Part 2: How to effectively align your children's ministry curriculum
An integrated Children’s Ministry Program and curriculum can have a positive impact on the engagement of families in discipleship and the faith and learning of children.
Cam Harte, children’s minister at St Luke’s Anglican Church, Miranda, shares how aligning content across midweek and Sunday programs has engaged families in discipling their children.
As we seek to help children come to know and trust Jesus through our children’s ministries, it is important that we are effective with our Bible teaching and engage families in the discipling of their children, all with a trust in the grace of God.
To achieve this, at St Luke’s, Miranda we adapted an integrated strategy we call One Voice through an entire week of programming. At the heart of this approach is the idea children learn best when multiple voices are telling and teaching the same thing. Therefore, all of our children’s ministry programs are built on teaching one big idea each week across all ages, from preschool to upper primary. Read part one of this article for a detailed overview of the One Voice strategy.
Like any new program, implementing the One Voice strategy didn’t act like a silver bullet for children’s and families ministry. However, these structural changes have seen effective change and received wonderfully positive reactions from children and parents.
In the past on a Sunday, preschool kids looked at different material to the school-aged children who followed the adult preaching program. Now all children look at the same material in an age-appropriate way as we follow a curriculum designed to teach every major Bible story over three years. Each month we have a theme that supports and enhances the Bible teaching and provides a consistent framework, being supported by games, craft, activities and so on.
Also, the kids who attend our mid-week groups are now engaging with the same material as our Sunday programs. The teaching style in our mid-week groups is a large-group format which differentiates them from our Sunday small-group focus. While in all our groups we aim to show how the whole Bible points to Jesus, this is a particular focus in our mid-week groups as many of the kids who attend do not yet trust Jesus.
Ultimately, we have found that families want their children to learn what is most important for each stage of their development (this comes through how we apply the Bible story each week). Parents and carers feel equipped when they are resourced with material that enables them to have meaningful conversations arising from Scripture knowing that the church’s children’s ministry is speaking the same thing to their kids.
This is the strength of the One Voice model - parents are more engaged because all of their kids are learning the same thing each week regardless of age, and so there is one conversation that can be had at home. Conversely, their children are also far more engaged and are remembering much more of what they are being taught, being willing to discuss the same passage of Scripture twice and wrestle deeply with God’s Word in their small groups.
This is a wonderful thing! We are witnessing a tangible increase in engagement of parents and families in the discipling of their kids. Here’s what some parents from St Luke’s, Miranda had to say about children’s ministry this year:
Related
Part 1: How to effectively align your children's ministry curriculum
Children learn best when multiple voices are teaching them the same thing. Cam Harte explains how this guided his church to change their approach to children’s ministry this year, by aligning their programs and curriculum across the week.
“We have really been enjoying the new structure and change of curriculum at Kids’ Church. It is really great being able to know what parts of the Bible are being looked at so that as a family we can read the passage together. I really appreciate all the research and work that has been put in to find the right program.”
- Parents with preschool and infants-aged children
“One idea a week has been so helpful for asking my child questions about what they did and getting thoughtful and considered answers.”
- Parent of a preschooler
“We’ve definitely seen our kids have a better retention of stories and memory verses, and consequently they have a stronger ability to make connections with life and rest of Bible. They are keen to know more!”
- Parent of a preschooler and Kindergartner
“It’s brilliant! I love how it’s one big theme for a month and big ideas within that.”
- Parent of children in Year 2 and Year 6
Finally, as another benefit, this model has grown a greater sense of unity amongst our children’s ministry leadership team. With everyone teaching the same material every week, it is great to be able to say to the whole team, “This week we are all teaching …” and to collaborate and share ideas for our different age groups.
There is always more to learn and implement, and we will be reviewing our program and making adjustments for the coming year. We need to work hard at applying the same passage of Scripture across the range of age groups and maturity levels, particularly for those kids who don’t yet trust Jesus. We are continuing to develop our partnership with parents and families and finding ways to equip families to be the primary disciples of their children. But implementing the integrated One Voice model has been a great start.
I pray that Part 1 and Part 2 in this series has inspired you to reflect on your own children’s ministry and will help you more effectively disciple the next generation.