Concerns about the shifting religious landscape for young people in the United States provides the impetus to expand research investigating children’s experiences in Christian education. A significant number of children regularly attend Christian education in church and yet there is limited research investigating how those programs support children’s faith. Guided by self-determination theory, this research investigates whether instructional practices can support children’s religiosity and relationship with God. The present study specifically assessed whether children’s perceived relatedness with adults and peers in church, and children’s perceived autonomy in Sunday school, predicted children’s religiosity and relationship with God. Two hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to identify if the church variables were significant predictors of an identified relationship to God. Neither perceived relatedness in church nor perceived autonomy in Sunday school were significant predictors of identified religiosity. However, perceived relatedness in church did significantly predict relationship with God.

Making room: A place for children's spirituality in the Christian church A relatively uncharted territory until recently, the concept of children as innate spiritual beings has garnered significant attention among scholars over the past two decades. The more that is learned about children's spirituality the more apparent it becomes that the Christian church in the United States generally fails to provide sufficient space for children to explore, develop, and share their spirituality. This potentially leads children to suppress or disconnect from their spirituality in later years and also deprives a Christian community of the ability to learn and grow from children's unique experiences of God and spirituality. This paper examines the underlying theories that foster environments among Christian churches where the ennoblement of a "grown-up faith" and the resulting power adults hold because of that, inhibit the ability for children to be regarded and approached as capable of spiritual and faithful beliefs and understanding apart from adult intervention.