Best Buys Curriculum Reviews!

I've been posting my reviews of Large Group/Small Group, Traditional, Bridge, Non-Traditional and Special Needs Sunday School curriculum along with Side-by-Side Comparison Charts. This coming week I'll be sharing posts about those curriculum resources which are excellent and affordable; followed by my final Sunday School Curriculum Side-by-Side comparison chart. In this economy cost really does matter for many, if not most, churches. As people's personal budgets get tighter, so does the church's budget. We have to balance being wise stewards with finding "tools" which will enable us to effectively and intentionally help our children remember,understand and live Gods Word for genuinely changed lives. Happily, there are some excellent - and affordable - curriculum options available and this coming week we will look at them!

As I continue to focus on curriculum reviews, I want to encourage you to be very careful about making a curriculum change. Far too often we change curriculum far too often. We "hop, skip and jump" from curriculum line to curriculum line, trying the newest and slickest curriculum available without keeping our vision, passion and mission front and center. When we change curriculum because it is what "big" churches use, or because someone used it and liked it at another church and not because we have spent considerable time in careful and prayerful consideration and have found a curriculum which provides better "tools" for us to accomplish our vision, we "short-circuit" our ministry.

Each curriculum line has it's own scope and sequence. When you are constantly switching from curriculum line to curriculum line you do not give the children in your ministry the opportunity to complete a scope and sequence and run the risk they will only learn from the same Bible lessons over and over. Know your vision, passion and mission and then select your curriculum based on if it provides the best "tools" for your unique ministry. Once you do this, stay with the curriculum unless you find it is truly not accomplishing what you want it to accomplish.