wfn.org | Covenant People year three is 'discontinued'

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

Note #6867 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

28-September-2001
01350

Covenant People year three is 'discontinued'

Work on 'next generation' of Presbyterian curriculum to begin soon

by Jerry L. Van Marter

TEMPE, Ariz. - Further development and production of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.)'s two-year-old Covenant People curriculum, which has been plagued
by plummeting sales and intolerable deficits, was discontinued today by the
Congregational Ministries Division Committee (CMDC) of the General Assembly
Council.

The decision must be okayed by the full GAC on Saturday.

Determined to "learn and grow" from the failure of the long-anticipated
curriculum to find a market among Presbyterians - who insist they want a
denominational curriculum but who rejected Covenant People with their
checkbooks -officials of Congregational Ministries Publishing (CMP) will
bring "preliminary curriculum alternatives and proposed budgets" to the CMDC
meeting in November with recommendations for the next generation of
Presbyterian curriculum to be brought to the Council at its January meeting.

In the meantime, the committee said, CMP will continue to market Covenant
People and provide customer support to congregations that continue to use
it. More than a million dollars of unsold inventory is still available.

"Many users were very happy (with Covenant People), said CMP publisher
Sandra Sorem, who tried desperately to save the troubled curriculum after
taking over the publisher's job in April of 2000, just months before the
launch of the new materials. "But we just weren't seeing purchases."

Development of the curriculum was "suspended" in August when the
year-to-date deficit reached $300,000, far more than what had been budgeted
for the entire year. Sorem called the sales figures "not just bad but
embarrassingly bad. The train was speeding down the track but no one was on
board."

More telling than the financial figures, she said, were usage numbers. More
than 4,000 Presbyterian congregations purchased Covenant People when it was
launched in the summer of 2000. This year, that figure dropped to around
1,000 churches.

Sorem and CMP marketing director Kathy Copas, who wasn't hired until July
2000, after the curriculum had already been released, said all of the major
biblical stories and themes were at least introduced in the first two cycles
of Covenant People, so church school teachers can continue to use the
curriculum during the 2002-2003 school year, while the next generation of
Presbyterian curriculum is readied for use in the fall of 2003.

CMP is working on a planning guide for Covenant People users, showing how
the first two cycles of the materials can be adapted for the interim year.

What went wrong? 

CMP conducted an intensive research campaign this spring when the signs of
trouble became dire. Copas said the message was consistent: Covenant People
was too expensive, too complicated to order and use and required too much
preparation time for church school teachers, most of whom are already busy
volunteers.

Other complicating factors included a CMP downsizing that wiped out most of
the marketing department in the fall of 1999 -- the critical period just
prior to the launch of Covenant People, the sudden resignation of the
previous publisher due to understandable but ill-timed personal reasons at
about the same time, and order and fulfillment snafus that crippled sales
for a time last year.

Two other new curricula, launched at the same time as Covenant People have
fared better. Bible Quest, an ecumenical venture, and Present Word, a
curriculum based on the Uniform Lesson Series, are both ahead of sales
projections and are showing a profit.

The decision to recommend the discontinuation of Covenant People came "after
much soul-searching,"said Ray Greenhill, a CMD member who chairs its CPM
sub-committee. "But the losses are just too high." In addition to the
current losses, the GAC covered development, production and marketing costs
of almost $5 million before Covenant People ever went on sale.

The CMDC seems determined to press ahead with a new generation of
Presbyterian curriculum. "All of our research tells us that Presbyterians
want a denominational curriculum," Sorem said.
"Accessible, affordable, usable is what we've heard them say they want and
it's still my opinion that it's doable."

A letter to pastors, Christian educators and users of Covenant People will
be going out soon from the Rev. Jeff Bridgeman, GAC chair, explaining the
decision to discontinue further development and production of the
curriculum, encouraging congregations to use the Covenant People curriculum
that is still available and assuring them that denominational officials are
intent on meeting the Christian education needs of Presbyterian
congregations.
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