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Elementary Curriculum: Why We Chose LifeWay’s “Gospel Project”

11/25/201311/25/2013 Kathie Phillips

This post is Part 3 of Ministry Basics: Selecting Curriculum.

You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

The Treehouse (our 1st-3rd Grade ministry area) is a very special place. Seeds of faith are planted and nurtured here but it’s also where we desire for children to have a greater understanding of the Bible and grow in their relationship with Jesus. We want the roots to grow deep (Colossians 2:7).

What we use

After much prayer and consideration (comparing other materials), our team chose LifeWay’s The Gospel Project.

For almost a year, a KidMin friend raved about this curriculum. She encouraged me to check it out. I did, and at the time, I didn’t feel particularly drawn to it. But as we refocused our vision and assessed our needs, it was clear that The Gospel Project was a good fit.

The selection process & why this was our choice

“This curriculum is awful” is something that my younger elementary (1st-3rd Grade) volunteers reiterated over and over last year. Our volunteers made the best out of material that was, for lack of a better word, outdated. Most lessons included a lot of verbalizing (from the teacher) and activity pages, so our volunteers ended up writing/supplementing the material. A change was needed immediately.

I am blessed to work with a wonderful team of seven committed ministry leaders and those on the team who represent our younger elementary ministry helped me evaluate 3 different curricula. We we looking for a curriculum that:

was Bible-based and integrated Bible literacy; we wanted the younger elementary children to be more familiar with the Bible and have more of a Biblical foundation to better prepare them for our Preteen Ministry.
digital, as curriculum costs had been about half of our annual budget;
offered activities so that all types of learners could be engaged; and
offered more media elements (such as video).

Because The Gospel Project takes children through the Bible in 3 years and met our criteria, this is what we use.

How The Gospel Project looks at our church

One of the biggest changes was switching from a classroom format to a large group/small group format. In addition, selecting The Gospel Project meant that the format for our mornings needed to change.

What I like

The Gospel Project connects the whole Bible to Jesus (similar to the Jesus Storybook Bible).
The curriculum introduces stories from the Bible that other curriculum might not offer (since it’s more chronological).
The lessons are emailed directly from LifeWay to the leaders – one less thing for me to do.
The journaling time at the end of the morning allows for quiet reflection each week.
Curriculum has an app that parents can download to iPhone or iPad.
The large, color timeline poster have added a nice decorative element in our exit ramp.

What I don’t like

Projecting the Big Picture Question would be easier to do if it came in PowerPoint format rather than pdf.
Customizing lesson order is difficult, as you can only skip a lesson, pushing it to the following week.
The parent take-home page leaves much to be desired. Not only can we not email each week’s page individually to parents, the page lacks good follow-up questions to discuss at home.
The Bible verses for the children are often too long and often include big words that 1st-3rd Graders can neither pronounce or spell.

Overall, I think if you’re looking for curriculum that is Bible-based, comprehensive and clearly presents the Gospel each week, The Gospel Project is worth looking into.

So, there you have it. I’d be happy to talk with you if you’re interested in learning more or have any questions. You can email me here. You can also learn more by visiting The Gospel Project for Kids’ website (you can click the logo above).

Tomorrow, I’ll share what we selected for our Preteen Ministry. I hope you’ll come back and read all about that!

Do you use The Gospel Project for your elementary ministry? What has your experience been?

If you don’t use The Gospel Project, what do you use? How’s it working for you?

Preschool Curriculum: Why We Chose Orange’s “First Look”

11/13/201311/13/2013 Kathie Phillips 1 Comment

This post is Part 2 of Ministry Basics: Selecting Curriculum.

You can read Part 1 here.

As our ministry fine-tuned our vision, mission and core values this past summer, it was necessary that our curriculum reflected what we believed and what we wanted children to walk away with.

When thinking about Sprouts (our Infant and Toddler area) and The Backyard (our Early Childhood area), we realized that this is where seeds of faith are planted and nurtured. These environments are where many children will get their first impression of church and Jesus, so the foundation we lay here is crucial.

What we use

I have been a big fan of Orange’s First Look curriculum for quite some time now. I think it is the most creative, outside-of-the-box material for preschoolers. When it came down to evaluating our needs, I knew First Look was the way to go.

The selection process & why this was our choice

For years, our Infant and Toddler area used one curriculum for both service hours and our Early Childhood area used 2 different curricula (one for each service hour). I felt that two of the three curricula was outdated and needed to be replaced immediately. The remaining one was one that I liked and have used before, but I felt that when we thought about what we wanted young children to know, it lacked a unified focus. We wanted (and needed) a unified focus.

When children leave our Early Childhood ministry, I want them to walk away knowing certain basic truths that they could carry with them into the elementary years. First Look’s curriculum is build around three basic truths:

God made me.
God loves me.
Jesus wants to be my friend forever.

There were a few other things that we knew we wanted:

We wanted the foundation to be easily understood and more intentional.
We also wanted a digital curriculum, as curriculum costs had been almost half of our annual budget.
We knew that we wanted to streamline our curriculum so that parents were more likely to reinforce what was taught in class if there were not as many responses to “What did you learn at church today?”

How First Look looks at our church

Switching over to a new curriculum, let alone a digital one, was not readily received by our veteran volunteers. But I asked them to trust me to walk through it with them and give it time; they agreed. Because of this, we wanted to make the transition from printed material to digital material as easy as possible. This meant:

Showing our volunteers how to access the materials online through Orange’s website;
Providing paper copies, especially to our more “seasoned” volunteers;
Providing the paper copies a month in advance;
Photocopying the activity pages for our volunteers (they email our Administrative Coordinator by Thursday at noon with what they need copied and the quantities);
Emailing a digital copy – just in case.

In implementing First Look, we have opted to use the curriculum in a classroom format vs large group/small group as it’s written. In short, what this means is that each classroom is responsible for its own music and Bible story time. (We have occasionally brought our 4-and 5-year-olds together for the Bible story on video.)

What we like

As mentioned above, I like the simple nature of the three basic truths. Each week’s lessons reinforces one of the basic truths. We also like that each lesson includes different activities for different learning styles: there’s music and movement (the songs and motions are lots of fun!), games, crafts, and repetition (the Bible verse and the song stay the same for the entire month). (The games and crafts usually include items that we already have on hand). Each lesson is very engaging and doesn’t look the same each week.

We also like that lessons are available well in advance on the website. This is an added bonus for those who like to look ahead and see what’s coming up. In addition, there is an option to purchase the Bible story videos.

What we don’t like

The biggest area of concern for us so far has been altering the material for our 2’s. Some of our volunteers feel that the lessons are way over the heads of 2-yr olds. I have personally contacted friends who use the curriculum, First Look’s Facebook page, and our Orange Consultant to get guidance into this issue. I learned that we are not the only ones who’ve struggled with this age group.

We have tried to simply the lessons but I’m not sure that it’s enough. We will re-evaluate after Christmas to see if we need to switch gears for our 2’s while keeping in line with our core components.

So, there you have it. I’d be happy to talk with you if you’re interested in learning more or have any questions. You can email me here. You can also learn more by visiting First Look’s website (you can click the logo above).

Tomorrow, I’ll share what we selected for our Elementary Ministry and on Friday, I’ll share what we selected for our Preteen Ministry. I hope you’ll come back and read all about that!

Do you use First Look for your preschool ministry? What has your experience been?

If you don’t use First Look, what do you use? How’s it working for you?

Ministry Basics: Selecting Curriculum

11/12/201311/12/2013 Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

This post marks the first in what I hope will be dedicated to help solidify your ministry’s basic (but essential) components. If you are relatively new to ministry, I pray that these posts will help you successfully build your ministry. If you are a ministry veteran, I hope that these posts will serve as reminders and points to use in evaluating your ministry’s effectiveness.

Today we’ll look at selecting curriculum.

Photo Credit: www.thebestbrainpossible.com

As a ministry leaders, there are many, many important decisions that you’ll make that will greatly impact your ministry. Towards the top of the list is the task of selecting curriculum.

There are numerous options to choose from these days. Video-based; denomination-based; student-led; volunteer-driven. There are options for an assortment of ministry formats/styles: large group/small group; traditional classroom; Sunday school; mid-week; urban; children’s church; digital; printed. The possibilities are endless.

With that said, let me make this disclaimer: I do not believe that there is a ‘perfect’ curriculum. I believe that while there are great options, you won’t find one that meets every criteria on your list or suits your ministry perfectly without the need to edit.

So what do you do? How do you choose from the plethora of options?

In my experience, I’ve found that I typically like to not veer to either extreme of all fun (watered down lessons) or too theologically heavy (over the children’s heads, too difficult for my volunteers to teach, close to seminary level). I’ve tended to be somewhat in the middle – Biblically sound, Bible-based but fun and engaging.

If you are in the market for new curriculum, here are a few things I’d recommend you should keep in mind:

1. Determine your ministry’s vision, mission and core values. Knowing this will help you stay focused on what you need/want in a curriculum and how the selected curriculum will help you think with the end in mind.

2. Bring a team of staff, current volunteers and parents together to help you discern the best options. Bringing the right people to the table will (1) show you value the opinions of ministry investors; (2) provide different points of view and good dialogue; and (3) get more buy-in from those on the team.

3. Make a list of what’s important. What are you looking for in terms of:

Format: Large group/small group; traditional classroom; children’s church; multiple ages in a combined setting; etc.
Denomination preference, if any
Delivery: Digital or printed? This is definitely something to consider if budget is a strong factor in your decision-making.
Technology: Video-format, live teaching or a combination of the two?
Parent take-home resources: Printed or digital; technological elements (i.e. videos, social media integration, apps).
Age-specific: Are you looking for curriculum based on a certain age group or are you looking for something comprehensive where all ages will be learning the same thing?

4. Once you narrow your options, request samples of those that make the cut. Take advantage of no-obligation trial offers. Try out sample lessons in your ministry, and then get feedback from volunteers, parents and children.

5. Before making a final decision, spark good dialogue. Contact the publisher and ask questions. Talk with others who are currently using or have previously used the curriculum you’re interested in. (Facebook, Twitter and Children’s Ministry discussion forums are great places to go for this.)

6. Remember: no curriculum is perfect. After your selection process has concluded and you’ve made a decision, know that you’ll very likely have to edit your material to suit your ministry’s facility, resources, budget, church style/culture and location. And you may find that no available option is ideal, so you decide to write your own curriculum.

Over the course of the next few days, I’ll share what curriculum we use, why we selected it, and how it’s working for us.

Now it’s your turn to talk! How do you choose curriculum? What is important to you in making a curriculum choice?

Celebrate the One

10/25/201310/25/2013 Kathie Phillips 3 Comments

Photo Credit: justwhatjessisupto.blogspot.com

Like many other churches, we started our ministry year still praying for God to send committed volunteers to serve in our Children’s Ministry. Each week, God has provided for our needs but as the ministry leader, it is my job to ensure that screened, trained, committed, Christ-following volunteers show up to care for and teach the children He brings to us.

A few weeks in to the new ministry year, I personally emailed 31 people who I thought would be a good match for our ministry. (I scoured our church database and looked for people who might be a good fit based on their ability, passion and spiritual gifts.) I shared the vision of the ministry, how God has blessed us with an abundance of children this year and how I felt that God placed them on my heart to invite them to our Children’s Ministry team.

Within a few days, I heard back from 6 people – 3 “no’s – this is not a good season for me”; 1 “let me pray about it” and 2 “I’m interested – I want to learn more.” I was so excited not only about the 3 promising responses but about all 6 responses. This told me two things:

1. People really do read my emails; and

2. They considered, possibly for even a brief moment, my request (even though some declined).

When I shared this news with my CM Leadership Team, one very sweet team member said, “How I appreciate your excitement when the total reply rate was only 19%!” Again, this told me two things:

1. I have some really smart people on my team – I wouldn’t even have thought about calculating any type of percentage; and

2. An excited leader can energize a team member, even when results are less than desired.

When responding back to my treasured friend, I said, “If God sends one, I’m excited!” [We have since recruited 8 new volunteers to our team!]

There is power in one. Celebrating a one-year old’s birthday is often a big deal, but how come we don’t celebrate more “ones“?One example from the Bible come to mind when I think of “one”:

Luke 15:1-7 tells us of the story of the lost sheep. It reads in part:

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! (Luke 15:3-7, NLT, bold and italics mine)

This passage of scripture reminded me how important it is for me to be a leader who celebrates the “one“. The one leader who arrives early. The one volunteer who stays late. The one child who is more energetic than the others. The one child with special needs. The one child who savors every word that you say. The one volunteer who serves when life circumstances are difficult. The one volunteer who remembers to ask how you’re doing. The one family who shares a story of how what you do has impacted them. The one volunteer who over-prepares. The one child whose faith story reminds you why you give your life to ministry week after week.