A video camera filming a woman sitting in front of a bookshelf in a library.

Listening Tour

We are learning how children view worship and experience God by bringing staff from the Sharing Faith Initiative to churches where we record interviews with children, staff, parents, and volunteers during a Sunday School hour or after service.

A young girl with long brown hair, wearing a green sweatshirt and blue jeans, is being interviewed inside a room with beige walls. She is sitting on a white chair in front of a blue backdrop with religious symbols and text that reads 'Sharing Faith Initiative, Faithful Preaching Project & Children's Sermons by Children.' A woman with blonde hair, wearing a blue cardigan, is seated across from her, holding a notepad. There is a camera in the foreground capturing the interview, and a brown teddy bear is visible on a beige sofa on the right.

We’d love to learn from your church…

The goal of the Listening Tour is learning how kids view worship and experience God. Staff from the Sharing Faith Initiative will record interviews with children of your church, staff, parents, and volunteers. We can host the interviews during a Sunday School hour or after worship - whichever works best for your congregation. All we need is a classroom in your church! If you’d like to learn more or invite us to your congregation to learn more about what your kids think about worship, please check out the resources and contact forms below!

Young boy sitting on a wooden chair in front of a blue backdrop with religious symbols and the text 'Sharing Faith Initiative, Faithful Preaching Project & Children's Sermons by Children'.

Following the Listening Tour, we will send a word cloud generated from the key words identified during the interviews and a curated video with interview highlights. Participating churches are then invited to be part of a cohort of church staff members for further discussions. Best of all, you will get a renewed vision of how your church is equipping the next generation of church leadership.

How does the Listening Tour benefit participating churches?

Listening Tour FAQs

  • We value learning from the experiences of children as well as those who work with them.

  • The interviews will be audio and video recorded depending on parent/guardian permission.

  • The recordings will only be viewed by those who have been granted permission in an official form signed before the interviews. Special permission must be given for the recordings to be used in other ways.


  • Permissions for each interview will be kept on a detailed, protected spreadsheet and videos will be kept on a secure site according to those permissions.

  • We plan to spend 10 minutes with each interview. Our hope is to have 5 interviews with children and 5 interviews with those working with children/leading worship, for a total of 10 interviews at each church. If each interview takes 10 minutes with a few minutes of transition between interviews, you can expect our team to be interviewing for 2 hours.

  • Ideally this will not interrupt the flow of your Sunday morning in any way. We can set up the interviews when it doesn't interfere with your morning routine.


  • We will be publishing data on this website and through our monthly newsletter. No names will be used in this data.


  • You may e-mail our team at sharingfaith@austinseminary.edu or express interest in the form above.

Media Release Forms

The safety of all participants in our Listening Tour is our utmost concern. Our team met with an Institutional Review Board at the seminary to establish the media release forms that are required from all participants. Click the buttons to review or download the forms.

Media Release for Child
media release for Adult

Scenes from Listening Tours

A young boy sitting on a chair in front of a blue banner with the text 'Sharing Faith INITIATIVE' while being filmed by two adults in a room decorated with children's artwork.
Young boy sitting on the church altar, holding a microphone and reading from paper during a church service with children sitting on the floor in front of him.
Three smiling women at a registration desk with lanyards, papers, and a cup of iced coffee.
A woman in a blue shirt sitting on a white chair facing a man in a gray blazer with a red striped tie, who is speaking and gesturing with his hands. They are in a room with a blue banner that reads 'Sharing Faith INITIATIVE Faithful Preaching Project & Children's Sermons by Children.' A camera on a tripod is capturing the interview, and some personal items are on a small table in the background.
A young girl with long brown hair wearing a green sweatshirt and jeans being interviewed by a woman with blonde hair tied back, seated in a room with a beige wall and a blue banner for the Sharing Faith Initiative. The girl is smiling and looking at the interviewer. A camera is set up to record the interview.
A woman in white robes holds a metal bell over a chalice on a table during a church service with children observing.

Interested in scheduling a Listening Tour for your church?

Click to fill out our interest form
Download Info Flyer

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