The Declaration of Curriculum Independence: Bill of Sunday School Rights

The Declaration of Curriculum Independence: Bill of Sunday School Rights
June 17, 2016 Kylee Beard
curriculum independence

Committing to a curriculum can oftentimes mean locking yourself into a particular schedule, class format, activity sequence, or teaching style.  Before you know it, pressure is coming from teachers and kids as the same ol’ content and structure brings on boredom. Directors and teachers spend chunks of time rewriting lessons because to follow the written program would mean making sacrifices they shouldn’t or can’t. You may be squirming a little in your seat right now. Or perhaps rolling your eyes, knowing that the lack of flexibility is nothing short of frustrating. But we often settle for being stuck!

Wouldn’t it be nice to be NOT stuck? UN stuck. Stuck no more!

In the spirit of independence day, I’ve had freedom on the brain. It’s in our nature to love freedom, fight for freedom, and celebrate freedom (Happy 4th yall!). Freedom can mean a lot of things: autonomy, mobility, and empowerment, to name a few. These are a handful of the reasons many churches are already flying the DIG IN flag high. DIG IN, Group’s newest curriculum, is ringing the liberty bell of children’s ministry.

Imagine there’s been a constitution of Sunday school curriculum in place for all the years Sunday school has existed. That constitution might have notes of rigidity, stringency, and monotony. (For the sake of my clever play on the 4th of July, please stick with me.) I hereby present to you, the Bill of Sunday School Rights: 6 Amendments to the Constitution of Sunday School Curriculum.

Abolishment of inflexibility – First and foremost, DIG IN insists that you protect the liberty of flexibility. You are not locked in to anything other than Bible truth!

Class format liberty – Whether you want your lesson to be age-graded, one room, or large group/small group, DIG IN can accommodate.  You are at liberty to create all the classrooms you need…including multiple services and campuses…whatever makes sense to your ministry. (Which makes all the sense in the world if you ask me.)

The right to bear your ministry philosophy and church culture – Asking you to change your teaching philosophy and church culture is a bit extreme. Who you are is already special, so we designed DIG IN to come alongside your ministry, simply complementing your best features. The transformation is happening in the hearts of your kiddos. Meanwhile, you stay true to who you are.

The freedom of activity choice – There are 11 activity block options for each lesson. Use one of them. Use all of them. You reserve the right pick which activity blocks to use and what order to use them in. Whether your kids are word smart, picture smart, music smart, or something else, you can tap into all learning styles by selecting activity blocks that will most engage your kids.

  • Opening (5 min)
  • Core Bible Discovery (20 min)
  • Life Application Wrap-Up (5 min)
  • Deeper Bible (15 min)
  • High-Energy Game (10 min)
  • Low-Energy Game (10 min)
  • Object Lesson (10 min)
  • Craft (20 min)
  • Music Video (10 min)
  • Talk-About Video (10 min)
  • Take-home

Each segment reinforces the lesson’s Bible point, so no matter how you choose to put the pieces together, lessons are always strong and right on target.

Protects the right to fair and speedy substitution – Quickly build a lesson that lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours. Drag and drop your choice of lesson activities to match the natural strengths of each teacher. This means a last minute, Saturday night call for a substitute doesn’t have to be stressful if you snag a sub that has different preferences. Try the demo!

Preservation of Bible depth – Do you want your class to dig deeper into the Bible lesson and grapple with age-appropriate questions?  You have that option with the Deeper Bible activity block. This makes all the difference between “I learned about Daniel” versus “I learned that Jesus is always with me.” Create powerful and memorable Bible experiences for kids by going beyond merely listening to a Bible story to being immersed in it.

Powers are reserved to CE Directors! Learn more on how to sign the declaration of curriculum independence at digin.group.com and let freedom ring!

Kylee brings her fair share of energy (and cupcakes!) to Group's Children's Ministry Team. Ministry has taken her all over Latin America but now that she has settled stateside, she loves hanging out with her high school girls' small group. On the weekends, you are likely to find her either in the kitchen or at the local thrift stores. She and her husband secretly want to be just like Chip and Joanna Gaines.

1 Comment

  1. Jackie Ratliff 8 years ago

    This is the first time I have been excited about Sunday school lessons in years. Now to get my teachers as excited as I am. I may have to go back to teaching the children again.

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