. . . Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14)
This site is a virtual treasure chest full of valuable Children's Ministry lessons. There are over 300 lessons that include games, craft ideas, and teaching aids — enough material for several years of teaching.
All this material is free of charge so you can use and share it with others as much as you want. Just keep in mind, you can reproduce and distribute this material, but you cannot copyright or sell it under any circumstance whatsoever.
Note: All the material is provided in Adobe® PDF format. You will need the Acrobat Reader to open and download any file. If you don't already have the free Acrobat Reader, you can download it here.
What's different about this curricula as distinct from so many other Sunday school curricula available from commercial sources? It is designed to teach children the Bible chronologically.
I passionately believe children need to learn the context of the Bible stories they're taught in Sunday school. Too often, children's ministry curricula teach topics such as faithfulness or trust and they springboard from one familiar Bible story to another — from Noah and the ark, then to Jesus feeding the 5000, then to Daniel in the lion's den, then on to Jonah in the belly of the whale, and so forth. The problem with this kind of teaching is that children can miss the context of the story and how it fits into God's big picture of redemption.
These lessons are designed to give students a survey of the Bible and reinforce the idea that its 66 books are woven together into the single story of God's plan of redemption.
By quickly glancing at the navigation links, you can see how the material is arranged to give students the big picture of God's story. I begin with a Bible survey covering an introduction to the Bible and its overall contents.
Following the general Bible survey, the Old Testament survey begins with Creation which covers the first 11 chapters of Genesis, then it moves to series on the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), followed by series on Moses, Joshua, the Period of the Judges, the Kings of Israel, the Prophets (major and minor), the Return of the Exiles from captivity, the Psalms, and the Proverbs.
The New Testament survey covers the Life of Christ chronologically, from birth to ascension. Then moves to a series on the Early Church in the book of Acts.
Once the foundation of God's redemptive plan is laid through the individual surveys, you can then move onto other topics, such as the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the 23rd Psalm, and so on.
I have designed these expository Bible lessons to enable you to systematically teach the Bible to children as a planned, connected study of the Word. The idea is to have the kids read the passages in their Bibles and the teacher explain the scriptures and give good practical applications that are age-appropriate. My primary goal is to ensure children are taught sound doctine and they learn that God's Word is exciting and meaningful, and that teachers teach sound doctrine!
Even though I've scripted the lessons, I don't expect teachers to read my lesson materials verbatim to the children as they teach. My lessons are meant to provide the details teachers need to get background information and some suggestions for child-oriented personal application. Once you know and understand the Bible lessons for yourself, you'll be more confident to teach your class.
You can download any individual lesson or you can download a complete book containing all the lessons within a particular series, including a Manual Cover, the Forward, and Schedule. This makes it handy to print and provide a teacher's manual for each person on the teaching schedule.
The two-column layout of these lessons is designed so that you can copy and cut the pages in half to fit into your Bible. When children observe that you are teaching out of the Bible, rather than from a curriculum book, it validates God's Word and gives your teaching more authority.
Not every lesson has a suggested craft or game idea to fit with the main lesson objectives. For the lessons without these, be sure to see Tips and Tricks - Making Children's Bible Lessons Come to Life which has lots of suggestions for activities that will help reinforce your lesson objectives and teach the memory verse.
Tips and Tricks has good material for training new teachers. It has ideas on how to prepare a lesson, how to present a lesson, what to do about discipline, how to use visual aids and puppets, as well as ideas on games, crafts, object lessons, and so forth.
I have also provided some ideas for teaching pre-school children that you can find by navigating to the Teacher Resources tab. And, don't miss the information in the Frequently Asked Questions.
Please let me know what you think about the lessons. I'm always open to suggestions for improvement. Contact me at: ccuv-ChildrensMinistry@usa.net
I pray that you will use these lessons for the glory of God. I'm sure you will find this site to be a useful resource to help bring each and every child in your care into a deeper personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. It brings joy to my heart knowing that the Sunday school curriculum materials that the Lord has been leading me to write over the past number of years will bring honor to Him.
Sheila Scroggins
Read Sheila's story.