InternationalMinister.com

One of the primary tasks for international congregations, churches and house groups and their staff including pastors (besides worship) is appropriate Christian education —- particularly for children. Building faithful and active Christian disciples of all ages is a constant mission — thus a challenge. Not only is there the usual “issues” that confront all pastors and staff such as providing thoughtful and helpful insights to the Bible to encourage and admonish a young member’s faith life, but we have the challenge of appropriate Christian material.

Of course, it is not the issue of scripture, rather it is in helpful guides and other Christian material that supplements scripture that may or may not be appropriate for children of international churches, congregations and house groups.

What are some questions to consider when reviewing
Children’s Christian Educational Material?

Does the material demand a high level of reading?

A large amount of reading in English may not be suitable or appropriate for younger Christians in an international setting especially where more than one language is used at home. Children may have a good grasp of a spoken language but not be able to read well in English. Also, if an international church has a number of children from the local host culture whose parents want their children to hear the good news of Jesus Christ (or learn English) their reading level may not be appropriate for the material. Some international congregations have solved this problem by having a “bilingual” Sunday school program for example. That may solve one problem — language — but it opens up other problems, for example, finding suitable bilingual Sunday school material. There is also the task of finding Sunday school staff that can teach in other languages besides English!

Does the material have unsuitable cultural references?

Although there may be Christian education material for children forgotten in closets with pictures that are — we now know — racist, it is rare to find any that is for sale. Rather, Sunday school staffs of international churches need to be careful because more subtle cultural references may be simply confusing because they do not fit in the experiences and lives of the children. For example, one set of materials for junior high aged youth with which I had success in the United States, I found became increasingly irrelevant when reviewed it in my international congregation. The questions made references to TV shows, movies and games that many of the junior high school members had either never seen or perhaps not understood in the same way. Furthermore, the material made reference to a child’s life in schools and home to make the questions relevant for American students, but was lost on my group.

These two questions referenced above are the primary two that may or may be obvious but are ones I have learned the hard way — not to say also expensive mistakes. Some issues are simply irritating but can be adapted … for example the material that assumed copying on “letter” sized copy paper rather than A-4 … and therefore had to be decreased in size, cut and pasted and then copied.

What children’s Christian educational material have you found that works in your setting and why?