New Faith Case teaches kids fundamental truths
By Sharon Jones
Gospel Publishing House, in partnership with the AG Trust, announces the release of its newest curriculum, Faith Case: Investigating the Truth. This 12-week children’s church program is designed to teach the 16 Fundamental Truths of the Assemblies of God to kids in first through sixth grades and includes DVD interaction and unforgettable characters.
At the 2008 National Children’s Pastors’ Conference in North Little Rock, Arkansas, Dr. George O. Wood, general superintendent, met with a group of children’s pastors to discover what resources they were looking for. The children’s pastors agreed they needed a way to teach the fundamental truths in a way kids would understand and enjoy. Wood immediately committed the AG Trust to fund the project.
Rod Loy, senior pastor at First Assembly in North Little Rock, Arkansas, coordinated the project. “I used to be a children’s pastor and still miss teaching kids on a regular basis. Working with the children’s pastors and listening to them brainstorm ideas was a lot of fun. The curriculum is super-high quality — the videos are amazing!”
GPH intentionally tested the lessons to make sure the material works not only for the leaders, but also hits home with kids. McKenzie, a nine-year-old involved in the pilot, looked forward to the interaction with the DVD characters and is ready to use Faith Case materials again!
Faith Case includes a parent/child review (called the Case Summary). Janet, a mom, says, “[T]he Case Summary made it easy for me to review the Faith Cases [sessions] with my daughter. Plus, I learned some things about the truths, too!”
One fun “dilemma” discovered as Faith Case was previewed is that kids wanted to see the videos more than once. The solution? Every take home paper includes a password so kids can go online and access the videos and watch them online as many times as they would like. In addition, as children miss a week of church throughout the program, a take home paper can be sent to them and kids can go online and stay current with the course.
“I’m praying this gives Faith Case kids everywhere an opportunity to show the videos to unchurched family and friends at home and in school,” says Julie Horner, GPH Research and Development director. “This is a level of technology I could never have provided as a volunteer working in a small church.”
The entire Faith Case team — children’s pastors, the AG Trust and GPH — is excited for this curriculum to be a success. Loy said, “It’s exciting to work on a project with a first-class team with high standards for work. Everyone on the team ... has been wonderful to work with.”
Horner agrees. “I believe we developed a better resource through the partnership.... While we could have made a direct replacement for Foundations For Faith, the sixth grade doctrine course, we all knew kids today need to understand what they believe at a much younger age.”
For more information, visit www.faithcase.com or stop by the bookstore in the Exhibit Hall.