Drew Boswell

a place for us to share ideas, talk about life, and learn together.

Determining Curriculum (part four; interview with Group Publishing)

Interview with Group Publishing

Whereas the first two publishers had a challenge to narrow down the Bible to specific sections of the Bible, Group Publishing narrows it down even further. The Schultz’s strategy for teaching says, “At Group Publishing we use a “one lesson, one point” approach in the children’s Bible curriculum we create. The kids often spend an entire hour delving into one short Bible passage. And our loudest critics cry, ‘There’s not enough Bible!’ They believe if kids would just trudge through umpteen verses per hour, then they’d really learn.”[1]

Their point is that oftentimes learning does not take place, nor is the lesson remembered, because too much information was covered in a given period of time. In an interview with Danny Fisher at Group Publishing the question was asked, “How do you determine which parts of the Bible to teach in your curriculum?”[2]

Fisher explained that they have several different types of products that focus on various topics so churches can choose which topic or topics they would like to cover in a period of time.  He also explained that all of their curriculum have scope and sequences, and stories are selected based upon the age and need of the church. Group determines these needs through interviews and focus groups. They have one particular product that “covers all the major biblical stories in three years.”[3]

The interviewer then asked, “Who makes the choices of what to teach and what to leave out?” Fisher explained that Group Publishing follows the Revised Common Lectionary. He said, “We follow it about ninety percent of the time.”[4] During the summer months they add in more Old Testament stories because they feel the Revised Common Lectionary is weak in covering the Old Testament.

The interviewer then asked, “Who makes the choices of what to cover in the summer months when you do not follow the Revised Common Lectionary?” Fisher responded by saying, “The curriculum you are referring to was written over ten years ago, and I’m not sure how they determined which of the Old Testament stories to teach.” He went on emphasize that “every major Bible story is covered in three years.” Fisher also shared that Group’s materials were moving away from dated to non-dated materials to give churches more freedom of choice in the selection of teaching materials.

Whereas Dale’s and LifeWay’s choices regarding biblical material selection was through a corporate independent process, Group relies upon church tradition and an already established liturgical lectionary for most of its teaching choices. While Group still has made some independent choices, the corporation, for the most part, still relies on past decisions to support how they move forward. The Revised Common Lectionary was not developed until 1983, so in all three interviews, there is no mention of church history, the early church or even biblical references as to an outline for what material should be covered in a given period of time.

More information about Group Publishing can be found at http://www.group.com/

[1] Thom Shultz and Joani Schultz, Why Nobody Learns Much of Anything At Church (Loveland, Colorado: Group Publishing, 1996), 66.

[2] Information obtained for this section were from a personal interview with Danny Fisher of Group Publishing, January 5, 2009.  Fisher is the Sunday School Children’s Ministry Curriculum Representative at Group.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

Determining Curriculum (part three; interview with Lifeway Publishing)

Interview with LifeWay Publishing

LifeWay is described on their website as being, “Established in Nashville, Tenn., in 1891, LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention is one of the world’s largest providers of Christian products and services, including Bibles, church literature, books, music, audio and video recordings, church supplies and Internet services through lifeway.com. The company also owns and operates 131 LifeWay Christian Stores throughout the United States, as well as two of the largest Christian conference centers in the country. Through its publishing division, B&H Publishing Group, LifeWay has produced one of the most accurate and readable Bible translations ever—the Holman Christian Standard Bible. LifeWay is a religious nonprofit organization that receives no funding from the denomination, and reinvests income above operating expenses in mission work and other ministries around the world.”[1]

While significantly larger than Spiritual Formation Ministries, the approach to determining what should be taught to children and then published as curriculum was very similar. The process through which two companies went was very similar as well. To determine the process of curriculum development the researcher interviewed Landry Holmes.[2]

He is the Director of Children’s Ministry Publishing with the LifeWay Corporation. When interviewed, Holmes admitted that at the beginning of their recent Children’s Sunday School curriculum development process, LifeWay did not have a specific list of principles to be taught or Bible stories to be covered. An ad hoc team from the Children’s Ministry Department was gathered together with some of them being specialists and some administrators.

They were collected from within and without of their corporation to answer the question of what to teach. They sat in a conference room and began to determine what should be taught and published through their Sunday School materials. The result of their meeting was a document entitled, “Levels of Biblical Learning.”[3] It is their belief that “certain stories are so important that they must appear frequently in childhood so that the child will understand not only the facts of the story but the biblical principles that it communicates.”[4]

LifeWay, like Dale, (see article two) seeks to take children through a certain pathway of learning various doctrinal concepts and principles. LifeWay’s website states, “At LifeWay we have been working hard for several years to develop a ministry tool that can provide milestones for us and churches in guiding boys and girls to grow spiritually.

The question we have been pondering relates to the pathway to reach these goals. We call this path Levels of Biblical Learning.”[5] Their curriculum seeks to coordinate all of their children’s ministry age levels by using the same ten content areas.

[1] “Levels of Biblical Learning” 2003, www.lifeway.com/lwc/mainpage/0,1701,M%253D200724,00.html (accessed November 13, 2006).

[2] The information for this section was obtained through a personal interview with Landry Holmes on November 13, 2006.

[3] This document can be found at www.lifeway.com/lwc/files/lwcF_kids_levels_biblical_learning.pdf

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

Determining Curriculum (part two; interview with Spiritual Formation Ministries)

Daryl Dale with Spiritual Formation Ministries is a small, one-man publisher of his own children’s ministry curriculum.[1] He originally began publishing his own material out of a frustration that the materials he reviewed seemed to focus on fun, games, and slick glossy print, but were constructed in such a way that they did not adequately teach children the Bible. He also felt that they lacked an evaluative component to determine if the children were actually learning anything in the classroom.

Dale then began the process to determine what should be taught and in so doing he put together a board of people. After a time of prayer and thought they developed various spiritual disciplines.

They further developed the curriculum over a two-year period, adding Scripture Memory and Bible Knowledge. After some time, he realized the need to add another section dealing with character issues (i.e., Fruit of the Spirit, courtesy, respect, obedience, faithfulness, etc.). The finished product is a curriculum divided into three sections (spiritual knowledge, doctrine, and character). The various age groups would cycle through these three groups of teaching on a two-year basis. Spiritual Formation Ministries curriculum also suggests that teachers use flash cards to review what has already been taught in a given four-week section.

Dale admitted that the difficulty with his curriculum and approach to teaching was that for many children attendance was sporadic and required the cooperation of the parents. Dale also tests his kids in the classroom, and it has been his experience that children enjoy this portion of the curriculum. Sometimes rewards are given for high test scores; sometimes they are not. However, rewards are not given as incentive for learning.

When asked about how he determines success in children’s ministry, he replied, “One should look at the teaching staff and evaluate their passion. If they are into it, if they are committed to it, and really care then every thing goes well. But when they are just filling a role there is little success.” Dale also shared that one of his big frustrations as a Minister of Education in his church is that teachers did not spend enough time to make the lesson work. He would even make the visuals for them; and since they had no investment and were not familiar with them, they would go unused.

Dale’s definition for a curriculum most closely matches another definition given for curriculum by Brummelen, “Curriculum is an organized set of documented, formal educational plans intended to attain preconceived goals. . . .Curriculum is a blueprint from which we build and then assess how well we have followed the plan. This view holds that curriculum planners must first decide goals or objectives. They use these to develop a series of precise prescriptions for teaching and learning.”[2]

This definition closely matches Dale’s philosophy of Christian education because he has written parts of the lesson into every section that shows the teacher how to use various examination techniques (games, flashcards, etc.) to evaluate their teaching. For the purpose of our discussion Dale’s curriculum was chosen because it includes statistical data relating to the topics he has chosen to include in his curriculum.

Dale’s curriculum can be investigated by going to http://spiritualformatioministries.webbuilderexpress.com/index.html

[1] The information for this section was obtained through a personal interview with Daryl Dale on January 5, 2006.

[2] Ibid.

Determining Curriculum (part one)


The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:23, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.”[1] Paul is discussing various practices regarding the Lord’s Supper, but in a broader interpretation he is also sharing something he has learned regarding Jesus and is passing it on in the form of his teaching to another.

What was taught by the apostle Paul has been passed down from one generation to another. This transferring of information has gone on for centuries. The shape that this transfer of knowledge takes is called the curriculum. Brummelen explains, “Curriculum is what is taught, particularly the subject matter contained in a school’s course of study.”[2] This choice of what to teach and what not to teach is a mighty trust, and despite heresies, wars, and false teachers, the Bible has come to this generation without any error. Brummelen goes on to say, “Academic traditionalists plan curriculum by dividing the program of study into subjects. Then they list the content to be taught by topics and subtopics. Implicit in the definition is the belief that the aim of education is to transit a body of knowledge.”[3]

In any teaching environment there must be the determination of what is to be taught to the next generation. What information is to move forward? In the church environment some purchase dated curriculum and are dependent upon the publishing house, to a certain degree, to determine what they will teach their children for a given period of time. So they abdicate the responsibility to choose what to teach to another source. Other churches write their own curriculum and therefore have a high degree of control over what is taught, but these are few and tend to be churches with a larger membership base.[4] Others do little planning or find something to teach on a week-to-week basis. Whatever the scope of the ministry, at some point someone has to choose what will be taught in the classroom.

Barna has argued that the most successful children’s ministries are those who have determined what each age group will be taught and have a plan for a child all the way through their ministry. He argues that those churches that plan for all of a child’s years in a church environment are the ones that have the most successful impact upon their spiritual formation. Barna states, “One of the most startling revelations I encountered on this journey was finding that many of the effective ministries have a long-term plan—in some cases an 18-year developmental plan with specific ideals outlined for each age group from infants through high school seniors. While those churches allow for spontaneity and flexibility despite their long-range planning, they are fully committed to implementing their “big picture” plan.[5]”

The first problem is to determine the foundational doctrines that children should be taught, what Barna refers to as their “big picture” plan. It is a harder task than one may originally think. If one begins with the assumption that the average church teacher has a student for one to two hours on a given Sunday, then the volume of optional teaching material from the Bible far outweighs the available time in the classroom. How then does the teacher, church, or publishing house determine what to teach, and what not to teach? Is there a biblical mandate? Is there a traditional point of reference? What did the people who have chosen to face this question come up with, and what was their rationale for the choices that they made?

These questions can begin to be answered by going back to the beginning of the early church. With the passing of Passover and Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, thousands were saved and then proceeded to go back to their homes in areas other than Jerusalem. Because of this movement of God, new churches were beginning to form by the apostles and unnamed believers who went back to their home towns. Antioch is an example of such a church that formed soon after Pentecost, by someone other than an apostle. The apostles were concerned for the doctrinal integrity of this church since they had not personally been present to teach them the Scriptures, so they sent a group to examine what was happening.[6]

In order for these new churches to grow, and for others to be founded, the apostles felt that there was a need to have a more systematic form of instruction to ensure the “authenticity of faith and consistency in practice.”[7] What developed was a document entitled “Didache.” It is a church manual or handbook for the training of new believers. This document also resulted because of the apostles’ concern that their teachings remain doctrinally pure and that the content survive after the transmission from person to person.[8]

During the early church there also developed the practice of catechism and catechumen. These words are derived from Greek words meaning to “instruct.” This would be a course of instruction that had three levels of instruction and would take from two to three years to complete. It was only after a person had gone through catechism that they would be allowed to be a part of the local fellowship of the church.

There are at least two reasons why this was necessary during the time of the early church, but may not necessarily apply today. First, very few people could read, and so the process of having a teacher give oral instruction and then have the student quote material back was a very effective method of teaching. For the purposes of this discussion, the researcher is only referring to churches in the United States, so literacy does not effect the spiritual formation of most churches.

Second, the church was under great persecution; therefore, this stress could cause the new convert to recant their faith. The early church leadership wanted to give a person enough time to grow in their faith and learning so when they were baptized and became apart of the church they would be doctrinally sound and mature in their faith. The catechism “declined in its effectiveness once it became expected of children to be baptized and when pagans, lacking genuine motivation for joining the faith, were commanded by law to attend church.”[9] Therefore, when following the Christian religion became state mandated, the need to prepare new believers for a persecuting world no longer existed.

Just as in the times of the early church, there is still a need to maintain scriptural integrity and doctrinal purity. Unlike the early church, however, today’s church has the complete canon of Scriptures, which are inerrant. History then does give some foundational thoughts regarding what is essential to a scope of teaching, and it does give an outline for priority. One could study early catechisms to see what the early church found to be of most importance.

Another source of deciding what to teach could be various Christian creeds. The Apostle’s Creed, for example, also gives several foundational Christian beliefs that could be a church’s core teaching to its children.

To answer the question of how these decisions are made today, the researcher contacted three publishers of children’s ministry curriculum. Their responses are given in subsequent articles. Following their responses is overview of the interviews, and remarks will be made at the end of the interview descriptions.

[1] 1 Cor 11:23, NIV

[2] Harro Van Brummelen, Steppingstones to Curriculum (Colorado Springs: Purposeful Design, 2002), 13.

[3] Ibid.

[4] For example, Willow Creek Community Church publishes a children’s ministry curriculum entitled “Promiseland” and can be found at www.willowcreek.org/promiseland. Another example would be Fellowship Church which produces “Elevate” and can be found at www.creativepastors.com/elevate.php. These curriculums are used within their own church and are available for other churches to purchase.

[5] Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, 100.

[6] Acts 11:23

[7] Anthony and Benson, Exploring the History and Philosophy of Christian Education, 107.

[8] Ibid., 109.

[9] Ibid.

Determining Curriculum (part one; introduction)

The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:23, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.”[1] Paul is discussing various practices regarding the Lord’s Supper, but in a broader interpretation he is also sharing something he has learned regarding Jesus and is passing it on in the form of his teaching to another.

What was taught by the apostle Paul has been passed down from one generation to another. This transferring of information has gone on for centuries. The shape that this transfer of knowledge takes is called the curriculum. Brummelen explains, “Curriculum is what is taught, particularly the subject matter contained in a school’s course of study.”[2] This choice of what to teach and what not to teach is a mighty trust, and despite heresies, wars, and false teachers, the Bible has come to this generation without any error. Brummelen goes on to say, “Academic traditionalists plan curriculum by dividing the program of study into subjects. Then they list the content to be taught by topics and subtopics. Implicit in the definition is the belief that the aim of education is to transit a body of knowledge.”[3]

In any teaching environment there must be the determination of what is to be taught to the next generation. What information is to move forward? In the church environment some purchase dated curriculum and are dependent upon the publishing house, to a certain degree, to determine what they will teach their children for a given period of time. So they abdicate the responsibility to choose what to teach to another source. Other churches write their own curriculum and therefore have a high degree of control over what is taught, but these are few and tend to be churches with a larger membership base.[4] Others do little planning or find something to teach on a week-to-week basis. Whatever the scope of the ministry, at some point someone has to choose what will be taught in the classroom.

Barna has argued that the most successful children’s ministries are those who have determined what each age group will be taught and have a plan for a child all the way through their ministry. He argues that those churches that plan for all of a child’s years in a church environment are the ones that have the most successful impact upon their spiritual formation. Barna states, “One of the most startling revelations I encountered on this journey was finding that many of the effective ministries have a long-term plan” in some cases an 18-year developmental plan with specific ideals outlined for each age group from infants through high school seniors. While those churches allow for spontaneity and flexibility despite their long-range planning, they are fully committed to implementing their “big picture” plan.[5]”

The first problem is to determine the foundational doctrines that children should be taught, what Barna refers to as their “big picture” plan. It is a harder task than one may originally think. If one begins with the assumption that the average church teacher has a student for one to two hours on a given Sunday, then the volume of optional teaching material from the Bible far outweighs the available time in the classroom. How then does the teacher, church, or publishing house determine what to teach, and what not to teach? Is there a biblical mandate? Is there a traditional point of reference? What did the people who have chosen to face this question come up with, and what was their rationale for the choices that they made?

These questions can begin to be answered by going back to the beginning of the early church. With the passing of Passover and Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, thousands were saved and then proceeded to go back to their homes in areas other than Jerusalem. Because of this movement of God, new churches were beginning to form by the apostles and unnamed believers who went back to their home towns. Antioch is an example of such a church that formed soon after Pentecost, by someone other than an apostle. The apostles were concerned for the doctrinal integrity of this church since they had not personally been present to teach them the Scriptures, so they sent a group to examine what was happening.[6]

In order for these new churches to grow, and for others to be founded, the apostles felt that there was a need to have a more systematic form of instruction to ensure the “authenticity of faith and consistency in practice.”[7] What developed was a document entitled “Didache.” It is a church manual or handbook for the training of new believers. This document also resulted because of the apostles’ concern that their teachings remain doctrinally pure and that the content survive after the transmission from person to person.[8]

During the early church there also developed the practice of catechism and catechumen. These words are derived from Greek words meaning to “instruct.” This would be a course of instruction that had three levels of instruction and would take from two to three years to complete. It was only after a person had gone through catechism that they would be allowed to be a part of the local fellowship of the church.

There are at least two reasons why this was necessary during the time of the early church, but may not necessarily apply today. First, very few people could read, and so the process of having a teacher give oral instruction and then have the student quote material back was a very effective method of teaching. For the purposes of this discussion, the researcher is only referring to churches in the United States, so literacy does not effect the spiritual formation of most churches.

Second, the church was under great persecution; therefore, this stress could cause the new convert to recant their faith. The early church leadership wanted to give a person enough time to grow in their faith and learning so when they were baptized and became apart of the church they would be doctrinally sound and mature in their faith. The catechism “declined in its effectiveness once it became expected of children to be baptized and when pagans, lacking genuine motivation for joining the faith, were commanded by law to attend church.”[9] Therefore, when following the Christian religion became state mandated, the need to prepare new believers for a persecuting world no longer existed.

Just as in the times of the early church, there is still a need to maintain scriptural integrity and doctrinal purity. Unlike the early church, however, today’s church has the complete canon of Scriptures, which are inerrant. History then does give some foundational thoughts regarding what is essential to a scope of teaching, and it does give an outline for priority. One could study early catechisms to see what the early church found to be of most importance.

Another source of deciding what to teach could be various Christian creeds. The Apostle’s Creed, for example, also gives several foundational Christian beliefs that could be a church’s core teaching to its children.

To answer the question of how these decisions are made today, the researcher contacted three publishers of children’s ministry curriculum. Their responses are given in subsequent articles. Following their responses is overview of the interviews, and remarks will be made at the end of the interview descriptions.

[1] 1 Cor 11:23, NIV

[2] Harro Van Brummelen, Steppingstones to Curriculum (Colorado Springs: Purposeful Design, 2002), 13.

[3] Ibid.

[4] For example, Willow Creek Community Church publishes a children’s ministry curriculum entitled “Promiseland” and can be found at www.willowcreek.org/promiseland. Another example would be Fellowship Church which produces “Elevate” and can be found at www.creativepastors.com/elevate.php.   These curriculums are used within their own church and are available for other churches to purchase.

[5] Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, 100.

[6] Acts 11:23

[7] Anthony and  Benson, Exploring the History and Philosophy of Christian Education, 107.

[8] Ibid., 109.

[9] Ibid.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8

Contact Drew