How I Got Started Writing Curriculum

This is my story about how I started writing Sunday School curriculum.

It was 1979.

I was 20 and recently accepted a Kids’ Pastor position at a new church in Port Huron and like many new kids’ pastors, I did not know what I was doing.

I did not set out to write a new curriculum. I was just trying to get through the following Sunday.

At first, I copied my mentor Wille George’s ideas—illustrated sermons that I had seen him do—but eventually, I ran out of sermons. That’s when panic hit me.

What am I going to teach next Sunday?

I went to the Bible Bookstore to look for a curriculum, but I could not find one that taught the things I wanted to teach.

Here’s the deal: The vast majority of the big publishing companies publish generic curricula. Their purpose is not to offend anybody’s theology because you narrow your market if you offend one denomination.

This makes sense from a business perspective but not from a discipleship perspective. The result is that most curriculums are shallow, and many churches are not teaching their kids to be followers of Christ.

After much searching, I decided to write my own lessons.

One of my favorite classes at Rhema Bible College was where Ken Hagin taught us about prayer. He said that most people throw prayer into a big sack and say, “Prayer is prayer.” However, scripture teaches that there are different kinds of prayer: the prayer of intercession, pray of faith, and the prayer of agreement, to name a few. This teaching on prayer revolutionized my prayer life, and I thought it might help our kids learn to pray.

I translated Kenneth Hagin’s teaching on prayer into the kids’ language. There were ten different prayers. I taught one type of prayer each week. I also wrote a drama skit, Bible story, object lesson, and puppet skit for each week. This was the first curriculum I wrote. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the kids in my class grasped the concepts of prayer.

My big break came in 1984 when Willie George invited me to speak at his International Children’s Ministry Conference. I was only 25 years old and had the opportunity to minister to 1600 children’s pastors from all over the globe.

I had written a book for kids entitled “The Holy Spirit Will Take the Chicken out of You.” It was ready to print, but I didn’t have the $3,000 I needed. The printing company gave me 30 days to pay the invoice, so I thought I would print the book right before the Conference and pray that I sold enough books to pay the bill. The book sold for $1.50 – When I did the math, I realized I would not have the $3,000 to pay the bill even if everyone at the conference had bought my book.

I realized I needed some more products to sell at the conference. I wrote up a few object lesson books that Deb typed on a typewriter and copied on 8 ½ by 11 sheets of paper. I did not sell many of the kid’s books at the conference, but I did sell 1,000 of the object lesson books at $3 a pop.

I discovered two things at the conference.

1. People are willing to pay my money for my ideas. It was only $3 per book, but it added up to $3,000.
2. If I can write an object lesson book, I can write a 12-week curriculum.

This was the moment that the vision for the curriculum was born.

The first curriculum I published was called The Children’s Banquet, and the first series was the teaching on Prayer. To this day, it is still my favorite curriculum. Shortly after this, a friend gave me a printing press, so we set up a small office in Tulsa. I wrote the curriculum by hand, and Deb typed it up. We printed it on the new media. I advertised the curriculum to a mailing list, and we sold 100 curriculum kits for $25 a pop. I knew we were on to something, but we still had no money.

In 1986, Deb interviewed for a Kid’s Pastor position at Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis. In my meetings with the lead pastor, Mac Hammond, he didn’t want me to have a ministry on the side. Pastor Mac wanted me to bring the ministry under the church.

Up until this point, we had put things together on a shoestring. I thought to myself If we are going to do this, then we need to do it right with a legitimate budget. I created a budget for four color printing, advertising in a national magazine, and hiring full-time staff. The budget was over $100,000. Honestly, I thought there was no way Mac would go for this. At that point, I thought he let me publish the curriculum on the side.

To my complete surprise, Mac approved the budget. He told me, “Kids’ Curriculum is not part of my vision for the church, but I can see that you are passionate about it. One of my responsibilities is to help the people on my staff fulfill their vision.”

Wow! I had never met a pastor who thought like that.

Yes, this was a niche market, but the results speak for themselves. The bottom line is that it worked! Sales of Super Church took off like a rocket ship. Today, over 5,000 churches use Super Church. Over the years, we have sold over $3 million of curriculum.

2012 we updated Super Church to Super Church 2.0, adding short films, motion comics, video reviews, and small groups. We did not change our message but updated our methods to reach a new generation of kids by teaching about the Holy Spirit.

I have some exciting news to share with you. On November 6 th, we will release a new Lamplight MasterCourse on Writing Your Own Curriculum. One question I get frequently at conferences is: “I’ve been thinking about writing my own curriculum. Do you have any advice for me?”

Yes, I do, and in this MasterCourse, I will share my secrets and tips to help you write your curriculum. Interested in purchasing? Click below to learn more and Pre-Order!

New Monday With Mark, click the image below to watch on YouTube now!