What's the BIG IDEA?

No, this is not a VeggieTales post.  The Big Idea is a strategy here at Community Christian Church.  It's been a key component of our programming for quite a few years now.  Let me explain the Big Idea by describing 3 dimensions of it...

1) The Big Idea means every element within one service time points to one concept.  Whether it is a song, sketch, video, teaching...all focus on one clearly communicated idea.  Rather than bombarding people with multiple, smaller, competing ideas; we try to focus on one Big Idea.  Maximize life-changing learning.

2) The Big Idea means different sites are all addressing same concept on any given weekend.  The same Big Idea being taught at our Naperville Campus is being taught in Romeoville, Montgomery, Shorewood, and Pilsen.  In addition, for the adults this same Big Idea is being taught in Denver, Manhattan, Detroit, and Boston at our NewThing Apprentice Churches (we hope that one day this is true of our children's programming as well).  During the week tons of collaboration takes place to bring the Big Idea to all these locations.  Maximize collaboration, the ability to reproduce sites, and regional impact.

3) The Big Idea means adults, students, and kids are all learning the same central concept in an age-appropriate environment.  If the adults are learning about worry, the kids are learning about worry.  If the students are learning about generosity, their parents are learning about generosity.  If the kids are learning about forgiveness, the adults are learning about forgiveness.  The dream is to use the Big Idea to stimulate conversation and spiritual formation within the family unit.  Maximize the potential in a family.

I love building our programming around the Big Idea.  Currently we write our own curriculum beginning with 1st grade according to this strategy.  It is a collaborate effort between our adult teaching pastors, student ministry directors, and my children's team to come up with the Big Ideas we'll focus on in a ministry year.  I love thinking about the impact the Big Idea could have on families!

Comments

[preston]

cool Tammy

currently we are trying a similar technique with our students

I would love to see what a program script looks like for you guys.

DO you do skits everyday, how do you teach your message(one person up front/video/multiple people), what is worship like etc etc.

any insight would be great

thanks
preston

[Christy]

What a great model! I love the collaboration and unity that it involves. A couple of questions: Have there been times when the topic for adults hasn't been suitable for kids? Do you have a "scope and sequence" for what kids will learn over the course of their time in your ministry? I'm really wondering how and if the old "scope and sequence" fits in today's ministry climate!

[Tammy Melchien]

Preston--Our large group environment for elementary kids looks different every week but typically include a Worship Leader leading songs and a Communicator telling the teaching moment. Sometimes we have sketches, sometimes videos, sometimes games, sometimes creative response moments. In a future post maybe I'll post a couple samples.

Christi--Great questions! I don't have time at the moment to write a response but I think I'll make your questions the subject of my next post (which hopefully I'll get to sometime this weekend). Hang on! :)