As some of you may remember from a July 2005 post, I have long been dissatisfied with the Southern Baptist's Sunday School literature for children. I finally made the switch to Desiring God's Literature for Children at the beginning of the school year and I LOVE IT. Several others who teach children in our church have looked at it and are interested in possibly making the switch as well-- which is very encouraging to my heart. Here's what I like about the new material: 1. It's Chronological. The SBC literature hopped around like a fly at a picnic. One month we'd study Old Testament prophets and the next we'd study Jesus' life as a boy. There was no rhyme or reason to it. With Desiring God- the children will study the entire Old Testament, IN ORDER, this year and then we'll move on to the New Testament next year. 2. The Coloring Book. SBC literature abounded in cute but complicated craft, which meant that I spent more time (some weeks)preparing the craft than on meditating on the Scriptures. DG provides a coloring book for each student. At the end of the year, each child will have his own completed coloring book to take home that chronicles every story in the Old Testament. Even now, they love looking back through their coloring books and retelling the stories. I usually jazz it up by having something to glue on the page each week. For example, we cut out serpents to glue onto everyone's page the week we studied Genesis 3. The week we studied the Tower of Babel, each child was given several little colored "bricks" to glue onto his tower. We used silver glitter when we studied God's covenant promise to Abraham. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow when we study Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of stew. (Maybe some cut-out vegetables to put in the bowl of stew???) 3. The Emphasis. The SBC literature was constantly trying to draw lessons of application that were not appropriate. Sometimes the lessons were not even Biblical (i.e. out of context.) For example, the week that we studied the Feeding of the 5,000 in John 6, what do you think the curriculum's emphasis should have been? Well, I for one, am blown away by the awesome MIRACLE that our Lord could take 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes and feed 5,000 men plus their wives and children! But Lifeway decided that the main emphasis of the day would not be the awesome power of God but rather... SHARING. "The boy shared his lunch and you should share too." The Bible does teach generosity, but folks, John 6 ain't the text. Another example was the morning we read in Exodus 1 about Jochabed hiding her baby Moses by the banks of the Nile. Sister Miriam was sent to ensure his safety, which she did and did well. SBC decided that the theme of the day would be "Miriam was a Good Helper." Again, service is Biblical and good and required, but not really the theme of Exodus 1-2. Of course, I took the text and taught what I wanted (God is faithful, God is merciful, God is loving and gracious and ALMIGHTY and SOVEREIGN.) But I eventually got tired of weeding through their sub-par material, and even more tired of PAYING for it. (It's very expensive.) Well, there's another rant from my soap-box. May God bless the SBC as many have chosen to stay on the "slippery slope" (ala Charles Spurgeon) and endeavor to reform. And may God bless our many dear brothers who couldn't stand another minute of it and have, as our separatist brothers of long ago, decided to depart and build His Kingdom elsewhere.