Growing Younger:

Developing Faith Journeys in Schools

Andy Wolfe

Vice Principal

The Nottingham Emmanuel School

“…everyone tells a story about

themselves inside their own head.

Always.

All the time.

That story makes you what you are.

We build ourselves out of that story.”

(Patrick Rothfuss)

Why would the church invest in schools?

• Understanding mission/Kingdom?

• Influencing ad-missions?

• Developing the whole child?

Molly?

Mehreen?

Why would the church invest in schools?

• Understanding mission/Kingdom

• Influencing ad-missions

• Developing the whole child

• Engaging in discipleship?

What might be central to the mission of a (Church of England) school?

Improving achievement = social change?

Making ‘faithing’ normal

1811 – Joshua Watson – The

National Society for the Education

of the Poor

Flourishing of every

individual –seeing the

child as God sees them

Growing Younger?

Evangelism vs. Social Action?

“Where any community deteriorates, the blame should be attached where it belongs: not to the community

which is going bad, but to the church which is

failing in its responsibility as salt to stop it going bad.

And the salt will be effective only if it permeates

society, only if Christians learn again the wide

diversity of divine callings, and if many penetrate

deeply into society in order to serve Christ there.”

(John Stott, 1975)

Evangelism vs. Social Action?

“…if we love our neighbour as God made him, we must

inevitably be concerned for his total welfare, the

good of his soul, his body and his community…

To sum up, we are sent into the world, Like Jesus, to serve. For this is the natural expression of our love for

our neighbour. We love. We go. We serve.

And in this we have (or should have) no ulterior motive.”

(John Stott, 1975)

Journeys of Faith – ONESTORY

• 16 stories –staff and students

• Published each year

• Celebrates faith journey

Journeys of Faith

This is a language of faith development that is:Inclusive

ExpectantDynamic

AccessibleCommunicative

BelievableEngaging

EmpatheticAttractive

Journeys of Faith

“People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.” (Terry Pratchett)

• Building on James Fowler (and by implication, Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg)

“the adolescent’s religious hunger is for a God who knows, accepts, and confirms the self deeply” (Fowler)

• Dynamic and non-linear• Chaotic and unpredictable• Co-travelling

Journeys of Faith

“…our current students do not know a world where life is not negotiated at least in part through the twisting,

turning, transient ‘multi-logue’ of Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram etc. In these worlds, meaning is

relentlessly significant yet trivial, permanent yet gone in a moment, utterly individualised yet inherently interactive. It cannot be tracked,

predicted or controlled, and yet our students are interpreting this world, frequently seeing it as just as

important as their ‘real-life’ interactions with one another.”

Journeys of Faith

“…They are natives to this way of creating meaning and of intertwining narrative,

where short epithets summarise life-changing feeling and comment streams uplift and encourage as quickly as they cut down and betray. This is a world where the

drama of the story is fast-paced, unpredictable but

intensely valuable. It is the world in which our

current students are taught about values, narrative and play their own part in creating a community that is

constantly changing and adapting to itself and its

needs.” (Wolfe, 2016)

Developing the approach further…

• Wrestle with the theology

• Evaluate your provision – moral messages vs. faith development?

• Faith journey as expected element of school life

• Use narrative to celebrate

• Model the approach with staff sharing stories

Why would you get involved?

Pragmatically…

• What is the biggest youth service in Nottingham each month?

• Where is the biggest kids work provision in Nottingham each week?

• How many people can you connect with through an average primary/secondary school?

Why would you get involved?

Missionally…

• What part can you play in the Kingdom coming through education?

• How important are young people really?

• Could the school be the church?

Why would you get involved?

Theologically…

• Whose story could you support/encourage/challenge/journey with?

• How many teachers could you stand alongside and believe in?

• What kind of stories will be told about the church in this Diocese in 5 years’ time…? 10 years’ time? 25 years’ time…? Should it be a factor in faith development of young people?

“…everyone tells a story about

themselves inside their own head.

Always.

All the time.

That story makes you what you are.

We build ourselves out of that story.”

(Patrick Rothfuss)