You see that three-year-old who can\u2019t sit still during the sermon? The one whose daddy had to take him out of the worship gathering three times last week because he was being disruptive? Yeah\u2026that one.<\/p>\n
Well, in 15 years he will be 18, graduating from high school and youth group. What if I told you that 18-year-old him can find any verse in the Bible in 8 seconds flat, tell you the author and theme of each book of the Bible, recite several long passages of Scripture, and discuss the many attributes of God at length? And he\u2019s planning on teaching the middle school Sabbath school class. He regularly leads corporate prayer, and he knows every member of the congregation by name and greets most of them every week.<\/p>\n
The 4-year-old girl that sits two rows in front of him?\u00a0 She\u2019ll have all that Scripture stuff down pat, too. At 19, she\u2019s already known as a prayer warrior. She\u2019s also helped coordinate several outreach events that have brought a lot of new members into the church community. She has a busy schedule but is known for being incredibly trustworthy and diligent.<\/p>\n
And the 6-year-old boy across the aisle? At 21, he\u2019s coordinating the congregation\u2019s ministry to shut-ins while training to become a pastor. He\u2019s reserved but has a knack for making everyone around him feel comfortable, which is important because many of his friends ask him questions about what God has to say about various life issues.<\/p>\n
The really cool thing is that it isn\u2019t just them. Their entire peer group knows the Bible backwards and forwards. It takes some of them a while to find their ministry niche, but when they do there is no doubt that God\u2019s hand is with them.<\/p>\n
The amazing thing is that this doesn\u2019t have to be a mere dream. This vision can become a reality, but ONLY if your congregation defines the vision and becomes intentional about helping it to take shape.<\/p>\n
Think about it. Really think about it. When the kids of your congregation graduate from high school, what are their church family\u2019s hopes for them? What do you want them to be able to do<\/em>? Say no to drugs and premarital sex? Keep coming to your congregation\u2019s worship gatherings every week? Or have you set your expectations higher than this?<\/p>\n
My hope and prayer for the children of my congregation is that by the time they are 18, they would all<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n
Yes, these are things that we as adults often struggle with, but shouldn\u2019t we want to train our children so that they might struggle with them significantly less<\/em> than we do?<\/p>\n
Then we need a plan.<\/p>\n
When hunters identify a target, they look down the scope of their gun to make sure that their aim is going to be as accurate as possible.<\/p>\n
Likewise, when we talk about the long-range teaching of students, we talk about the scope<\/strong> \u2013 the aim or purpose<\/em>, the end result \u2013 of this instruction. Scope<\/strong> also refers to the extent<\/em> or the range of the view<\/em>.\u00a0 We have a specific goal in mind, but that purpose may encompass a lot<\/em> of target points. When we define the scope of instruction, we identify all of those target points within our view.<\/p>\n
This means turning those broad goals you come up with into a lot of measurable objectives. Let\u2019s take the first goal I mentioned:<\/p>\n
This goal has a lot<\/em> of components. Here are some possible objectives:<\/p>\n
Upon graduating from the children\u2019s education program (PreK-12), students will be able to\u2026<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a stab at scoping out another goal:<\/p>\n
Here are some possible objectives:<\/p>\n
Upon graduating from the children\u2019s education program (PreK-12), students will be able to\u2026<\/p>\n
Remember, these are just a handful of the objectives that could be used to help flesh out some of these goals. The important thing is that there is a direct correlation between the objective and the overall goal\u2026and that the objective be observable<\/em>.<\/p>\n
The above objectives reflect what we might want our 18-year-old church members to be able to demonstrate.\u00a0 Not our 17-year-olds, but our 18-year-olds. Does that mean that 16-year-olds are off the hook and we are just going to spring all of these things on them when they turn 17? No\u2026it means they should be getting close.\u00a0 What about the 13-year-olds? Are they just being introduced to these concepts, too? No, they are also<\/em> getting close! And what about those 6-year-olds\u2026<\/p>\n
This is where the planning really gets fun\u2026at least in my opinion. We take the scope<\/strong>, and we break the objectives down into a logical progression of steps aka, a sequence<\/strong>. In education, you\u2019ll often see the phrase \u201cscope and sequence<\/strong>.” This phrase simply refers to a long-term plan to cover everything in a curriculum\u2019s scope.<\/p>\n
If this objective is sprung on an average 18-year-old who hasn\u2019t had practice sitting before the Lord, they will become distracted within 30 seconds and possibly fall asleep within 5 minutes. Confession: I know this from personal experience.<\/p>\n
Instead, we break this objective into stages. Let\u2019s say that your congregation groups children and youth into five ages: toddler\/pre-k, Grades K-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12.<\/p>\n
The objectives written in the grid in each column reflect what students should be able to do upon graduating from one age group to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n