January 21, 2002

Texas children's ministers create their own Sunday School curriculum series
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___Frustration with other available products has led a group of Texas Baptist children's ministers to publish their own Sunday School curriculum for children.
___It's not fancy, and it's not produced in mass quantities, but it is meeting a need in the churches where it's used, according to those involved.
___"When we put the Faithway Bible study literature in the hands of our teachers, the quality of our Sunday School experience jumped several notches," said Wayne Gerhardt, associate pastor for childhood education at University Baptist Church in Houston. "Our teachers like it because they truly see and understand they are guiding the spiritual development of these children."
___Gerhardt is among about a dozen Texas Baptist children's ministers who collaborate on the curriculum, which began publication in August 2000.
___He and others involved in the project said their primary concern was having a curriculum for children that follows basic educational principles and is heavily Bible-based. Other products on the market today focus too much on "fun and games and silliness," he said.
___"This was borne out of a deep conviction that children need good Bible study experiences," he said. "The curriculum is a key to this."
___The idea for the independent curriculum surfaced about two years ago, when a group of Texas Baptist children's ministers discovered they shared common concerns about the curricula their churches were using.
___Together, they evaluated about 10 lines of children's Sunday School literature produced by various agencies and ministries. They found all of them lacking in biblical content and adherence to educational principles, said Helen Waldrop, former minister to children at First Baptist Church of Arlington.
___They hoped that the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which at the time was beginning to publish a line of adult Bible study literature, might fill the void. But when they discovered that wasn't likely to happen soon, they determined to venture out on their own.
___"Nobody wanted to do this," Gerhardt said. "Finally, someone said, 'Well, if we can't find it, we've got to write it.' So kicking and screaming, we reached that point."
___The group meets regularly to plan and evaluate. Waldrop serves as editor, receiving and processing new units each month.
___The literature is distributed on a month-to-month basis and has a short time span between writing and publication. Usually, Waldrop distributes the pieces two to three weeks before the intended month of use.
___To cut costs, each subscribing church receives a master copy of all the pages and is responsible for duplicating those pages for teachers and students.
___The price is $50 per church per month.
___It is, by all accounts, a shoestring operation.
___"This is publishing without any money," Gerhardt explained. "We write for free. Everybody gives what they can in the way of time and effort."
___The pieces are differentiated in three age levels--first and second grade, third and fourth grade, and fifth and sixth grade. The Faithway curriculum does not include preschool lessons.
___Most all the writers are Texas Baptist church staff members, Waldrop said. Many are veteran children's ministers who have written for other publishers in the past.
___The group's mission statement says they will produce "a Bible-based Christian curriculum for children that is foundational to faith development, focusing on sequential, age-appropriate Bible-learning experiences."
___So far, about 30 churches are using the Faithway literature, Waldrop said.
___For more information, contact Waldrop at (817) 274-2268; helenwaldrop@msn.com; or 409 Dorcas, Arlington 76013.
___Editor's note: The Standard has received an increasing number of calls recently about the BaptistWay adult Bible study curriculum published by the BGCT. The Standard's expanded commentaries on the Texas lessons run the next-to-last week of each month and cover all the Sundays of the following month. For information about purchaing BaptistWay pieces, call the BGCT at (800) 355-5285 or go to www.bgct.org/sunday_school.

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