The New Local Uniform Series” Curriculum
150 years ago Sunday school lessons were a random patchwork
of topics—basically whatever
appealed to the teacher of each class. As Sunday school developed thinkers saw
the need for a more uniform plan of study that carefully covered the whole
Bible in a set number of years, say eight. The incredible solution was the “Uniform
Lesson plan” also called the “International Sunday school Lessons.” This was a plan to have everybody of all ages in
all denominations in the entire Christian world to study the same passage of
Scripture on the same Sunday. It worked!
The idea spread so much that by 100 years ago virtually every Sunday
school class of every denomination in the world studied the story of Jesus’
temptation on the same day—every age in every denomination studying the same
passage! This practice lasted well into
the 1950’s in many churches, including my own.
Most of my students can’t believe this ever happened! They know of no such cooperative relationships in
today’s church. But when I was a kid the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and
Wesleyan students in my high school all had the same Sunday school lesson last
weekend. We could talk about our week’s lesson at school like we’d been to the same
church last Sunday. And, since virtually
everyone had the same Bible lesson, people could tune in the radio every week
to hear “the lesson” taught by an expert. Indeed, many Sunday school teachers
prepared by listening to these expert teachers teaching what would be an
identical lesson in all churches.
But the uniform series had some problems. Christian educators became increasingly
uncomfortable with a uniform lesson for all ages. How do you teach the story of
David and Bathsheba to six-year olds? Their solution was “graded” lessons—an
approach that selected Scriptures specifically suited to the needs of a
particular age group and a different set of scriptures for other age levels. Graded
lessons won. Eventually the idea of everybody studying the same passage
disappeared except for a few “senior Bible classes.” But it is coming back.
The “Uniform series” is now making a major comeback in a new format. This time it is not as a Sunday school lesson
but as a plan for preaching and for following that up. The primary teaching time in most local
churches is no longer the Sunday school but morning worship. The primary
teacher in most churches is no longer a lay person but the pastor—the “teaching
pastor.” Perhaps the first of this new
kind of “Uniform plans” was Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Church” but now they
are common—there is a new effort to “curriculumize”
preaching, moving beyond the random patchwork series of the past.
Here is how it works: The preacher develops a series that is critical to
the church’s direction. Sometimes it comes from the Bible but more often it
comes from the church’s “Strategic Planning” or the list of “Church values.” Wherever it comes from, it gets turned into an annual series for
preaching and the pastor expects someone to write a curriculum so every class
and small group can study “on the same page” for a set number of weeks. This means that during the “Reach-out-and-serve”
week the sermon is on that subject but also every age group is supposed to have
a lesson on the same topic—a new “Uniform series” for one local church.
Why all this is important to me is that each Fall I teach the “Curriculum Theory and Design”
course at Indiana Wesleyan University. This course used to be all about Sunday
school literature, mostly graded materials. But in today’s church it has an
additional spin—learning how to write curriculum for a local church based on
the Pastor’s “Uniform lesson” preaching.
Many of our Christian Education graduates get jobs in churches over
1000, but even in churches much smaller I see this new “Local Uniform Series”
emerging. A series of lessons are
designed based on a preaching series and all classes and small groups—children,
youth and adults—are urged to join in with the uniform lessons.
So what I’m wondering this
week is if YOU have seen this emerging idea anywhere in the church? And, what
do you think of it?
So, what do you
think?
The
discussion of this column is on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=161502633
Keith Drury November 9, 2010