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Missouri initiative seeks to involve children more meaningfully in churches’ worship services

May 15, 2026

[Episcopal News Service] Trinity Episcopal Church’s experimentations with intergenerational worship started in 2024 after a simple decision. The Sunday nursery at the church in Kirksville, Missouri, was getting too crowded and chaotic, so the congregation decided that children ages 7 and older would join their parents in the pews during worship services. The Rev. Carrol Davenport, who was serving the church as a transitional pastor at the time, welcomed the younger worshippers but feared they would get bored easily. Her solution, starting that Advent, was to give each child a turn as an altar “companion.” They could process with Davenport, stand next to her during the service and assist her with easy tasks, like ringing the Sanctus bells. The kids loved it. Successful intergenerational worship starts with the question: “What is it that we want for children in the parish?” Davenport told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. “I think what we want is for children to come to love what we love about the liturgy. And just asking them to sit next to their parents and be still and be quiet is not going to be the way to do that.” Trinity Episcopal Church is one of several Diocese of Missouri congregations asking those questions and trying new approaches to involving young people in their liturgies. For the past couple years, the Rev. Erin Pickersgill has been working with small groups of congregational leaders like Davenport to experiment in their Sunday services, through an initiative called the This Young Church Project. Pickersgill, an associate priest at Grace Episcopal Church in Kirkwood, conceived of the project while she was serving previously as the diocese’s childcare and youth ministry developer. She now meets regularly with several congregations in each annual This Young Church cohort under a contract with the diocese. Pickersgill told ENS her goal is to offer more than youth-oriented resources for congregations. Through conversations and mentorships, the project supports the congregations as they develop efforts to engage with young people during worship services, not just at Sunday school or youth group activities. During worship, “we tend to prioritize and value older voices and adult voices. This [initiative] is trying to readjust that balance,” Pickersgill said. Davenport and Trinity Episcopal Church were part of the first-year pilot program that launched in 2024. Each cohort of two or three congregations is made up of teams of five to seven church members, including at least one clergy leader. The teams meet on their own, as well as with the cohort, to discuss options for intergenerational worship. The project’s second-year cohort just concluded this month, and Pickersgill is lining up a new cohort for the fall. Missouri Bishop Deon Johnson, in a written statement to ENS, called the initiative “a joyful and Spirit-filled step toward becoming a church where every generation is honored, seen and empowered to grow in faith together as we follow Jesus with hope, wonder and joy.” “At a time when many churches are seeking new ways to welcome and engage young families and wondering how children and youth can be fully included in the life of worship, this Young Church offers a hopeful vision of where God is leading the Church,” Johnson said. “Rather than asking only, ‘Will our children have faith?’ we are invited to ask, ‘Will our faith make room for and nurture future generations?’” Pickersgill said she has drawn inspiration and wisdom from resources developed by Sarah Beverly Allred through a project at Virgnina Theological Seminary called “Roots and Wings” that was funded by a Lilly Endowment grant. As part of Roots and Wings, Allred identified five hallmarks of success in intergenerational worship: intentionality, relationality, dignified reciprocity, flexibility and empowerment. Following that model, Pickersgill said her goal is to encourage congregations to plan worship services so all voices are heard and all individuals feel appreciated and welcomed, regardless of age. “It’s less about ‘we are all present together’ and more about our interactions as we make up the body of Christ together,” she said. That could start with opening one’s senses to the surroundings and the people nearby, she said. Take in all the human noise, without wanting to silence it, from the babies cooing to older members coughing or sneezing. Allow people to be themselves, she said. And then discern how the congregation might “more center the voices of children and young people.” One church that participated in the initiative focused on training more young people as acolytes to assist on the altar. Some children have begun serving as torch bearers. For sermons, another option is to invite children to gather toward the front of the nave so the preacher can tailor the message to those younger parishioners, perhaps with some mid-sermon interaction. At Trinity Episcopal Church in Kirksville, some children wanted to bring their stuffed animals forward during the traditional blessing of parishioners celebrating birthdays. Davenport decided to incorporate the children into her weekly routine, offering a special prayer over the stuffed animals, thanking God for the gift of play and toys. Pickersgill suggests timing such new efforts around the church seasons, so congregations know their experiments with intergenerational worship have a start and end time, followed by a period when they provide feedback about what worked well and what didn’t. Congregational leaders whose cohort has concluded then become potential mentors for the next cohort. Davenport, who retired at the end of 2025, has continued to assist Pickersgill in mentoring other congregations interested in intergenerational worship. The project’s specific focus is the liturgy, though the experience can expand the spiritual outlook for both children and parents. “Part of what we hoped for is that it would give parents a way to talk about faith with their children. I think a lot of parents don’t know how to do that,” Davenport said, yet most faith formation happens at home. And she encourages congregations to be flexible in their efforts to engage multiple generations at […]