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About The Rotation.org "Writing Team"

WT-Logo1-180In addition to the thousands of publicly available lessons, ideas, and resources contributed by volunteers, two or three times a year we convene a group of Christian educators, teachers, and pastors to work together to produce a creative, broadly graded set of Sunday School lessons for one major Bible story.

We call them "The Writing Team."

Access to all of the Team's extra-creative lessons (in addition to everything in our free public forums) requires a Supporting Membership ($45).  Become a Supporting Member today!



People join the Team by invitation and typically come from many different denominational backgrounds and church experiences, including church staff and volunteers. The Team is led by Neil MacQueen, our resident creative lesson writing expert and one of the founders of the Rotation Model. Part of Neil's style is to encourage the brainstorming of new and exciting ways to teach. He also works individually with each writer helping them to expand their ability to write for others and meet WT lesson guidelines. Members of the Rotation.org Board read each Team's work and there's usually a director or two writing on each Team.


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Read: An Interview with the Writing Team Lead Writer

WT lesson plans are not "quickie story and craft" lessons for little kids.

WT lesson plans feature real art, do-able drama, games with life application, media, and new techniques. Each set includes lessons that explore new techniques and refresh tried-and-true ones. And each lesson has a level of detail, options, how-to, and "why-to" heretofore unseen in any other curriculum.

Each WT lesson set usually includes 6 different broadly-graded workshop-style lessons to choose from (art, drama, video, music, games, cooking, computer, etc), plus a teacher-friendly Bible Background.

WT lessons emphasize creativity, interactivity, and life application.

Most WT lessons are designed for 35-40 minute class times, with adaptations for older and younger students, and shorter and longer classes.

The WT's target audience is 2nd-4th grade, but each lesson comes with younger and older student adaptations.

Many of the WT's lessons are also easily adaptable for younger youth and intergenerational use.

While the lessons are primarily designed for Rotation-style workshop classrooms, our members using the traditional model (new story each week) also find our "WT" sets a great source of inspiration.

The Team's theological perspective is mainline and kid-friendly. Our writers are experienced Christian educators and teachers, and our process is collaborative and peer-reviewed. And of course, every lesson can easily be modified because they are digital.

WT Bible Story Scope and Sequence

The WT writes lessons for the "major" stories of the Bible. Our public forums have lesson plans and ideas for many of the Bible stories educators would consider "2nd tier." For example, our public forum has lesson resources on Samson but the WT doesn't consider Samson a "major" story for kids.

The Team's History, Present, and Exciting Future

From 2004 to 2013, a volunteer group of Christian educators posted over 250 Rotation-style creative lessons at Rotation.org.

From 2015 to 2018 we replaced those original lessons with lessons that were more creative, more detailed, better formatted, and had better age-range adaptations. This re-imagining and rewriting was led by Neil MacQueen and Luanne Payne.

In 2019, we began writing lesson sets on stories we had previously not worked on. At that time we also changed the Team's development process to include more training, more collaboration, and more creative and editorial leadership. Led by Lead Writer Neil MacQueen, the Team's goal is to grow great lessons and share creative lesson writing skills. Read this post if you're interested in joining the Team.

Want to see what a Writing Team lesson set looks like?

We've given everyone access to all the lessons in the Writing Team's

Jesus is Born! lesson set


Join the Team!
Read this post below about joining the Team.

Become a Supporting Member

...and get access to all the Writing Team's lesson sets!

Go to the WT's Old Testament lesson menu
  Go to the WT's New Testament lesson menu
See the Team's upcoming writing schedule 
Become a Supporting Member
and get access to all the Writing Team's lesson sets!
Learn about joining the Writing Team 

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WTLessonSetSOARWhat we did to replace the Writing Team's original 34 sets

Back in 2015, the Board of Directors undertook a review of the original volunteer Team's lesson sets from the early 2000's and decided to replace them with new sets that represented the Board's evolving standards for creativity and content.

After the original 34 sets were replaced, new Writing Teams began working under new guidelines and standards to write more new sets on other major Bible stories.

We appreciate the work of the original team which involved over 25 different writers over ten years. Their experiment in online lesson collaboration helped make the Team what it is today. One of the philosophies of the Rotation Model and strengths of being a web-enabled ministry is that WE CAN and SHOULD CHANGE and IMPROVE. And so we have.


Read: An Interview with the Writing Team Renovation Project's Lead Writer

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Want to Join the Writing Team?

Read the following, then email Neil at webmaster.rotation@gmail.com.

What is the Writing Team?

The Rotation.org Writing Team is a group of volunteer brainstormers, lesson plan writers, and editors who work together with our Lead Writer in a private forum here at Rotation.org to produce extra-creative Bible story lesson sets for Rotation.org's Supporting Members. It's a process designed to teach, challenge, and learn from each other -- whether you're new to lesson writing or experienced, church staff or volunteer. We look for friendly, creative, and open-minded people who love to teach Bible stories to kids in Sunday School. If that's you -- Read On

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A typical Writing Team has 6 people on it.

  • Including past Team members and one or two new writers.
  • A Board member or two
  • and Neil MacQueen our Lead Writer

It's a great way to "gain skills and give back" -- and also get to know some of the unique personalities and talents in the Rotation.org community.

How and when does it work?

Over a six-week period, the Writing Team discusses the story and Bible Background, brainstorms lesson ideas, and shares their lesson drafts with each other for feedback.

In addition to a Zoom meeting or two, most of our discussions take place in a private WT forum where we post back and forth during the days and weeks the Team is active. This allows Team members to participate on their own schedule.

  • New Team members are asked to review the Team's library of "how-to" and "how-not-to" articles, so they'll know what to expect and what we're looking for.
  • Writers work closely with each other and our Lead Writer to shape their lesson ideas and plans, and prepare a final draft.
  • Writers use a template to format their lessons with plenty of help from the Lead Writer and Editor who also help each writer with formatting, attachments, graphics, and creating any materials that need to be attached.
  • Sometimes a previous writer joins us as a "brainstormer" for the opening weeks.
  • Each Team also has an experienced Team volunteer serving as its Editor.

The time commitment is variable and designed to fit around each person's schedule. "Brainstorming Week" requires almost daily reading and replying in Team discussions (at a time of day convenient to you). Lesson drafting moves at a more leisurely pace depending on each writer's schedule and needs.

The Writing Team has a high bar for lesson ideas and writing that Team members, Lead Writer, and process will help you achieve. In addition to sharing your ideas and experience, you'll learn how others go about brainstorming and elevating their lesson, and gain insight into how to build a better lesson plan that connects activities to teaching objectives and life application.

Everyone's final draft goes through our Lead Writer and Editor's condensing and sharpening process.

Ready to join a Team or want to know more?

Email Neil MacQueen at webmaster.rotation@gmail.com.

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About the Writing Team Bible Backgrounds

Each Bible Background is written by our Lead Writer,* then discussed, improved, and approved by our Board of Directors. Each Writing Team also discusses the Bible Background and often their suggestions are included in the final version.

Our Bible Backgrounds are written to inspire volunteer teachers, illuminate key insights, increase their Bible knowledge without being dry and academic, and provide vocabulary and teaching points that can be directly shared in the classroom.

Rotation.org's theological tone and editorial POV is set by the Board of Directors and reflects the Rotation Model's origin and leadership which originated from "mainline" Protestant churches (PCUSA, UMC, ELCA, UCC, etc.). It is a Rotation Model philosophy that creative teaching is non-denominational, and that every church is responsible for adapting lesson content to meet its teaching needs. Our Bible Backgrounds will often reflect a modern understanding of scripture and an inclusive, non-judgmental view of faith that we think is especially appropriate for teaching children.

Our Background are more than "just talk." They actively guide our writers and inform each Team's creative decisions, Indeed, you can often draw a straight line from key concepts in a Bible Background to the creative activities found in the lesson plans.

See our article: "How to Write a Bible Background"

*Currently, our Lead Writer is Neil MacQueen, a Presbyterian minister

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