At GCP, we’ve had the distinct pleasure to work with creative and innovative educators from all over the world. One teacher that we’ve worked with for many years is Sue Jakes. She is the Director of Children’s ministry at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville, Georgia. Like many educators in the churches we serve, she is constantly striving to help children know Jesus.
Several years ago, the Covenant Presbyterian church leadership interviewed young adults that had grown up in their church. According to Sue, these young people said they were well doctrinated, but did not feel they had enough practice using what they had learned. Though being in church for years, these teens felt ill-equipped to share their beliefs with others.
This encouraged Covenant Presbyterian to focus in a new direction. They began to more intentionally incorporate teenagers, as young as 6th graders, into teaching in the younger Sunday school classes. To get started, Sue began training the church leadership and parents on the importance of getting the teens involved. Then, she set up Summer training for the teens so they could practice helping the teachers in class and also to give the year-round teachers a break.
To this day, Sue uses five key steps in her training:
1. The teen is given one GCP curriculum lesson to prepare.
2. The teen practices teaching the lesson to his/her peers.
3. The teen goes into the classroom to work with and watch the teacher.
4. The teen takes a section of the lesson and shares teaching time with the main teacher.
5. The teen teaches the lesson and the teacher watches.
Sue told us that as these teenagers teach the Bible “they begin to use the rhetoric of their education.” Do you want this for the children in your church? GCP’s curriculum is designed to be teacher friendly, so that even teens can teach the story of God’s redemption as he reveals it to us from beginning to end.
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