Don’t lose your mind when planning a Bible Teaching Calendar
Bible Curriculum does something wonderful for teachers. It gives teachers the map. It plans the calendar.
But there’s a big problem with curriculum. It was designed for someone else. It follows their calendar and it meets the needs of their students.
This doesn’t mean that we have to throw out the curriculum but we have to remember something —
We are the Teachers. Not the Curriculum.
As Bible teachers, we have a sacred responsibility to help people move from the place where they currently are into a position where they look and act a lot more like Jesus.
A curriculum is a formula and formulas are great for assembly. But we’re not assembling people. We’re building people.
This means that we need to be intentional with our lesson planning and our calendar.
Don’t throw out the curriculum yet (if you have it)! Really look at it. Start by evaluating if the planned lesson are right for your students as they’re written. Are there things that your students don’t need or aren’t ready for yet? Are there lessons that cram too much in and need to be broken into two lessons?
If you don’t have a curriculum. No pre-planning work for you. But you’re not off the hook either.
Bible teaching is only effective if we have a plan to build and course of action. For that we need a Bible Teaching Calendar.
Building a Bible Teaching Calendar
Think before you Plan
You might have a pre-determined course to follow or you just have a general idea of the book or topic you’re going to teach. Awesome. Either way, before you begin building a map, you need to know the thread that will guide your students on their journey. Ask yourself three questions:
What do my students need? Use your observations but also, pray about it! Ask God for wisdom and insight.
What do I want my students to know, understand, and do when we’re finished with this course?
What Big Idea will tie Lesson One to Lesson Two and ultimately, the Final Lesson?
Start at the End & Think Big
If you have a Finish Date, start there and list the dates in Reverse. If you have no set Finish Date, you can consider how many lessons you have to plan for.
You can then begin chunking the information into their correct week. This is a broad, bird's-eye overview of the lessons you're going to be teaching.
Let’s say you have 4 weeks to teach the Book of Romans. First, know that I’m praying for you. Second, ask yourself:
Based on my Thinking (see step 1), the timeline, and the fact that I don’t want to overwhelm my students, what do I need to be teaching in Lesson 4?
What stepping stones or themes/topics do I need to place in Lessons 1, 2, and 3 to get them to Lesson 4?
Give some Flesh
If Step 2 was the bird’s eye view, this is getting a little more granular. You don’t have to plan out the lessons yet but give yourself some broad speaking strokes. This will help you to see the threads that connect Lesson 1 to Lesson 2 and so on.
It’s also where you can see the things that need to be eliminated. Maybe you don’t need the entire history of Rome in Lesson 1 since it serves no purpose in the journey you’re taking your students on. Consider these things:
What two or three points do I need my students to get in Lesson 1? What about for Lessons 2-4?
Do these points help my students understand what I want them to know, understand, and do after the Final Lesson?
Do the points generally tie together (other than all being in Romans)?
If you’re planning numerous series within a calendar year, you can be a little vague in these points. They will be very useful when you’re planning the lessons but they are also helpful now. These points will help you to see if your timeline is correct. If you’re cramming too much into each lesson, then you need to push your Finish Date back if possible.
Plan for Interruptions
This is one of the most overlooked things by Bible teachers. You planned for four weeks in Romans before moving onto Galatians. Your calendar is finely crafted.
Then it happens. Leadership decides on a last minute holiday thing. A snowstorm/hurricane (depending on where you live) happens. A transportation strike. A major sporting event captures the attention of your students. Things happen.
Build a cushion. Put a fifth week on the calendar for Romans. Use the fifth week as a teach-back week where students re-teach the material in small groups if everything stays consistent. If plans change, it can be a teaching week for you.
You’re going to need grace for yourself and flexibility for your plans.
If you teach each lesson as a stand-alone lesson, students don’t “accidentally” grasp the threads weaving throughout Scripture. A calendar helps you to prepare. It forces you to put up signs that signal, “This connects to That other Thing.”
Your students will better see the Bible as a whole because you made a plan.
But this also benefits you. You’ll have a focus and an objective for each lesson and this will make lesson planning that much easier.
You don’t have to lose your mind when planning the calendar, you just have to know how to build.
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