COMMITTEE ON CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FEATURE

Great Commission Publications (GCP) is privileged to provide Sunday school curriculum for our parent churches in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in America, along with other Reformed congregations around the country. GCP has over 600,000 lesson engagements per year with children across the country—praise God! This means that over 600,000 times a year, a child and a teacher are opening God’s Word together, reading and learning the stories of the Bible, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and, as Psalm 78:4 says, “the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.”

Knowing that the best teaching comes from teachers who are studying the Word on a regular basis and that only the Holy Spirit can work in a child’s heart, we desire to help our teachers be ready to teach each week out of the fullness of their hearts. We want to spark wonder as children learn about our big God; we want kids to be taught heart-to-heart, discipled in relationship; and we want a covenantal framework, so that kids see Jesus in the unfolding story of salvation.

Training Free of Charge, Expanding in 2027

GCP is excited to announce free training opportunities for all of our churches—those who use our curriculum, those considering, and everyone who wants to faithfully disciple the next generation. GCP has always believed that training teachers is an important part of curriculum development. Most of the teachers using our curriculum are not trained in education but are nurses or businesspeople or college students or plumbers or realtors, and, because of that, the curriculum is easy to use, clear for volunteers, and includes teaching aids and tips to help teachers of any level.

By God’s grace, GCP has always offered in-person training, but we have never had more than one or two people available to lead that training. Now as a result of the wonderful Lilly Endowment grant that GCP received in 2025, we have developed a network of trainers available to go into churches across the country, free of charge.

In 2025 we recruited our first five trainers from the southeast region of the United States, where our largest number of churches are located. In 2027 we will be adding to our team of trainers in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, the Northeast, and the West Coast. As the director of training and outreach, I and Kristy Mitchell, our discipleship engagement coordinator, will be available from our Atlanta office to go to locations not covered by the rest of the team.

There are three simple steps to get free training in your church:

• Request Training: Contact me (ba.snider@gcp.org) or a local trainer to ask about training at your church or in your presbytery.
• We Connect: Together we will work on a date and time that works for all involved.
• Get Equipped: We will customize your training for your church and your context.

Training Specific to Your Church

Each training is fully customizable to meet the unique needs and context of your ministry. In-person training comes to your church for a hands-on, interactive session with your team of teachers. Online training is perfect for remote teams gathering from multiple locations. Roundtable workshops are available for bringing multiple churches or presbyteries together in-person for collaborative learning and networking.

Not sure where to start? We offer five workshops that are great for a church of any size:

• Show Me Jesus overview—Discover our Christ-centered curriculum for toddlers through middle elementary, which points to Jesus through every story from the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New. Understand the scope and sequence and how the curriculum is designed to teach the Bible to our children at each age level.
• Preschoolers—Teach preschoolers God’s Word in a way that sticks.
• Elementary—Teach elementary students how to study and understand God’s Word for themselves.
• Covenant—Consider how children are part of God’s covenant plan for the church and learn how to teach those covenant promises to children.
• Curriculum—Dive into the Show Me Jesus curriculum and learn how to disciple kids heart-to-heart.

On-demand video training is also available online for every age group at vimeo.com/channels/gcptraining/.

Our goal at GCP is for our teachers to faithfully open God’s Word with children each Sunday. We pray that through the ordinary means of grace, the Word, and prayer, the Holy Spirit would work powerfully in the lives of our covenant children and anyone in the classroom that they may know the gospel of Jesus Christ and walk with him in new obedience each day of their lives.

The author is director of training and outreach for Great Commission Publications.

MTIOPC 2026 Fall Online Course: Defending the Faith

The Ministerial Training Institute of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (MTIOPC) is offering an online course in fall 2026: Defending the Faith (Presuppositional Apologetics). The deadline for applying is August 24. The class starts online on August 31, with mandatory online intensive training sessions the week of November 16. Defending the Faith is taught by Rev. Dr. William D. Dennison, pastor of Emmanuel OPC in Kent, Washington.