Philosophy & Distinctives

God-centeredness

We believe that the Bible is a book first and foremost about God. The other characters in the Bible merely point to God. So in our curriculum, we have attempted to exalt God—to show Him as a great and almighty God. In every lesson, Scripture is studied in the context of the question, "What does this say about God?"

Depth

We believe that children can handle deep truth at a young age. We want to fill them with solid Bible truth that will give them a foundation to fall back on when they go through deep waters. For this reason, the curriculum continually refers children to the Word of God; Bibles are an essential tool for children studying Children Desiring God curriculum. We believe that the Bible must be taught in depth, yet in a child-friendly, interesting manner. For this reason, much attention has been devoted to the development of creative presentation of essential Bible truths.

Incremental

We believe that children learn "precept upon precept." Truth presented on a simple level in the preschool years is reinforced and expanded at primary levels, and so forth. For this reason, truths are reintroduced to the children as they grow older, each time digging deeper and widening the scope of their understanding. Because the curricula build on each other, it is strongly recommended that the curricula be presented sequentially. Early elementary age curriculums should be taught in the first through third grades; later elementary age curricula in grade four through six. (See Sequence).

Application

We believe that faith comes through hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). However, we also believe that teaching falls short if it simply feeds words through the minds of children. We want truth to be clearly understood by the children. Therefore, God's truth is explained through illustration, connecting the known to the unknown. Because interaction with God's truth is critical, children are encouraged to look up scripture passages, discover and respond to truth.

Theology

Titles offered by Children Desiring God have been developed at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and have been successfully tested by and are being used in evangelical churches of many denominations across the United States and Canada. Bethlehem's teaching emphasizes God's sovereignty in directing everything to serve His good purpose. My Purpose Will Stand: A Study for Children on the Providence of God most clearly presents this view, helping children understand that nothing is outside the control of the all-powerful and all–loving God of the universe. For a more detailed discussion of the theology of Desiring God Ministries, see What We Believe.

Partnership with Parents

We believe that before God, parents, not churches have the primary responsibility for the spiritual nurture of their children. We have made every effort to structure the curricula in a way that allows the church to "walk along side" parents, enabling and equipping them in this God-given role. For that reason, we strongly encourage parental involvement in the classroom and have developed meaningful take-home materials for every lesson to encourage and enable parents to interact with their children over Scripture and the lesson content. The curricula are also being used by an increasing number of home-schooling parents. Desiring God Ministries has also developed a number of Parenting Resources for home use to help nurture the faith of children.

Stewardship of Resources

The resources we offer have been specifically designed for durability and re-use. Although in the first year, an average church will spend approximately the same amount of money, or slightly more, it would have purchasing a curriculum package from another publisher, subsequent years are much less expensive since only our student materials are consumable. Teachers materials including visual aids are printed and packaged for years of re-use.

Long-term Perspective

Our goal is that lesson truths and faith lessons will be remembered for many years. Because take-home worksheets are often misplaced or discarded, they offer little educational value beyond the immediate reinforcement of the lesson. For that reason, we provide both take-home sheets and workbooks. Our workbooks bind student worksheets together and pair each one with lesson information or a memory verse page, which provides children with a review tool and parents with a tool for discussion and re-teaching at home. As children progress through the curricula, they accumulate a library of Biblical truth.