Photo by La-Rel Easter on Unsplash.

Last March, the PCA’s Committee for Discipleship Ministries received a grant to retool its“Teach Me To Worship” children’s curriculum. Originally developed in 2015, the program was meant to equip families and churches to disciple and integrate their children into corporate worship. The new project, dubbed “Teach Us To Worship,” will focus on updating the curriculum into a customizable tool for families and churches. CDM officially began work on the project on January 16; they expect the entire project to be complete within 5 years.

Laney Stayton, the newly-appointed project coordinator, has a detailed task before her. Teach Me to Worship outlines the elements of a Reformed worship service — a call to worship, prayer and praise, hearing God’s Word, sacraments, and benediction — and teaches children why we do what we do. “It slows down and helps the kids understand what’s going on in the service,” Stayton says.

Though the content has great potential, CDM has found through talking to children’s ministry volunteers that Teach Me To Worship isn’t as user friendly as it could be. “We want it to be a curriculum that any type of volunteer with any amount of experience can, when it’s in their hands, easily access the objectives or the overview – and make it easier to use on a Sunday morning. ” says Stayton.

Stayton also hopes to make Teach Me To Worship better suited for younger age groups. Though the curriculum is aimed at children ages 4 to 7, the current offering might be too much content for young children. “We have those 2, 3, and 4 year-olds in mind, and want to make it easily adaptable to those age groups as well,” she says.

Though the content has great potential, CDM has found through talking to children’s ministry volunteers that Teach Me To Worship isn’t as user friendly as it could be.

CDM also plans to add a Spanish translation of Teach Me To Worship and a version for kids with disabilities and special needs. “In that way, it helps us think about how we’re incorporating all our different age groups and stages within the church, and helping them all know how to worship,” Stayton said.

One large element of the new project will be the creation of a home-use portion which can be used in family worship. “As we’re doing that, the child gets reinforcement in two ways — from learning in the classroom with the curriculum, and with their parents who are guiding them at home. That’s our hope — to equip parents and come alongside them as they bring their children up in the Lord,” Stayton says.

There are a few missing elements from the original version that CDM will be adding, including a unit on the confession of sin. The new curriculum will be in a digital format, allowing Sunday school teachers and volunteers to choose the units in the order that works best for them.

Katie Flores, CDM’s children’s ministry coordinator, says the updates will add a degree of nimbleness to Teach Me To Worship. “Let’s say your confession of faith is more towards the beginning of the service; you might want to have that part in the beginning of your lesson instead of the middle, or if your kids are in the main service for that portion of it, you can bypass it altogether and focus on the reading of the Word,” she said.

In the first two years of the overhaul CDM intends to revamp the existing curriculum, and in the next three years to produce programs for different groups like Spanish speakers and special needs children.

The curriculum opens with a call to worship unit, which comes from Psalm 95:6-7: “Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for He is our God. We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.” This is a key verse for the Teach Us To Worship project. “That really was a foundational thought for developing this entire program,” Flores adds, “what we’re teaching our children is, ‘Come, let us worship.’ We were created for something bigger than ourselves; we were created for eternity.”