CBWC Announcement

New curriculum on baptism is now available to Canadian Baptist Sunday School teachers and youth leaders. This new curriculum is one of the first steps in meeting the requests of Canadian Baptist churches for teaching tools that originate from the Canadian Baptist perspective and that promote unity in our liturgical practices.

“Every denomination has a different approach or emphasis on issues like baptism, but we thought it was important to provide our churches with support material that looks at issues from the unique Baptist point of view,” said Faye Reynolds, head of the Intergenerational Ministry Cluster that produced the baptism curriculum. “We wanted to find what we could pull from Scripture and discover why we practice baptism the way we do.”

The new curriculum on baptism has been designed for children in grades 1-3, grades 4-6, and for youth in grades 7-12. It can be used as a whole series in Sunday School or youth meetings, or each lesson can stand alone and be offered on a one-off basis. The material would also be easily adapted for baptism preparation classes. All curricula have been reviewed for theological soundness by Dr. Axel Schoeber, Associate Professor of Supervised Ministry at Carey Theological College.

Click the link to read more about developments in Baptist Curriculum.

The new curriculum is part of a larger ‘cradle to grave’ curriculum project that intends to provide churches with support materials that explains and celebrates all the major milestones in our lives from birth to death – all from a Baptist perspective. The curriculum project will support Canadian Baptist churches to build a unified identity within our rich diversity so that we can share common liturgies and practices within our worship services.

“We think it is important to celebrate the rites of passage in our lives. There are lots of books and materials from a general Christian viewpoint, but very little that fits our Baptist context and setting. We want to speak to our own culture,” said Faye. “For example, Baptists don’t have confirmation services or First Communion for children like mainline churches do. Instead, we have developed a Welcoming Liturgy that celebrates the life of a child and commits the church to nurture that child in faith.”

The Welcoming Liturgy was the first worship-related project of the Intergenerational Ministry Cluster (IMC). It was made available in Fall 2008. With the Baptism curriculum now completed and available, the next project for the Cluster will be developing a unified curriculum on the Lord’s Supper. The IMC hopes to have this ready by the Spring of 2011.

The Intergenerational Ministry Cluster is led by Faye Reynolds, Director of Women’s Ministries. It includes Rod Olson, Director of Urban Camping and the Edge Program Coordinator; Claire McLean, Interim Director of Youth Ministry; Nadia VanderKuip, Short Term Ministries Coordinator; and Mandi Hecht of the Children and Families Ministry.

The new curricula can be found in the Resources Section under Spiritual Resources. To read or download the curriculum: click here