A couple of week ago, I wrote about the hallmarks of a good Sunday School curriculum (specifically, Growing in Christ published by Concordia Publishing House). Among the benficial characteristics I mentioned was that the curriculum is unified.
A unified curriculum is designed to teach the same topics to all students in a given lesson. In Growing in Christ, the same Bible text is presented in all levels of the curriculum each Sunday. Not all curricula are unified. Even CPH Sunday School material has not always been unified, at least not on all levels. (Mission: Life is probably the most obvious example; published in the 1970s, this curriculum provided topical units that were completely different for each level of the curriculum. The Life in Christ and New Life in Christ curricula, which followed Mission: Life, were largely unified, but had a few weeks when especially the younger grades did not tackle the same texts as the upper grades.)
What are the pros and cons of a unified curriculum?
The chief benefit, the one that convinced the Growing in Christ team to prepare a completely unified curriculum, is that the entire family can, if the congregation chooses, study the exact same Bible text each week, children of all ages, junior high and high school students, and even adults. This provide the natural opportunity for the family to continue the discussion and learning in the home. The normal question, asked by so many parents each week, "What did you study in Sunday School today?" becomes a springboard, as each family member can enter such a conversation informed, armed with an understanding of the text appropriate to his or her age level.
This can also benefit the family's participation in worship during the seasons (generally December through May) when the Growing in Christ curriculum often mirrors the Gospel lesson read and perhaps preached on in the worship service.
There is some small potential that a few Bible accounts may stretch the developmental ability of a family's youngest children. I can honestly say, though, that our editors at the early childhood and lower grades levels of Growing in Christ have done a masterful job of addressing even difficult biblical subjects in ways that young children can comprehend.
Given that God's love for us, shown best in the gift of His Son as a sacrifice for our sin, is at the heart of every Sunday School lesson we create, it is not surprising that even the youngest of children can come away having gotten the main point.
Is the curriculum you use unified?
What do you see as the challenges and benefits of this approach?
What advice do you have for CPH as we prepare new and revised curriculum for Fall 2012 and beyond?
Monday, January 24, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Teaching about Vocation
One of the characteristics of Lutheran Sunday School curriculum is that is should teach children about their vocations. (No, not vacations, wonderful though those are.) In Lutheran theology, one's vocation is the way(s) God provides the Christian to server our neighbor.
On occasion, I receive articles submitted for Teachers Interaction, the magazine I publish for volunteer Sunday School teachers, in which the author focuses on spiritual gifts. I recognize that the Bible teaches us about spiritual gifts in the New Testament letters of Paul, and in my years of service as a director of Christian education I occasionally tried to use these passages in ways I thought would be helpful to the faith and life of members of the congregations I served. But some of the ways in which those Bible passages are applied in the Church today can create issues rather than solve them.
I'm more inclined these days to emphasize vocation rather than gift. Our vocations are objective and obvious. They don't have to be discovered or taught. God has made me at various times in my life a son, student, citizen, employee, congregation member, husband, and father. In each of these vocations, I have had opportunities to serve others (parents, teachers and classmates, community, boss, congregation, wife, children, and others) with all the gifts God has given me.
As it is with all of life this side of heaven, my service in these vocations has been less than perfect. In these roles, I have at times, by God's grace, been helpful to others. In these roles, I have at times, in my sinful nature been less than helpful. In these roles, I have sought God's grace in confession and absolution, known God's forgiveness, and continued to serve as best I could strengthened by God's Word.
Our vocations are marred by sin (laziness, improper motive, weakness, and imperfect effort) but they are blessed by God and used for His purposes in spite of sin. The dichotomy of simul justus et peccator is lived out in the Lutheran understanding of vocation.
Most often, in the "We Live" section of a lesson I've edited, this is what you'll find as you teach God's children His Word.
How often do you see vocation in the lessons you teach?
What do you find most helpful about this doctrine as you teach children?
On occasion, I receive articles submitted for Teachers Interaction, the magazine I publish for volunteer Sunday School teachers, in which the author focuses on spiritual gifts. I recognize that the Bible teaches us about spiritual gifts in the New Testament letters of Paul, and in my years of service as a director of Christian education I occasionally tried to use these passages in ways I thought would be helpful to the faith and life of members of the congregations I served. But some of the ways in which those Bible passages are applied in the Church today can create issues rather than solve them.
I'm more inclined these days to emphasize vocation rather than gift. Our vocations are objective and obvious. They don't have to be discovered or taught. God has made me at various times in my life a son, student, citizen, employee, congregation member, husband, and father. In each of these vocations, I have had opportunities to serve others (parents, teachers and classmates, community, boss, congregation, wife, children, and others) with all the gifts God has given me.
As it is with all of life this side of heaven, my service in these vocations has been less than perfect. In these roles, I have at times, by God's grace, been helpful to others. In these roles, I have at times, in my sinful nature been less than helpful. In these roles, I have sought God's grace in confession and absolution, known God's forgiveness, and continued to serve as best I could strengthened by God's Word.
Our vocations are marred by sin (laziness, improper motive, weakness, and imperfect effort) but they are blessed by God and used for His purposes in spite of sin. The dichotomy of simul justus et peccator is lived out in the Lutheran understanding of vocation.
Most often, in the "We Live" section of a lesson I've edited, this is what you'll find as you teach God's children His Word.
How often do you see vocation in the lessons you teach?
What do you find most helpful about this doctrine as you teach children?
Monday, January 3, 2011
Hallmarks of a Great Curriculum NOT!
I was asked recently to identify my personal choices for the five most significant characteristics of the Growing in Christ Sunday School curriculum. Further into this post, I plan to comment briefly on some items that I did not include and why.
The exercise was a helpful one and one I suspect Sunday School leaders should be asking themselves:
What characteristics do you think are important for a Sunday School curriculum? What things should define the material we use to teach the next generation of God's children His Word?
Here are the five I chose:
1. Christ-centered
2. Lutheran
3. Unified
4. Integrates with the congregation's worship
5. Age-appropriate
I will expand on each of these characteristics in future posts to this blog.
But let me return to the antithesis. What characteristics are not included?
Fun? No, I am not committed to insuring that Sunday School is boring for children. It's a sin to bore children with God's Word. But fun is not the goal for which I think we should strive, just a by-product of the interaction between teacher, student, and Word that are the essence of the Sunday School experience.
Flash? The reality of the publishing experience makes it difficult to be trendy and cool in the material we produce. We invest millions of dollars in curricula that will serve the Church for many years. Our goal is an abiding relevance not any passing fad.
Technology? CPH wants to be on the cutting edge, but not the bleeding edge, here. I see many intriguing applications of digital media that the Church could find tremendously helpful in our mission to share Christ with the nations. And I know that some churches have embraced technology in a big way. But our core constituents are not there yet, not by a long shot. CPH is diligently seeking ways to better serve those who are embracing technology, but we are committed to serving all our customers.
Easy to prepare? This is a tough one for me. I could easily buy in to this one, because I know that many, many teachers step into class each week with a bare minimum of advance preparation. The era of weekly teachers' meetings and teacher training conferences, workshops, courses, and certificates seems to have gone the way of Mayberry RFD. But I know that the quality of the classroom experience goes up exponentially with the amount of time spend in preparation. I'm not ready yet to let the Sunday School teacher off the hook. At CPH, we continue to seek ways to make our teacher materials as accessible as possible, while providing solid biblical teaching each week at all levels.
Did you make your own list? Are you willing to share?
Thanks to all who teach God's children His Word!
The exercise was a helpful one and one I suspect Sunday School leaders should be asking themselves:
What characteristics do you think are important for a Sunday School curriculum? What things should define the material we use to teach the next generation of God's children His Word?
Here are the five I chose:
1. Christ-centered
2. Lutheran
3. Unified
4. Integrates with the congregation's worship
5. Age-appropriate
I will expand on each of these characteristics in future posts to this blog.
But let me return to the antithesis. What characteristics are not included?
Fun? No, I am not committed to insuring that Sunday School is boring for children. It's a sin to bore children with God's Word. But fun is not the goal for which I think we should strive, just a by-product of the interaction between teacher, student, and Word that are the essence of the Sunday School experience.
Flash? The reality of the publishing experience makes it difficult to be trendy and cool in the material we produce. We invest millions of dollars in curricula that will serve the Church for many years. Our goal is an abiding relevance not any passing fad.
Technology? CPH wants to be on the cutting edge, but not the bleeding edge, here. I see many intriguing applications of digital media that the Church could find tremendously helpful in our mission to share Christ with the nations. And I know that some churches have embraced technology in a big way. But our core constituents are not there yet, not by a long shot. CPH is diligently seeking ways to better serve those who are embracing technology, but we are committed to serving all our customers.
Easy to prepare? This is a tough one for me. I could easily buy in to this one, because I know that many, many teachers step into class each week with a bare minimum of advance preparation. The era of weekly teachers' meetings and teacher training conferences, workshops, courses, and certificates seems to have gone the way of Mayberry RFD. But I know that the quality of the classroom experience goes up exponentially with the amount of time spend in preparation. I'm not ready yet to let the Sunday School teacher off the hook. At CPH, we continue to seek ways to make our teacher materials as accessible as possible, while providing solid biblical teaching each week at all levels.
Did you make your own list? Are you willing to share?
Thanks to all who teach God's children His Word!
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