An analysis of parental nurture of children’s spirituality in selected churches of the Kabulonga Mission District, Woodlands Conference, Lusaka, Zambia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the level of parental concern for the spirituality of their children in the missionary district of Kabulonga at the Woodlands Conference, Lusaka, Zambia. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used for the study. The population consisted of local church parents and the sample was drawn from 4 churches at the Woodlands conference in Lusaka, Zambia. A total of 274 people were invited to participate in the study. The instrument of the study was a self-developed questionnaire, which was completed by e-mail within 1 month. A total of 127 questionnaires were received. The findings revealed that the parents strive to nurture their children’s spirituality but is still room for improvement (mean = 3.71, standard deviation = 1.07). The highest score is about teaching the children how to read God’s word, (mean = 4.14 and standard deviation = 0.92). It is closely followed by the teaching about how to pray before meals (mean = 4.13 and standard deviation = 1.07). An area of concern is the low level of teaching regarding how to pray during worship at home (mean = 2.84; standard deviation = 1.17). The aggregate score also indicates that the parents have a high level of nurturing for the level of informal nurturing. The highest score was during recreational activities, during play time (mean = 3.94; standard deviation = 1.17). The area with the lowest score was about the children hearing adult conversation centering on religious matters (mean = 3.57; standard deviation = 1.15). However, the findings indicated that both forms of nurturing do not reach a mean of 4.50 (very high level of nurturing). Regarding the second research question, the results showed that there is no significant difference in parenting activities according to their demographic variables: a) gender, b) age, c) level of education, and d) marital status. It follows from this study that none of these factors give parents an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to nurturing the spirituality of their children. The recommendations made were to prepare parents to be better equipped to care for the spiritual needs of their children. Those responsible for the trainings would be the Conference, Field, as well as the local church leaders in Family Life and Children Ministries departments.