If your curriculum-based program is thriving, you don’t need to throw out your curriculum! But if you have the sense that it’s not working as well as it could be, perhaps your congregation is ready to shift a little away from curriculum.

Congregations that make this decision have often experienced roadblocks to continuing to do what they’ve been doing for many years, such as these:

• There are too few volunteers to staff their age-divided, curriculum-based classrooms on Sunday mornings
• Religious education volunteers report that the job requires too much preparation – time they don’t have
• Children and youth don’t seem interested in the session activities; many families report their kids don’t want to attend
• There are a lot of “behavior problems” in RE classrooms, and volunteers feel pressed to “make kids behave” so they can get through their lessons
• Visiting families arrive and stay for just a few Sundays; new kids and adults have a hard time finding their way into the community
• Families have real needs from religious community – respite, support, affirmation, connection – that are not being met; all the time and attention of the congregation’s lay and professional religious educators goes to planning and staffing Sunday morning religious education classes

Making Space

Here are some ways you can make space for new ways to emerge, without making sweeping changes to your program model. We might call this “decentering curriculum.”

Within the structure you already have, bring your attention to these intentions and notice how the energy shifts:

• Center play and connection
• Lean into the benefits of less is more and “less prep, more presence”
• Balance multigen and volunteer/staff-led activities
• Let kids be kids
• Liberate your congregation from unhelpful expectations of children’s behavior. Read CB Beal’s clever post on this titledRules for Children in the Worship Service

Read on for more reflection on how centering these intentions can transform and revitalize lagging programs.

Center play and connection

There are many moments of learning and faith development that emerge from play. Play is how we practice being human! Sharing. Caring for each other. Apologizing and repairing relationships. Exploring creativity. We can be present and attentive to these moments of possibility even when we haven’t planned for them.

If the activity for the morning doesn’t happen because the play was so fun and engaging, let it be okay to do the activity next week.

Lean into the benefits of less is more and “less prep, more presence” (adrienne maree brown)

Wherever possible, try simplifying the preparations and letting the imperfections be okay. Being really present with each other is the most important ministry we can offer. This shift can help decrease stress and amplify joy.

It can also help when there aren’t enough volunteers, or when volunteers don’t have time for complex preparations and staff already have too much on their plates.

There may be weeks where there aren't enough volunteers for regular classes. This could be seen as a setback – or maybe it’s an opportunity. What about dropping the lesson and shifting to a Fall clean up day and jumping in leaves? Or perhaps a playful morning of games from Deeper Joy’ s Bonding Harbor?

When there are not enough volunteers, find what needs less planning, is more flexible, and centers fun and connection. When it doesn’t make sense to run a lesson plan with pre-determined faith formation goals, get curious about and point out what faith formation moments naturally arise from simply being in community together.

Balance multigen and volunteer/staff-led activities

There’s a dynamic balance between volunteer- and staff-led programs that free parents to be without kids for a little while and whole congregation activities that are fun for all, build relationships across generations, don’t require as many volunteers, but do require parents to pay attention to their children.

Check on the balance of this in your congregation. The next thing might emerge as you re-balance.

If you’re unbalanced in the direction of more age-defined, curriculum-based classes, maybe there’s room for an all ages fun activity or two!

Let kids be kids

Give them puzzles to put together on the sanctuary floor. Welcome their noise. Welcome their disruptions. Tell their parents it’s okay. Show non parents how to extend care and compassion. For exhausted families to feel welcome, they need to know they can just be at home in your congregation and it’s okay for their kids to be kids.

Welcoming kids as kids also sends the message to kids that they belong and they’re welcome. Start listening to their ideas about congregational life. Your best new ideas may come from them!

Liberate your congregation from unhelpful expectations of children’s behavior

Don’t make anyone sit criss-cross applesauce and keep their eyes on the lessons. Inability to do this is not a moral failing!

Different people listen in different ways. Some bounce. Some doodle. Some are not ready to listen and need to curl up in the corner.

Let children choose not to participate (without disrupting). This is part of how we can practice consent. Some children may watch or listen better while they color. Others may need a sensory room for a while.

Give everyone – adults and children – sensory bins and fidgets. This shift will be helpful to all kids, especially neurodivergent children and youth. It may feel liberating for adults, too, as we shed more layers of our internalized ableism.

Emergence is ongoing

As you make shifts that let everyone know they belong, the benefits compound. You notice more about who the children in your program really are and what kinds of activities really work for them. Your program naturally evolves to reflect their needs and interests. The energy shifts.

You’ll know you're on the right track when, over time, the space you share feels kinder, more joyful, more authentic and relaxed — more reflective of our Unitarian Universalist values.

In this kind of community, deep, meaningful, and hope-filled faith development for people of ages emerges.