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Ever heard the phrase insider-outsider? It means you’re a part of the group (mostly), but you have experience that gives you outsider perspective. Take this example: You have a child on the baseball team. As far as most people are concerned, you’re just another parent. But a few people know you used to coach college baseball, so they occasionally ask for your take on how the team’s being run, who should be playing which position, and whether their kid has a shot at a Division I college.
When it comes to the world of children’s ministry curriculum publishing, I’ve often felt like an insider-outsider.
You may not think of Awana as a children’s ministry curriculum publisher. And frankly, by and large, neither do we. But that is one of the things we do, and quite well, actually (there’s that insider publishing perspective).
As a biblical discipleship ministry, part of the way we pursue our vision and mission is by creating and publishing curriculum. That includes Awana Clubs® handbooks, teaching guides, leader guides, Brite™ curriculum for weekend children’s ministry, curricula for the Africa Child & School Initiative™, and parenting discipleship training curricula, just to name a few.
So as you can imagine, we often receive the question: “How do I choose a children’s ministry curriculum?”
This is the sort of conversation that, from my insider-outsider perspective, oftentimes lacks transparency. So let’s imagine it’s you and me, sitting at a local coffee shop. I’ve got my chair turned around backward and I’m leaning forward on the chairback, coffee in hand. We’re chillin’. We’re laughing. And you say to me, No, seriously, though. Tell it like it is. What do I really need to know about choosing a children’s ministry curriculum from your insider perspective?
Well, you asked for it. Matt’s Candid Answer, coming right up.
I’ve lived most of my adult life in Nashville, Tennessee. Now, I know Nashville’s typical claim to fame is country music, but we’re no one-trick pony. Music City is also known as the “Christian publishing capital” of the U.S., and God directed my steps into the children’s ministry lane of that industry early in my ministry.
The No. 1 Question to Ask Curriculum Publishers
Over years of serving in the same space, you develop a pretty good sense of the questions children’s ministry leaders and pastors are going to ask you about any given curriculum.
Is it Bible-based? Centered on the Gospel? Discipleship-focused? Do you have a scope and sequence? Is it easy to implement for the volunteers? Does it come with media, videos, etc.?
Let me be clear: Those are good questions! Foundational questions, even. But having been in this Christian publishing space for more than 20 years, there’s one more question that children’s ministry leaders looking for a curriculum should be asking … and virtually no one asks it:
Have you ever commissioned an outcomes study, and if so, can I see the results?
If you’ve ever been college shopping for a child or a grandchild, you know there’s one area colleges and universities love to tell you about most, and it’s their outcomes/effectiveness. You hear all about average GPA per program, national program ranking and most importantly, job placement. Parents want to know, If I send my student to your school, what’s the likelihood this will actually move them toward their dreams and goals?
With the importance placed on outcomes in colleges, (again, candidly) it’s a bit surprising to me how few children’s ministry leaders explore that with curriculum publishers. You and I won’t even make an Amazon purchase without reading reviews and glancing at the stars given from product users. Yet when it comes to children’s ministry curriculum, we rarely, if ever, even think to ask the following questions of publishers:
- The objectives you say you can help us achieve … how do you know?
- Have you ever researched and evaluated the program?
- How can we know it’s effective at forming kids with a biblical faith?
Children’s overall formation is very much “in process,” so there’s only so much influence a curriculum can have. A children’s ministry curriculum can’t future-proof your child. That’s just not gonna happen. But there’s a lot we can evaluate (outcomes-based studies, longitudinal studies, key indicator studies and more) to get a feel for a curriculum’s probability, direction and impact.
So if I’m in your shoes, I want to know: Are children’s ministry publishers commissioning these outcomes-based studies? And if not, why not? You deserve to know the answer to this question, and curriculum publishers should be transparent with you on what they know and don’t know, in the same way a university can tell you their strengths, weaknesses and outcomes.
What Would Awana Say if You Asked Us the Question?
If you asked us at Awana, Have you ever commissioned an outcomes study, and if so, what were the results?, the short answer would be, You bet we have, and we’ll be happy to share what we found.
Here’s why we did an outcomes study: The key metric of the Awana ministry is what we call “lasting faith in Jesus.” This is the outcome we aim for, and it’s precisely what makes Awana an “outsider” in the children’s ministry publishing world. With great focus, we seek answers to questions like, Does it work? Is it fruitful, and how do we know? Where are we strong? What are our weaknesses? Where can we improve to help churches and parents disciple their kids in today’s culture? Notice the motivation here isn’t How can we sell more? but How can we be most fruitful with the Gospel?
In ways, our ministry has an advantage. As a nonprofit organization, we’re not beholden to short-term gains and questions such as Which product is our bread-and-butter? Instead, we can prioritize learning and evaluation so that health, fruitfulness and Gospel effectiveness (which all cultivate growth) can flourish in the long-term. As a fellow ministry friend once said, “You’re outcomes-obsessed!” And that’s precisely what we are. We want our children and youth to have lasting, biblical faith in Jesus Christ no matter the cultural context and into eternity. That’s the outcome we all hope, dream and pray for!
At Awana, we now commission outcomes-based studies (called Impact Studies) every few years. The latest was done on our Brite weekend curriculum; we studied 68 churches, received 200-plus parent responses, and the learning has been invaluable. Check out the study here!
Well, there you have it. I held nothing back. If I’m in your shoes, I’m going to dig a little deeper. I want to know what a publisher’s highest-priority outcomes are. I want to know if they have any way of evaluating the claims they’re making about their own curriculum. If they have an outcomes study, I’d ask for a copy. And if they don’t have one, I’d ask myself, Why is that?
Our kids are growing up in an aggressive, secular culture that, left unchecked, erodes biblical faith. But together, if we start now, we can shape resilient disciples in the face of cultural adversity.
If you’re looking for a children’s ministry curriculum yourself, I do hope you’ll give Clubs and Brite a look. And when you do, I encourage you to pressure test our motivation and evaluation of outcomes. Let me know what you discover.
