Integrating Sunday School and Worship

A while back I offered some criteria for excellent Sunday School materials (see it here). Included was the suggestion that such material "integrate with the congregation's worship." What does that mean?

I believe that children of any age have a place not only in Sunday School and Christian education, but also in the Divine Service. The congregation needs to understand that worship is for children as well as adults, and children should feel welcome and included in the congregation's worship. While it's true that a restless child may occasionally need to be taken out of the sanctuary briefly during worship, their complete absence troubles me. It makes me wonder at what age they are then expected to return?

An excellent Sunday School curriculum will support and equip families to worship together. It will teach children about the elements of the Divine Service, teach and use the hymns that the congregation sings, and connect to the lessons and sermons that the children will hear in the service. It will cause children to say in worship, "We sang/heard/learned about that in Sunday School!" And it will cause children in Sunday School to say, "We sang/heard/learned about that in church!"

CPH's Growing in Christ Sunday School material have several features that promote this kind of synergy. More than two-thirds of the Bible accounts taught in Sunday School are drawn from the Gospel readings or liturgical occasions used by congregations following the three-year lectionary. Since GiC is a unified curriculum, that means that the family will share many connections in worship and Sunday School that can inform their discussion and devotion throughout the week. Elements of the liturgy are often taught in the curriculum, including many "Liturgy Connections" that are introduced in each quarter. Hymns are suggested for each lesson that come from the standard repertoire of a congregation.

How does your congregation encourage (or hinder) the participation of children in worship?

How does your Sunday School support and integrate with the congregation's worship?

Bible Translations

The Biblica folks are currently releasing the 2011 NIV translation (New International Version, copyright held by Biblica, Inc.). According to their Web site, they plan to shift all their products to this new translation over the next two years.

Some of the content of the 2011 translation may raise problems for conservative Lutherans, including revisions involving gender and inclusive language. CPH has chosen to use the ESV translation for many recent products, including our Growing in Christ Sunday School curriculum.

I am generally quite satisfied with the ESV. It conforms well to the original languages (or so I'm told; I don't read Greek or Hebrew, though I often wish I could). Some CPH customers have complained about the reading level of ESV; our editorial department has not found a quantifiable difference between ESV and NIV in this regard. Others feel the ESV does not read as smoothly as the NIV, another fairly subjective issue. I have noticed that ESV, as it follows the original texts closely, does not break verses as conveniently at the verse numbers as some other translations. This causes me a little more work when I identify passages for reading or study. A great Bible memory verse in the NIV doesn't always work as well in the ESV.

In 2004, the synodical convention of the LCMS approved the use of ESV for the new hymnal, The Lutheran Service Book, in all Bible texts except for those imbedded in CPH translation of Luther's Small Catechism. Since that time, CPH has given some preference to ESV in its curriula and other publications.

Recent ESV resources include The Lutheran Study Bible (in all 16 of its editions), a new Faith Alive Bible (just released; check it out at cph.org), the Growing in Christ Sunday School materials, and many other resources. This trend will continue, especially since Biblia, Inc., will no longer support use of the 1984 translation.

What translation of the Bible do you prefer?

What version to you buy for use in your Sunday School classrooms, as you teach God's children His Word?

Why have you made these choices?

Site Rotation or Workshop Rotation?

Those of us who sit on the Sunday School Team at Concordia Publishing House are always in a listening mode. One of the trends that we have been monitoring is the use of "Rotation Sunday School."

Understand: what we are hearing these days is merely anecdotal, not really research. If I had to characterize this trend, I would say that there is small but steady interest in "Rotation Sunday School" in our LCMS congregations.

One of the difficulties in analyzing and then meeting the needs of these congregations is the fact that "rotation" is being used to describe two very different models of Sunday School, and congregations are not very helpful in specifying which model they are most interested in.

One rotation model is Workshop Rotation. In this model, a Bible account is taught for three or four weeks in a row. The congregation prepares several workshops (drama, cooking, crafts, science, video, computers, and the like). Sunday School students are "rotated" through workshops, one each week, sometimes with an element of choice, and sometimes not. Each workshop takes the full 45 to 60 minutes of the Sunday School hour. Proponents suggest that the repetition increases the depth of learning that takes place and the variety of workshops appeal to the varied learning styles among the students. Congregations embracing this model sometimes invest huge amounts of money and effort remodeling space to accommodate each workshop (a drama room, a science room, etc.) and preparing the material for each of the workshops.

The other workshop model is Site Rotation. In this model, one Bible account is taught each week. Students rotate through a series of sites in the building, often starting and perhaps ending in a large-group setting. Sites often include a presentation of the Bible account, a related craft, a science experiment or object lesson, and others. Each site takes 12 to 20 minutes. Proponents suggest that volunteers are easy to recruit because they take only a portion of the hour and repeat it several times, the account is taught and reviewed in a number of ways, and the interest of the students stays high because the mode of instruction keeps shifting.

You are not likely to see Workshop Rotation lessons published by CPH anytime soon. There is just not enough interest yet in this model to warrant the investment required. However, starting in the fall of 2012, you will be able to purchase a Site Rotation Sunday School curriculum as a option to our traditional, and very successful, Growing in Christ Sunday School materials, which will be updated and improved for another cycle or two.

My opinion? Thanks for asking. I a big fan of biblical literacy. I am not impressed with the Workshop Rotation model's pace of 12 to 15 Bible accounts each year, compared to 48 to 50 taught through a traditional or Site Rotation model. My home congregation uses a site rotation model each summer and I know that it can work well. But I'm a traditionalist. The age-appropriate and relatively in-depth traditional Sunday School structure seems to be me to offer the best educational experience.

I think it's worth promoting and supporting.

How about you?

How is your Sunday School structured?

Have you experience one of the rotation models? What did you think?