurturing Care reports suggest three broad developments happening at once:

• Worship is becoming more multilingual, more child-led, and more formative, from Bend’s bilingual albums to Palmer’s student musicians.
• Spiritual formation is expanding beyond the classroom, turning “worship time” into everything from outreach work in Hesperia to pre-service regulation practices that prevent shame and escalation.
• The infrastructure is catching up to the vision—whether that’s Sonoma’s 89-page curriculum or Chandler’s patient work of aligning schedules so the prototype can begin.

In other words, the initiative’s West Coast story is not a single headline about a new program. It’s a mosaic: children learning they can belong in worship in more than one language, volunteers learning to respond with calm structure instead of escalation, and churches learning that when kids are trusted—with songs, scripture, service, and space—congregations often follow their lead.

Just a note that Registration for May Maker’s Space in San Diego (Point Loma Campus) is officially open: 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nurturing-care-plnu-makers-space-retreat-tickets-1982828733117?aff=erelexpmlt. Churches may apply through the registration process that ends May 15, 2026. Churches are then invited to attend the May 28-30 event on campus where Nurturing Care covers expenses during the event. West coast churches can email info@nurturingcare.org for more informations but please review the FAQs on the Eventbrite page as well.