Including All Children: A Qualitative Exploration of Spiritual Personalities and Children's Experiences with God and Church

Abstract

<p>In this study, David Csinos explores the realms of children's spirituality and object relations theory in order to discover the effects of church environments on children's experiences with God. However, after conducting over thirty qualitative interviews with thirteen children, the author discovered that what had the greatest effect on the participants' experiences with God and their church environments was their dominant spiritual personality. He then outlines the four spiritual types-head, heart, mystic, and kingdom-and, based on the data collected from the thirteen children, discusses important characteristics of each personality. Finally, he offers churches and ministry leaders suggestions as to how to be inclusive of children of all spiritual personalities.</p>