Growing up in a family that loved to help plant churches had many benefits. From an early age, my siblings and I saw the body of Christ in action week after week. We got to help set up or take down Sunday school classrooms, got to know the new babies in our congregation as well as the couples who were grandparents, and we got to break bread with our entire church every week. While I gained so much from this experience, one thing I missed out on was a broader recollection of biblical stories and truths.
Since my sister and I made up about half of our age group, there wasn’t consistent Sunday school teaching or curriculum in place. Our lessons, topics, and leaders bounced around. Now, when I read from the children’s Bible to my daughter, I often think, “I forgot about this story!” or even, “I don’t remember this one.”
The stories that did stick from my childhood were the ones repeated. I remember the stories my dad would read us in our children’s Bible before bed, the ones we’d ask for over and over: of the tower of Babel, of Moses, and of Jesus turning water to wine. I remember the story of Zacchaeus because of the catchy song we sang at church and at preschool. I remember the story of Adam and Eve because of how mmy mom further explained it to me one Sunday.
My story is proof that repetition helps truths remain. It’s also proof of why consistent curriculum matters—and why repeating truths at different times and in different ways matters, too. There are many benefits to repeating curriculum throughout the week to kids. Here are a few!
When we repeat, they remember.
Repeating Children’s Ministry Lessons
1.Repetition moves what’s learned on Sunday or Wednesday into long-term memory.
Think back to being in school. What are some things you remember? For me, it’s the Preamble, because we sang a song in fifth grade to memorize it. Or how to write a paragraph, because we weren’t just taught it; our third-grade class also created pieces of art that displayed the elements of a paragraph and hung them in the hallway.
In school, you repeat an idea until you really know it. Sunday school and church gatherings should be the same.
Research on memory formation consistently shows that learning becomes more durable through repeated retrieval and reactivation—not just from one-time exposure. Thus, a child in your ministry who hears about the resurrection on Sunday morning and again on Wednesday night is not simply hearing the same lesson twice.
He or she is strengthening the neural network associated with comprehending this truth. Children naturally learn through repetition, which strengthens long-term memory. A biblical truth presented just once won’t stick as much as one repeated multiple times.
2. Kids aren’t always present for the lesson.
Between illnesses and vacations, kids are not always able to hear what’s taught on Sunday mornings. Repeating a lesson in a different way at a midweek gathering reminds kids of what was taught on Sunday—whether they made it to Sunday school or not.
Wonder Ink’s 3-year, 52-week children’s ministry curriculum offers kids space to fully find their place in God’s Big Story. Children discover they are Known by God, Loved by Jesus, and Led by the Holy Spirit.
3. Kids learn in different ways.
God’s truth doesn’t change. But depending on a child’s needs, the ways he or she grasps truth does. Some kids are auditory learners. Others are kinesthetic learners. Some are visual learners. This is why repeating curriculum for midweek gatherings matters: kids with different learning styles gain a better understanding of the lesson, too.
Wonder Ink offers many ways to reach different learners at different ministry programming opportunities. Some Wonder Ink users utilize the weekly Bonus Games on Wednesday nights. Others add in hands-on activities from the Wonder@Home sheet, the Coloring Pages, or the Bible Story Pictures.
The Bible Story Pictures offer a great way for kids to retell the Bible story in their own words, too. There’s also the live teaching script, the Bible Story Video, and the Tac the Cat skit that can be flexibly implemented into your lessons each week to both meet the needs of different learners and reinforce what’s been taught from God’s Word. While kids don’t learn in the same ways, they all benefit from truths being repeated in different ways.
In school, you repeat an idea until you really know it.
Sunday school and church gatherings should be the same.
4. Repetition goes deeper than memory.
When lessons are repeated, we remember—and not just in our heads, but in our hearts.
This summer, our church is memorizing Psalm 23, and I realized the other day (to my great surprise) that I actually already had it memorized. I’m not great at Scripture memory, but this Psalm is one I turned to again and again as my husband and I prayed for God to give us children. Apparently, I turned to it so many times that the whole Psalm actually stuck.
Before I had it fully memorized, though, I was sitting in the emergency room and praying that God would prevent me from having yet another miscarriage. I remembered just five words from this Psalm: “for you are with me” (verse 4). I said them over and over in my head and felt the Lord give me peace until the doctor returned with a hopeful report. In my darkest seasons, repetition has changed everything.
That’s exactly why repeating truths matters. When we repeat, they remember. And in moments when kids desperately need a reminder of who God is, having truths stored in their hearts couldn’t be more important.
