Sunday schools nurture the spiritual growth of our children, and Sunday school teachers devote themselves to the success of the process. A good Sunday school resource center can help both the children and the teachers along the way.
Imagine what it would be like, at the end of a Sunday school lesson, for each child to select a related book or DVD or Bible game to take home and enjoy for a week. Sunday school would no longer be limited to an hour — or less! — on Sunday. It would go home with the child and continue to be his or her companion during the week to come!
Imagine what it would be like for a Sunday school teacher to be able to put his or her hands on a ready-to-use teaching resource or a learning activity that would help bring the week’s lesson to life. It would be a boon to many who labor long and hard to teach the children.
These are some of the things that are possible when the Sunday school has a good resource center and everyone is tuned in to using it. It is an idea worth exploring with your Sunday school team, and if you already have a Sunday school resource center this might be a good time to review how it is working and how it can be made better.
Where to begin?
There is an obvious need to be practical and to set priorities in the development of a Sunday school resource center. A good way to start would be to gradually obtain a full range of Christadelphian Sunday school materials that can help teachers prepare week-to-week instruction.
There are several published Christadelphian Sunday school curriculum in use throughout the brotherhood. Among these are the Birmingham Central Sunday School Scheme, the Christadelphian Sunday School Union (CSSU, UK), the Christadelphian Sunday School Union (CSSU, Australia), and the Christadelphian Sunday School Association (CSSA, Australia) curriculum. All of these are comprehensive in the sense that they provide Old and New Testament lessons and a variety of instructional materials for all Sunday school ages, from spreaders to young adults.
Regardless of the curriculum that your Sunday school uses for its calendar of lessons, ready access to the materials contained in all of these curriculum can be extremely useful for lesson planning purposes. The materials differ; they can meet a variety of teaching and learning needs. Reference copies of every book and activity in every Christadelphian Sunday school curriculum should therefore be near the top of a resource center shopping list.1
The different curriculum contain from two to five years’ worth of lessons, depending on the learning level (usually designated Kindergarten, Primary, etc.). This is actually helpful when it comes to funding a resource center. From a budgeting standpoint, purchase of the curricular materials can be spread out over a period of several years.
In any case, we are looking at a long-range commitment when we talk about developing and funding a Sunday school resource center. The center needs to be an ongoing priority if it is to flourish and fulfill its potential.
What else?
Other kinds of teaching resources can be kept in the center as well. Some are timeless: flannel graphs, filmstrips, story books, pictures, puzzles, models, and arts and crafts materials. There are song books and collections of skits and plays. There are various kinds of DVDs and Cd’s and Bible software for computers. The list is almost endless. The key is to plan and prioritize with the needs of the Sunday school in mind. The resource center can also be a place to house a growing collection of ready-to-use Bible learning center activities for teachers to draw on from week to week. (See the February, 2012, Tidings article, “Using Bible Learning Centers”.)
And by all means, build an inventory of things for the children to take home and enjoy using during the week.
Practical considerations
We have touched on the need to budget for resource center materials and to spread out the costs over a period of time. Given that ecclesial can often spend thousands of dollars on a single public preaching effort, it is reasonable to think that a well-planned annual budget for the resource center might meet with ecclesial approval, too. Sunday school, in reality, is a preaching mission within the ecclesia.
Housing the resource center is a consideration. If the ecclesia owns its own meeting hall, then a place needs to be found to put up some shelves or add some cabinets, preferably near the Sunday school area. If the ecclesia does not own its own hall, a more creative solution to the housing problem will be necessary, but don’t give up on the idea. “Find a way” is always the alternative to the “no way” mindset.
And keep a good inventory of the resources that you have in the center. Know what you have and how to put your hands on everything. Computer spread sheets are a ready-made tool for this kind of housekeeping job. A carefully designed spreadsheet will allow teachers to see at a glance what is available for them to use or for the children to borrow and take home. Setting up and maintaining a database of resource center materials might be just the thing for a couple of older Sunday school students or cyc members to take on if they are looking for a meaningful way to begin serving the ecclesia.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One