Sunday School curriculum has become BIG business! Both independent and denominational publishers are continually creating new products they believe will meet the needs of today’s theologically and educationally savvy customers. WordAction Publishing Company, under the Nazarene Publishing House, is one of these companies. The goal is to produce quality Sunday School curriculum especially for churches in the Wesleyan-Holiness theological tradition. We believe we have the best curriculum out there. Here are 10 reasons why your church can be thankful you’re using WordAction Sunday School curriculum for children.

10. WordAction Sunday School curriculum is theologically sound and interprets Scripture from a Wesleyan-Holiness perspective.

Pastors and Christian education specialists in Wesleyan-Holiness churches know how important it is to shape young minds and hearts in our shared theological tradition. Long before a child can articulate theological beliefs, he or she is absorbing a theological worldview. As Wesleyan-Holiness people, we want our children’s worldview to include these important truths, along with others commonly held by protestant evangelicals:

• God loves all people. He offers salvation.
• God is at work in a person’s life long before that person knows of God. Through prevenient grace, God does everything possible to lead people to receive salvation and to live a full life in His presence. The purpose of God’s grace is the salvation of every person.
• God created people with the free will to make choices. Every person can and must choose whether to accept God and His plan of salvation, or whether to reject it. God never forces anyone to become His child.
• The goal of the Christian life is to glorify God by living a Christlike, holy life.
• Through justification, regeneration, and entire sanctification, and the grace God offers to us daily, it is possible for a child of God not to sin. But if we sin, God willingly forgives those who repent of and confess their sin.
• Christians are called to Christian community, not just private religion. We are called to look outward to those in need, and to work together to meet those needs.
• Men and women alike are called to ministry in a variety of roles.

9. WordAction Sunday School curriculum provides broad biblical coverage in children’s lessons.

Though WordAction is a two-year graded curriculum (beginning with Preschool/Kindergarten), our Bible coverage is not limited to what can be presented in two years. With each new age-group, children encounter new Bible stories, new Bible Truths, new Verse-a-Month Club memory verses, and new learning goals. By the time a child completes grade six in WordAction Sunday School curriculum, he or she has studied passages from virtually every biblical book, from Genesis to Revelation.

Some of our customers have expressed the desire for curriculum that has every child studying the same biblical passage at the same time. WordAction Publishing company recognizes that there are some benefits to this kind of scope and sequence. However, there is one huge deficit under this plan: a child encounters only 104 biblical passages in the 9-10 years of childhood (ages 3-12). By contrast, children using WordAction curriculum study between 300 and 400 different passages in the same time frame.

8. WordAction Sunday School curriculum organizes children’s curriculum by recurring themes that provide parents a way of discussing lessons with mixed groups of children.

One of the main arguments offered in favor of a uniform curriculum (one in which all children study the same biblical passage at the same time) is that this enables parents to conduct “drive home” or “dinner table” conversations with all their children, regardless of age.

WordAction curriculum enables these same discussion possibilities with our thematic arrangement of Sunday School lessons. For example, right now your students are studying lessons organized by the theme Patriarchs: Founders of Israel. Within this common theme,

• Preschool/Kindergarten and Early Elementary children are learning about Abraham and his family (with some shared stories and some that are different).
• Middle Elementary children study the life of Jacob.
• Preteens explore the experiences of Joseph

Thus, on a given Sunday, parents can talk with their children about who the patriarchs were, and ask each child to talk about the patriarch he or she is learning about. Because of the variety of Bible stories and life-application outcomes, the potential for a rich conversation is great.

7. WordAction Sunday School curriculum adapts well to the popular Rotation Model.

Yes, it’s true. Your church can use the Rotation Model while simultaneously retaining the benefits of Wesleyan-Holiness theology, strong Bible coverage, and recurring themes. There are various organizational plans you can use. For more information about adapting WordAction curriculum to the Rotation Model, please contact:

Virginia Folsom
WordAction Publishing Company
2923 Troost Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64109
Office Phone: 816-931-1900, ext. 8222
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

6. WordAction curriculum is filled with enjoyable, pupil-involving, active learning options.

Students don’t just “sit still and listen” when you use WordAction curriculum. Children are actively involved in their learning through activities geared to many different learning styles: drama, art, discussion, visualizing, learning games, and movement. Some activities will appeal to the quiet, introspective child; others give your extroverts ways to use their natural social skills. When children are actively involved, as they are with WordAction, they learn more and retain longer.

5. WordAction Sunday School curriculum provides a systematic plan for leading children to deeper levels of Scripture study.

Our curriculum is a Spiral Curriculum. In our scope and sequence, children encounter the organizing themes again every two years. However, they do not encounter them at the same intellectual level. At each new age-group, children study lessons that are on a deeper theological, intellectual, and spiritual formation level suited to their growing maturity.

The benefit here is even more important when children do repeat Bible stories they have had in previous age-groups: Christmas and Easter, particularly. Yes, they will hear these stories again. But at each new age-group, they consider new truths and think more deeply about their meanings.

4. WordAction Sunday School curriculum provides for repetition in an organized manner.

Our curriculum is a Stacked Curriculum. This means that children study the same theme at the same time. This prevents erratic repetition. Teachers can know that no child will encounter the same theme in less than two years when WordAction is used in every age-group.

3. WordAction Sunday School curriculum provides a manageable Bible Memorization plan for children.

Do you remember the days when children were asked to memorize a Bible verse every week? If so, do you remember many (or any) children who accomplished this feat? Probably some did. But most did not. And since then times have changed drastically. Many children move back-and-forth between two divorced parents — and often attend different churches every other Sunday. Their schedules are crammed with school, sports, and many other activities. Working parents have little time to help children memorize scripture.

Our Verse-a-Month Club memory plan provides a manageable system for helping children hide God’s Word in their hearts. Children learn just one verse or short passage each month. This provides plenty of time to learn the material. But best of all, the Verse-a-Month Club plan has the potential for helping children learn 96 verses as they move from Preschool/Kindergarten through Preteen. If a child continues this practice from 7th through 12th grade, the total can reach 168. How many adults can claim to know that much scripture?

2. WordAction’s Faith Words teach children the vocabulary of the Church and Christian faith.

Beginning with Preschool/Kindergarten and moving through Preteen, children learn one or more Faith Words in every unit of study. These words are related to the lessons children study. As children move to older age-groups, the definitions of many Faith Words are deepened to match their growing intellectual skills.

1. WordAction Sunday School curriculum is the right curriculum for churches that want to provide Christian education in your long-time ministry traditions.

The founders of holiness denominations were well-known for their concern for and service to the poor and those who were otherwise marginalized by society. Today, Wesleyan-Holiness churches have renewed their commitment to compassionate ministries. WordAction curriculum helps students think about these issues and gives them opportunities to contribute to the well-being of others.

WordAction Publishing Company thanks every Wesleyan-Holiness church that uses WordAction curriculum. Teachers in your churches can be very glad for the benefits of the curriculum you have chosen for them.

Contributed by Donna Fillmore, Senior Curriculum Editor for WordAction Publishing Company