The Children’s Sanctuary (TCS) Curriculum

An Overview of The Children’s Sanctuary: Meeting God in His Stories

by Cynthia S. Fischer

The Children's Sanctuary (TCS) fosters faith in preschool to early elementary children using the framework of worship. The environment is one of a quiet sanctuary. The class follows a simplified worship hour beginning with a Call to Worship, Scripture Songs, and a Bible Story illustrated with objects in a basket or box. Choices for reflection and re-experience of the story follow. The class concludes with Singing and a Benediction in which each child is prayed for by name.

While the framework of TCS is worship, the theme is the Covenant story of God as told through the Bible stories. TCS offers 26 stories from Creation to the Giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai, an Advent series, four Passion Week stories, and five Eastertide stories. Lessons come with Liturgy, including a Benediction, and song samples for each unit.

Designed for children ages 3-5 and K-2nd, TCS works best in groups under 20, with two lead teachers and an assistant. Classrooms should be free of toys and clutter and have enough space for children to spread the materials on the floor to re-experience the Bible stories.

God Asks Abraham to Give the Gift of Isaac Back

Three Foundations:

The Why: Children are Spiritual Beings

Three foundations underlie the development of this curriculum. First, children are spiritual beings created in God's image to bring him glory. From birth, God designed them as holistic beings with the capacity to learn and develop through their heads (cognition/reason), their hands (actions/deeds), and their hearts (emotions/imagination). They were made to desire to know and glorify God with all aspects of their being.

The majority of children's religious curriculums are rich in cognition. Children learn the plot of a Bible story with its characters, setting, and actions. The curriculum's learning objectives depend on knowledge of many of these. Scripture memory work is a valuable and usually a standard component. Most curriculums affirm that God designed children to move and use their bodies as they learn. Often, curriculums offer many options for hands-on activities such as making a craft, singing with hand motions, and re-enacting the stories. Thankfully, it is rare to find a classroom where the children must sit still for the entire class period..

However, most curriculums do little to account for developing a child's imagination and sense of wonder. Evoking an emotional response in a child's heart is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, nurturing a child's heart is critical. Our faith rests not only on what we believe about God and what we do in response to his love. It finds its roots in our hearts. As Matthew 22:37 says, we need all three areas to love the Lord our God, "with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind."

By design, TCS's stories inflate the wonder of God's actions in a Bible Story. We are all at risk of overfamiliarizing ourselves with Scripture with our learners. A good preacher wrestles with telling the familiar in new ways, drawing from the depths of Scripture a message for the hearts and minds of the congregation. TCS has grappled much with this as well.

God Gives Good Gifts to Adam: The Naming of the Animals and Eve

For example, God not only sentences Adam to death in Genesis 3, but his body will return to the dust of the earth from where it came. The children have seen the vial of dirt illustrating that God formed Adam from the ground in Genesis 2. An identical vial reappears in the lesson of God's punishment for sin in Genesis 3. Adam will no longer live forever. He will die, and his body will return to the dirt from where he came. For children, the vial of dirt is a sobering illustration of death.

In Genesis 12 and onward, Abram receives God's covenant promises. TCS makes these come to life for children as objects

in the Covenant Box. For example, children see a vial of sand and have time to ponder what it means for Abram to hear God say that he will have as many descendants as the grains of sand of the sea. How could that be? The grains of sand in this vial alone are uncountable.

Children are drawn into the depth and wealth of God's promises by slowing down and using carefully interpreted objects. Illustrations such as these prompt children to consider wondering statements. "I wonder what God meant when He said Abram would bless the whole world?" Or, "I wonder how Abram and Sarai could have so many children?" TCS encourages teachers to refrain from responding to these statements with answers. Instead, this is an opportunity for children to wonder what God intends. Later, in the Advent lessons, for example, they will discover that Jesus is the promised one through whom the world will be blessed. He is the one to whom God is referring in the protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15. As they experience the crucifixion story, they will see that Jesus dies for the sins of the world and note that the black felt from Adam and Eve's disobedience and the Flood, appears again at Jesus' death.

Objects in the Covenant Box

Additionally, they may note that Jesus is sacrificed like Isaac. Instead of an altar, He is hung on a cross, but the same word, sacrifice, is used in this story.  Unlike Isaac, God turns away from Jesus, and his son dies. It is not until the following week that the children experience the resurrection story illustrating the power of God in resurrecting Jesus. God has forgiven sin. The dark felt is gone and replaced with white felt. Jesus is alive! He has conquered the curse of death that began in the Garden of Eden.

TCS majors in showing children God's redemptive promises and actions rather than merely telling them. Children see

symbols that represent God's promises, and these reinforce God's covenant plan to bring salvation to his creation. TCS imbues each story with beauty, wonder, awe, and somberness as it speaks to a child's heart and allows him or her to respond with gratitude and love to God.

The How: The Sanctuary Environment

The second foundation is the "how" of TCS. Creating and maintaining a worshipful space invites the Holy Spirit to be heard. We remind children to whisper and walk quietly in this room because "God is talking to some children, and some children are talking to God." The quiet, respectful reverence allows children to hear the Holy Spirit's voice. After the Bible Story, children have at least 20 minutes to reflect and consider what they have experienced. The individual responses that the children create, whether coloring and drawing, praying, reading, or retelling past stories, allow them to reflect and communicate with God. This reflection time allows children to  consider God's Story. Teachers depend on God's Spirit to nurture their students’ hearts to respond to him.

For the most part, children's lives are as hectic as their parents. They have very little noise-free, quiet time in their lives. A classroom designed to foster reflection and worship can become a place where children are receptive to the Holy Spirit. While teachers cannot do the work of God's Spirit, they can design nurturing, reflective environments and places of worship for  young children.

Only the church can be the church. Churches provide childcare and playgrounds for movement and play, which are often needed. However, where do they provide places for children to be with God? Hopefully, they are welcome in the worship service. However, as they are in the genesis of spiritual formation, children must have a place to be with God and consider the significant issues of life for which they already have questions. In a TCS classroom, they see how much God loves them, how horrible sin is (e.g., Exile from Eden, Cain's Exile, Flood), and how God's redemptive plan comes true. While we hope that much of this is occurring in their homes, the church should extend its arms wide for children to be with God in spaces designed to nurture their hearts in love and gratitude toward God.

Experiencing the Covenant Box

The Road to Emmaus

The What: God’s Word-The Golden Thread

The third premise or foundation of TCS is that because God reveals himself to us through his Word, it is his Word that we must teach children and teach it well. While the Bible contains 66 books, it is one big rescue story. TCS uses the Story of the Golden Thread to illustrate this truth.

Periodically, instead of a new Bible Story, children see a review of what they have learned on a beautiful gold-colored ribbon, The Golden Thread. Past stories are placed here in chronological order to show how they relate to one another and connect to God's Covenant Promises.

Over time, the children grasp that the stories lead to Jesus’ life and death. They see some of the symbols in the Old Testament re-appear as Jesus comes on the scene.

God is the hero rather than the godly character. God is the "prime mover," as it were. He creates. He covenants. He promises. He provides. He sees. He cares and on and on. The biblical characters reflect their trust in God or turn from him. Some do both. They respond to God's offer of salvation with acceptance, rejection, obedience, or rebellion. The lessons conform to the tenets of evangelical faith. For example, the lessons leave no doubt that humans are sinful and in need of redemption, that the stories come from "God's true book, the Bible," or that Christ is God's Son. Jesus' death and resurrection are sufficient for our redemption when we trust him. We can do nothing to earn our way to God. Each lesson begins with a list of Key Themes, Learning Objectives, Key Words, and a list of the Materials for each lesson. These outline the story's intent and signal what may be challenging to teach. Next is the Bible story written in a storyteller style. It is best if the teacher can tell the story with a few

The Story of the Golden Thread: From Adam and Eve to Isaac.

notes. It is not to be memorized or read.

In summary, TCS curriculum rests on three foundations: The fact that God made children in his image as whole beings, head, heart, and hands; the worshipful environment that fosters the work of the Holy Spirit in children's hearts; and the living Word of God presented with compelling objects that transmit deep biblical truth, the "nugget of gold" in each lesson to reveal God's mercy, promises, or other divine actions in the story.