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One of the most difficult and significant decisions you can make as a children and youth pastor is the curriculum you use in the formational process of discipling the kids God has placed in your care.
Over the years, I have written my own curriculum and have used several different curricula. When I first started serving as a kids’ pastor, the internet didn’t exist (yeah, I know —cue dinosaur sounds). Finding a curriculum wasn’t easy. So, I wrote my own, which was great in lots of ways but had its own set of challenges. With the amount of curriculum available today and the ease of researching online, I would suggest you buy curriculum and use your time to disciple the kids and parents in your ministry.
While this is a complex decision and many factors go into it, here are a few fundamental considerations that will help you make a fruitful choice.
1. Foundational
The temptation in next-generation ministry circles is to hop from one curriculum to another, looking for the hottest, most relevant one. I get it. I have been there, and I am ashamed to admit that I even used a couple of curricula based on the packaging’s aesthetics and the product’s hype.
Don’t fall for what is cool at the moment; look for something foundational, particularly for preschool and elementary-age kids, that walks them through the big story of God’s redeeming love for them. Awana’s Brite curriculum does this, as do several others. What Brite does that is so brilliant is it tells the story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration through the stories of the Bible itself. In one year, kids will have a picture that was painted and reinforced for them. Find a curriculum that doesn’t shy away from the hard stories of the Bible and shows Jesus as the hero.
2. Functional
Here, our focus is on kids’ age and stage. This is where we ask of the curriculum we use, “How does this teach Scripture in an age-appropriate way that is faithful to the words written in the Bible?” The temptation at every stage from preschool to high school is to filter the Bible by saying “what” should I teach kids, rather than “how” do I teach this to the kids I am called to teach. Leading this way requires more from us and demands we ensure the foundational truths we teach are appropriate and engaging.
Make sure the small-group activities make sense for the size and age of your class. The reason this is so important is that you can have a few activities that are too difficult for a 2-year-old (think inkpads on Easter … yeah, that really happened), but too simple for older children. Additionally, the tie-ins back to the Bible story need to be clear and free from confusing wording.
This doesn’t mean you will find a perfect curriculum that doesn’t need to be tweaked or changed. But another consideration of being functional is asking yourself how much time you spend making changes and how substantive those changes are. I remember having to change the bottom line every week of a curriculum we were using. If you have to change the bottom line every week, you need to find a new curriculum.
3. Faithful
Final and most foundational is fidelity. Is the curriculum you are using faithful to Scripture and to the historic understanding of God’s Word handed to us through the faithful witness of those who have gone before us? We are told that, as teachers of God’s Word, as under-shepherds of the Great Shepherd, we will have to give account for what we taught the kids in our ministry. (James 3:1, Hebrews 13:17)
The quickest way you can test the fidelity of a curriculum is to look at the bottom lines they provide in their scope and sequence. What do they tell you about God? What do the bottom lines tell you about yourself? Next, look at the Scripture verse or Bible story connected to that bottom line. Is there faithfulness in how they connected the truth of the passage to the heart of the lesson, summed up in the concise wording of the bottom line? My homiletics professor told us the point of the text must be the point of your sermon. The same is true, and I would argue even more true for teaching our children. The point of the lesson must be the point of the text. If not, a new curriculum is needed.
Finally, don’t make the decision alone. Involve your boss and executive leadership in the process. Make the choice prayerfully. Don’t jump from one curriculum to another quickly. If you can help it, let the curriculum cycle do its work in faithfully developing your kids. When you jump around all the time, you confuse your kids and frustrate your parents.
I pray that in your search for a foundational, functional and faithful curriculum, you will be led by God to a choice that will produce much fruit. We would be honored for you to make that choice of Midweek or Sunday curriculum to be Awana, but if it isn’t, please choose wisely and prayerfully, as the formation of the next generation will be impacted by the choice you make.
