New Sunday School materials built on what's been learned
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--LifeWay's new adult Sunday School curriculum lines are answers to churches' requests.
"In our one-to-one communication with churches, we've been able to learn more about our customers, and learn it faster, than ever before," said Gene Mims, vice president of the LifeWay's church resources division.
When the church resources division made various organizational changes almost two years ago, one of the goals was to create a means for LifeWay to get feedback from churches. By learning what the churches say they needed, LifeWay is able to produce products and resources to address those needs.
Two new adult Sunday School choices are coming out of this initiative.
"MasterWork: Essential Messages from God's Servants" is produced specifically for the developing and maturing believer who desires to go deeper into God's Word. Well-known authors, such as Billy Graham and Charles Swindoll, are among the curriculum's writers. MasterWork will use a variety of translations, based on the author's work. It will be dated, with new releases each quarter.
The other new adult Sunday School choice is "Life Connections: Bible Study that Builds Community." This new line is relationship-oriented and specifically designed for small groups. Its goal is to more easily assimilate new members and seekers into Sunday School. Life Connections will be available in the New International Version translation. This line will be undated, with a choice of eight books initially available.
"One of the good things about the new fall quarter's curriculum is that it's adding on what we did in 2000," Mims said. "It's exciting that we are building our Sunday School materials based on knowledge we've gained from our customers."
When LifeWay introduced Sunday School for a New Century in the fall of 2000, the new line of curriculum was met with good response. But, as people had time to use the curriculum and become familiar with it, LifeWay began asking what the customers thought -- what they liked, what they didn't like and what they would like to see added or done differently.
Feedback from churches told LifeWay that the Family Bible Study and Explore the Bible curriculum lines were meeting needs. People liked them and didn't want changes made to those lines.
Additional responses told LifeWay that some churches had classes that wanted another curriculum line with more depth written by master teachers.
LifeWay took these ideas from churches and went to work on producing the new curriculum lines. The four distinct curriculum lines for fall 2003 are the result.
"This two-year turnaround is unprecedented," Mims said. "This time span for introducing new materials is a capability LifeWay hasn't had before."
Early reviews of the fall line have been favorable. "What we are seeing are people who are as excited about the changes to Sunday School materials as people were a few years ago in the changes to the Vacation Bible School materials," Mims said.
Customer feedback on the resources comes from in-person visits to churches, phone calls, e-mails, letters and meetings. LifeWay also hears from customers who call the phone centers, who visit the LifeWay Christian Stores and who attend events at LifeWay's Glorieta, N.M., and Ridgecrest, N.C., conference centers and other events. State conventions also pass on suggestions they receive.
With today's communication being almost instantaneous, customers' voices are heard immediately.
"We may not make every change we hear about," Mims said, "but we pass along every suggestion we get to the people who produce our curriculum and these suggestions are looked at. No one is ignored."
