"While we're on the subject of change...." By Neil MacQueen

An article published in Presbyterian Outlook Magazine, an independent weekly serving the P.C.U.S.A. September 1997

Is Sunday School in a time warp or what? Few things have changed so little and are ailing so much in our denomination. There are places where Sunday School is already starting to die out without so much as an amendment or mention in the Layman.

Note to denomination builders: Presbyterians do a lousy job of evangelizing on street corners. Note to Marj: "C.E., C.E., C.E". --Our kids are a mission field too. Memo to Higher and Theological Education lobbyists: contributions and students won't come from people who aren't there. Large sign with blinking lights to Witherspoon C.E. staffers: The Emperor has no clothes.

Enough complaining. For the past seven years, a growing number of churches across our denomination have been experimenting with a new way of doing Sunday School called The Workshop Rotation Model. You haven't heard about it because there isn't any curriculum to sell.

"We weren't trying to invent a new model, we were just trying to solve our problems," said Melissa Hansche, D.C.E. at the Presbyterian Church of Barrington, one of the churches in the Chicago Presbytery where the model got its start. What problems is she talking about? Bored kids and teachers, declining attendance and Bible literacy, drab classrooms, expensive curriculum, poor teacher preparation, teacher recruitment trouble, (your problem here). It is one of the worst kept secrets in the Church, that and a spreading belief that traditional Sunday School has outlived its usefulness, if it ever worked at all. (Memo to Research Services: Where are all those kids we had in our Sunday Schools back in the so-called "good old days" of the 50's and 60's? They're at home reading the Sunday paper or out on the soccer fields.) "Like a lot of other churches in our Presbytery, we knew we had to do something and soon." said Hansche. "And we knew that one more 'new and improved' curriculum wasn't the answer either. Been there, done that."

Here's the Workshop Rotation Model in a nutshell: Teach major Bible stories and concepts through kid-friendly multimedia workshops: an Art workshop, Drama, Music, Games, A-V, Puppets, Storytelling, Computers, and any other educational media you can get your hands on. Teach the same Bible story in all of the workshops for four or five weeks rotating the kids to a different workshop each week. And here comes the extremely teacher friendly part: Have the same teacher in each workshop for all five weeks teaching the same lesson week after week to the different classes coming in. The results, says Linda Beckham, D.C.E. at Tampa's Palma Ceia Church are astounding. "The kids love it, the teachers love it, and we can't ever imagine going back to the old way." Hey, Don Griggs loves the model....end of endorsements.

Here's why it works: The Workshop Rotation Model concentrates on the major stories of the Bible over and over again. It eschews the popular but educationally unsound new lesson each week lectionary approach to curriculum currently in fashion among curriculum writers. The model's philosophy recognizes that kids not only love repetition, but they need it to develop a lasting memory and understanding of content. The multi-intelligences approach in the model isn't a fad or merely kid-friendly, it is calculated to take advantage of our student's God-given thirst for multi-modal learning. Traditional designs have long attempted to teach through multimedia, but their frenetic lessons with six or more different steps, a game, a craft, Bible study and music all in 45 minutes left our teachers breathless. And few had the gifts to teach in each mode properly.

The model also emphasizes teacher repetition. By the second week of the rotation, the teacher is already improving the original lesson plan for the next class. No more "if I only would have...." in the parking lot after class. No more Saturday night planning. No more recruitment hassles, --teachers are happy to sign up for five week rotations. And because the teacher is assigned to teach in the creative mode they are comfortable with, the teaching and learning experience are enriched. No more lectures and music cassettes still in their cellophane wrappers, no more overused worksheets, or fumbling popsicle stick Jesus' crafts.

The Model also buries the beige and boring classroom in a blizzard of creative kid-oriented design. It says we're teaching kids, not cons, and we want them to come back. In Barrington, the A-V room has theater seats and a popcorn machine. In Park Ridge Illinois, part of the Bible Skills and Games workshop is built like an ancient synagogue. The Palatine Illinois church holds one of their workshops in a large "Scripture Tent," with floor cushions instead of folding chairs. Many of those who visit Workshop churches say the design looks and feels a lot like Vacation Bible School, only more permanent. And why not? VBS is one of the most successful educational models the Church has ever created.

There is no curriculum to buy, prompting one denominational publisher to describe it as "the third rail for curriculum publishers." Instead, in a fit of connectionalism, educators are calling each other and saying "I'll trade you my Moses rotation for your Ruth, and do you have any good art projects for the Prodigal Son?" Churches are gleaning from each other. They're digging into their stockpiles of creative materials and hitting their resource centers. In-house "design teams" composed of a minister, elders and C.E. leaders provide the educational and theological backbone. Together they help shape the simple but creative lesson plans and then count on the teacher to improve on them each week. Unlike earlier models which fell by the weight of their planning, this model is proving easier to implement and maintain. Because each workshop uses essentially the same lesson plan for about five weeks in a row, every week isn't a production.

A website on the Internet for the model is under development. The site will feature the model manual, complete rotation lesson plans, a resource directory and a creative ideas area for each workshop, all of which can be printed out for free. "All along one of the strengths of this model has been the willingness of churches to share with each other. We believe that the grassroots co-oping of resources and lesson materials is a vivid manifestation of the connectional nature we have professed for so long," says Hansche.

The growing success of the model underscores several important issues in the education debate. First, the model demonstrates a viable alternative to "one size fits all" curriculum design. It is not more of the same by another name. Second, the existence of many small churches using the model challenges a commonly held belief that small congregations are curriculum dependent. Third, the model seriously addresses the underlying problems of Sunday School and offers practical solutions. Finally, the model's co-operative impulse in combination for the first time with a truly connectionalism medium the Internet, is pioneering a new way of resourcing each other that is, surprise! -- less expensive. This emerging resource paradigm represents a potential challenge to the very foundation of the curriculum publishing establishment.

In a time of great challenges for our denomination, it is prophetic that a couple of hundred churches didn't need Arthur Anderson to tell them what worked, what didn't and what needed to be done.

For more information about the Workshop Rotation Model, visit the website under construction at http://www.rotation.org send email to: neilmacq@aol.com Or call the author at 614/457-9518.

Neil MacQueen is a Presbyterian minister in Columbus Ohio and founder of Sunday School Software Ministries. It was while serving as the Associate Minister at the Presbyterian Church of Barrington Illinois that he and others in the Chicago area developed the Workshop Rotation Model.