I once started a position at a church and was handed a list of leaders’ names and curriculums “I needed to order for them,” on my first Sunday. Each leader from each age group had chosen their own curriculum, and it was like the time of the Judges, and “everyone did as they saw fit” (Judges 17:6).
When I introduced the end to this madness, people were not so quick to get on board. Anytime change is made, people begin to fear what they will lose in the change, so it wasn’t so much about a new curriculum, but about the loss they were experiencing by not doing a curriculum they had become accustomed to.
It was a process to move people into a place where not only were they ready to begin to hear the benefits, but they would eventually see the curriculum we were using as a piece of the bigger picture of our overall mission.
Whether you are starting a new year of Wonder Ink or you are starting a new curriculum in Wonder Ink, chances are you will have the opportunity to do some training with your leaders to help them feel enthusiastic and confident in what they will be teaching. Equipping your volunteers to lead a curriculum with intentionality means we do more than just hand them a lesson plan. We cast a vision for their role as disciple-makers of children, who are communicating truth from God’s Big Story and modeling what it looks like to be known, loved, and led as a disciple of Jesus.
Here are some intentional moves you can make as you train your volunteers for Wonder Ink.
Cast a vision for their role as disciple-makers of children, who are communicating truth from God’s Big Story and modeling what it looks like to be known, loved, and led as a disciple of Jesus.
Layer the vision.
Start with your ministry mission statement, and be sure to cast a vision for what you are aiming to do as a ministry. If this is the foundation of your training, your leaders are more likely to engage with the content of the curriculum. Remember, they didn’t sign up to serve because they looked at Wonder Ink and thought, “I really want to teach this curriculum!”
They likely raised their hand to serve because they want to help children become followers of Jesus! Starting your training with a reminder of why we are all here gets everyone on the same page, moving in the same direction.
The next layer of your training can then be the core values that form Wonder Ink: God Knows Me, Jesus Loves Me, The Holy Spirit Leads Me, and I am a Child of God. If your foundation has been laid in your church or ministry mission statement, then these values become the four pillars that provide support for what you ultimately want to see in each child’s life.
As your leaders hear you unpack these truths, they will also begin to fall in love with the why behind what you are doing, and even when they may not appreciate something in the curriculum, they will be able to see and understand why it would support your mission of making disciples. The weekly declaration becomes a battle cry of a generation becoming followers of Jesus, and your leaders will be ready to follow you into that battle!
Starting your training with a reminder of why we are all here gets everyone on the same page, moving in the same direction.
Once your volunteers have the compelling vision of what your “end game” is, a child walking into middle school would be a disciple who knows they are a Child of God, known by God, loved by Jesus, and led by the Holy Spirit, it’s time to help their heads follow their hearts.
If you start with the why, and fill in the how, your volunteers will be ready to teach any lesson you send them!
Fill in the how.
The theological guideposts of Wonder Ink become the walls around those pillars (see them in the Scope & Sequence). Help your leaders to understand what they will see in every lesson, so they can anticipate and look for the specific ways these guideposts will work out in the age groups they work with.
These guideposts can help your leaders to see what is gained from Wonder Ink, rather than thinking about what might be lost in moving into a new curriculum, and can be a refocusing as you cast an annual vision for your mission.
- God’s Big Story
All of Scripture is one narrative, nothing stands alone, and it all points to God’s plan for redemption. - The Hope of the Gospel
Every story is framed in the hope of the gospel, and the invitation of salvation through Christ alone. - The People of Scripture
The people of Scripture are real people who lived real lives, just like you and me. - Biblical Language
Biblical language is explained in the context of Scripture, giving kids words and a vocabulary which will shape their faith as they build levels of understanding. - Our Identity
We have this confident hope in Jesus, which shapes our identity. When we teach kids the truth of God’s Word, it will give our kids a picture of who God is, which should help them to have confidence in their identity as a child of God!
Give the structure.
This is the time in your training when you actually pull out a lesson and lead your volunteers through it. They should be excited to see a lesson, after you have layered the vision and filled in the “how.” Now it’s time to see what this actually looks like.
Start at the beginning, pointing out the Invitation for leaders to focus their hearts on what they are about to teach, and the Foundation Building Blocks, which set the stage biblically for each lesson.
While it’s easy for leaders to skip right to the lesson, these resources will set them up for success, preparing them for the Word and giving the context, both devotionally and theologically, for what they will be teaching. To emphasize the importance of these resources, you might want to specifically send them in a weekly text or email, or walk through them each week in your team huddle before service.
The structure of each lesson brings the freedom to confidently adapt as needed each week, so give your volunteers an understanding of the organization of the weekly lessons. Consistency in weekly schedule and format also gives the kids the freedom of knowing that what comes next in the schedule will generally stay the same, so they can wonder about God’s Word, not about how the service time will run.
Though you may adjust the elements within each section, each lesson will contain:
- Curiosity
Help your volunteers to see how piquing the kids’ curiosity about the lesson will keep them alert for the Wonder Truth. - Belief
Show them how allowing the kids to see, hear, and experience God’s Word will give different learning styles an opportunity to connect with it. - Faith
This is the section the majority of your volunteers want to know about, because they want to see that they are being set up to engage kids in God’s Word in an interpersonal way. - Identity
I would challenge you to walk your volunteers through the actual experience of an Identity section, giving them opportunity to respond and be blessed. This experience will bring home and connect the foundation of your layers of vision, and the weight bearing pillars of the core values.
Once your volunteer team hears, sees, and experiences the vision and structure of Wonder Ink in training, they will be prepared and excited for your journey through God’s Big Story with the kids he has entrusted to you!
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.
