Each year Nurturing Care submits a report to the Lilly Endowment, Inc. documenting the initiative’s efforts, impact, and most importantly, what our leadership learns through the many prototypes and ministry efforts by our partners. As the initiative gained momentum this year we also discovered a lot about our ministry more as a catalyst and curator than an education “provider.”
Nurturing Care Maker’s Spaces, incubator/retreats, in San Diego and in Kansas City, invited a number of new churches into our design learning process. The gathering at Point Loma Nazarene University expanded the initiative’s reach from Alaska to Arizona, with ten new or renewed projects emerging from the creativity of local congregations, supported by consultants like Dr. Ross Oakes Mueller, our Day of Learning speaker this coming January 6th, and children’s ministry specialists from Equip to Engage.
Kansas City entered its third year engaging ministry with autistic children through worship and prayer practices. Interest continues to expand beyond the city’s metro boarders as congregations from Kansas City but also Oklahoma and Texas gathered to generate new initiatives totaling eleven new prototypes. When coupled with ongoing projects, this crucial ministry now reaches fourteen congregations in the midwest with another Maker’s Space scheduled in Nashville in spring 2026.
In addition to the prototype projects, Nurturing Care moved to a new level of advocacy and public engagement. As with previous years, Nurturing Care hosted a day of learning with Dr. Amy Jacober providing insights into ministry with autistic children. Project director, Dr. Dean G. Blevins, presented six workshops and one academic paper at national and regional gatherings addressing neurodiversity, children, and worship.
Nurturing Care helped to sponsor the Hugh C. Benner Preacher’s Conference at Nazarene Theological Seminary, directed by NTS Praxis and funded through the Laytham Lectureship on Early Childhood Development. The conference, titled “All God’s Children,” brought national leaders (Dr. Lamar Hardwick, Dr. Bill Gaventa, and Dr. Amy Jacober) and well know Nazarene leaders (Dr. Diane Leclerc Rev. Tara Thomas Smith, and Rev. Brad Lee) to both preach and discuss preaching on disability ministry.
Workshops included Nurturing Care’s local consultants and ministers (Kris Mitchel and Stephanie Answer) as well as national leaders in autism ministry like Ryan Nelson, Jesse Briles, and Wonderful Works leaders Barb Stanley and Leah Wicker. More than 350 attendees benefited from the two day learning event. Videos from those sessions remain available through NTS/Praxis.
The year concluded by expanding the initiatives resource development including the establishment of a new Sensory room/laboratory at Nazarene Theological Seminary. This new location serves more as a catalytic setting to allow congregational leaders explore and prototype adaptive configurations through a large array of sensory devices available on site.
Ultimately Nurturing Care focuses as much on sharing what the initiative learns through debriefs and reporting from congregations engaged in the prototypes. Dr. Dana Preusch, Nurturing Care’s national coordinator, hosts these vital gathering through zoom discussions and curates written reports that provide insight into the work of the prototypes as well as through our other gatherings. This year Nurturing Care summarized the learning under five themes.
1. Worship and Prayer Are Relational Before They Are Instructional
In 2025, congregations learned that children’s spiritual formation is shaped less by what is taught and more by how presence is shared. When worship and prayer slowed down and became embodied, intergenerational, and sensory-rich, children demonstrated spiritual awareness far beyond adult expectations. This was especially evident among autistic children, whose participation through silence, movement, and non-verbal prayer revealed that spiritual depth is not dependent on speech or cognitive norms. These practices invited congregations to reimagine difference not as a limitation, but as a site of revelation.
2. Prototyping Depends on Psychological and Spiritual Safety
Innovation flourished where leaders were given permission to fail, adapt, and learn publicly. Maker’s Spaces and mini-grant projects showed that prototyping works best when it is understood not as proof of success but as a process of discovery. Congregations that resisted experimentation often sought certainty before beginning. Those that embraced risk were more honest, more adaptive, and more collaborative—confirming that strong relational facilitation and narrative learning matter more than outcome-driven evaluation.
3. Children Transform Congregations Faster Than Structures Can
Children’s leadership—especially in worship—reshaped congregational culture quickly, deepening empathy and attentiveness. Yet institutional systems like budgets, committees, and schedules lagged behind these relational changes. This gap was most visible when child-led worship or disability inclusion disrupted long-held norms. The project learned that lasting change requires pastoral leadership and theological framing, not just new programs.
4. Research Must Follow Relationship
The West Coast experience made clear that research cannot precede trust. Early quantitative research goals proved unsustainable without strong relational foundations. As a result, the project shifted toward qualitative learning and shared narratives as the groundwork for future research. Empirical study remains valuable, but as a second-order activity—emerging from mature practice rather than driving engagement. A new research initiative on trust and trauma will begin in 2026 in partnership with the Southwest Native American District.
5. Theology Emerges from Practice
Perhaps most significantly, 2025 confirmed that theology is not simply applied to children’s ministry—it is generated there. Through worship and prayer with children, especially neurodivergent children, congregations discovered new theological insight. These lived practices now shape sermons, conferences, and scholarly work, positioning children as theological teachers and strengthening Nurturing Care’s role as a bridge between congregational life and academic theology.
Overall 2025 marks a significant year of ministry and learning through Nurturing Care. Hopefully the momentum gained will grow as the initiative moves into 2026.
Discipleship Commons 