Choosing a curriculum for your ministry is a big decision. After all, not only do you care a lot about what you teach kids and students, but you probably also have other factors to consider. 

Factors like . . . 

Budget 
Type of programming 
Assets needed 
And how your curriculum will support your larger ministry strategy. 

With all of that to consider, you may wonder, “Where do I even start?” 

While this blog won’t answer all of your questions, there are a few things you should know about Orange Curriculum that can help you decide if it’s right for you. 

Orange curriculum is built on core theological truths

Our starting point for what we teach kids and students is the Greatest Commandment. That’s because we want to focus on what Jesus said matters most–love. 

Love God (Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul, and your mind.) 
Love Others (Love your neighbor)
Love Life (As you love yourself)

These three major ideas show up regularly throughout our entire teaching plan from birth through high school. They are broken down further into 9 specific theological concepts to ensure that as kids journey through their development, they can get a full understanding of what it means to trust God and follow Jesus with their whole life. 

The 9 Core Theological Insights Include:

God’s Son is Jesus (and Jesus came to solve the problems resulting from our sin)
God’s Image is reflected in every human
God’s Creation reminds us that we have worth
God’s Family is the church and it will still exist in every generation (Jesus promised that)
God’s Message is summarized in one commandment 
God’s Love is the key distinctive of Jesus’ followers
God’s Character can always be trusted
God’s Story is good news and offers hope for everyone
God’s Spirit will keep transforming us to become more like Jesus

Each series highlights and focuses on at least one of these core truths and shows kids and students how that truth about God connects to their everyday lives.

Throughout the curriculum creation process, we make sure that our scripts are edited for theological content by experts and academics in theology. We hope the content we create is both theologically accurate and open for the 80+ denominations who use Orange Curriculum to see a pathway to their own theological nuances. 

Every series is developed with kids and students in mind

This sounds obvious, but let me explain.

On top of being theologically accurate, we also aim to be developmentally appropriate. 

Several years ago we started The Phase Project, where we met with over 200 child and adolescent development specialists, teachers, psychologists, pastors, and parents to research and discover more about how kids grow and learn over the course of their lives. 

At first, this became a book: It’s Just a Phase, Don’t Miss it. . . but that book became a launch pad for further research and discovery for how best to help kids learn about God and understand how to follow Jesus in age-appropriate ways.

Our teaching scripts, small group activities, and supplemental media are all written and edited with these developmental characteristics in mind.

This would include how we craft core teaching ideas for each phase of a child’s life. We hope to create a pathway that builds from what a child foundationally learns in First Look curriculum, gets developed through 252 Kids and Preteen, and is further explored through XP3 middle school and high school. 

From the bottom lines and key questions we write to the memory verses, specific stories, and passages we choose to cover, we pray that each piece of Orange connects to how a child learns in their specific phase of life and gives them solid truth they can carry with them into adulthood.

Our Curriculum operates on a 2 or 3-year Scope and Cycle. You’ve probably heard the term Scope and Sequence, which lays out the linear direction for a class. However, we want to be as intentional about what concepts and stories we repeat throughout a kid or student’s experience with Orange Curriculum, so we’ve designed a Scope and Cycle that is intentional about what gets reviewed. 

Each year at Orange Conference, we release the latest version of our Scope and Cycle that highlights the focused stories for that upcoming school year. It’s also available on our website for download. Each annual scope is tied to an overall Annual Focus that provides direction for how we will connect the content from God’s Word to a family’s everyday world.   

Orange is designed with similar segments for ease of use

As the content is put together into a teaching plan and instructional design, we use a similar pathway built on seven segments that add together to create a cohesive experience for kids and students when they come to your church.

Prelude: Setting the tone for the experience.

This includes everything that happens before a kid or student enters the environment. Orange curriculum includes all sorts of planning materials to help you prepare for people to arrive and experience your next gen environments. This includes thinking through how you decorate the rooms and hallways, the music you play as people walk in, preparing supplies for small group leaders and large group communicators, loading media to presentation software, and sending emails to leaders to give them a heads up about what to expect that week.

Social: providing time for fun interaction

No one is ready to begin diving into learning when they first walk into the room. That’s why we create intentional time where kids and students can have fun and ease into the heart of the content. Social allows for small group leaders to welcome kids and students and ask them relational questions that catch each other up on the past week. For our First Look and 252 curriculum, we also include a fun activity that teases the big idea for the day and gets the brain ready to experience the story.

Transitions: moving smoothly from one thing to another

We make sure that transitions are mentioned and at times scripted all throughout Orange curriculum. They can make or break a person’s experience. Transitions are especially important for younger kids who need time to refocus from one activity to the next. These can also be done with lighting and music that cue everyone that it’s time to pay attention to something different.

Story: communicating God’s truth in engaging ways

We are very intentional about how we help kids and students experience learning about trusting God and following Jesus. We use what we’ve learned about child and adolescent development to inform how we craft large group teaching so kids can not only learn something true about God but also enjoy their time learning and have a simple way to put that truth into practice.

Each curriculum also offers optional media packages that include teaching videos that present the lesson in a fun, memorable way that keep kids and students interested. They present all the same information that would be covered in a live large group script to connect with what will happen later during Small Groups.

Worship: as inviting people to respond to God

We think it’s important for kids and students to experience worship on their terms. That’s why we script out suggested worship segments that allow kids and students to sing songs they would like to sing. For our First Look and 252 Kids Curriculum, we have Orange Kids Music which includes a monthly worship song written specifically for the big ideas covered in that lesson. For our XP3 curriculum, we have suggested worship set lists for youth leaders to use and implement as they are able. 

Groups: creating a safe place to connect.  

After Large Group, kids and students head to small groups. For First Look and 252 Kids, this means engaging with all sorts of fun activities that review the Bible story, highlight the memory verse, apply the Bible story to their lives, and pray together. They are all created with kids in mind and offer several learning pathways to connect with kids however they learn best: with play, discussion, arts and music, physical activity, and thoughtful introspection. 

In XP3, Small Group time is often about dialogue so we give you focused questions to help them talk through what stood out to them, processing what they’re thinking & how it applies to their circumstance.

In every age group, part of Small Group includes helping kids and students discover practical ways to live out their faith with faith skill or practices.

Orange Curriculum includes four major categories for these faith skills: 

• Hear – listening to God through the words of Scripture and the world around us
• Pray – talking to God in prayer
• Talk – talking to each other about what God is doing in our lives
• Live – living for God, not just in the songs we sing but in the choices we make 

We highlight these in phase-appropriate practices we think will help give kids and students a way to own their own faith and grow in their relationship with Jesus.

Home: prompting action beyond the experience

While the first six take place in the context of the church environment, the segments aren’t finished. At Orange, we believe that what happens at HOME is more important than what happens at church. Orange Curriculum partners with Parent Cue to offer families all sorts of ways to continue at home the conversations started at church. These resources include devotionals, parent take-home resources with questions and activities, and for XP3 – Bible reading plans on YouVersion. These are included with your monthly curriculum downloads, but they are also available through the Parent Cue app. 

Nurturing a faith of their own

Okay, now that was A LOT of information, but what’s great is that on top of all the content that Orange Curriculum offers, your annual license also includes access to an Orange Specialist who can help you set everything up, choose what’s best for your church, and get you want you need to help train volunteers and cast vision to parents and leaders. They’re just an email or phone call away. 

At Orange, our mission is not just to raise kids and students, but actually to raise adults who have an everyday faith that transforms how they love God, themselves, and the rest of the world. We pray that through all they experience with Orange Curriculum in your church, they’d have a faith of their own that will last.

Learn more about Orange curriculum and try it free for 30 days!