CPH: Just Another Option?

All too often, I encounter the notion among colleagues, customers, synodical college students and professors, and congregations that Concordia Publishing House is just another resource provider, one option among many. They don't seem to realize that there are several things that make CPH special!

• CPH is the publisher of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. We are the only publishing house incorporated by the synod, managed by a board of director elected by the synod, for the specific benefit of the synod's congregations and members.
• CPH is the only publisher that guarantees its products will be faithful to the Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions. Our materials teach what Lutherans need to know. They are rooted in the Means of Grace, God's Word and sacraments. They are certified by independent doctrinal review. They are recommended by our synod's president.
• CPH is the only publisher that contributes to the synod. For several years a portion of our net income has been given to the synod.
• CPH is nationally recognized for exceptional service and business practices. We are a Missouri Quality Award winner (2009) and Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Aware winner (2011). We have a state of the art distribution center and process most order in less than 24 hours. We have an award-winning customer service center.
• CPH is a full-service resource provider. Offering envelopes, Sunday bulletins, ecclesiastical arts and supplies, church management software, curricula, music, Bibles and Bible studies, commentaries and scholarly works, children's books, and more!

We are committed to becoming the place you look first for products and resources. Just another option? Far from it! What will it take to convince you?

God's blessings as you teach His children His Word in 2015!

Do You Know Where Your Sunday School Material Comes From?

(Immediate aside: If you use CPH's Sunday School material, you know your material was written by experienced Sunday School teachers, edited by called church workers, and reviewed by theologians all of whom are members of, and proficient in the doctrines of, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It's a given that the material will be rooted in a conservative view of Scripture and reliance on the Means of Grace for our faith and life. It will be educationally and scripturally sound. You will not have to answer embarrassing questions about the material's content from your Sunday School parents or your pastor or board of education. It is material that definitely will NOT pass "the Temple test," and that's a good thing!)

All too often, I hear Sunday School leaders or directors of Christian education speak openly of the non-Lutheran material they use in their Sunday School, and I wonder, "Do they know where that material comes from?" How can material that avoids or denies the central role of God's Word and Sacraments, the teaching of justification by faith, be useful in a Lutheran Sunday School? The basic message I get is, theology doesn't matter. Let's use material that is trendy and cute!

It makes me sad.

God bless you 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!

Who Does the Work?

The lesson for this Sunday in the CPH Sunday School materials is about Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It teaches clearly how our students can tell whether they are hearing the Gospel or a false religion. It is all about who does the work.

Baal
The worship of Baal and all other false god's is easy to recognize. Idolatry requires me to do a lot of work. Baal's prophets sang and danced and prayed and even cut themselves with knives, seeking to gain their god's attention and favor. They did all the work; Baal did nothing. If your students leave your classroom with a larger burden than when they arrived, they didn't hear the Gospel.

True God, True Gospel
The Gospel is good news because it tell us who really does the work. Not us. We are sinful. Our work is flawed, half-hearted, selfish, or nonexistent. We do not love God with our whole heart or our neighbors as ourselves. God does not require our work, our compliance with His Law, our sacrifice. God provides the sacrifice that will fulfill His righteous Law, and His provides the gift of His means of grace, His Word and Sacraments, that we might believe and trust in Him. He shows and tells His love, sends Jesus to pay for our sins, He gives us the gift of faith in His Son through His Spirit, and through His Word and Spirit He keeps us in that faith.

Lift Their Hearts
You have the opportunity this week to lift the hearts of your students, to lighten their burden. Help them leave their load of sin at the foot of the cross. Tell them the truth of God's love and forgiveness. Send them away with His peace and joy.

What a privilege! 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!

Where's Jesus?

In the past two weeks, the Church has marked the festivals of Christ's ascension and the birthday of the Church on Pentecost. It has been nearly two thousand years since our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to the Church He left behind.

We know, of course, that Jesus has not left us really. He is truly in heaven, but He is also truly present with us here. It is a great comfort to know that Jesus has fulfilled the promise He made to His disciples to be with them always.

So, where is Jesus today? He is ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God. He is present with us, fully human and fully divine according to His promise. He is present in His Word and Sacraments. Wherever His Word is preached and taught, and wherever the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are administered according to His Word, Jesus is present.

He is with us in the Divine Service. And He is with us in the Sunday School classroom.

Does your Sunday School curriculum teach God's children about the Means of Grace? about Jesus' presence through Word and water, bread and wine, according to His promise?

I pray that the children you teach are not missing out on this "sweet comfort."

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!

Immanuel, God with Us

On this Eighth Day of Christmas, it's worth remembering that God is still Immanuel, "God with us."

Yes, He is with us "in the broad sense," a spiritual/Spiritual sense suggested by Luke 1:28 or perhaps Matthew 28:20.

But He is more specifically with us "in the narrow sense," in the Means of Grace, in the Word He has given us, the Holy Scriptures and the "Word made flesh," and in the Sacrament of the Altar where Jesus is truly present in the bread and wine.

We (and the children we teach) cannot see or touch the Spirit or the spiritual Jesus, but we can hold the Word in our hands as we teach, knowing that it comes from God Himself. We taste and see the elements of the Lord's Supper knowing that by God's Word "this is My body . . . blood."

Jesus is "God with us" in Word and Sacrament, in each Divine Service, in each Sunday School lesson. That's a powerful promise from Immanuel!

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