I love getting text messages and DMs from Jesus guys and gals I’ve met along the local church journey that begin with: “Can you help me?” And then comes something like, “I’m going to start leading children at my church on Sunday mornings—or Wednesdays—beginning next month. What curriculum would you recommend?”

I love these messages because they almost always come from a layperson—a non-staff person who is laying their very best YES on the table so the littles in their local church can know Jesus.

Start With the Foundations

1. The Lord’s Prayer – I want littles to spend time learning and understanding the Lord’s Prayer—from the names and greetings of our Creator all the way through the power and meaning of AMEN! This is how we talk with our Creator and Savior.

2. The Apostles’ Creed – What do we believe? And what does each line actually mean? The history of how the Creed came to be is incredibly insightful to the historical cost of following Jesus and most adults ride the struggle bus on the line “I believe in the holy catholic church” in a Protestant church. The Apostles’ Creed gives children a beautiful framework for knowing what Christians believe and being able to say it for themselves.

3. The Ten Commandments – The Ten Commandments give children a foundation for how we live out the Christian life—in both priority and practice.

An afternoon text came last Sunday from a Jesus gal who will soon be teaching 4-year-olds through 5th graders. My recommendation? Start with the Ten Commandments.

There are songs and fingerplays to help children learn all ten. But even better, they can begin to understand why the order matters and discover some of the Old Testament history surrounding God’s people as they prepared to enter a land filled with people who did not worship the one true God and were opening opposed to Him. Sound familiar?

That’s a pretty good place to begin!

Why Group Publishing?

Group Publishing created several resources covering these foundational topics years ago, and many are still available. Why do I like Group? Because their teaching resources are intentionally relational, experiential, applicable, and learner-based. Those are four things I want to see in any resource placed in the hands of a layperson who has just said YES to loving littles to Jesus.

And here’s the part I especially love: You can begin with good resources without blowing the church budget.

For this particular new leader, my two starting recommendations—the Kids’ Travel Guide to the Ten Commandments and the Kids’ Travel Guide to the Lord’s Prayer—cost less than $25.

That feels like a win!

A Few More Resources on My Shelf

Another set of resources I’ve used repeatedly over the years is the 13 Most Important Bible Lessons series:
13 Most Important Bible Lessons for Kids About God
13 Most Important Bible Lessons for Kids About Living for Jesus
13 Most Important Bible Lessons for Kids About Loving Each Other

And some of the very best Bible study materials for kids I’ve discovered are actually homeschool resources.

I’ve used resources from Not Consumed Ministries for Wednesday night Bible study with littles. Their studies typically provide 20–25 lessons—perfect for ten weeks in the fall and ten weeks in the spring—with two-page lessons that break down Scripture passages from both the Old and New Testaments in developmentally appropriate ways. Each lesson can be accomplished in 20-30 minutes alongside an Open Bible. They offer guides for Primary, Junior, Youth, and Parents, generally in the $12–$15 range.

One of my personal favorites was WORK. I’ve written more about that resource here. I mean what parent doesn’t want their child(ren) to work around the house and at school with a cheerful attitude?

Start Small. Start Biblical. Start With a Path.

Churches that are just beginning to set the table for faith formation with littles don’t necessarily need a giant curriculum library or subscription. They need a discipleship path which builds faith files along the way.

They need a resource that is:

• grounded in a Biblical worldview,
• interesting and engaging for both teachers and students,
• developmentally appropriate,
• connected to the historic Christian faith,
• helpful in building a foundation for apologetics (defending the Christian faith as the most reasonable and historically accurate),
• practical enough for a volunteer or layperson to actually use,
• and sticky enough that children remember what they are learning long after childhood.

Sunday is still coming. And somebody in your church has already said YES.

Open the Bible. Invite the Holy Spirit through prayer. Set the table to gather the kids. Love them well, and I don’t mean with candy.

So, Jesus guys and gals, what would you suggest?

“He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children.” Psalm 78:5

In my morning devotional Bible, I have a laminated bookmark.

It’s more than a bookmark. It puts on paper the mission that helped launch the Global Methodist Church: To make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.

Before the first General Conference gathered delegates for worship and the business of the church, these three distinctives helped define this new movement.

And as someone who serves from a “third chair”—alongside staff and lay leaders, serving littles and their bigs—we’ve been designing methods of faith formation around what those distinctives look like in ministry with children and families.

Our team intentionally built them into our gatherings:

• Worship passionately: helping littles practice worship with their whole bodies—singing, moving, praying, and celebrating Jesus.
• Love extravagantly: giving children opportunities to love their neighbors through work and service, both at home and beyond.
• Witness boldly: teaching littles to know and tell the stories of Jesus with confidence wherever they live, learn, and play—including at local community events.

We’re on a New Team

The Global Methodist Church is grounded in the historic theology and practices of John Wesley, but we are also on a new team.

And like athletes joining a new team, we need aligned tools to help us be effective and fruitful as we live into our full mission of “Making disciples of Jesus Christ and spreading scriptural holiness across the globe.”

Here’s the challenge for those of us doing ministry with children and families in a Global Methodist Church: There is no denominational publishing house. There is no single, central place to find resources. And in many GMC Conferences, there is not yet a collaboration network specifically for children’s and family ministry leaders. And Sunday keeps coming!

That’s where the R3 Gathering comes in. The R3 Gathering is North and South Georgia’s response to the need for connection, aligned resources, encouragement, and shared learning among the people leading and serving littles and their bigs in the Global Methodist Church.

Our first pilot gathering took place in South Georgia last spring. Now we’re bringing R3 Gathering: Fall 2026 to North Georgia!

Together, we’ll explore:

Ruts — Where have we been? What patterns have shaped our ministry? What has the GMC leadership already put in place?
Roots — What grounds us in Scripture, Wesleyan theology, and the distinctives of the Global Methodist Church?|
Rhythms — What healthy, sustainable discipleship patterns can we build for children, families, and the local church we serve?

Most importantly, what does it look, sound, and feel like to raise up Global Methodists in the local church and at home?

The Fall R3 Gathering will assist you to begin designing a discipleship pathway for littles while discovering and sharing resources that align with the GMC and equip families for discipleship at home.

R3 Gathering: Fall 2026
Thursday, November 5, 3:00 p.m. – Friday, November 6, 4:00 p.m.
Camp Collinswood, Buckhead, GA 30625
Register at https://tinyurl.com/fallR3gathering

Your registration includes Thursday dinner, a bunk for Thursday night, Friday breakfast and lunch, and light snacks. $96 per person through September 14; $126 per person beginning September 15

Are you on staff—or are you the layperson responsible for the discipleship and faith formation programming for littles and their bigs—in your local Global Methodist Church?

This is for you! Register at https://tinyurl.com/fallR3gathering

And This Is Just the Beginning

One gathering is wonderful. But the real value comes from what happens after we gather. We’re building toward the 4 Rs of a network:

R1 — Relationships – An intentional foundation of friends and ministry partners on this new team; we’re better together.
R2 — Resources – The fuel that helps us keep growing and serving effectively.
R3 — Residencies – Grounding leaders through intentional development and preparation for the future.
R4 — Reproducing – The fruitfulness that comes when effective leaders build teams, share what they’ve learned, and make a healthy handoff to the next generation.

As heard from the Exponential Conference this year: “Networks are to movements as groups are to churches.”

That’s what we’re building. Not just another conference. Not just another gathering. A network of Global Methodists committed to helping children and families know, love, and follow Jesus.

If you can get to Georgia and you serve on staff or in lay leadership of kidmin/family ministry in a Global Methodist Church, come join us at the Fall 2026 R3 Gathering!

Reach out to Allison Vandenbergh at avandenbergh@firstmethodistalbany.com or to DeDe Reilly at dbullreilly@gmail.com for more information.

Let’s worship passionately.
Let’s love extravagantly.
Let’s witness boldly.
Let’s spread scriptural holiness around the globe.

And let’s figure out together what it means to disciple the next generation as Global Methodists.

“The true value of networking doesn’t come from how many people we can meet, but rather how many people we can introduce to others.” Simon Sinek

One of the greatest gifts of semi-retirement has been margin—margin to spend time with our grandchildren and margin to share the Bible with children in our community.

For me, that open door is LifeWise Academy.

I like to call it being a missionary to public school kids.

LifeWise Academy provides Bible education to public school students during the school day, off school property, with parental permission. Thanks to a little-known 1952 U.S. Supreme Court decision, released-time religious education is legal, and LifeWise Academy has created a proven model that allows local churches to partner with local schools in a meaningful way.

This past February, our county launched its first pilot program after two and a half years of prayer, planning, and perseverance. We became one of sixteen LifeWise schools in Georgia, with a vision to see that number grow to one hundred over the next three years.

Kingdom work often requires patience. Some communities launch in a year. Others take much longer. But we keep praying, serving, and trusting God to open doors in His timing.

This fall our team is hosting community events, connecting with families, and inviting others to join the mission. We believe every child should have the opportunity to hear the story of God’s great love.

At the local church Mr. Bob and I have been attending since midsummer, the pastor shared just last Sunday that every growing Christian should so order their lives to make space and margin to be part of a ministry inside the church and a mission outside the church. All three Sunday services last week shared testimonies, as the message, of local ministries and local missions specific to the next generation. All. Three. Services. As. The. Message.

LifeWise is one way we’re living out that challenge.

Would you like to see LifeWise in your community? Visit www.lifewise.org, enter your ZIP code, and begin gathering signatures. You might be surprised by what God can do through a willing group of believers who believe that the Lord they serve can do mighty things in the world of a little person and their bigs.

Let’s go!

“You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.” Revelation 2:3