Growing Together in Faith

ISBN: 978-0-334-06652-1
Publisher: SCM Press (2025)

When the Church of England and the National Society launched 'Growing Faith' there was a commitment from the outset to engage with theological institutions as part of the development of exploring how Home, Church, and School working together could see faith grow in children and families. Cranmer Hall, Durham was the first to engage partnering with the Diocese of Durham. This book is part of the fruit of this collaboration. Emma Parker and Sarah Strand are both outstanding theological researchers and thinkers but alongside this both have permanently maintained being practitioners at a local church level. This combination of academic rigour and hands on experience shines through the whole book.

They are passionate advocates of the church being fully and truly intergenerational. They argue this from the breadth of the Biblical witness in both Old and New Testament. They offer clear evidence of the power of intergenerational worship and learning for all ages that is rooted in the real challenges that local churches face.

Rather than write together throughout Emma and Sarah take different chapters each. This has the advantage that each individual chapter can be read in a stand-alone fashion. So, if the reader wants to think specifically about Schools, or Households, or Intergenerational Worship, Ministry and Vocation then it is straightforward to do so. Yet there is a progression and logic through the book that means each chapter does build on what has gone before. This is important as the whole thrust of Growing Faith is that School, Church and Household need to work much more together to ensure the best and healthiest growth in faith for children and teenagers. At times the interconnections could have been made clearer. I suspect this is a result of the independent writing of each chapter. The reference notes at the close of each chapter in themselves offer suggestions at where readers might explore some matters further. Since there is a very helpful index of Bible references at the end it would have been helpful to have also included a Bibliography / Further Reading section. This would have further enhanced the value of the book as a resource tool.

Despite my earlier caveat on the book's interconnections it does hang together as a whole and Emma's final chapter on Navigating Change is excellent. It truly does 'weave' the threads of the book together and helps all readers think through how to navigate the change towards a more intergenerational approach that should help many homes, churches and schools truly navigate this pathway.

I hope that the book becomes widely known and read, although the publishers have not helped with their pricing. Emma and Sarah have added a very valuable resource for all churches, homes and schools to work well together in growing the faith not only of children and teenagers but of all ages growing together in Christ.

Reviewed by: Paul Butler