The Toolbox: Choosing a Curriculum for Ministry

Choosing a curriculum for any program in Children’s ministry is an increasing challenge and constant learning process, but also one of the primary responsibilities of the director. The challenge is that there is so much out there, and I hate to say it, but the majority of it ends up as moralistic teachings and character development, which is hardly worth the glossy paper it’s printed on. And the other challenge is that there is no perfect curriculum out there that will fit exactly what you need, and to be honest, I wouldn’t want one to exist anyway. If there was a perfect curriculum that fit every need, I have a feeling we would get pretty lazy and forget that it’s about the relationships we build, rather than the perfectly easy components of a quick lesson.
Above all we are to cloak our decisions in prayer, and move ahead in faith that the Holy Spirit is accomplishing his work in our weakness. Here are some of the questions I ask when choosing a curriculum:

1) What is the vision of the Children’s Ministry of Christ Church? (Worship, Discipleship, growth in grace, covenantal theology)
2) Are the lessons moral based (i.e. outward action) or heart based (inner transformation that leads to outward action)?
3) Doctrinal purity, in line with the Presbyterian faith. What is the publisher’s view of Scripture?
4) What are the social factors of our church? (how many kids, family backgrounds, age groups, special needs)
5) Year round curriculum? Thematic or topical?
6) Is the curriculum learner based, with an emphasis toward different learning styles?
7) How much of the activity is entertainment, media based (DVDs, etc.) rather than application, interaction (definitely my preference)? Is it fad-based?
8) Cost—what can our budget afford?

Curriculum, though very important, is simply a single tool to be used in a full toolbox of options. It is the teachers, the parents and the covenantal community of Christ Church that will make an everlasing difference in the lives of our children. Additional tools of music (hymns and worship songs), catechism, and bible memory are also necessary for the answer of why we believe the stories we learn on Sunday morning.

So, with all that fresh in your minds, here is the current list of curriculae we are using this Fall 2009 semester of the Christ Church PCA Children’s Ministry:

Nursery/Preschool Worship Hour: We are attempting to integrate more worship styles in the nursery and preschool times so that our children will know that Sundays are special, and are all about learning and worshipping our Lord and Savior. So, we use FaithWeavers and GCP's Show Me Jesus.

Children’s Worship: John Piper’s Children Desiring God mid-week curriculum, 26 weeks of worshipping the Creator through the first chapter of Genesis, called: He Has Been Clearly Seen!

Preschool Sunday School hour: Children’s Ministry International’s Catechism program.

K-5th Grade Sunday School: Group’s FaithWeavers 3 year rotational, through the Bible curriculum. Strengths: Solid Bible teaching that includes all 8 levels of learning, every age learns the same story at the same time, with a deeper understanding as the child matures in the faith. We separate the boys and girls during lesson time which is preceded by a half hour long conjoined age group for music and Bible memory.

4th-5th Grade boys: David C. Cook's Reformation Press upper elementary series.

The Whisper of Scripture

If you don't have this book, buy it. If you don't have children, buy it. If you do have children, buy it. If you're looking for ways to improve your storytelling, buy it. If you breathe in oxygen, buy it. Now.
Am I making myself clear?

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name

I can't even describe how amazing this book is, and if you already have it, you're nodding your head in complete agreement. Written by Sally Lloyd Jones and Illustrated by Jago, it is a far cry from the typical Children's Bible. Note: This is not a Children's Bible (and if you're looking for a good Children's Bible, that subject will come up in a future posting of comparing that strange breed of Bibles).

It is a story book, picking out some of the greatest stories in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation and continually pointing to the central person of Jesus. So essentially, it is accomplishing what the Bible has been telling us all along: those stories are all just sentences in a single epic story of God. If you want to know how to teach an Old Testament Bible story to your kids that is faithful to Scripture but is directly speaking about Jesus, this is the best tutorial you will ever receive. I've definitely learned some things! And forget about the moralistic anecdotes you often find in these kinds of books...this is a story book about blinding grace. And the pictures...I wish I could decorate our church nursery with such vivid beauty!

A quote:

No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne – everything – to rescue the ones he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life… There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the centre of the Story there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle – the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

Buy it. Or wait until Oct. 1 and buy the Deluxe Edition, with the incredible David Suchet (any Poirot fans out there? tap tap. Is this thing on?) reading from cover to cover. Actually, buy 2 or 3, and give them to your neighbors with a batch of cookies and invite them to Christ Church sometime. In the din of this chaotic world, here's hoping the whisper of Scripture will keep reaching our ears.

Remember to Remember

The Fall is alive and kicking as of this first Sunday in September here at Christ Church! I keep stepping outside expecting to hear the crunching leaves beneath my feet and the beautiful spine-tinglings of a hearty bite of a chill in the air. But alas, I am rudely reminded that a forceful wind blew me here to this wet blanket called Florida, and I slide into my rusting hatchback with a broken air conditioner and scroll down my windows to find a daily stormy gale deluging through my window and onto my lap. Death by heat exhaustion or drowning. Yippee.

All that to say that even with the disappointing weather, this is my favorite time of the year. I find myself encountering a fresh new budget wiped clean, a desk piled high with colorful curricula and the overwhelming sense that I am in way over my head yet again. So many dreams have been built up and sinful doubts start to creep in, saying, not enough people, not enough funds, not enough time, not enough experience, just, well, not enough.

So after waking up with another migraine and feeling sorry for myself, I took a step back from all of that today and reflected on the past year of Children's Ministry here at Christ Church. The cure for self-pity is always remembering God's heaping helpings of grace. You'd think I'd know that by now, but I need constant reminders.

Like vines in the vineyard…

--Watching a Kindergartner over the last 12 months learn how to pray. When he first started, it was all mumbles, and drifted off to awkward silence after mere moments of folding our hands. Now, I can barely contain him each Sunday as he raises his hand to lead us in prayer before each snack, with beautiful prayers full of the relationship he is building with His father in Heaven. Last Sunday I told him that I loved hearing him pray, and that many adults in this world are afraid of praying aloud the way he so eagerly does each week. “Why are they afraid?” He asked, utterly confused. I pray he will never know this fear and will continue to witness through years and years of simple and thoughtful conversations in the throne room.

--Listening to the sweet songs of our children each week during Sunday School. I hate to miss it for even a moment. The spasms of boyhood briefly stop just long enough to sing “A mighty fortress is our God” with a little shyness yet a deepening understanding. Oh, and please, just take the time soon to dance and sing side by side with a 5 year old during corporate worship…I guarantee you will have a better grasp of the joyful canvas of true worship.

--Month after month of memorizing the Apostles Creed together, of learning how to draw a map of Israel, of imprinting catechism and the books of the Bible so that Scripture would become more real to them. Sure, they might moan and groan at another pop quiz, but when life hits them head on, I love to know that the tools they’ll need will be written on their hearts and easily found on the pages at their fingertips.

--Changing diapers and knowing that one simple smile and sweetest giggle from the smallest of infants can change your entire perspective of the day at hand. Count all those fingers and toes again. Smell their hair, and hold them close to your heart. Multiply that with all the babies we are having here at Christ Church, and our joy is overwhelming. God is so good. And that job is so important.

--Living in the moment with each child each week. They are overflowing with stories of God’s grace if you take the time to ask them about it. During Children’s worship we learn how the air we breathe, the frogs we catch, the trees we climb, the friends we make and the painful moments in our lives are all a part of the walk we share together. Last week the children took big gulps of air and marveled at how powerful air is in their life, which led us to discussing how our God is also invisible, but made visible in Creation with more power and majesty than we could ever imagine. And they got it. Romans 1:20 was a no-brainer to them. Wow.

--Watching our crew of teachers love each child with divine purpose, and continue to not only show up, but give their hearts and time with a sweetness and light for which I daily rejoice. What a blessing they are to so many on this kingdom mission.

--Being asked by 2nd graders how best to evangelize their classmates and invite them to church on a Sunday morning. If that doesn't humble my heart, nothing will.

Sigh. There’s so much more. So many names and faces. In writing out a list of God’s grace from this past year in the Children’s ministry this morning, I discovered 12 typed pages. And I know that I missed 99 percent of how God worked in our lives, but still, I’m praising God for this wealth of riches.

We need your prayers, Christ Church. Things are happening. They aren’t loud and flashy, and most people might glance in and find plenty lacking, but I am certain that we have witnessed the singing of angels and the footsteps of the King of Kings dance among us and gather the hearts of His children within the walls of this church and into the four corners of Jacksonville.

Oh, I know. We’re not done, there’s a lot to do, and there's a lot I still don't know. And I can get plenty anxious by the thought that there’s just not enough.

And you know what? I’m right, I’m definitely not enough. But He is. And I need to remember that this is enough for His ministry. His calling. His children.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Book of the Week

Here's how I'm planning these updates, so you can know what to expect from the blog and how often to come back for more or ignore altogether. There will be at least two posts per week: at the first of the week there will be a reflection on something I've been working on/thinking about relating to Children's ministry, and the second portion will be a recommendation of a book, film, music, website, sermon, or conference that will directly relate to parenting, ministry, children....and whatever else that strikes me that particular week. With each recommendation I will have a link to Amazon or another seller so that you will know how to find that particular recommendation.

In other words, the goal of each week is to share something that's percolating in my brain, followed by something I have learned from those who are much wiser and more experienced than I in ministry.

Book of the Week:

I have had a few people ask about the wrapped gift book that we gave to all of the amazing new Youth Communicants of Christ Church, and I have a feeling it's going to become a standard gift book for the Children's Ministry here at CC. This is a brand new book from Crossway that I can't recommend highly enough for some solid theological teaching that will certainly stretch our young people, but also is written in such a way that will not intimidate them once they begin. The chapters are incredibly succinct and precise (and also fairly short), with guides through each chapter to encourage the parents to help shepherd their kids toward a deeper understanding of the basic tenets of the reformed faith.

The Book: Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God, by Bruce Ware.



This is recommended for age 6-14, but honestly, I would recommend it also for parents, new believers, and apologists because it is like a seminary education expressed in a way that any person can understand.

Chapter 1: God's Word and God's Own Life
Chapter 2: God As Three in One
Chapter 3: Creator and Ruler of All (Sovereignty and General Revelation)
Chapter 4: Our Human Nature (Anthropology) and Our Sin (Hamartiology)
Chapter 5: Who Jesus Is (Christology)
Chapter 6: The Work Jesus Has Done (Christology/Soteriology)
Chapter 7: The Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)
Chapter 8: Our Great Salvation (Soteriology, Election, Sanctification)
Chapter 9: The Church of Jesus Christ (Ecclesiology)
Chapter 10: What Will Take Place in the End (Eschatology)

A beginning.

There's something about the many unknowns of beginnings that turn me into a shade of nervous fuschia. I could start with a warning to you all that my mind's shoe laces are only half tied and my writing muscles have atrophied from disuse, but I won't do that. That would just be making excuses for my poor taste in beginnings.

SO...we will begin with a story written in 1942. A story that is well-loved, well known, and ultimately one of the primary reasons I awkwardly tumbled onto the dangerous and rocky trail of children’s ministry.

I have read this story more than any other book; to sick children, bored and bemused adults, full classrooms of EFL students in eastern Europe, and on my way to sleep. It’s a simple love story, with splashes of pastels lilting across the page. The front cover reveals two bunnies facing each other as the brilliant world weaves all around them in the weeds and rushes:

Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away.
So he said to his mother, "I am running away."
"If you run away," said his mother, "I will run after you.
For you are my little bunny."

"If you become a fish in a trout stream,
I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you."

"If you become a rock on a mountain high above me,
I will be a mountain climber, and I will climb to where you are."

"If you become a crocus in a hidden garden,
I will be a gardner. And I will find you."

"If you become a bird and fly away from me,
I will be a tree that you come home to."

"If you become a sailboat and sail away from me,
I will become the wind and blow you where I want you to go."

"If you go flying on a flying trapeze,
I will be a tightrope walker, and I will walk across the air to you."

"If you become a little boy and run into the house,
I will become your mother and catch you in my arms and hug you."

"Shucks," said the little bunny, "I might as well
stay where I am and be your little bunny."
And so he did.
"Have a carrot," said the mother bunny.

Sound familiar? I truly hope so.

What a perfect allegory for divine love. Wherever (whatever) we hide, God knows exactly where (and whose) we are. It’s like playing hide-and-seek with a 4 year old. Their stifled giggles from behind the couch are as subtle as fireworks, but we play along, knowing that their joy comes in the being found. Scratching their heads, they are amazed by our ability to see behind doors and under chairs and finally find them in their hiding places.

As adults, however, we seem to have lost that joy of being found in our messy playrooms, wanting a deeper escape and more time to run away to an even better hiding place. “Now I’ve stumped Him,” we think with a sob and crooked smile.

And yet still we are found. Even more, like the mother bunny, we are provided for in ways we couldn’t imagine for ourselves. A God who became who we are—man, in order that our hearts would find true rest in the loving home that calls to us in our wandering ways and fitful dreams.

Children’s ministry is simply another avenue of God’s joyful and transformational finding. The turnings of my disjointed mind will expand on what that looks like (and what it doesn’t look like) in future posts. Of course the ultimate goal of my job as a director of Children's ministry is not to be needed in the first place. I long to see a community of Jesus Christ that is fully embracing and discipling each member, from the womb to earth's final breath. I long to see homes that are so full of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God that my words and actions are merely an afterthought to the amazing grace overflowing into neighborhoods and wherever the people of God go.

But how to get to that point? And can we? And shouldn’t I, the single 29 year old female with no kids be the absolute LAST person to talk about this subject with any clarity?

Well, it’s one untied shoe in front of the other on a craggy and dangerous trail, but you have to begin somewhere. And I thought beginning with some cute bunnies might soften our attitudes before it starts getting really difficult.
Aww. Cute widdle bunnies.