wfn.org | Expectations - and Stakes - Very High for New PC Curriculum

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

12-October-1999 
99344 
 
    Expectations - and Stakes - Very High 
    for New PC Curriculum 
 
    Creators say this could be `the denomination's last chance' 
 
    by John Filiatreau 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Is there reason to believe that the PC(USA)'s new 
church-school curriculum - still in development and not to be unveiled 
until next February - is any better than the one church educators have been 
using for a decade? 
 
    Did the church's General Assembly Council (GAC) act wisely when it 
voted last month to make a $5 million investment in the 
curriculum-in-progress? 
 
    Was GAC executive director John Detterick acting on "inside 
information" when he told the council members, "We're almost ready to 
produce a curriculum that is very, very good"? 
 
    In a word: Yes, yes and yes. 
 
    The new curriculum will be better - if better means more colorful, more 
flexible, more teacher- and user-friendly, more ambitious, smarter and more 
reflective of the PC(USA)'s diversity. 
 
    The GAC's investment will bring a handsome payoff - if the curriculum 
does half as well in the marketplace as its creators expect. 
 
    And Detterick, not one to buy a pig in a poke, had seen some of the new 
materials and come to share in their makers' high expectations. 
 
    The financial rescue package that the GAC approved during its recent 
meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, includes a $1.2 million line of credit 
for the Curriculum Publishing Program Area (CPPA) to cover the remaining 
development, production and marketing costs of the three new curricula - 
"Covenant People," "Bible Quest," and "The Present Word." 
 
    "Covenant People" is a Bible-based curriculum for Presbyterians of all 
ages (including, for the first time, material specifically for young 
adults), with "weave courses" relating the texts to other PC (U.S.A.) 
materials. "Bible Quest" is a program of scriptural study for children 
through the eighth grade. "The Present Word," which features Bible studies 
for adults, is said to be similar to "Adult Bible Discovery,"a curriculum 
widely used in the past decade. All three are to be unveiled in February 
during the annual meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Church 
Educators (APCE) in Houston, Texas. 
 
    "The look of it is going to amaze everyone," says Nancy Roseberry, 
CPPA's director of production. "It's not your standard 13-session, 
dog-eared book that the teacher carries around and scrounges over every 
Saturday night. It's not a template, where you just drop it in. The artists 
and designers have worked hard to engage the people of each age level." 
 
    "And the appearance, the design, was field-tested," notes Faye Burdick, 
senior editor for curriculum. "That's highly unusual. Usually you 
field-test only content." 
 
    One result of the field-testing is that the delivery vehicle for some 
material for young adults (young people who have finished high school) will 
be colorful placemats - a novel idea that tested "very, very well," 
according to Burdick, who says, "It'll work particularly well for groups 
that meet over coffee." 
 
    "This isn't a top-heavy curriculum, something that has been devised and 
thought of by people at 100 Witherspoon," says Donna Blackstock, editorial 
director. "We consulted the people in congregations who will actually use 
the curriculum, and made changes on the basis of what they told us. We have 
had such tremendous input at the congregational level from different design 
teams, field tests, web site information, workshops ..." 
 
    "The council meeting was heaven for a marketer or a person in sales," 
says Beth Basham, director of marketing and sales. "Never have I heard such 
broad-based support vocalized for anything the church has put out. Every 
level (of church leadership) was there saying, `What can we do?,' `How can 
we help?' So it really was a heyday for me. We're going to build on that; 
we're going to have a high-visibility campaign with key endorsements. ... 
Not just from leaders of the church, but also educators and others." 
 
    "We hope to be able to harvest a lot of that," says James Marchal, 
CPPA's interim publisher. "Not us talking about how good (the curriculum) 
is, but the people that we serve talking about its value to them. 
 
    "In effect, we'll be returning to the people who helped design it," 
Burdick points out. 
 
    "We tried to come up with something new, rather than to give in to the 
temptation to make the new curriculum just a revision of the old one," says 
Blackstock. "And we're getting such a good response. People are very 
excited about it - and eager to get their hands on it." 
 
    "One of the reasons why it is important to have a 
denominational-specific curriculum is that this presents the mission of the 
PC(USA) to its own congregations," Burdick says. "You can't expect another 
denominational curriculum, or a generic one, to do that. ... It's the 
realization of our Brief Statement of Faith, of our catechism, of our 
mission." 
 
    "And there are other, smaller things that we have been very attentive 
to," adds Roseberry. "For example, we do ordain women; some denominations 
do not. So it's very important that our illustrations show women clergy, 
women elders." ... 
 
    "Some of the terminology is very Reformed, (and) not indigenous to all 
denominations," Burdick says. "For example, the table is a very important 
thing in Presbyterian and Reformed theology, so we use the word `table,' we 
don't use the word `altar.' That's important. Those are things that are 
subtle, but if you want to educate as a Presbyterian and share as a 
Presbyterian, those are things you have to get right." 
 
    "We have set as a goal as a denomination to increase our racial-ethnic 
participation and involvement," Burdick goes on. "We've taken that very 
seriously. ... In fact, one-third of our writers have been racial-ethnic. 
That's putting our money where our mouth is. ... It's important to have 
one-third of those writers be racial-ethnic, and then it's important to let 
that voice be heard in the curriculum, and not take a white (editor) and 
edit it out." 
 
    "We hope racial-ethnic people will find something there that speaks to 
them, that they might identify with," Blackstock says, "so they won't feel 
like they're in a totally foreign environment." 
 
    CPPA is hewing to the production schedule. "We're in good shape," 
Roseberry says. "We have about 50 percent of it ready to go to the printer 
right now." 
 
    Blackstock has lofty ambitions for the new curriculum. "People in 
congregations say, `Oh, you people, you send us all this stuff, and we 
don't know what to do with it, and we get Bible study and peacemaking, 
Bible study and stewardship, Bible study and Horizons,'"she says. "`Where 
are we supposed to put them? And we're already bought curriculum!' 
 
    "So we're bringing all those things into the curriculum. ... What we're 
trying to do is get people to look at the total educational ministry, not 
just their Sunday morning church service. 
 
    "One of the features of Covenant People that is very exciting is that 
there are a lot of choices," Blackstock points out. "People can totally 
customize what they want. If they don't want to learn about - whatever - 
they don't have to get that one." 
 
    "What people are used to is Sunday morning church material, and we're 
providing that," Burdick says, "but we're also giving them resources for 
all other kinds of uses - couples or marriage workshops, after-school 
programs, choir retreats, Scouts, vacation Bible school. This gives us, 
once again, flexibility; it gives us choices. That's what we heard people 
say they want." 
 
    A physical change - all curriculum materials will be three-hole 
punched, rather than bound - will enhance the program's flexibility and 
make it more teacher-friendly. 
 
    The CPPA's No. 1 short-term marketing goal is to boost the number of 
congregations that have "standing orders" for curriculum materials. 
 
    "We want to raise our standing-order program from 34 percent, where it 
is right now, to 50 percent," says Basham. "We're going to be drafting 
congregations to join us, to make this a 50-percent congregational use as 
we take Presbyterianism into the millennium." 
 
    About 3,400 PC(USA) churches - about one-third of congregations - are 
standing-order customers today; another 1,800 buy some curriculum materials 
in the course of a year. 
 
    An increase in standing orders to 50 percent would put the CPPA on 
solid financial ground (assuming that new customers would buy about as much 
as current customers do), according to Marchal and the developers. 
 
    Standing-order congregations receive curriculum materials first, and 
qualify for certain incentives and rewards. 
 
    "They're our preferred customers," says Basham, the marketing director. 
"We have plans to mail a gift to (congregations) with the spring order. And 
for those who will join our program, we've talked about offering discounts 
on their first two purchases." 
 
    The curriculum is also being prepared in the Korean and Spanish 
languages. These won't be translations of the English versions; CPPA had 
them actually written in those languages. 
 
    "We will have our own strategy and our own campaign," Marchal says, 
"but we really see this as a part of the Congregational Ministries 
Division, in that the curriculum materials provide resources that meet the 
needs of congregations and pastors and Christian educators." 
 
    Marchal says the CPPA intends to exploit the marketing process to 
create a computer data base that "could be valuable to many parts of the 
church - information that is now widely dispersed among a number of 
programs." 
 
    "It'll also give us the opportunity to have immediate response to 
customers," he adds. 
 
    The people in CPPA know that the stakes are high. Says Burdick: "I 
think this is probably the denomination's last chance" to create a 
financially viable Presbyterian-specific curriculum. 
 
    "I believe the world needs this church," Marchal says, "and this church 
needs this curriculum." 

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