by Marta LeTourneau | May 14, 2026
“What are children for?”
It’s an odd sounding question, but one I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.
As a dad who has served in Children’s Ministry across various Christian denominations over the past fifteen years, I’ve noticed that Christians often answer this question differently with our minds than we do with our lives. Which is to say that how we treat children is often different than how we say we believe they should be treated.
That’s because our rational answer to such an unusual question is often different than how we live. Each of us is a divided being when it comes to answering just what children are for. On the one hand, we likely know the correct, theological answer while on the other we have our lived experience which often reveals what we believe most fundamentally about children (or about what is most important us). We know that children are a heritage from the Lord, that they are a gift and a blessing, and that they are precious to God and yet, we might pause a moment when really considering what their purpose in the world (or the church) is: they don’t increase productivity, they can’t for many years contribute quantifiable returns on investment, and in the Church it’s often thought that they’re not old enough to teach or serve or give back financially in any meaningful way.
Children are: expensive, exhausting and often along for a free meal, like a roommate who never pays rent or does their own laundry. Kids are physically small and intrinsically vulnerable and novices in the human experience. They’re frequently misunderstood, misbehaving or simply misfits in the world of big, important adults.
So what are children are for? Are they empty vessels to be filled with knowledge and experience? Are they humans-in-training? Are they to be merely tolerated—seen but not heard—until some point in the distant future? Do they exist for our gratification? Or is their existence merely owed to the cold, hard rationalism which flatly concedes that without them we would eventually cease to exist as a species?
This past December, at my church’s Christmas Pageant, as I watched the children of our church (including some of my own, sprinkled throughout the nativity scene) my heart was prompted to ask God that we might see our children in ways that are less about what works best (pragmatism) or what makes us the most comfortable (utilitarianism), and instead open ourselves up to what God has made children for:
to love and be loved
to care and be cared for
to share in the Kingdom with
to teach us adults about the smallness and the vastness of that Kingdom
to laugh and play
to look at the world in wonder
to be icons of Christ to the world
to be messy and loud and fast and slow and an example of God’s cheerful heart and his playfulness and his endless measure of love and passion.
I heard it said this week that the only real currency we humans have anymore is the attention we give. How often have my children walked away from me with my face behind a phone screen? What we give our attention to these days communicates what we love and value. The kind of attentiveness to children which I’m advocating for—the willingness to see and nurture, wait and wonder—calls to mind a children’s book I love: “The Woman and the Wheat” and it is a magically simple book which follows a farmer as she works to grow the wheat and bake the bread that she will offer back to her Creator in Eucharistic celebration. Through the lyrical prose and beautiful imagery the reader is able to walk the fields with the Woman and join her in her work of sowing and waiting, collaborating (with God and neighbor!) and reaping, kneading and baking from seed-hope to Eucharist:
There once was a woman who planted some wheat.
She worked in the heat of a late summer day,
wiping her brow as she sowed the seeds.
And on her lips were prayers of all sorts: for the
rain, and the sun, and the moon, and the wheat—
and the bread that was to come.
That’s something of a metaphor for a lot of our lived experiences: small beginnings, shared responsibility, and time and energy spent investing in something of value which ultimately depends on God.
So it is with life among children.
The spiritual formation and befriending of children involves the kind of hidden, slow work of sowing attention and wonder. Cultivating Christ’s likeness among children is an endeavor that requires patient endurance. Yet, unlike vocational farming, it is something that every follower of Jesus is both called to and equipped for, as spiritual mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. But it must start with attention and, as Wendell Berry says, “it all turns upon affection.”
by Marta LeTourneau | May 1, 2025
Church of the Incarnation in Atlanta has a new student ministry springing into life! Last year, a high school junior asked to be confirmed. This request enabled a confirmation class to start, followed by a Youth Alpha course, and now, regular meetings of middle and high school students at Incarnation. Rev. Janna Ziegler, the Associate Rector of the Church of the Incarnation, led the church’s first confirmation class with three students and their parents. The Student Leadership Network provided written resources, one-on-one coaching, and financial support through the Champion Grant for this first confirmation class.
Janna used this class as a trial run for student ministry programming, and the church got to see what it would be like to have a regular student ministry gathering on Sunday afternoons. In describing the confirmation class, she shared, “I taught through To Be Christian: An Anglican Catechism. In addition, I did a half-day retreat with confirmands and their parents about 1) Living in Relationship with Christ and 2) Living on Mission. The confirmands and their families had dinner with the vestry and the bishop. Finally, they all participated in the confirmation service.”
God’s glory was shown in many ways throughout this process, something that was clear as Janna shared stories about what is continuing at their church. One of the confirmands requested to be confirmed because she wanted to study the faith and make a public declaration of faith in Jesus before she went to college as a way of setting her life before the Lord. “It has been a deep joy to watch her fully respond yes to Jesus at this stage in her life,” Janna told us.
Before Confirmation Sunday, the Church of the Incarnation would have said they had about three middle and high school students at their church, it wasn’t enough to do much with them. Janna decided to take an accurate count of how many students were at their church and there were fifteen! She said she was shocked that their church had that many people in this demographic already connected to their church. “We want to be a church that attends well to students…. One family has been bringing a friend from school who is not yet a believer. Our church vestry has caught a vision for next-gen ministry so we are currently re-adjusting our budget to spend more resources and attention to this area of our church,” Janna said. “All because one junior high student asked to be confirmed,” and the church responded with whole-hearted support.
by Marta LeTourneau | Aug 26, 2024
As the Student Ministry at Church of the Vine in Newberg, Oregon has been growing in the past two years, they began to look for new opportunities to form students to welcome the transformation of the Holy Spirit. With the help of the Champion Grant, they took students on their church’s first-ever overnight retreat. Young people were invited further into community with each other and dedicated alone time with God
A highlight of the weekend was a thirty-minute period where students and leaders were told to spend time alone with God in prayer. While some of the leaders were unsure how students would respond to this time, each student expressed how this time of prayer brought peace. Cana Whitted, the Director of Youth Ministry at Church of the Vine, shared, “It is so rare to find the chance to sit in stillness with God in our busy lives surrounded by noise, screens, people, and to-do lists, but doing so is rejuvenating for our souls.
I hope that that experience can be something our youth hold on to and are not afraid to replicate, knowing that God is always near and we can choose to rest in his presence.” In creating space to disciple young people through this weekend retreat, leaders focused on the themes of Being with Jesus, Becoming like Him, and Doing as He did. The retreat lasted two days and included whole group team-building activities, small group time, and time alone with God. This created space for students to encounter the Holy Spirit and grow in their relationship with Jesus.
Cana found a lot of encouragement in having shared leadership with five other adult leaders for the planning and hosting of this retreat. As a part-time student ministry leader with another full-time work commitment, she was able to rely on the support of other adult leaders in planning events, leading small groups, and pouring into students relationally. Cana told the Student Leadership Network, “I am so grateful for the way God uses his Body to show support and love in the way of Jesus.” One of the benefits of this team-based leadership is the continuation of relational connection with students after the retreat.
Now that Church of the Vine has hosted its first overnight youth retreat, they are looking ahead to other overnight events with their student ministry. Beyond these large events, the student ministry team at this church is continuing to walk with young people in their community. The Champion Grant exists to come alongside churches like the Church of the Vine with financial support for their ministry ideas.
by Marta LeTourneau | Jul 12, 2024
We, the youth delegates of Assembly 2024, love the Anglican tradition and find depth, beauty, and meaning in the Anglican way of formation, mission, and worship. We value the high emphasis on scripture and the way the cross is central. We look forward to ways that young people can continue to connect with other Anglicans, with local churches outside our denomination, and those in our communities for the sake of the Gospel.
We value what unites us and we want to be intentional to persist in love when we disagree. We want to stay in fellowship with each other and not allow our differences to divide us. Our generation is watching the way conflict is being handled and needs to see healthy ways of moving forward together. We are thankful for all the ways ACNA leaders practice shared leadership and healthy conflict.
We see the need for more young people to be a part of the church. We believe involving young disciples in our churches, dioceses, and province as leaders creates the next steps for them to live out their discipleship and influence within the ACNA during their adolescence and into adulthood. We are looking for places to share our voice and to contribute to the mission of the church.
We believe that the Anglican Church is the best place for a young person to meet Jesus and be welcomed as a leader in His image. We know there are other young people who can find a home in the ACNA. We, the youth delegates, believe we are representing the heart of our generation when we say we desire to be part of how the gospel of Jesus reaches North America.
Thank you, Bishops and members of the Executive Committee, for your leadership in our dioceses and the province to discover, develop and deploy us as the next generation of Anglican leaders.
The Provincial Assembly 2024 Youth Delegates were led in this process by the Student Leadership Network, including Anna Burden and Rev. Melissa Lewkowicz, under the direction of Rev. Cn Aaron Buttery. As the delegates themselves are minors, all questions should be referred to info@acna.org
by Marta LeTourneau | Feb 16, 2024
The Champion Grant allows churches to answer their “what if” questions and “how might we” wonderings with new or expanded ministry ideas. In coming alongside Anglican student ministries with financial support, we are seeing students formed into the likeness of Christ.
The Village Church saw that the high school students in their ministry needed to be cared for and discipled during this phase of life. Village’s youth group is middle school heavy, so Smyth Taylor, Village’s student ministry director, was looking for a summer retreat that was high school specific. To respond to this need, she decided to take them to an RYM Conference in Florida.
The adult leaders were hopeful that this time away from regular routines and rhythms would create new opportunities for students’ faith to deepen. Throughout their week together, students engaged well in the teaching, which included large group worship and teaching as well as elective breakout sessions. Students from the Village Church chose to stay together and attend the same electives. They attended breakout sessions focused on Identity and Anxiety and Depression. Because they were all together in breakout sessions, they also had an opportunity to reflect on those experiences as a group during small group time.
One of the most encouraging parts of the week was the ways that students connected outside of the regular programming. In between sessions, students were talking to each other and to the adult leaders about what they were learning and what questions they continued to have. They loved being at the beach and spent their free time unplugged from devices and building new relationships.
Now months later, Smyth says that she still sees the impact of the friendships that were built during camp. High schoolers who could have easily been overlooked were seen and cared for as a result of this trip. Going forward, Smyth shared that she’s hopeful this trip creates a kind of legacy for high school students that younger students can look forward to. Time away from regular routines in a wonderful place like the beach will always be exciting. Even more exciting is the ways that this trip allows students to hear the Gospel proclaimed clearly.
