How to Use Ligonier Resources in Sunday School
Sunday school provides opportunities for church members to grow in their knowledge of God and be better equipped to live for Him every day of the week. Ligonier Ministries produces teaching series to help Sunday school leaders and teachers provide faithful and biblical content for their Sunday school classes.
Using Ligonier teaching series for Sunday school enables churches to provide theologically trustworthy teaching in an established and accessible format. While most teaching series are geared toward adults, many teaching series can be used effectively as Sunday school curriculum for high school students, providing churches with more opportunities to impart biblical teaching to the next generation.
For example, The Holiness of God teaching series with Dr. R.C. Sproul includes a twenty- to thirty-minute video message with each lesson, and a study guide is available to build upon the teaching. Because the lessons are in a video format, the Sunday school teacher or facilitator is freed up to focus on leading the discussion based on the study guide rather than preparing lesson material.
Here’s one example of what this might look like:
- Before Class: The facilitator sends the class an overview of what will be covered in the upcoming week, including any passages of Scripture that the class can be reading and meditating on in advance.
- During Class: The facilitator streams the teaching lesson for the week or plays the DVD. Each person will have questions from the study guide in front of them as they listen to the message. (These study guides are available in paperback and digital formats.) After the lesson is finished, the facilitator spends the rest of the class leading discussion on the topic based on the questions in the study guide.
- After Class: Participants can take the study guide home to reflect on what they’ve learned. They can also take a multiple-choice review quiz for each lesson to be sure they retain the key points.
Each week proceeds in the same way until the series is complete and the class is ready to start a new series. The pairing of the study guide with the lesson material provides a clear educational rhythm for each week—an introduction, the presentation, and review—for long-term retention.
A Digital and In-Person Format
Use of online streaming allows churches to have even more flexibility when using Ligonier resources in the Sunday school classroom. With online video streaming available for teaching series as well as Ligonier Connect—our online learning platform—a Sunday school class can engage in a teaching series in several different formats:
- Flipped Classroom: In a “flipped classroom” format, the Sunday school participants watch the video on their own during the week before Sunday’s class. By streaming the lessons at home beforehand, the time in class on Sunday focuses on extended group discussion of the material. The accompanying study guide provides the facilitator with questions to guide the discussion.
- Ligonier Connect Group: Ligonier Connect is an online learning platform that includes more than one hundred teaching series with interactive study guide material embedded in the online lesson. A Sunday school class can create a Ligonier Connect group for their class. In the private online group, they can discuss the material online during the week. The facilitator can determine whether to play the video lessons on Sundays or use the flipped classroom model.
Whether it’s a teaching series or a Ligonier Connect course, Ligonier’s ready-to-use resources for Sunday school provide the trustworthy teaching and group discussion questions to help facilitate spiritual growth in your church.
Other Recommended Teaching Series:
- Dust to Glory with R.C. Sproul
- The Whole Christ with Sinclair Ferguson
- A Survey of Church History with W. Robert Godfrey
- Foundations of Grace with Steven Lawson
- The Great Commission with Burk Parsons
- Reformation Truths with Michael Reeves
- Romans 8 with Derek Thomas