The Big Picture

Home and church, working together

Families can follow a connected plan at their own pace while a church follows its own teaching sequence. Each provides the background needed to take part, without requiring completion of the other. Together, they offer more opportunities to hear God's Word, ask questions, make connections and respond in ordinary life.

Scripture calls parents to nurture their children in the Lord and the church to teach and equip its people (Ephesians 6:4; 4:11–16). Family discipleship belongs within the wider life of the church, where adults and children receive teaching, encouragement and care. Our resources serve these shared responsibilities through approaches suited to each setting.

At home: frequent encounters that build understanding

Home offers repeated opportunities to return to Scripture within familiar relationships. A conversation around the Bible can continue through a child's questions, a difficult choice, a moment of gratitude or prayer before bed. We equip the adult to understand the passage first, then help the family explore its meaning together.

Genesis to Revelation gives families a sustained journey through the Bible in manageable portions. Its aim is broad familiarity with biblical people and events, alongside the poems, wisdom, prophecy and letters that give Scripture its richness. Following the unfolding story helps families connect what they read today with what came before and what follows. Younger children can participate with support, while those ready for more can explore the reasons and connections more deeply.

Guard Your Heart gives focused help for conversations about God's good design for the body and sexuality, responding to pornography, and navigating digital life. It brings biblical truth into areas where families need patient, clear and practical guidance.

Little Ones at Home is our family area for ages 2 through Grade R. Its focus is helping parents and caregivers introduce young children to God and Scripture through the ordinary relationships and opportunities of home.

At church: a journey through four stages

At church, children learn within a wider community of worship, friendship, service and care. The church programme is shaped around four stages, each with a distinct contribution to a child's growing understanding. Important truths are revisited with deeper explanation and new connections, while the range of biblical material continues to grow.

Little Ones: first familiarity and substantial truths

Heralds to Little Ones serves ages 2 through Grade R during the church's Sunday School time. The aim is to establish familiarity with Scripture and substantial truths about God from these earliest years. Short Bible accounts, pictures, praise, prayer and supported activities help children listen, recognise, retell and respond. Jesus and the gospel belong here from the beginning.

The plan alternates its main Bible lessons with lessons focused on an attribute of God. Children return to who God is through clear biblical teaching and familiar ways of participating, gradually building their understanding of His character.

Junior primary: widening knowledge of the Bible

Junior primary builds a wider knowledge of biblical people, events and teaching. The emphasis is on entering an account, understanding what happens and explaining what it reveals about God. Our aim is to help children find their way through the Bible's story, learning from Israel's history, the life and teaching of Jesus, the early church, biblical songs, wisdom, prophetic words and the teaching of the apostles. These encounters help them begin to see where the different parts belong.

Senior primary: understanding the connections

Senior primary develops the connections between passages, books and doctrines. Questions about Israel's worship, the kings and prophets, exile and return, suffering and wisdom give children worthwhile material to investigate. The aim is to help them read different kinds of biblical writing with care, explain why a conclusion follows from Scripture and understand how one part of the Bible illuminates another.

High school: developing thoughtful convictions

High school gives room for sustained biblical arguments, careful interpretation and reasoned convictions. The emphasis includes following the message of a book, bringing related passages together and examining important questions about belief and life. We help young people connect doctrine with suffering, relationships, work, church life and witness, and learn to explain their convictions with clarity and humility.

Children bring different experiences and levels of biblical knowledge. Each stage makes room for newcomers and helps learners take their next steps from where they are. Parents and teachers can choose the lesson plan suited to their group without needing to coordinate the same passage at home and church.

Knowing Scripture, understanding truth, following Christ

Across home and church, we bring three kinds of understanding together. Biblical literacy is familiarity with the Bible's contents. Biblical theology follows how God's purposes unfold through Scripture. Systematic theology draws together what the whole Bible teaches about subjects such as God, humanity, salvation, the church and our final hope. All three belong in every stage, expressed in ways learners can understand.

We attend to each passage's setting and form, and trace its relationship to Christ through connections supported by the text and the wider Bible. The gospel shapes the whole programme, and our prayer is that growing understanding will bear fruit in faith, worship, wisdom, love and faithful service.