Disclaimer: The Gospel Project is not included in any Disciplr account. We hope this content helps you make an informed decision in your curriculum assessment.
When you start delving into the Gospel Project materials you get a sense that there’s something profound going on here. This isn’t your typical Sunday school curriculum. This is an ambitious endeavor to walk kids (families really) through the entire Bible in three years, so they can see God’s cohesive plan of redemption and learn to love Christ more fully.
It’s Scripture heavy, but the emphasis isn’t on the individual stories as much as it’s on how the entirety of the Bible points to Jesus. As they say in some of their marketing pieces, “It’s possible to know Bible stories and miss the Bible story.” Amen.
What makes it great
It’s a value-driven curriculum
You don’t have to get too far into this material to see that it is driven by a core set of curriculum-centered values. The Gospel Project defines these values as:
- Christ-centered Study that helps kids understand that all Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, gives testimony to Jesus Christ.
- Chronological Study that shows kids that the Bible is not just a collection of stories, but one unified story—God’s story of redemption.
- Missional Application that helps kids understand how the gospel encourages and empowers us to be mission driven.
- Age Alignment that gives churches the ability to build an age-aligned discipleship experience throughout the body and equip parents to lead spiritual conversations in the home.
- Essential Doctrines that help kids grasp essential theological doctrines of the Christian faith.
In every song, video, lesson plan, and activity, you see these values at work. In fact, I believe you can draw a straight from any element of the Gospel Project’s material straight to its corresponding value. If you’re aligned with these core values, that’s great news!
The lessons I perused were from the first 11 chapters of Genesis, It covered creation, the fall, Cain and Abel, Noah, and Babel. The way that they were connected to Christ was powerful, profound, and intelligent—a perfect expression of the Christ-centered study value.
Every piece aspires to excellence
When you’re putting together a curriculum, there are a lot of things that need to be created and considered. It’s completely natural to find curriculums that are stronger in some areas than they are in others. Maybe the lessons are strong, but some of the handouts are a little weak. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the Gospel Project’s material.
Everything I looked at said, “we’re not going to settle for ‘good enough’ here.” The illustration in the coloring pics were delightful, lessons were packed with engaging content (more than you’d be able to use in a session), and I probably watched the accompanying video that walked through the days of creation about 4 times—it was that good.
When you stop and consider that this isn’t static material, and every three years they’re supplementing it with fresh, new content, you really get an idea about their commitment to this project.
This unified curriculum helps families and churches learn together
I think the thing that really captures me about this material is the potential it has to bring the church together. Adults and children of all ages gather separately to study the same passages at their level of understanding. This gives churches the ability to grow together.
Families can get together during lunch and talk about their takeaways from today’s teaching, and and although they all were in different classes, they’ll be sharing a common understanding. That’s invaluable.
What you need to know
The Gospel Project is best for:
Age range: Unified
Denomination: Southern Baptist
Bible translation: ESV, HCSB, KJV, NIV
Publisher: Lifeway
Format and media:
Class format: Classroom
Material format: Downloadable
Includes video? Yes
Timeframes:
Scope and sequence duration: 3 year study plan
Average lesson time: Flexible
Follows ISSL? Yes
Mid-Week/Supplemental? No
