A successful Sunday school is more than a good curriculum, it’s a bridge that connects classrooms with family rooms in the home. Alongside a pastoral vision for ministry, children's ministry leaders can partner with parents to help them “train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6). Sunday school curriculum combined with online family devotions can help.
Developing in children a passion to know Jesus involves discipling families and equipping them with tools to dig deeper into God's Word–as a family. If technology can assist in this process both at the Sunday school level and in the home, it's a win-win for everyone.
Lack of Online Family Devotional Resources
Unfortunately, parents often feel they don't have the time and resources to be spiritual leaders for their children. It’s not for lack of desire, it’s just that many have never been given resources that lead them through the process of family Bible study.
Perhaps you’ve heard parents share some of the following sentiments:
- “I hardly know the Bible myself, how can I teach it to my children?”
- “With my schedule, I don’t have time to prepare a Bible study for my kids.”
- “I’ve tried a family Bible study before, but my kids got bored and distracted.”
While the hesitation parents feel is real, it doesn’t change the fact that families must spend time in the Bible together. If they don’t, spiritual growth is next to impossible, and your children's ministry will have limited growth. A church's ministry needs to partner with parents, otherwise, they’ll rely on a weekend service to teach their kids about the Bible, prayer, and discipleship.
When this happens, your ministry faces the biggest challenge of them all: a Sunday School that is only about Sunday.
The Problem: Sunday School Curriculum Without An Online Element
Let’s start with a typical Sunday service. Your church team works hard preparing a compelling lesson that shares the good news of Jesus with kids in fun and creative ways. The service concludes and you give your class some handouts praying they make it to the car ride home. But all too often you find them left under chairs, turned into paper airplanes, or crumpled up in the trash. It’s frustrating.
Now, let's look at the typical Sunday service from the parents’ point of view. Mom and Dad have just sat through the adult service which, as always, ran 15 minutes long. They enter your classroom excited to pick up their kids. On the way down the hallway, you hear mom ask the big question: “So honey, what did you learn in class today?”
And then…the all-too-familiar reply, “I don’t know… Jesus?”
That’s it. Service is over. All of your hard work, planning, and preparation just died in the hallway. The heartbreaking part is that you wanted to send a great message home and parents wanted to learn more about the great lesson you taught.
The Solution: Sunday School Curriculum With An Online Element
In the typical Sunday service scenario presented above, where did things go wrong? (You might be tempted to blame the kids.) But in all seriousness. Kids love to show their parents what they’ve learned because they love their parents to be involved in their learning process. But too often we as ministry leaders don’t equip them with tools to effectively accomplish this.
Imagine a Sunday post-service scenario that goes something like this:
Mom: “Hey honey, what did you learn in class today?”
Child: “Let me show you!”
And then the child puts a resource in their parents’ hands that unlocks your lesson for all to see. You can empower your children to say, “Let me show you what I learned!”
Online Sunday School Lessons and Family Devotions
Sharefaith Kids Family Devotionals
At Sharefaith Kids, we understand the power of connecting families and classrooms. We also understand the challenges you face to make this happen. Throughout the years, we’ve helped thousands of churches with these three simple steps:
- Equip volunteers to teach inspiring, Bible-centered Sunday School lessons.
- Encourage kids to take these lessons home with fun activities.
- Empower families to explore these lessons at home with family devotionals.
Let’s break down each step so that you can envision it in your Kid’s Ministry:
- An all-in-one lesson bundle: Within each Sharefaith Kids downloadable lesson you’ll find everything you need to teach an inspiring Bible-centered lesson that kids will love. Our Sunday School library includes over two years’ worth of lessons. Each lesson features a volunteer-friendly curriculum, an engaging kids Bible video, fun activities, and an interactive teaching slideshow.
- Take Home Coloring Pages: These activity sheets are the kids’ favorites, and allow children to bring your Bible lesson to life. But that’s just the start! With an innovative QR/Unlock code on every page, families can access online devotionals anywhere at any time.
- Family Devotionals: This amazing online resource allows families to explore any Sharefaith Kids lesson at home. Each devotional features the lesson video, a family Bible reading, discussion questions, a closing prayer, and downloadable activities.
It’s that simple: you give your class the fun coloring pages they want to take home, and your parents use those coloring pages to continue the lesson at home. Your lesson just went beyond Sunday.
ShareFaith offers churches four free lessons to download and review prior to signing up. If this Sunday school curriculum is right for your church, the cost is completely reasonable at $35 per month on the annual plan.
The annual plan includes:
- The ShareFaith Kids Scheduler
- A Sunday school volunteer management solution (see video below)
- Full media membership with thousands of graphics
- Fully mobile/online curriculum
- Worship presentation software
- Giving and donations platform
- Lifetime premium support
The overall goal is to get kids and parents learning, growing, and getting into God's Word together. With this goal in mind, we pray your ministry can be blessed by the simple and affordable digital Sunday school and family devotional resources we offer.
