Where are you in your faith journey?
It is easy to see a child's progress as they move through different stages of faith, but the same can not be said for someone that comes to faith later in life. The truth is everybody goes through various stages of their faith formation. Based on the book Will Our Children Have Faith, Westerhoff presents his understanding of faith formation based on four development stages. The stages are experienced, affiliative, searching, and owned faith. In all of the steps, we can see how a child would progress through them, and the examples that follow will be based on a child’s growth. As mentioned before, an adult could find themselves in any of these stages; If they came to faith later in life or just did not progress forward from a particular stage, every person in their faith journey finds themselves in one of the stages.
First, let's look at the experienced faith stage. The main identifier of this stage is the exploration of faith. It is a new concept for a child to understand, and just like everything they learn in the beginning years, they learn through doing. "The child explores and test, imagines and creates, observes and copies, experiences and reacts."[1] It is through this foundation that kids begin to build their faith. I often see this with the kids in our early childhood rooms. From birth to five years old, these kids learn about God through their actions performed in the rooms. It is most often found in the crafts or other activities that give these children a chance to experience God firsthand. It is also found in the interactions between them and their small group leaders; this is a common occurrence in a child’s development. Kids often take cues from their leaders.
After they move from experienced faith, they move towards affiliative faith. This development stage has some overlap with the first stage, but it is commonly found in our younger elementary kids. A sense of identity within the community is the common identifier of this stage. The kids are looking for acceptance and importance to the community.[2] More times than not, I see this stage starting with kids in the second grade. The kids want to be a part of the group learning together. I tell this to all of our small group leaders, but especially for this age, do not worry so much about the lesson but worry more about all of your kids being involved and connected with the group. It is more important for the kids to feel known and loved than any lesson that we could teach them on the weekend.
The third, the searching faith stage, is one that is often passed on to our youth pastor. By the time that most of the kids enter this stage, they are moving on to middle school and out of the children's ministry. Kids need the space to question, experiment, and ultimately commit to what they believe to be true.[3] Kids in middle and high school fit perfectly into this stage because they are beginning to make the faith their own, but to do that, they need to search for answers. In the two previous stages, what is present is parents and small group leaders impressing their faith in kids. As Westerhoff states, "they need to be encouraged to remain within the faith community during their intellectual struggle, experimentation, and first endeavors at commitment."[4]
The goal of all the movement through the stages is a progression into the last stage, owned faith. It is highlighted by a change in the person's behavior; thinking, feeling, and willing.[5] In this stage, we often see kids who are in college or as young adults. The searching phase can last after high school and even after college. Some adults never progress to the owned faith stage. Even in the owned faith, the previous searching stage is still involved, but their searching is based on a solid foundation of an owned faith.
What I love about these stages is their progression and the relevance of each stage in all other stages. Even a person with an owned faith still needs to experience faith in an authentic community. A person that is searching for answers can have a foundation of an owned faith.
[1] III John H. Westerhoff, Will Our Children Have Faith? (New York: Morehouse, 2012), Kindle Loc. 1458
[2] John H. Westerhoff, Will Our Children Have Faith? Loc. 1488
[3] John H. Westerhoff, Will Our Children Have Faith? Loc. 1523.
[4] John H. Westerhoff, Will Our Children Have Faith? Loc. 1530.
[5] John H. Westerhoff, Will Our Children Have Faith? Loc. 1542.
