Ministry leaders often choose a Sunday school curriculum based on familiarity, marketing, and tradition. When familiarity or marketing drives the decision, curriculum is changed so often that children never experience a complete scope and sequence of lessons, and as a result they rarely get a complete understanding of God's word. When tradition is the deciding factor, leaders are often saddled with a teaching model that is no longer effective.

Vision and Purpose
Before getting to a curriculum choice, ministry leaders need to carefully and prayerfully think through a vision and purpose for their children's ministry. Curriculum choices must then be based on ministry vision and purpose. The vision and purpose also provide the standard for measuring the effectiveness of the Sunday school ministry.

A children's ministry vision should reflect the church's vision as a whole. For example, my church's vision is "to be a healthy spiritual community marked by uncompromising love for Jesus Christ, caring commitment to each other, and bold compassion for those who don't yet share Christ's life." Our children's ministry vision is "to be a healthy community marked by uncompromising love for and commitment to children, families and Christ."

Keep in mind that a ministry vision is not the same thing as a teaching aim. A vision reflects what the ministry will accomplish, while a teaching aim relates to classroom activities and goals, such as to help kids memorize Scripture.

The ministry purpose should answer the question, "Why do we have a children's ministry?" Anyone can provide a babysitting service for kids, but a children's ministry is much more than that. As you develop your purpose, keep in mind the purpose God has for parents—read Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and Psalm 78:1-8. The church must not replace parents. At my church, our children's ministry purpose is "to support families in discipling their children as they grow to love God and serve Him with their lives."

With your vision and purpose agreed upon and written down, you are ready to evaluate and select a curriculum. A key point to remember is that you are teaching the Bible, not a particular curriculum. Curriculum is a tool that helps you engage children so they experience, remember, understand, and live God's word. When the curriculum is effective, the result is lives that have been truly changed.

Any biblically sound curriculum can be made effective—some just provide better and more appropriate tools for your vision and purpose than others. Select a curriculum because it provides the best tools for your teachers to engage your children, not just because it has fun gadgets, DVDs, or colorful artwork. Make sure the curriculum you select not only teaches biblical facts, but also actively engages children so they understand and apply these facts in their lives.

Scope and Sequence
Scope and sequence are important factors to consider when choosing a curriculum. Some curriculum lines follow a chronological scope and sequence, working their way through the Bible in two or three years—typically Old Testament lessons for Fall and Winter quarters and New Testament lessons for Spring and Summer.

Some curriculums follow a topical scope and sequence where children learn Bible lessons based on topics such as prayer, family, God's Word, etc. Some curriculums use different scopes and sequences for each age level. Others follow a unified scope and sequence so all ages learn the same Bible lesson the same week.

When I make a curriculum selection I look for curriculum with a unified scope and sequence designed to take children through the entire Bible. Too often, children never even hear of people like Enoch, Hezekiah, Josiah, or Gehazi—even though there is much to learn from them. I also want all children to learn the same Bible lesson each week so families are more likely to continue the learning at home.

A weekly "live-it" activity is essential for children to take what they learn in the classroom out of the building and home with them. I also favor the large-group/small-group model, where children are engaged by opportunities to teach the Bible lesson through dramas and other creative lessons.

Once you have a vision and purpose for your children's ministry and settled on a scope and sequence, to find the best curriculum fit you need to understand the different types of curriculum. There are five basic curriculum types: traditional, non-traditional, mix, large-group/small-group, and rotation.

Traditional
Traditional curriculum resources focus on teachers teaching the Bible. Churches often select a traditional curriculum because their volunteers recognize it, have experience with it, and are comfortable with it. They typically include age-graded teacher books, visual resources, student books, and take-home papers. The teachers use a lecture style of teaching, while the students mostly listen and write things on paper.

Traditional curriculums aren't the most effective at engaging children. Kids today are not the same as they were when I was in elementary school. The culture is different and curriculum needs to take this into account.

Examples of traditional curriculum include:

• Bible-in-Life and Scripture Press (David C. Cook).
  
• Standard Curriculum (Standard Publications).
  
• Most denominational curriculum resources.
  

My "Top Pick" of traditional curriculum is Bible-in-Life. Bible-in-Life is written in an easy-to-understand, teacher-friendly manner. It provides options for classroom teaching time, and it incorporates specific time in each lesson to talk with kids about how they lived the previous week's lesson.

Non-Traditional
Non-traditional curriculum resources focus on students learning the Bible. Key components include active learning and open-ended questions with a focus on application. These curriculums may have teacher books, visual resources, and student materials, but they are designed to get kids up and moving so they will experience, remember, understand, and live the lesson.

The biggest challenge with non-traditional curriculum is that if volunteers do not understand how to use it, they may end up extremely frustrated. It isn't designed or written like the traditional curriculum they might be used to. Your volunteers should be gifted with teaching and willing to teach in non-traditional ways. They also need to be willing to adapt and modify the curriculum because sometimes the activity doesn't connect with the lesson very well.

Examples of non-traditional curriculum include:

• Hands-On Bible Curriculum and FaithWeaver (Group Publishing)
  

My "Top Pick" of non-traditional curriculum is Hands-On Bible Curriculum, a topical curriculum that involves kids "hands-on" in their lessons with the focus on experiencing, remembering, understanding, and living God's Word.

Mix
Mix curriculum resources blend features of both traditional and non-traditional curriculums. Since this curriculum provides traditional features with more active options, your biggest challenge will be encouraging some volunteers who are more comfortable with the traditional teaching model they know to try the more active learning centers.

Examples of mix curriculum include:

• GodPrints (David C. Cook)
  
• Gospel Light (Gospel Light Publishing)
  

My "Top Pick" of mix curriculum is GodPrints. This topical curriculum emphasizes that when kids live God's Word, then others will see "God's Print" in their lives. It focuses on experiencing, remembering, understanding, and living God's Word. I especially like the weekly food crafts in the preschool curriculum.

Gospel Light is a quality curriculum with a wealth of learning-center options in each lesson. The curriculum is updated regularly to keep it as effective as possible. Gospel Light uses a set, through-the-Bible scope and sequence.

Large-Group/Small-Group
Large-group/small-group curriculum resources provide the option of combining ages or keeping them separate, depending on the needs of your church. Children join for a large-group time of singing and a Bible lesson, then break into small groups with an adult to talk through the point of the Bible lesson, discuss how to live it in their everyday lives, pray, and develop relationships. These curriculums often use reproducible lessons and student flyers, as well as family flyers so the learning may continue all week at home.

Large-group/small-group curriculums allow volunteers to work according to their gifts. Those gifted in teaching or drama work during the large-group time, and those more gifted in building relationships contribute best in the small-group time. The small group time also allows kids to develop sound relationships.

The biggest challenge of large-group/small-group curriculums is convincing your church to give it a try! These curriculums use a totally different format. If your teachers want to be "the teachers," they will not be as happy with this type of curriculum.

Examples of large-group/small-group curriculums include:

• kidz Connection (Lynda Freeman)
  
• Promiseland and Promiseland 10-week curriculum (Willow Creek/ ZonderKidz)
  
• Empowering Kids (Empowering Kids/Craig Jutila)
  
• Pick Up'n'Do (David C. Cook)
  

I honestly think you can't go wrong with any of these curriculum resources. However, if yours is a small to average-size church, you will need a six-year scope and sequence since you will likely need to combine your kindergarten through fifth grade, or first grade through sixth grade for the large group portion. My kidz Connection curriculum is designed to do this. Also, Empowering Kids is extremely creative with lots of energy, and the DVDs for the large-group teaching portion are easier for some churches to use.

Rotation
Rotation Sunday school curriculum resources provide one lesson that lasts four weeks. The lesson has four components, and four teachers each take one of the components (story, games, craft, etc.) to teach for four weeks in a row. Children are divided into four groups, which rotate to different stations each week. These curriculums typically include a teacher's book.

Rotation Sunday school involves lots of activity for the kids, engaging them regardless of individual learning styles. It also allows volunteers to learn one lesson and repeat it for four weeks rather than learn a new lesson each week

The biggest challenge is that it can put too much activity in the mix—kids will have fun, but will they really learn how the activity connects with the Bible point? These curriculums also rely on volunteers who are willing to teach in non-traditional methods and who are able to help kids make the connections

Children who are with a different parent every other weekend will miss half of each session

Examples of rotation Sunday school include:

• Workshop Zone (David C. Cook)
  
• Bible Venture Centers (Group Publishing)
  

I really am not sold on this model for use on a Sunday morning. However, I believe you could use any of these resources for a family event, or divide the lesson in two and use them for two weeks as your mid-week ministry to children—just have the children rotate through two stations each week.

Time To Change?
Sometimes a volunteer gets excited about a new curriculum they saw in an ad or heard about at a workshop. Unless it truly offers better tools to help you accomplish your vision and purpose, stay with the curriculum you have already chosen. Just because a new curriculum offers many bells and whistles or is backed by exciting marketing doesn't mean it's the best curriculum fit for your church.

Also, you don't necessarily need to choose a new curriculum just because you have a new leader or director for your children's ministry. When your curriculum choice is determined by your vision and purpose, the only reason to change curriculum is if you find a one that is truly more effective.

Change is always difficult, and making a curriculum change is no different. Some teachers are bound to be happy with your current curriculum. But you might need a change if you hear teachers talking about all the wonderful things their classes learned in Sunday school, while the children just look confused. Yes, the teachers probably did learn all those things—after all, they were the ones who did the teaching!

When making a change, help your volunteers understand why the curriculum you chose is a better fit. Show them how to use it effectively. Involve volunteers and parents in an ongoing evaluation of your curriculum to insure you are accomplishing your vision and purpose. Then watch as the children in your ministry take what they've learned in your Sunday school classroom and start living it in their daily lives!

Lynda Freeman is a freelance writer and consultant, and has served in children's ministry for 36 years. She has written for Children's Ministry Magazine, writes kidz Connection Curriculum, and is a contributing writer for Group's Humongous Book of Bible Skits for Children's Ministry and Big Idea's Veggie Connections Preschool Curriculum.