I’ve been kicking this idea around in my head for several years, and now I’m getting keyed up enough to share it. While I like the idea of having teachers who are able to design and write their own lessons for teaching the Bible and other spiritual and doctrinal issues, the fact is, there are far too few who are able to do it well. Some simply don’t know enough about teaching to develop effective lessons that are approachable by diverse students. Others are so comfortable with their own learning and teaching styles that they refuse to change. More often than not, teachers don’t have the time to put into developing and teaching effective lessons. And with the increasing dearth of Bible knowledge, many more people simply refuse to teach because they don’t think they know enough.
Legitimate reasons or not, they’re real. So, I’d like to propose that uniform curriculum may be a reasonable solution to these problems. There are several good reasons why using the same curriculum in all adult Bible classes in a church setting will help the body of believers grow “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13, NIV).
- Uniform curriculum allows the church leaders to identify a purposeful plan for training all disciples to know God’s Word.
- Uniform curriculum from a publisher you trust reduces concerns about false teachings.
- Uniform curriculum reduces the amount of background research time needed to prepare for a lesson.
- Uniform curriculum allows the teacher to focus on preparing the lesson for a specific group of students.
- Uniform curriculum allows for the last-minute exchange, replacement, or substitution of teachers without losing continuity for the students and without last-minute preparatory scrambling by the teacher.
- Uniform curriculum removes the burden of choosing a Bible class based upon content.
- Uniform curriculum encourages class groupings to be more natural, based upon the age and stage of life of the students.
- Uniform curriculum enables students of varied measures of faith to interact, thus encouraging discipling relationships among students.