Children’s Christian education classes (Family Bible Hour) use the curriculum, Generations of Grace.
Here is an explanation of the underlying philosophy taken from the publisher’s website.
Philosophy of Ministry
Generations of Grace exists to glorify God through evangelizing children, encouraging parents, and edifying servants so that the gospel may be spread among our children, families may be supported, and the church may be strengthened.
Evangelizing Children
The Bible is not just a collection of stories teaching moral lessons, nor is a child’s greatest need behavior modification. A child’s greatest need is to be born again, because from birth they are dead in their sins (Ps 51:5; Eph 2:1). So the greatest gift we can give the next generation is the gospel. Only the gospel is able to rescue their soul from sin and death and secure for them an inheritance in heaven forever.
But what is the gospel? While the core of the gospel is forgiveness of sin through the death of Christ (Matt 1:21; John 1:29), this is only the center of a much bigger story. After all, why do we need forgiveness? What is God’s plan for those who are forgiven? Generations of Grace leads children through the whole story of God’s great rescue mission. It does so in the hope that children would come to a comprehensive understanding of the gospel message and that by the grace of God they would look to Christ in saving faith. All the books in the curriculum are designed to reach children with this goal in mind.
Encouraging Parents
The most important job of parents is to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4; Col 3:21). Parents are to be the primary evangelists and spiritual trainers of their children. Parents must work very hard at this, teaching their children every day by their regular example and specific instruction (Deut 6:7). So an effective children’s ministry will do all it can to encourage parents in their mission, and one way to do this is by providing helpful tools to parents. This is what Generations of Grace strives to do.
Generations of Grace provides the Family Devotional, a valuable tool designed with both parents and children in mind. The Family Devotional aims to aid the parents in their own knowledge, love, and holiness. Then as the parents grow in godliness, the Family Devotional also helps parents teach their children throughout the week the same stories and principles that are taught each Sunday.
Edifying Servants
The church is commanded to edify and equip its people to serve (Eph 4:11–16). This happens as the elders of the church preach and teach, but it also happens when the elders provide resources to help the members grow in Christlikeness. Generations of Grace is designed to be just such a resource.
Unlike many Sunday school curricula, the Teacher Book does not script out lessons that a teacher can read without much thought. Instead, the lesson commentary in particular is designed to go beyond what the teacher will actually be able to teach in one lesson. It is designed to edify the teacher, filling his mind with truth and his heart with passion. The Family Devotional is also a great tool for the teacher, allowing him to approach the lesson in a devotional way throughout the week before he teaches it on Sunday. Then the teacher will have a deep well to draw from as he crafts a lesson specifically for his own Sunday school class.
While emphasizing the teacher’s own edification, The Teacher Book also gives practical help by clearly and simply laying out main points, objectives, outlines, questions, introductions, illustrations, and applications. Also, additional questions in the Family Devotional can add to a lesson or provide discussion questions for small groups following the main teaching time.