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Relatively untapped, the Christian curriculum market is wide-open to reliable writers who know the Bible and understand educational theory and practice.
Despite a common assumption that only ministers and teachers can write Christian curriculum, the opposite is actually true. Holding a seminary degree or a teaching certificate is not necessary to write Christian curriculum—especially for children and youth.
Keys to Writing Christian Curriculum Successfully
- Have a solid grasp of Bible basics. Do you know the Bible’s outline, the major characters and its themes? Invest in a good reference library. What you lack in knowledge, you can make up for by turning to commentaries and concordances.
- Know the doctrines and theology of various Christian denominations. Many publishers don’t require you to subscribe to all of their specific denominational beliefs, but editors won’t hire you if your writing strays too far from them. Research denominational websites for this information.
- Learn how people learn. If you don’t have much experience writing Christian curriculum, observe a Sunday school class or school classroom. Examine the teacher’s lesson plan and/or existing Sunday school class material. Brush up on today’s popular educational theories, such as Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory.
- Write well! Review grammar and punctuation rules you’ve not revisited since seventh grade. Be succinct. Avoid passive voice. Don’t use gender or racial stereotypes. Include age-appropriate activities. Find out what style manual a particular house uses. Study it and edit your submissions accordingly.
How to Get Started Writing Christian Curriculum
- Attend a writers’ school. Many publishing houses conduct annual conferences to recruit and train new writers. If you want to write for a particular age group, call the publishing house’s senior editor or editor-in-chief of that demographic to get information about the next scheduled writer training. Editors like to use their “star students” as future writers.
- Submit a writing sample and resume. Most editors of on-going quarterly curriculum need new writers throughout the life of the piece. To keep the perspectives and activities fresh, editors prefer a rotating writers’ pool. To be considered for this pool, submit a writing sample and resume to the editor of the particular product. The sample could be something you created to use with your own Sunday school class or something you just created for this purpose (follow the outline of the existing product). Include varied learning opportunities that use as many senses as possible. Allow students time for group and independent work. Offer suggested time limits for each activity; the entire lesson should last no longer than one hour. Write with this question in mind: What do I want the students to learn?
- Submit a proposal. Many Christian denominations have publishing houses that produce curriculum for their churches. If you have discovered a curriculum need in your own experience as a Christian educator, submit a proposal to an editor. Give the editor at least two weeks to contact you before you phone or e-mail the editor. Keep your contact brief and polite. Wait at least another month before giving the editor another reminder. As with all publishing houses, slush piles do exist. Be patient. Sometimes, the idea’s good, but the timing’s just not quite right.
The Christian curriculum market is full of opportunities for good writers. Review those Sunday school flannel board stories, put yourself in a teacher’s shoes, and then write well. Adding your name to a Christian publishing house’s roster may be easier than you think.
The copyright of the article Writing Sunday School Curriculum in Freelance Writing is owned by Mary Bernard. Permission to republish Writing Sunday School Curriculum in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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