"I Have Decided to Follow Jesus"?

I would think that even the most novice pastor, teacher, or DCE in the LCMS, and---by God's grace---our Christian education teachers and leaders as well, would know there is something wrong with this song, something fundamentally un-Lutheran and therefore spiritually dangerous about using it in Sunday School or VBS to instruct children. Lutherans understand that before our conversion by the Gospel, through the proclamation of the Word and administration of Baptism. The Bible describes this in two ways. We are dead in sin (Ephesians 2), unable to love or "decide" for God. We are "enemies of God" (Romans 5), unwilling to love or choose Him. But God is love chose us. Our salvation is completely God's work.

And make no mistake, the songs we sing, the materials we send home to parents, and the signs we post in our buildings teach theology just as much as the words the teachers say.

Christian education material that fails to teach the Gospel clearly is not appropriate for use in a Lutheran congregation.

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Go with the Generic? Or the Real Thing!

Perhaps my biggest frustration as a curriculum editor is the apparent willingness of some Christian education leaders to go with substitute curricula, "off brand" materials published by non-Lutheran companies. Seth Godin got me thinking last week about why and when we are willing to go with substitutes, or not.

Mr. Godin's point is that we are generally ready to accept substitutes when we perceive little added value in "the real thing"; bottled water and generic canned vegetables, for example. We are perfectly willing to pay a little less, or a lot less, for the substitute. But for some things---such as first-run movies or "designer label" clothing---saving money is not the point. We are willing to pay for the real thing. We recognize the value and are willing to pay for it.

So, what about your Sunday School curriculum? In this case, I'd like to think that "the real thing" is a curriculum that clearly present the Gospel and teaches the Lutheran distinctives of Word and Sacrament, Christian vocation, and life under the cross.

There are lots of substitutes in the Sunday School curriculum world. Whether you are willing to choose them or not depends on whether you know what distinguishes them from, and how much you value, the real thing.

God bless you as you teach His children The Real Thing.

"Lutheran Filters"?

I read occasionally, always when people recommend Christian education resources that are not Lutheran, that the user be sure to use his or her "Lutheran filter."

I could not agree more! But I suspect that I use my Lutheran filter quite differently than some might understand by that term.

A "Lutheran filter" is almost certainly not effective in the same way that a water filter that might be that is intended to trap particulates, microbes, and other harmful elements making water drinkable. ("Yes, that water was contaminated with cyanide, but it's okay now; I used my water filter"?) Lutheranism is not just the absence of heretical teaching. It is also the presence of specific life-giving doctrines (the Gospel, God's Word and Sacraments, the essential teaching of God's love, the concept of Christian vocation, and much more).

A "Lutheran filter" might be better seen as a visual tool that allows one to see clearly what is really taught in heterodox material so that it can be avoided completely. ("Ah, now I see the poison; I don't think I'll drink that water, filtered or not.")

If a resource was written to teach that a sovereign God demands perfect obedience and gives us His Bible to teach us how to become more like Jesus, what hope is there of correcting it? So what if it is a fun lesson? The kids you teach will really enjoy this activity?

Please, use your "Lutheran filter"!

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Quality versus Cost

It is unanimous! Everyone would like our Sunday School material to be less costly. That includes us here at the publishing house.

I work for a nonprofit organization. We don't pay dividends to shareholders or big bonuses to upper management. For nearly all our products, we charge a price that returns to the publishing house only enough to sustain our ministry at a level that fulfills our vision: to be the "publisher and provider of choice for products and services that are faithful to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions." We want to be good enough so that you, and others, come to us first.

So what does it mean when a congregation says, "We can no longer afford to purchase your Sunday School material?" Our prices have not skyrocketed. The economy is relatively stable. But, I'm sure that many congregations, probably all congregations, struggle to allocate limited financial resources to a limitless number of ministry possibilities.

How then do congregations respond to tight finances? Probably the same way a family does.

• They buy the best quality (in personnel, equipment, and materials) that they can afford, but they don't overspend.
• They prioritize to get those things that they value most and do not purchase those things they don't really want or need.

So, I find myself wondering: what if our Sunday School material were of lower quality and cost?

• Is there a lower quality, lower price, at which more congregations would buy our material?
• Or would even fewer congregations buy our material if it were cheaper, lower in price and quality?

God bless you as you wrestle with cost and quality as you teach God's children His Word!

Help! Share Your Thoughts!

CPH is conducting a Sunday School materials survey. It is a multi-path survey for anyone interested in or using any Sunday School curriculum. It is designed to help us measure which components of our curriculum are most used and what new features Sunday School leaders and teachers are seeking.

You can help in two ways!

First, take the survey! Your thoughts will be extremely helpful as we craft the next generation of Sunday School resources her at Concordia Publishing House.

Second, encourage others (your Sunday School teachers, and colleagues and their teachers in other churches) to take the survey as well.

You can access the survey by following the link below. It will be live through June 30.

Please take our Sunday School survey to share how you use Growing in Christ or Cross Explorations, what you like about the curriculum, and what you think could be improved. 

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Bad Theology Is Still Not Okay

• "We don't like the activities in our publisher's material."
• "We can't afford the printed leaflets."
• "The pictures in the material don't reflect our culture or community."
• "The material is over my students' heads."
• "I share space with two other classes, and we can't make too much noise or move around."
• "I can download lots of free resources from the Internet."

All of these can be accurate, legitimate statements and critiques. But that does not make it okay to use material in your classroom that teaches bad theology. Teaching moralism, decision theology, or works righteousness is still not okay.

Complain to your publisher. Adapt and revise freely. Write your own material. Mix and match from other acceptable materials. But don't use material that contradicts the theological views of your church body. That is not okay!

God's blessings as you teach His children His Word.

Theology Matters (Reprise)

Curriculum choice cannot be just a matter of which publisher promises the least amount of preparation time, the flashiest promotion material, the coolest gadgets, or the lowest price. If you choose material based on prep time, printing, gadgets, or cost, you may miss the essential purpose of Christian education.
 
The goal of a Lutheran Sunday School is not to entertain the children or go easy on the budget. It is to share the truth of God's Word through balanced teaching of Law and Gospel. We want to proclaim forgiveness of sins, new life, and salvation through Jesus Christ every week. If we want a curriculum that gets the job done, theology matters.

Value versus Cost

What is the connection between the value we assign to something and its cost?

Some might think that the more something costs (a diamond ring, for example, or an oil painting), the more valuable it will be to the person who possesses it.

For all too many Sunday School leaders today, I fear that the reverse is true: the less the Sunday School material costs, the more value it will have for the leaders in question.

I'd love to be proved wrong, but I don't believe that trends toward black and white reproducible student material and free curriculum available on the Internet are all about improved educational experience for the students. It seems to be about cost.

No one needs multi-carat diamonds or Van Goghs to teach God's Word. The ideal, it seems to me, is to find the best material (in theological and educational terms) that you can afford.

Sacrificing educational and theological quality for lower cost has significant negative potential.

God bless you with wisdom to make good curriculum choices as you teach His children His Word.

Choosing Curriculum (with a nod to Pastor Pete Jurchen)

I follow Pete's blog (Parish Education Group) because Pete does his homework and then distills what he has learned in a way that make sense for us in the Church. His focus is often adult Christian education, but his recent post could be very helpful to Sunday School leaders for all age groups. Pete highlights and comments on "5 Considerations When Choosing Curriculum"; you can read the whole post here.

I'd like to comment briefly on these considerations.

1. Best Practice for Knowledge. "The curriculum should be chosen by a team of people who know what they're doing and know something about what is the best content out there." It strikes me that the definition of best content may be crucial here. Sunday School is, at its heart, theological education, so the involvement of the congregation's theologian-in-residence (the pastor) would seem important. Curricula that are relational and interactive but teach heresy are not the best choice.

2. Collaborative Within the Community. "Get the stakeholders involved," not to hijack the decision, but to inform the decision makers and to inform the constituents through the decision-making process. From my perspective this can be an opportunity to educate the parents, students, and congregation members about the goals for Sunday School and the criteria being used to make the choice.

3. Focus on the Essentials. "There's way too much to try to learn in the time allotted, especially in the parish. If you had to focus on just a few essential learning goals, what would they be?" I would ask, does the curriculum seek to teach what you desire that the students learn? For Lutherans, this would seem to beg for a focus on the Gospel of salvation through Christ in every lesson, and on the Means of Grace through which God promises to share that Gospel.

4. Results Orientation. "Whatever is chosen to do should be measurable." If this is to really be a focus, I suspect the average Sunday School has a long way to go. How does the learning that takes place in the classroom become visible to those outside . . . parents and congregation members? Open houses, bulletin boards, hallway displays, Sunday School art shows . . . . What other great ideas do you have?

5. Continuous Improvement. "What's now needed  . . . is an ongoing commitment to that excellence." This presupposes a level of evaluation by teachers and leaders that, I fear seldom takes place. The simple question would seem to be "Based on this week's experience with this curriculum, how can we make next week even better?" Our culture today would seem instead to ask only, "How could this be easier?" The questions seem to be at odds.

Thanks, Pete, for helping us think on these things.

God's blessings as you teach His children His Word!

Another Once-a-Year Sunday School Building Task

Here's another step you should take to build up your Sunday School, and other schools as well.

Once a year, you should take a close look at the Sunday School material offered by your denomination's publisher.

• If you don't use their material already, you should give them an opportunity to win you over.
• If you already use material from your publisher, you should check out other material that you don't currently use, and you should look closely at the material you do use, asking how this material could be improved to serve you even better.
• In either case, you should write your evaluative comments into a letter or e-mail and send it to the publisher.

Why should you do this?

• Your Sunday School will grow through the new resources you discover, the discussions you have about what's important in your material, and the conviction that your curriculum is the best you can find.
• Your publisher is part of your church family. They are your friends. They deserve your support if you are able to give it, and they deserve your help in improving their product.
• Things change. The material you checked out in 2006 or even last year has certainly changed, hopefully for the better, based in no small part on feedback just like what you will provide.
• If the publisher is missing the mark, they deserve an opportunity to improve.
• You will almost certainly see something great that you hadn't noticed before.
• The material they publish will teach the theology that your church believes and will avoid the errors your church body seeks to avoid.
• The improvements you suggest will help your congregation. They will also help hundreds of other congregations who have the same needs.

Will they listen?

• If your church publisher is Concordia Publishing House, they will!
• Your feedback will be acknowledged within twenty-four hours.
• Your suggestions will become part of our "Voice of the Customer" database, used to guide product development.
• While not every idea can be implemented immediately, every idea has impact.

CPH has samples of both Growing in Christ and Cross Explorations available through our Web site, cph.org/sundayschool. If you want an even boarder look, a full set of samples can be sent to you for examination. We want your business; even more, we want your feedback. Click the envelop icon on our Web page, write to sundayschool@cph.org, or write to me: tom.nummela@cph.org.

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

What Must I Do to Inherit Eternal Life?

He asked the wrong question! This account of Jesus' conversation with the rich ruler appears in three of the four Gospels. The title of this post quotes the Mark and Luke accounts (Mark 10:17-27; Luke 18:17-27). But the rich ruler who addressed this question to Jesus asked the wrong question.

"What must I do!" Jesus makes clear to the man, and to us, that this asks the impossible. Human beings do not have the ability to do their own salvation. We have inherited a sinful nature from our first parents. We sin in what we do and in what we do not do. If we seek to merit eternal life, we have already failed.

Jesus' response sends the man away sad.

This question is a key to teaching God's children His Word. Don't send the children you teach away sad, seeking to earn eternal life through moral living, trying to be like Jesus, and failing. Point them instead as Jesus does, to God's strength as the source of eternal life. “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

It's not what we do. It's God's amazing grace! God has done it! He sent Jesus to earn our salvation. He gives us His Word and promise. He washes us clean through our Baptism. He forgives and strengthens us through the Sacrament of the Altar.

Does the curriculum you use teach clearly about Jesus in every lesson, about God's gifts of Baptism and the Lord's Supper? Or does it send children away sad?

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

WOW! CPH Has All That?

I've heard that some congregations are looking for new Sunday School material, something that is family-friendly, recognizes the Church Year, is experiential and relational, is easy to prepar, and contributes significantly to biblical literacy.

I have good news: Sunday School material from Concordia Publishing House does all that and more!

Family Friendly: For thirty years, CPH has produced Sunday School material that is unified across all age levels. Everyone in the congregation, from the youngest to the oldest can study the same biblical text each week, each using materials and techniques that are age-appropriate. The materials incorporate take-home materials that promote family discussion and further study about the lesson. Especially, check out the "Explore More Cards," published with our Cross Explorations material but useful with either curriculum. Our materials assume that families will worship together each Sunday and we incorporate elements of the Church's worship in the lessons.

Recognizes the Church Year: CPH Sunday School material is rooted in the Church Year; major festivals are recognized and often the focus of lessons (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, the Baptism of our Lord, Transfiguration, Holy Week, and Easter lessons are taught on appropriate Sundays; Reformation Day, All Saints' Day, and other festivals are noted and often incorporated into the lesson. About half of the Sunday School lessons each year teach the Bible account that is read as the Gospel in the Divine Service in congregations using the three-year-lectionary.

Experiential and Relational: CPH recognizes that children learn best by applying Scriptures to life experience. The youngest children spend time each week in activities that provide a real-life experience to which the Scriptures can be applied; lessons for older children use role play and discussion to help student apply what they learn from the Bible to their lives between Sundays.

Easy to Prepare: Each lesson has a one-page study of the theological and bibical content of the lesson, handy materials lists, scripted teacher talk (so you know what to say, even if you put it in your own words), and a simple four-part outline. In addition, a 30-minute podcast about the lesson is available each week.

Biblical Literacy: the sequence of lessons in Growing in Christ and Cross Explorations materials has been carefully designed to teach the entire narrative of salvation history over a three-year-plus period, with the most significant parts of that history (Advent, Christmas, and Easter) taught every year. Lessons repeat every third or fourth year, so that as student grow they encounter God's Word again and again in age-appropriate learning.

In addition, CPH offers consistent instruction using both Law and Gospel, lessons that are truly centered in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin, two choices of material (check them out at our new Web site: cph.org/sundayschool), realistic full-color Bible art, varied modes of instruction and story presentation, and a wealth of supplementary material.

What are you looking for in Sunday School material?

What do you think we are missing?

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

What Is at the Center?

Why do some folks take so much time choosing a treat from a box of chocolates?

It's because it's all about the center, the heart, the core, the inside. We want the center to be the very best among the many choices in the box.

Sunday School lessons are also about the center! What the lesson is designed to teach! Everything else either supports the central truth of the lesson, or it is window dressing.

But I heard it again this week, that some folks actually don't care about the center of the lessons in the material they purchase for Sunday School. "It's easier to fix the theology than to add the window dressing!" Forgive me for being blunt, but that's not my experience.

If the center of the lesson, the theological point that it intends to teach, is wrong, everything essential in the lesson will be wrong as well. The introduction will introduce the error. The discussion questions will draw out the error. The activities, if they are chosen carefully, will continue to teach the error.

A moralistic lesson with a kernel of Gospel tacked on will still be, at its heart, a moralistic lesson. Unless, of course, the lesson was all window dressing in the first place.

A Sunday School teacher has twenty, or perhaps thirty, opportunities a year to teach a child about the saving truth of the Gospel, which God shares with us in Word and Sacrament. I challenge you to make each of the opportunities count. Don't settle for material that is not centered in the Gospel.

Thanks for all you do to teach God's children His saving Word!

Is This Material Age Appropriate?

That's an important question, both for the curriculum writer/publisher and for those who teach the material.

Several things deserve to be considered.

• Age-appropriateness is a sliding scale; material that is too simple for some kids among its target group may be too advanced for others.
• This scale will slide even within a class of 4 students.
• Age-appropriateness can be physical (reading level, eye-hand coordination), social, or even cultural. (At what age, for example might a teacher feel comfortable teaching students about David's sin with Bathsheba? For some teachers and classes, the answer might be "never.")
• It can create as many problems for the teacher for material to be to simple as may arise when material is too difficult for the students. Discipline problems increase when students are bored rather than challenged.
• The publisher, by necessity, is shooting for a hypothetical average class; that class quite simply does not exist. Each teacher has a very specific set of students (as well as a specific room, and access to other specific resources) about the publisher has no knowledge.

What does this mean?
The teacher is in the driver's seat. He or she is going to be the final editor of the lesson. That will mean decisions about necessary adaptation of every aspect of the lesson.

Sure, you can shop around for a curriculum in which the theology is exactly what your denomination teaches, the material always bright and cheery (or thoughtfully somber) as you desire, the activities always doable in your classroom and building, the supplies required always just what you have on hand, and the level of difficulty always spot on for all of your students. And, you should know, that we editors here at Concordia Publishing House do our best to make this happen for you each week; we really do! But, in my heart, I know that you will have to make some choices and revisions.

So what can you do?

• Be thoughtful in your lesson planning. Note the alternatives offered by the publisher. Think back to what has worked for your students in the past. Be alert for the ways you can revise your lesson.
• If your class is consistently frustrated by "too hard" or bored with "too simple," consider moving down or up a level in the curriculum.
• Don't sacrifice theology, the very reason you are teaching Sunday School classes in the first place, in a chase for the "perfect lesson."

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Can Non-Lutheran Material Teach Lutheran Students?

Does the publisher of your Sunday School material teach that God creates saving faith in Christ through the Word and water of the Sacrament of Baptism? What a blessing for those little ones who face temptation or guilt over sin to be reminded that "I am baptized!"

Does the publisher of your Sunday School material teach that we cannot earn our salvation or merit God's favor though our human effort? What a comfort for your students to know that Jesus has paid the full price for our sin and earned forgiveness, life, and salvation through His work! God loves us despite our sin and sees us as saints, righteous in His sight, because God sees us clothed in Christ.

Does your publisher teach that all of the Bible is God's inerrant Word, that God has the power to do all the wonders the Bible describes, even those that we cannot comprehend in our limited human brains? What joy that the children you teach do not have to guess whether this miracle of God is one that really happened!

Does your Sunday School material teach that Jesus is important because He is the Son of God and our Savior from sin, death, and the devil? How wonderful that your students don't see Jesus as just a moral example of how they should act and live, or a wise teacher, one of many.

If your Sunday School curriculum comes from Concordia Publishing House, you can be sure of these things. If you use material from a non-Lutheran publisher, no matter how good their marketing or flashy their material, then you have no guarantees. Why would you expect a non-Lutheran publisher to teach accurate Lutheran theology?

God's blessings as you teach His children His Word!

"Jesus in Every Lesson" What Does that Mean?

I see this tag line used frequently in curriculum advertising. It makes me wonder . . .

What do they mean?

It's possible to have Jesus in every lesson you teach and still teach moralism.

• Some religions teach that Jesus was a great prophet but not as great as Muḥammad.
• Some religions teach that Jesus was a great teacher.
• Some religions teach that Jesus is our best example of how to live a God-pleasing life.

These religions could teach Jesus in every lesson, and still leave the students stuck in sin, condemned by the Law. They teach children to trust in the wrong Savior. They urge us to earn our own salvation through works done by our own human effort. But the Bible tells us clearly that no one be good enough to earn salvation, and no other name will save us except Jesus.

So, yes, teach Jesus in every lesson. Teach Him clearly through both Law (we have failed to live according to God's will; we have done things He forbids and failed to do the things He commands) and Gospel (Jesus suffered for our sin, died in our place, paid for our sin, and conquered death on our behalf; those with faith in Him have forgiveness, life, and salvation).

Teach Old Testament lessons that point your students to Jesus as their Savior from sin, death, and the devil.

Teach New Testament lessons that show God's love for your students in the life and work of His Son, Jesus.

But don't settle for "Jesus in every lesson" if the full truth of God's Word is not clearly present.

God bless you as you teach God's Word . . . Law and Gospel . . . in every lesson!

Orthodox

Orthodox: conforming to established doctrine especially in religion

Heterodox: contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion

Should orthodoxy be a benchmark for your Sunday School? Orthodox material? Training for your teachers? It make sense to me that what is taught in our Christian education agencies should be congruent with our beliefs. How else will the faith be accurately taught? For example, if the material we use omit the correct teaching on Baptism, how will the children we teach know of its importance and its power? If the material we teach is at its root moralistic, what prevents the children we teach from believing that they have the power in themselves to be good Christians who please God by their righteous living?

What constitutes orthodoxy for Sunday Schools in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod? A great question and fodder, perhaps, for another post.

Who has the responsibility in your congregation to make sure that orthodox material and doctrine are taught? The pastor accepts this responsibility when he is called to the congregation. He is free, of course, to delegate this responsibility, or to share it with others, but a system where individual teachers can teach "whatever they want" does not seem likely to contribute to orthodoxy.

I pray that this concern is not brushed off by those who find it intrusive. Some may suppose that my first or even only concern is selling the curriculum that I believe is orthodox. Rather, I strive for the goal that I hope you share: that every student hear the Good News of God's grace and love in Christ Jesus every Sunday and grow in faith in Him.

God bless you as you teach God's children His Word!

Since When?

When did it happen that clear presentation of the Gospel became just one of many criteria measured during the selection of material for teaching Sunday School lessons?

Those evaluating Sunday School material measure . . .
. . . cost per student.
. . . engaging activities.
. . . colorful illustrations.
. . . how well the lessons match the Church Year.
. . . activities to take the lesson into the home.
. . . developmental appropriateness.
. . . ease of teacher preparation.
. . . effectiveness in teaching the Gospel.

That's great! These things should be considered. Absolutely! But it seems often that these criteria, and others considered important in a given location, are given more or less equal weight. Cost per student or engaging activities may out-weigh the doctrinal content for the material when the final selection is made.

Obviously, I am not without bias. My life's work these days is to prepare Sunday School material that changes hearts and touches lives through the clear proclamation of the Gospel in every lesson. But it seems to me that the Gospel ought to count for more.

Given that God's Word of Law and Gospel, sin and grace, is at the heart of Scripture and the only means by which lives can be changed for good, is it really wise to choose any material in which the light of Gospel does not shine?