Earlier this year our staff came under a common conviction that our Sunday School had become too fragmented and too spread out in terms of what the classes of Central Baptist Church were teaching. It wasn’t that our classes weren’t teaching good material. All of it was based in Scripture and theologically orthodox. However, after so many years of having such a lack of cohesion, we thought it would be good for our classes to come together around a common theme and purpose. We chose The Gospel Project (TGP) curriculum as the point around which we would gather.
We were attracted to the metanarrative approach that TGP takes as well as the robust theological components in the project. I really liked the historical emphasis in some of the sidebar quotations as well as the panoply of voices from the church that is likewise present in the material. It seemed to me that such elements exhibited an intentional pushback against what theologian Tom Oden has called “neophilia,” “chronological snobbery,” or “the love of the new.” I have long chafed at the a-historical hubris of much free church Protestantism. The Gospel Project emphasis on the greater church, recent and ancient, is a breath of fresh air.
We told our teachers that we wanted all of our classes to teach TGP material for the Fall of 2013 and the Spring of 2014. This year-long journey would give us an opportunity to get on the same page, build unity, combat any isolationist impulses within our classes (and I quickly add that we saw no overt evidence of such – we just knew that this was a real threat if classes do not come together around a common theme ever so often), and advance biblical and theological education. Overall, we saw this as an opportunity to insure that the whole arc of scripture was being taught.
We were assisted greatly in this effort by David Bond of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. David came when we first proposed the idea to our teachers at a special called meeting (at which dinner was provided for our teachers) and he came twice more to teach our teachers how to approach the curriculum. This was key and, as a pastor who also teaches Sunday School, was helpful to me as well.
To further assist in this effort, I announced that I would be stopping my Sunday evening sermon series through Exodus and would, for the coming Fall and Spring, preach on the primary TGP texts from that morning’s lesson. In this way, we could bookend every Sunday with the same lesson. Furthermore, I would have an opportunity to speak to all of our classes about what we had studied.
Last Sunday was the first Sunday we did this and we were very pleased. The reactions to TGP have been strong and positive. The feedback from my addressing that morning’s text in the evening service has likewise been positive. We are very excited about this effort and what the Lord is going to do in and through it. TGP is well-written, substantive, appropriately challenging, and God-honoring. Check it out, if you haven’t yet done so.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not praise our Sunday School teachers. This was a big thing to ask of them, and a different kind of thing to boot. They accepted it in a way that still causes me to marvel. If you would like to gauge the maturity of your church, try a Sunday School-wide change and see what happens. Our teachers showed a willingness to trust and try something new that is tragically lacking in too many churches. I am proud of them all, and of our folks. It is amazing watching God do something among His people.
