Are You a Heretic?

It's Monday. The beginning of another week of service in my life as a curriculum editor for Concordia Publishing House. I am grateful for my opportunity to serve at CPH and relish the challenge of creating resource for Sunday School teachers and students that teach God's Word accurately, clearly, and age-appropriately. I am often humbled by the responsibility my call represents.

For, you see, I am a heretic at heart. My sinful nature seek always to corrupt my work. It is so easy for bad theology to raise it's ugly head. How do I cope with that?

• I give thanks for and use the best tools I can in my work, including The Lutheran Study Bible, the Concordia Commentary series, and often the Christian Cyclopedia (though the on-line version once found through the LCMS Web site seems to no longer be available).





• I rely on my colleagues. CPH has a system of "second edits" and "senior editor reviews," and copyediting and proofreading, through which knowledgeable colleagues review the material I have written or edited.





• I treasure our system of doctrinal review. Independent, anonymous theologians appointed by our synod's president review every product with theological content that we publish. The insights of these reviewers are universally helpful in teaching God's Word accurately.





• I respond with unfeigned gratitude to the constructive criticism of those who purchase and use the resouces I help prepare.

At times I cringe at the resources mentioned or even recommended by others in our LCMS circles, including various teachers, principals, and DCEs. I would like to think they know better, and I try to cut them some slack because I am a heretic at heart. Only by God's grace am I able to assist in the production of material that teaches God's Word in all its truth and purity. And, at least occasionally, I fail. Like all Christians, I rely on God's forgiveness and mercy, and I trust His Spirit's power to use the resources I prepare to teach God's children His Word.

What steps do you take to ensure that the material used to teach God's children are faithful to the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions?

What about Easter?

What will the children in your congregation be learning on Easter? That breakfast, egg hunts, and candy are more important than Sunday School?

While it is true that volunteers can be scarce on Easter Sunday, here are four reasons not to cancel or alter Sunday School on this pivotal Sunday in the Church Year.

4. Sunday School should be a habit. This is what we do on Sunday: we go to worship and we go to Sunday School. These are the actions that make our Sabbath complete.

3. Hunting for candy and watching videos about talking vegetables pale when compared to the riches to be found in the study of God's Word.

2. Most churches will get more visitor this Sunday and any other week of the year except Christmas. Visitors equal opportunities to share the Good News of God's love in Christ with children who may have never heard it!

1. The most important reason for Sunday School on Easter? What better day can there be on which to connect the joyous celebration taking place in worship with an insightful lesson about the blessings of the resurrection?

God's blessings as you teach God's children His Word this Easter Sunday!

Three Web Sites to Check Out

There are millions of Web sites out there, hundreds (if not thousands) of them devoted to Sunday School resources. Here are three you should know about.

• Growing in Christ http://sites/cph.org/sundayschool/ This Web site was created when the Growing in Christ Sunday School materials were released by in 2006. It is updated regularly in a couple of areas. Under "Podcasts and Downloads," any corrections that need to be made to material already distributed for use are posted here. This also one route to the "Seeds of Faith" podcasts, a weekly discussion of the Bible accounts in the Growing in Christ curriculum (click on "Learn More" under "Podcasts"). The next lesson's discussion should come up first; pervious lessons are archived. Once you have started the player, you can click on the progress bar in your player to skip ahead or go back in the recording. Many teacher find these podcasts invaluable to their teaching.


• SundaySchoolSpot.com http://sundayschoolspot.com/ A great place for "Growing in Christ" product information and teaching resources. Under "Teacher Spot," you can access basic information about the age-level you are teaching, view some tips, and find some additional resources. You can also access the "Seedlings" podcasts through this site.


• Bible Quizzes Onlive http://biblequizzesonline.com/ My wife created this Web site last year to promote Bible literacy and accountable reading practice. Quizzes are being created for every Bible account in the Growing in Christ curriculum, as well as for One Hundred Bible Stories, the popular Bible story book from CPH. The quizzes are written to follow both the NIV and ESV translations. Students can read or listen to the Bible account (ESV for Growing in Christ, NIV for One Hundred Bible Stories) and then take a ten-question quiz while receiving feedback on their answers. It's a cool site! And it's free!

What Web sites have you found helpful? What kind of resources do you find yourself looking for regularly online?

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?

Worship or Christian Education?

It is inevitable that families in some of our Lutheran congregations will ask the question, "Which is more important for our kids on Sunday morning, worship or education?" Be thankful if you are part of the many churches where this question is rare or non-existent. There are thousands of congregations that maintain a Sunday schedule where worship is conducted at one time and Christian education precedes or follows.

In too many, however, the decision has been made to schedule a worship service concurrent with Sunday School. Often this is seen as a stewardship decision: How can we justify a multi-million-dollar building project to handle the growing number of worshipers when we can increase our worship capacity by simply adding another worship service? I have attended and served in congregations that took this route. I confess to my shame that even advocated such a decision in my youth. I would no longer do so.

But, let me know avoid the question: which is more important? Without a doubt, worship get my vote. In the Divine Service, God provides His Word and Sacraments and, with them, the precious gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. The Divine Service fulfills the commands of God in a way that Sunday School cannot.

Yet I would insist that Christian education, adult Bible study and Sunday School, runs a close second, so nearly matching worship in importance that I would urge parents to do all they can to provide for both experiences on Sunday morning for their children, and for themselves.

But won't young children get more out of an age-appropriate Sunday School class than from a worship service that seems designed primarily for adults? While this may seem true from a human perspective, how can it be true? God promises that His Word will accomplish what He desires, even in the ears, eyes, and hearts of children. At what age will this not be true? The worship service is a rich tapestry of Word that touches us through all our senses---music, speech, drama, symbols and images, and even aromas---with opportunities to impress the Gospel on even the youngest of children.

So, let's not force our families to make a choice. Let's provide excellent worship opportunities that share God's Word with those of all ages. And let's encourage attendance in Sunday School or Bible class for children, youth, and adults.

What's is your Sunday morning schedule for worship and education? How happy are you with that schedule?

In your opinion, does concurrent worship and education opportunities have a positive or negative impact on Sunday School?