Drew Boswell

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Determining Curriculum (part five)

Considering Curriculum

Brummelen offers some help in this decision making process when he says, “The guiding principle for justifying curriculum decisions is whether the curriculum enhances the possibility of students’ becoming responsible and responsive disciples of Jesus Christ.”[1] The researcher begins with the assumption that the Christian teacher desires to teach his student Christian doctrine from the Bible. Therefore, the curriculum that teaches the Bible one should ask, “Which ones direct the student to change and become more like Christ?”

Brummelen also offers a list of questions that are helpful in making a curriculum choice; “Do students become familiar with and experience a Christian worldview and its implications for life in society? Do students investigate and build on their experiences with the world around them? Do they learn about and respond to what for them is new and significant knowledge? Do they learn how humans have developed culture and how they have taken care of the earth, both in positive and negative ways? Are students given opportunities to develop their diverse abilities? Do they create products, procedures, and theories that unfold God’s reality and develop their own gifts? Do they use their learning to contribute to life both inside and outside the school? Does the curriculum encourage them to be and become servant leaders? Do students become aware of and critique the shared meanings of our culture? Do students begin to understand key trends in society and develop their personal response? Do they learn to discern and confront the negative aspects of our culture? Do they respond to and have the opportunity to choose and commit themselves to a biblical way of life?”[2]

On a foundational level, whoever is choosing which curriculum will be used, or if one decides to write the curriculum oneself, there must be a set of beliefs and learning objectives that is looked for in order to be able make any kind of informed decision. Can the person choosing one lesson over another, or one curriculum over another, justify their decision based upon a set of learning and life change goals?

John Dettoni suggests that a guide for spiritual formation is found in several passages of Scripture. He gives, Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Galatians 4:19, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”

Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.”  Colossians 1:28-29, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” and Ephesians 4:13, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Dettoni suggests that from these passages one can lay a foundation that has three major areas: formation, disciple, and maturity.[3] Dettoni explains that spiritual formation based on these passages should be where the “inner being of the person is radically altered so that he or she is no longer the same. Information alone will not make the difference. The person who has taken in the information has been reshaped, remolded, and significantly altered by the active transformation of the data into meaning for oneself.”[4]

Oliva believes “that using a model in such an activity as curriculum development can result in greater efficiency and productivity.[5] Oliva gives insight that is helpful for this topic when he says, “Curriculum development is seen as the process for making programmatic decisions and for revising the products of those decisions on the basis of continuous and subsequent evaluation.”[6]

The researcher believes that these “programmatic decisions” for a church’s foundational teaching should use an inductive method of determining curriculum where the actual development of the curriculum is established and then go a generalization from there. In other words, one should not determine what is going on in the lives of the children and build the lessons around those needs.

Instead, teaching should begin with the Bible and teach it in such a way that includes what is transpiring in the lives of the children. Modeling can help churches in this process of determining what to teach and what not to teach. This decision making process helps the developer to consider relevant issues.

Ralph Tyler proposed a model for curriculum planning. He proposes that curriculum developers could ask, “What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?, What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?, How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?, and How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?”[7]

While these questions are designed for a school environment, they are very applicable to the church. This process breaks material down into “small, manageable, and measureable behavioral objectives.”[8] In discussing Tyler’s model for curriculum development Brummelen says, “The rationale has no place for considering overall aims rooted in a worldview.

It only allows some objectives from a list suggested by subject specialists and others to be filtered out by philosophical and psychological discrepancies. It also assumes that teachers are technicians who are to follow instructions for processing students efficiently. The result is that the way the rationale has been used fits especially the process/mastery orientation to curriculum.”[9]

Three sources could be drawn from in making curriculum choices: “the learners, contemporary life outside of school and the subject matter.”[10] Once the material has been established it is then filtered through two screens: the social philosophy of the school and the psychology of learning.[11]

The various objectives and material that make it through these screens is what is organized into teaching segments. When Tyler refers to “goals,” “educational objectives,” and “educational purposes”, he is referring to what is to be taught in the school setting. But this model could assist the church is making curriculum decisions.

The church begins by identifying its source or sources. The screens that the church passes its decisions through (i.e., philosophy and psychology) begin with the Bible as the source of teaching materials. At this point in the process there is more potential teaching material than one would have time to teach in a short period of time.

From there one could proceed to choose teaching material based upon the vision, direction, current needs of the congregation, or even church tradition. Then passing through the church’s philosophy of education and psychology of learning “screens,” more precise teaching objectives will begin to appear.

[1] Brummelen, Steppingstones to Curriculum, 16.

[2] Ibid.

[3] John Dettoni, The Christian Educator’s Handbook on Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 14.

[4] Ibid., 15.

[5] Ibid., 143.

[6] Peter Olivia, Developing Curriculum, 4th Edition (New York, NY: Longman, 1997), 144.

[7] Brummelen, Steppingstones to Curriculum, 43.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid., 40.

[10] Olivia, Developing the Curriculum, 145.

[11] Ibid.

Encouraging Parental Initiative and Teaching

Encourage Parental Initiative
Ultimately, for children to become spiritually mature, the parents will have to understand and accept their responsibility to educate their children in the principles of Christian living. It is the church’s responsibility to make them aware of this fact and encourage them to do so. If it is the responsibility of the church to motivate parents to teach their children the doctrines of Scripture, how does it accomplish such a vital task?  First, the parent needs to understand that this is primarily their responsibility and that they must make a concerted effort to train their child.  With awareness and action being the first step, personal discipleship, on the part of the parent, becomes a close second.  For training to be the most effective, the parent must be growing in their knowledge of and their dependence on God. Children’s Ministry within the church is symbiotically tied to adult discipleship and worship, specifically preaching. Church life cannot be segmented; instead, it is symbiotic in it’s relationship. If the church encourages the parent to be growing in their own spiritual walk, then the children will benefit from this, because it will change the character qualities of their parents.

Parental Teaching
In the early years of a child’s life they learn at an astounding rate. With this constant and prolific ability to take in information the home then becomes the primary place of gathering and implementing this information. Gentz, explaining the importance of the home, says, “The early years, then are the crucial years, and, of course, the home provides the context for the early years.  Pine underscores this fact in this striking statement: ‘if a child’s educational achievements depend so heavily on what is learned before the age of six, the home – not the school – emerges as the major educational institution in the land.’”

Moral development begins very early and is established at a young age. Parental influence has a huge impact upon the moral development of a child. Buzelli and Walsh relating to these concepts state, “Children’s reasoning about what is right or wrong and the standards upon which they base their judgments are formed through interactions with their peers and with adults who are important to them.  It is commonly held that morality arises neither from the mere internalization of cultural values nor from the gradual unfolding of innate emotions but rather is developed as the result of interactions between an individual and others within the social environment.”

Children learn to control their behavior based on the interaction between themselves and their environment. This concept of modeling is not only one of commonplace behavior, like taking a comb and pretending to shave, but also of religious behavior like clasping the hands to pray before a meal. Children naturally imitate what they see. If the child is not given social acceptance and a personal reason to shave, then the imitation will stop when they are old enough to do this practice on their own. The spiritual behavior that is mimicked will stop as well if they are not taught why the family does this activity or see the benefits of the activity. Parental teaching/modeling must include the right activity in their regular routine and a time of instruction and explanation as well.

In order for children to mimic their parents, they need to spend time with them.  Parents must spend significant time with their children in order to be able to explain the foundational teachings of the Christian faith not just in a formal teaching time but also in moments that present themselves as teaching opportunities. If the father is bumped by a car in heavy traffic, he has several options. He could lose his temper, yell, and be demanding. But if the father remains calm, has a good conversation with the offender, and walks away having been unchanged, then the son has seen a positive behavior and has been taught a godly lesson. Later that night the father and son could pray for the man who bumped them and discuss what happened, thereby adding to the lesson of reacting in a positive way to negative situations.

All of the passages given below regarding the curiosity of children assume that the parent is there to answer the questions of the children when they are asked. Also, in order for children to have a substantive knowledge of Scripture a parent has to walk with them through this information. A child’s modeling can also work toward the negative.  This is where in order for her to fit in with her peers she will mimic their negative behavior or images on television that she views as being popular. Buchanan says, “As a result of the amount of time spent with parents, the child will pick up attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors from the parent.”  Children will mimic the behavior they see around them. If they are not given instruction regarding the principles of God in the home and see a genuine faith lived out before them in a real and genuine manner then the most influential time in a child’s life will be molded by the world and the culture that they live in. The home then is not only a place of teaching but a place of modeling godly behavior.

Gene Gentz said, “God designed the home so that children could learn by example.  Their value system is to emerge in the context of dynamic Christian living, where father and mother demonstrate biblical realities. As children observe their father loving their mother as “Christ loved the church” and as children see their mother submitting to their father as ‘the church is to be subject to Christ,’ they are learning biblical truth by direct experience. This is far more meaningful than mere verbalization.”

If parents rely on verbalization as their main way of teaching, then they are limited to what they can teach a child due to the child’s ability to learn that way. But by modeling love, submission to authority, etc. while the child cannot explain verbally what they have seen, it has made an impact on their life that they will mimic later in life.

In the Bible, the family is shown as being very important. It was by following a family’s lineage that Jesus Christ was proven to be the promised Messiah.  In Matthew 1 and Luke 3 one can trace Jesus’ genealogy from the first man to Jesus’ earthly father and mother. The fact that this method was used shows the importance of family to the historical people of God and to God’s plan to provide mankind with a Redeemer. It would make sense then that it is within the setting of the family that a child would most readily learn about the Messiah, His love for them, and His instructions for their lives.

When the Israelites were about to invade Canaan, Moses gave the people, specifically parents, instructions regarding the spiritual training of their children. He instructed them to remember what he is about to say and then teach these precepts to their children. Perhaps, the most important part of his pronouncement was the plea for them not to forget that this responsibility to teach their children fell squarely on their shoulders.  Deuteronomy 6:4–9 says,  “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (NIV).”

It is hard to miss Moses’ teaching that before the parents can instruct their children about an authentic relationship with God, they must first have a genuine and thriving relationship with God. Moses also shows the parents that, not only modeling spiritual truths, but parental instruction is best given in casual conversation.  The Hebrew word given for “impress” is the word shanan, which means “to whet” as in sharpening a knife or razor. The more times a person pulls the razor over the stone the sharper the razor will become. The home then is a place where spiritual truths can be explained and repeated over and over again until the child becomes a “sharp” tool in the hands of his Creator.

The importance of consistency and repetition must be drawn from Moses’ instructions. Children learn best when shown and taught a concept by repetition again.  Whether one takes the instruction of tying God’s commands to one’s head and hands literally or in a more metaphorical interpretation, the main idea is that God’s instructions should be known (head) and lived out (hands). The family is to be primarily a place of learning (head) and living a godly life (hands).

Children are also naturally curious and ask questions. Within the context of family is a natural place for children to receive answers to these questions. This characteristic of curiosity in children is assumed in various places in Scripture. For example, Deut 6:20, “In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?” (NIV). Exodus 12:26–27 also assumes curiosity when it says, “And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians’” (NIV). Again in Joshua 4:5–7 children are assumed to have a habit of asking questions when it says “In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever” (NIV). The Bible repeatedly gives the family as the place where children were to get the answers to their questions.

It is not the intention to place all responsibility of spiritual and Christian education on the parents. Both the home and the church offer different types of nurture to the child. Gene and Wallace Gents have said, “There are certain objectives that parents have difficulty achieving alone. A well-trained staff of teachers in a well-equipped classroom can provide a quality experience in learning and applying Bible content that would be very difficult for parents to duplicate.”  There are also some objectives that the church may seek to accomplish that without the home supporting them would fail. The church and home are not competitors with each seeking to have its own time with the children. But the relationship is supplementary, symbiotic, and supportive. The church should not encourage parents to relinquish their responsibilities of education, and the home should support the goals and programs of the church.

Understanding Roles of Church and Home (Part Two; Develop a Definition of Succes)

Develop a Definition of Success

With any strategy, a teacher must have some way of knowing when she is reaching or has achieved her objectives. The church must, therefore, have a simple way of acknowledging whether it is being successful or not. Barna suggests three such standards for defining success and the author will give another. The first is “widespread parental involvement in the spiritual development of the children.”[1] This is a simple way for determining whether the children’s ministry is successful or not. One could simply take the parents of the participating children and determine how many of them are involved. The second is “strategically equipping parents.” One could observe how many equipping opportunities are available for parents, and of those available opportunities, how many parents took part in the training. A third measure of success would be “the transformed life of the child.” This measure is very subjective because it is hard to determine what is going on in the heart of a child by watching the behavior in the limited time a teacher has with the child during a class or other activity.

Proverbs 4:23 states, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life.” The way a person acts is an expression, a wellspring, or overflow of the heart. The heart determines behavior. Mark 7:21–23 says, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’” Luke 6:45 says, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” A strategy of the church must address the heart (what is going on inside) along with expressed outward behavior.

In addressing a similar issue Tripp says, “A biblical approach to educating children involves two elements that you weave together. One element is rich, full communication. The other is the rod or correction (See Proverbs 23:13-19, 22, 26.)”[2] The didactical writings of the Bible, specifically the Law of the Old Testament were given to make the people of God see the impossibility of keeping it and to cry out to God for mercy.[3] The law must be followed (telling the truth, honoring one’s parents, etc.), but it is only when one’s bend is toward God that they can keep the intention of the law which is a dependence upon God. If that bend is away from God, a person becomes like the Pharisees. Matthew 23:27–28 references this type of outwardly religious but inwardly rebellious person; “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” If a church focuses only on correcting outward behavior, but does not communicate enough with the children to determine what is transpiring in the heart, they have not successfully ministered to children. This is not a suggestion that the church should “bear the rod” of correction but only that the church should emphasize relationship and communication in its educational endeavors with children.

The Pharisees looked religious and obedient to God on the outside, but their hearts were far from God. The measure of success should not be proper behavior alone (sitting quietly in their seat, saying “yes ma’am or no ma’am,” etc.) but a heart reliant upon and sold out for God. Discipline in the classroom and the home must be carried out to show specifically where the child has displeased God. It is this process of showing the child, according to the Bible, why what they have done is wrong that the child makes the decision to follow God and not the world. If the parent or church stops at only correcting behavior alone, and giving no explanation of why a standard of behavior is required, then they are raising Pharisees not true worshippers of Christ.[4] Again, the earlier this process begins, the easier it is for the child’s heart to be bent toward God and away from their natural heart’s desire to sin.[5] This is the heart of Deuteronomy 6 where it discusses a constant conversation with the child. This ideally is to be accomplished by the parents during their daily living, not one hour on Sunday morning by a teacher.

Romans 1:18–20 states, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,  since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” In the language of Romans, a child will either respond to God by faith or they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. In his rebellion, he will actually hide the truth from himself. It is the parent’s and the church’s responsibilities to guide the child toward faith in God (through teaching and correction) and to point out when the child is worshipping something other than God, thereby suppressing the truth in his life.

A fourth way of defining success is to have a diagnostic test of some kind that would effectively measure the knowledge of the child as he progresses through the years and stages of the ministry. One such test could be a life application challenge given in the classroom. For example, if the lesson is on “Spending Time with God,” the life application challenge could be for the child to have a daily devotional time. The teacher could then ask the child in a nonjudgmental fashion, “Did you have a devotional time this week?” When this information is received and reviewed, it can become the goal of the church to increase the total average over time by trying different strategies. Actual numbers and data give the leadership and parents something to work with as a basis to project realistic goals. Regarding this issue Barna has said,

In order to meaningfully operationalize these (or other) desired outcomes, we start by tying our search for clues (for spiritual growth) to the means of measurement. Here are some means through which we can evaluate outcomes:

  • Formal evaluation tools – written tests, oral tests, essays, competitions and homework assignments.
  • Self-report evaluation tools – surveys, inventories and profiles.
  • Conversation and dialogue – language used, reasoning skills, foundational worldview expressed and interactive engagement.
  • Observable behavior or perspectives – attendance, volunteerism, invitations, donations, professed beliefs, memorized beliefs, physical condition and body language.
  • Inferences from choices – character of friends, media preferences, spending habits, social activity, attire and appearance.[6]

Assessment can be formal or informal. At the more formal extreme are written tests of ability and knowledge. On the informal extreme would be casual observation.  Both of these measurements can be used together to give an administrator a more complete picture.

[1] Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, 101.

[2] Tripp, Shepherding A Child’s Heart, 74.

[3] Rom 3:20

[4] John 4:24

[5] Ps 51:5

[6] Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, 130.

Understanding Roles of the Church and Home (Part One; A Definition)

Lately I have been thinking about the strategy that the church uses as a means to encourage the spiritual formation of others, specifically children. The following is the beginning of a series of articles that attempts to understand how we can do this.

Before any effective and biblical strategy can be developed, the church must understand its role and how it relates to the role of the home. If the church does all the intentional spiritual teaching and the parents do little or no intentional spiritual teaching, then the child suffers. This reliance of the parent upon the church is not only a poor use of time, but also an abdication of their God given responsibility.

Children are highly influenced by the environment around them. Parents spend far more time with their children than the typical Children’s Ministry teacher on Sunday morning. If a child attends a school, then he is further influenced by that school’s philosophy of education and by their peers around them. The Children’s Ministry teacher spends far less time with the student than any other major influence in their lives. However, if the parents are relying on a one hour a week Sunday morning program to educate their children in Christian foundations, the church has to fight against these other influences that have far more access to the child.

Barna has said, “When a church—intentionally or not—assumes a family’s responsibilities in the arena of spiritually nurturing children, it fosters an unhealthy dependence upon the church to relieve the family of its biblical responsibility”[1] The church and the home are partners. The home bears most, if not all, of the responsibility and the church bears the biblical mandate to supplement that teaching and to give biblical guidance. Since there is this preferred symbiotic relationship between the church and the home, it would be in the best interest of each to work together. Also, the church has no oversight regarding the activities the child does when they are away from the church classroom. It is the parent’s responsibility to have oversight of the child and to keep him safe.

Fields, while relating specifically to youth ministry, gives several ideas on how to bring the home and church together. Developing a growing relationship between the church’s educational team and the parents is very important. Fields says, “It is impossible to create healthy teamwork with people you don’t know.”[2] As this relationship develops, parents can inform the teachers of issues that are going on in the student’s individual lives in times of difficulty. As the children grow older, the parent’s control and influence will decrease. This may bring feelings of fear, inadequacy, abandonment, or failure. By working together the church has invaluable background about the students, and the parents have a support network. Another benefit of working together is that the weekly flow of life can be better managed. The home and the church can work together to ensure that both calendars are balanced.[3] If a children’s ministry has an event planned and desires for it to be a success, then it needs to make sure the parents are aware of it and thoroughly informed well in advance. Many precious resources have been wasted, when a church event or program is planned and few people show up. The same is true for the home. Once parents are committed (financially or personally) to an activity, they feel as though they miss out on a much desired church activity.

[1] Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, 81.

[2] Fields, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, 254.

[3] Ibid., 255.

The Urgency of Christian Education and Children

If the church and home have the mandate from God to pass on scriptural concepts from generation to generation, which age group or generation should receive the most emphasis? Churches who feel that evangelism is important have to choose and target who they will reach through their evangelistic efforts, allocate budgetary funds, and have appropriate training. Considering these things, a church therefore, will develop a strategy. This strategy can be as informal as following up with guests, putting an ad in the paper, or as formal as hiring a consultant to develop a multi-point plan to reach their community for Christ. Whatever this strategy may be, it more than likely will be aimed at a specific group of people. Barna has shown that children are more likely than any other group to receive the gospel. When defining his research in his book Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, George Barna said,

Why focus on this particular slice of the youth market? Because if you want to shape a person’s life—whether you are most concerned about his or her moral, spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, or economic—development it is during these crucial eight years that lifelong habits, values, beliefs and attitudes are formed.[1]

The eight years that he references are five to twelve years of age. Barna’s conclusion through his study of statistics shows that individuals are most influenced by the culture, various environmental settings, and the home during this early eight year span of life. Barna goes on to say, “Given the trends indicating that your spiritual condition by the age of 13 is a strong indicator of your spiritual profile as an adult, it seems clear that a deep and robust spiritual life demands intentional and strategic spiritual maturing during the early childhood and adolescent years.”[2] After the age of thirteen the malleability of a child’s heart greatly begins to wean, and influence becomes much more difficult. By the age of nine children have their “spiritual moorings” well in place and are making moral decisions based on this set of beliefs that are established in their lives.[3]

It is imperative then that the church do all that it can to influence children who are the most easily influenced with the book that has influenced more people than any other, the Bible. Doug Fields tells a story of when he was reunited with a former youth ministry student. After giving some background Fields says, “He had graduated not only from our youth ministry, but he also had graduated from his faith. None of our leaders would have ever guessed that Jake would wander from his faith; he had been a consistent participant for four years.”[4] What should the strategy of the local church be to avoid missing generation after generation of children who pass through this most influential span of time? I’ll follow up with the answer to this question in the next article.

[1] George Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2003), 18.

[2] Ibid., 41.

[3] Ibid., 47.

[4] Doug Fields, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 156.

"Your greatest life messages and your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts." Rick Warren

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