LifeWay offers new Sunday School materials

With a desire to keep up with the times, Lifeway Christian Resources is launching its new Sunday School curriculum, “Sunday School for a New Century,” which will be introduced to Alabamians Sept. 1.
   
Three years of marketing research, strategic planning and restructuring has culminated in the launching of a new concept for Sunday School lessons and preparation. 
   
LifeWay Christian Resources Sunday School Group has revamped the teaching curriculum to incorporate the principles that are the basis of their new definition of Sunday School for the 21st century.
Bill Taylor, director of LifeWay’s Sunday School Group, defines the new concept of Sunday School: “Sunday School is the foundational strategy in a local church for leading people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for building Great Commission Christians through Bible study groups that engage people in evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry and worship.”
   
Louis Hanks, associate director of LifeWay Christian Resources Sunday School Group, said, “We heard a wake-up call. Increasingly we saw that more and more research was asking, ‘Is there a significant difference between Christians and non-Christians as far as attitudes, lifestyles and so on?’ The answer we kept hearing was ‘No, there isn’t.’ That was shocking.”
   
The research data led to the decision to make changes to the Sunday School curriculum, which began three years ago, and resulted in the adaptation of lessons that would meet the needs of today’s church attenders. According to Hanks, LifeWay consultants spoke to more than 5,000 people in 17 states to get feedback on the new strategy, which he said was “well received.”
   
The most obvious change deals with the Sunday School lesson format. The focus on the curriculum is to take a “during-and-after” approach, instead of the “before-and-during” approach, meaning that instead of Sunday School lessons being the end to a week of preparation for the class, the Sunday School class begins a week of applying what was learned.
   
“It’s a shift. We’ve always assumed that people would have read their lesson before they got to class,” Hanks said. “They could check that off on their offering envelope. But, in reality, that wasn’t happening. What will happen now is that the lesson will be introduced on Sunday. Then suggestions will be made about how to use that lesson throughout the following week,” he said.
   
“The curriculum is still solidly rooted in Scripture. The materials teach a conservative, evangelical theology, just as they’ve done for years,” he explained. “Most of all, we want people to have more than head knowledge and Bible facts,” Hanks said. “We want them to integrate the Scriptures into their lives.”
   
All the new curriculum materials are based on five strategic principles of Sunday School for a new century: foundational evangelism; foundational discipleship; family responsibility; spiritual transformation and biblical leadership.
   
According to Rick Edwards, director of the SBC’s adult Sunday School ministry department, “One of the big changes in the curriculum is the incorporation of a unified study plan so that lesson themes could cross over all age groups.”
   
The current “Family Bible Series” will be replaced with “Family Bible Study Series.” This change allows for lessons to serve as a more uniform Bible study guide for parents. “The Life and Work Series” will be absorbed into the “Family Bible Study Series.”
   
The “Explore the Bible Series” is changing the least, continuing to utilize The New International and King James Version but omitting the New American Standard. “This was at our customers’ request. The NIV just seems to be the most preferred version,” Hanks said.
   
The new curriculum change is the third in the history of LifeWay. The first change was made in 1918 with the introduction of age-graded literature, and then in 1970 when the format changed to the Life and Work Series.
   
What do members of the Alabama Baptist State Convention office of Sunday School think about the changes?
   
According to Jamie Baldwin, adult/youth associate in the Sunday School office, “We have received very positive responses from the statewide participants in the workshops that we have been holding for Sunday School teachers and leaders,” he said.
   
“We are excited to have a new format that will assist families in their devotionals,” he said. “The lesson that is taught on Sunday will have the same message for all family members and will serve as a basis for discussions during devotion.”
   
Baldwin points out that today’s society is not as scripturally knowledgeable as prior generations. He said part of the goal of the curriculum change is to emphasize the importance of family Bible study.
  
“We hope to generate a new level of interest in family-oriented biblical education by providing a study guide the entire family can participate in during study or devotional time,” he said.
   
“We need to make Bible study relevant,” he continued, mentioning the irony of all of the resources available to believers today that are not utilized in the understanding of the doctrines of the Baptist faith.
   
“At the state level we have composed three steps in our teaching guidelines — prepare, encounter and continue in the Word.”
   
Explaining, Baldwin said, “First, the teacher needs to be prepared within himself — not just in the lesson preparation. Secondly, the teacher needs to encounter the Word before the class can be led to do so. In other words, ‘What is it saying to me?’ And thirdly, the teacher needs to continue to live out the Word and ask, ‘Am I acting on what I’m teaching?’ We want the leader to be the lesson,” he said, explaining the concept as “transformational teaching.”
   
Regional Sunday School Leader Training seminars are being held throughout the state through Oct. 6. For more information on locations call: 1-800-264-1225.