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I love writing curriculum, and I especially love a writing challenge! The latest unit of DiscipleTown is called “How to Build Character“.  It includes the following lesson breakdown: My True Character My Inner Character My Outer Character My Reputation For those of you who write – let me give you a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes of writing DiscipleTown. When I write these units, I am given a collection of raw material from Mark Steiner, the creator and author of the DiscipleLand Core Bible Curriculum, since I am creating a children’s church curriculum based on the 24 Disciple Skills that are part of the overall Disciple Making Strategy created by Mark. As part of the Level Three, Second Quarter Curriculum, Mark provided a collection of character traits for the teacher to cover as part of the Disciple Skill of Building Character.  They were: Positive Character Qualities Negative Character Qualities Honest, truthful, fair dishonest, false, corrupt Caring, compassionate, merciful unconcerned, insensitive, judgmental Loyal, devoted, steadfast unfaithful, disloyal, uncommitted Respectful, courteous, polite rude, impolite, disrespectful Diligent, hard-working, determined lazy, procrastinating, undisciplined Courageous, bold, brave fearful, timid, cowardly Holy, pure, set apart impure, polluted, tainted Trustworthy, responsible, dependable unreliable, irresponsible, undependable…

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I remember when I started my previous ministry, our curriculum situation was a mess! Here was what we were facing: Every teacher used what they liked, over five published curriculums were in use, some taught without any published material. Repetition and Omission of Bible stories was not only likely, but expected. No idea what was accomplished in the years spent within the Children’s Ministry. Lots of good ministry going on, but no way to know what was going to happen, or to evaluate results. So what did we do? I called for a planning meeting and asked our teachers to determine what we wanted for our children. (without looking at a single curriculum sample!) Here is the list of what these godly and experienced teachers determined we wanted: Gospel Oriented A comprehensive overview of the entire Bible Specific Goals and Objectives for Each Age Progressive, and not Repetitive Get children into the Word themselves Emphasis on Scripture memory High Quality Materials and Helpful Resources One year cycle (meaning teachers teach the same thing every year) Missions Focus Flexibility for teaching styles and holidays Tools to help parents engage in the process THEN we hunted to see if any curriculum met…

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It’s that time of year again – you may be evaluating your curriculum and determining whether you want to make a change. Let me suggest of ways you SHOULD NOT choose what curriculum to use in your children’s ministry: Use what you have always used. Traditions might be great at Christmas time, but using a curriculum “because you’ve always used it” is a terrible reason – unless you can explain its scope and sequence and the strategy for why it was put in place. But if it is “just there” because Moses brought it down from Mt. Sinai, or some other long gone leader who is kickin’ back with Jesus by now… it is time to re-evaluate! Let your teachers each pick their own. Love your teachers, support your teachers, but DO NOT let them each pick what they want to teach in their classroom. This is a formula for educational disaster! Why? Your students may end up learning about Joseph and Jesus six times to Sunday and never even find out who Moses or Abraham are! You need a comprehensive strategy for what content you want covered throughout the entire range of your educational program, so you need a…

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We’re off! The guys have all arrived and we are ON OUR WAY! This is my final post! We will now we OFF LINE until next Friday other than checking in with our families. Pray for us as we head to Yosemite! Pray for safety and for the work God wants to do in our lives. Proverbs 16:9 comes to mind as we plan to hike – we’ve made our plans, but we want God to direct our steps! Signing off, Karl [Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

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