Creating a Successful Church History Curriculum for Adults

The curriculum I have designed is written for a college/adult level church history class at my church. It is designed so there is 8 lessons for a once a week class. Because it is an intensive class, it is meant to seem as though it is a survey class. There are several reasons why I chose to do it this way including: because the students are college age and above, it works better with work schedules, and classes. Also, for the college students, if the class is only once a week, it will be easier for them to handle the class load in addition to work assigned for their other classes.

Lesson # 1

Behavioral Objectives

Given: any previous knowledge, and the lecture

Students will demonstrate: what their understanding of church history is and new information gained

By: quick writing, discussing church history as a whole, answering questions, and completion of their homework assignment.

Intro:

Brief overview of course logistics: attendance, syllabus, class policies and questions on these things.

(This goes for all lessons in the curriculum) Homework will be turned in every week, and graded like a quiz, which can be awarded a maximum of 20 points per assignment. Also, homework assignments will always be in different formats, so the students will be able to use their strengths to complete the assignments. There will be opportunities at the beginning of each class to present the assignment to the class, if that option is chosen.

Quick write: What is Church History? Can you think of any events that would fall under the church history category? What is the difference between primary and secondary sources? What is a Turning Point?

Through:

1. Discussion of students' quick writes

2. Go over introductory vocabulary:

a. Primary source: direct accounts of events/people

b. Secondary source: commentaries or writing about the primary source from another perspective.

c. "catholic": (little "c"). It is not the denomination, but is the universal church as a whole, united.