Church school programs are winding down now in many parishes, but the Rev. David Klutterman is already looking ahead. The rector of the Church of St. John the Baptist, Wausau, Wis., is looking forward to the launch of an educational resource that has been 20 years in the making.

“Bringing Christ Home” is a new curriculum for families with children in grades 3-6. Fr. Klutterman’s goal in developing the program is to encourage more family involvement in Christian formation.

“We cannot foster all formation within 30 to 35 hours of Sunday school a year,” he said. “Children need more than that.”

Fr. Klutterman said his interest in developing the curriculum was sparked when he surveyed the programs in use in the 1980s, and became involved with other educators in The Episcopal Church. He said his inquiry came at a time when The Episcopal Church as a whole was beginning to take another look at formation.

“That, combined with my own studies on education and formation, led me to explore the relationship between congregation and home when it comes to formation and education,” he said. “The program links the congregation and home, and takes it one step further. ‘Bringing Christ Home’ takes Christianity from just a church setting to promoting it in the home. Children then see the importance of the beliefs and values learned in church in other places, helping them implement them into their lives.”

Children may be more comfortable learning in the home, and it can be easier to foster faith in children when they are being encouraged and taught by those who love them unconditionally. For that reason, Fr. Klutterman said, Christian formation in the home is just as important as religious formation in church. When the church “encourages teaching to come home” with children, he said, Christian education is expanded to a daily practice, rather than something that is done just on Sundays.

A typical week’s edition of “Bringing Christ Home” is an eight-page magazine that includes a reflection on the week’s scriptures, prayers, and information about the liturgical year and about The Episcopal Church. These are accompanied by thought questions, activities for students to complete on their own or with family help, original games and puzzles. Fr. Klutterman designed the activities to encourage interactive formation that complements the reading materials. Each week’s cover page can be printed in the color of the liturgical season, depending on the congregation’s printing capability.

The curriculum is offered in a CD format, with 40 weeks of lessons. Congregations may distribute the lessons in a variety of ways: as a hand-out magazine produced like a Sunday bulletin, by email, as a mailed piece, or even for downloading from the parish’s website. Once a church purchases the program, the congregation owns the right to reproduce the materials as often as needed. New editions of “Bringing Christ Home” will be available for each of the three years of the lectionary cycle.

Fr. Klutterman’s parishioners — and parents in particular — have responded positively to the curriculum. “They have all tried to help figure out how this can fit in or support our church school program,” he said. A larger, Long Island, N.Y., parish also has been using the program for about a year to supplement its existing Christian education curriculum. Parishioners there have been pleased with the impact the materials have made, he said.

“Bringing Christ Home” is flexible enough to be used as a stand-alone Christian education program for a smaller parish, or to supplement an established curriculum in a larger parish, Fr. Klutterman said. Pricing is also based on the size of the congregation. For a church with average Sunday attendance of fewer than 100 parishioners, the cost for the year is $200; if attendance is 100 or more, the cost is $350. Materials for the 2007-8 program year are now available.

With so many demands on families’ time, “Bringing Christ Home” is designed to keep children and their families connected to the church and the Sunday school program. It also offers parents an easy and fun opportunity to spend time with their children sharing their faith and values.

“The church’s first responsibility is to bring education home,” Fr. Klutterman asserts, and he believes that the inclusion of parents and family members can have an enormous difference on the faith lives of children.

For more information on the “Bringing Christ Home” curriculum, contact Fr. Klutterman at 715-432-4685, or by email at bringchristhome@aol.com.

Madeleine Lambert is a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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