A new children’s Sabbath School curriculum is coming!
July 21, 2024 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Nina Atcheson
Our world has never been glitzier, more tempting, or more confusing for our children than it is right now. Every day different messages bombard us about what we should want and fill our minds with, how we should spend our time, and where our worth is—yet very little of this is grounded in the One who created us; the One who has a plan and a future for our children. As a parent of teenagers, I see the battle rage over the minds and hearts of my children. Perhaps you do too.
As a mother, my daily prayer is for my children to have their own walk with God—for faith to be alive and real to them. If you’re a parent or grandparent, I’m sure you’ve also prayed for this. Like me, perhaps you’ve wondered: God is working, but is there more I can do to raise children who know and love Him?
Over the years I’ve seen God answer my prayer as my children grow in Him. I see them choose to spend time with God because they really want to. I’ve observed how time with Him steadies them as nothing else can. I see them grow in knowledge and conviction as they think deeply about their faith. It makes my heart glad to see they have a burden to share God and our unique Seventh-day Adventist message with others. But although my husband and I have always tried to make family worship a meaningful, vibrant part of our days, it hasn’t always been easy to find age-appropriate, accessible resources that purposefully build a love for Jesus and His living Word.
As our world heaves and groans, I believe it’s time to be even more purposeful with the next generation—to build a love for Jesus and a strong knowledge of the timeless truths in His Word. Perhaps you’ve seen the data and know there’s a shallow understanding in our young people about some of our most basic doctrines. For our children to live well at this time in earth’s history, they need more.
I believe now is the time for us to focus on this. It’s time to model what a life-changing friendship with Jesus is like and show our children how to spend meaningful time with God in His Word and in prayer.
It’s time to add more depth and rigor to what we’re teaching our children and youth so they can be convicted about what they believe while intentionally shaping a biblically informed worldview, including the 28 Fundamental Beliefs.
It’s time to equip busy, tired parents with age-appropriate Bible lessons that bring families together every day to share these messages in winsome, personally challenging, and missional ways.
It’s time to equip Sabbath School teachers with the best methods and many new resources, along with ideas about how to cultivate healthy culture in their classrooms.
Yes, it’s time. And the General Conference Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department invites you to pray as we develop the new Alive in Jesus Sabbath School curriculum for children and youth, set to launch in January 2025 around the world.1 As it’s rolled out, this new curriculum will replace GraceLink, Junior PowerPoints, Real-Time Faith, and Cornerstone Connections.
What’s New for Parents?
Our babies have always been grouped together with the Beginner class, yet developmentally there’s a big difference between a 5-month-old and a 3-year-old child. In response to this, Alive in Jesus includes brand-new Babies resources (birth through 12 months), to help parents to be intentional with the spiritual growth of their little one from the time they’re born. The parent book offers spiritual encouragement and advice for milestones, along with four simple programs that revolve primarily around song. The teacher guide includes these same four programs, which are also shared together in Sabbath School. After this Babies Sabbath School time is a time especially for parents, with weekly parenting small group handouts that nurture the faith of parents. These beautifully designed parent handouts are tailored for both church-attending and community parents. Indeed, the Babies resources focus first on the parent’s spiritual growth to help them impart a clear picture of God to their new baby. A strong focus on the parent’s spiritual growth, in addition to the child’s, continues through all lower levels in the new curriculum.
Other new features of the Alive in Jesus student guides are numerous, including that Beginner now has a weekly Bible story—to be read each day instead of a story each month. From Kindergarten, all lessons have daily readings, and the same stories are shared in Kindergarten and Primary to make it easier for parents who have children in both groups, or small churches who want to combine these classes. Every day an appealing narrative is shared, as children are prompted to open their Bibles, followed by rich discussion questions for families to share together, along with prayer prompts and activities that encourage application of the Bible message. Each week children can look forward to a special Sabbath feature, such as a nature lesson, Adventist history story, a family activity, or a mission story. An audio recording of the lessons can be played on the Alive in Jesus app, and families can listen to a quarterly playlist of Scripture songs to help children remember their memory verses. New artwork on every page brings the Bible stories and messages to life in the minds of the children in fresh ways, as children from around the world see themselves in the diversity of pictures.
Ultimately, we want to make it easy for parents to bring their children to the feet of Jesus every day through a variety of appealing approaches.
What’s New for Sabbath School Teachers?
If you’re a Sabbath School teacher, you can expect an easy-to-follow program that first speaks to your spiritual growth before you prepare to teach. You’ll find both a simple program and a detailed program, along with storytelling strategies, crafts, new and familiar music (available for download on our website and app), and the philosophy of the new lessons embedded in every program. From Kindergarten you’ll find nature lessons, mission stories that are aligned with the weekly Big Ideas, collector cards, and strategies to share and also deepen the Bible story that has been explored during the week.
To help you prepare for this new curriculum, you can find training videos on our Alive in Jesus website.2
Pray With Us
Alive in Jesus is distinctly Seventh-day Adventist and shows that the Bible is the source of truth and peace in an ever-changing world. Its wholistic approach on grace, character, and mission build a love for Jesus and His message. But this Alive in Jesus is also for you, parents, grandparents, caregivers, and leaders, as we believe it will strengthen your walk with God. Please pray for God to lead the development of this new curriculum and pray for the children in your churches and spheres of influence. Truly, may our children “take root downward, and bear fruit upward” (Isa. 37:31).
1 Please speak to your division Children’s Ministries director for launch information in your division.
2 Visit www.aliveinjesus.info for a more detailed curriculum overview, sample lessons, training videos, and more information about the new Sabbath School curriculum.