Spotlight on D6 Curriculum

By Jon D. Forrest

Imagine a young man meets the girl of his dreams. They fall in love, and he proposes marriage. She’s great. He is thrilled to have her in his life. The wedding day finally arrives. When things slow down at the reception, the father-in-law pulls the new groom aside and says, “Welcome to the family, son. Now that it’s official, I guess you’ll be spending lots of time at the family lake house.” The boy is overwhelmed. He was already sold on this girl, and now he finds out about a LAKE HOUSE! His new father-in-law says, “Yes, we bought it with the profits from one of our many Chick-fil-A franchises.”

Okay, maybe I worked one of my own personal fantasies in there at the end, but I just wanted to prepare your mind to embrace a similar scenario I encountered with D6 curriculum. I’ve used and loved D6 curriculum for years. I’ve taught the high school students at my church using some incarnation of D6 Curriculum for so long, some of my original high school students are now parents of some of my current high school students. I believe in this product. But on a recent tour through the Randall House warehouse I was introduced to a “lake house” of D6 curriculum golden nuggets of which I was totally unaware. I figured if I didn’t know about these ten things, you might not either.

1. D6 has a nursery resource. First Steps Nursery Program is an all-inclusive guide for maintaining a teaching nursery ministry that also provides tools for parents to use in the home. I know! Teaching in the nursery! When I was a baby, the goal was just to keep me from chewing the legs off the furniture. Now, not only is it never too early to start instilling truths to children, but this also sets a wonderful example and pace for family ministry in your church.

2. Cuddle Time Bible Storybook is an incredible gift for young parents. Every family loves storybooks. Why not bless them with one with more value than a story about a whiny llama. Cuddle Time is great! (I’m talking about the resource here.) It not only has creative questions for parents to ask, but also a “find the item” game woven into it. So fun!

3. D6 has curriculum for 11 age groups! I didn’t even know there were 11 age groups. Obviously, the most wonderful thing about the D6 curriculum is the fact everyone from elementary students to seniors (octogenarians, not the twelfth grade kind) is studying the same theme. Kindergartners and great-grandparents are all literally on the same theme each week.

3a. By the way, being on the same page doesn’t mean anything if the curriculum is lousy, but D6 is top-notch even without the “same theme” feature. I catch myself editing out really good material provided every week because there’s simply not time for it. Believe me. You want this problem when it comes to your curriculum.

4. The “Home Connection” not only facilitates family worship, it also makes you look like a superstar! Just for the record, I’m way more interested in facilitating family worship than making myself look like a superstar. The Home Connection page has a short, fun, family-together idea with a quick discussion starter relevant to every person in the house because, remember, we are all on the same page. It contains a weekly Bible passage, suggestions for prayer, and suggestions for putting what you’ve learned into practice. To top it all off, you can personalize it with your logo and send it in an email to make sure it doesn’t get left in the chair beside the water fountain. Superstar!

5. There is family alignment in the devotional studies. There are incredible devotionals available for every age. The devotional books for students of all ages are absolutely stunning and contain not only great content, but also fun as well. Can you imagine families keeping one another accountable in their devotional lives and also being on the same page? It gives you tools to obey the command of Deuteronomy 6.

6. D6 handles scope and sequence so I don’t have to. If I came up with every lesson every week, I would say the feeding of the 5,000 would come up about every five-to-seven weeks. It’s so good! “There’s a boy here with five loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many?” Maybe I’ll teach it this week. No! D6 has a knack of moving from Old Testament to New and then to special topics right on time. They have a huge scope and sequence poster available that explains it all and also gives me a headache when I think of how difficult it must have been to organize.

7. D6 Doorposts are unapologetic in their apologetics. Sorry for the terrible word play, but if we are not equipping our people to own and defend their beliefs we are failing. Apologetics and biblical worldview are highlighted in each lesson. One unit each year is devoted entirely to apologetics.

8. Your children’s workers will love you for Elements Kid’s Worship. To be fair, this is not something I learned in the warehouse. I’ve used Elements for years. I use it with our children’s church (4-8 year olds) and our youth service (9-13 year olds) during our worship time. It complements what they just learned in their small group or Sunday School time. Anyone can teach using this great resource.

9. Every D6 lesson follows the CLEAR learning system. (Connect. Learn. Explore. Apply. Respond.) If you teach good lessons, you probably already follow this model without even knowing it. I love the connect time with my students. I can enjoy a rousing discussion question or game for a whole class time if I’m not careful. CLEAR helps keep me focused enough to make it, at least, to the application portion of the lesson.

10. There is a super-helpful game book titled, Help! My Games Stink, available at d6family.com. I feel I should probably let you know I wrote it. I also feel I should probably tell you I use the adverb “super” very freely. But to be fair, there were tons of copies of it in the warehouse.

The Real #10. (I won’t count the ad for my book.) The teaching guide is available as a PDF file for viewing on your computer or tablet. This was my favorite discovery in the warehouse that day. By the end of the quarter, my teacher’s book looks like a nervous cheerleader’s pom-pom after a championship season. I’ve complained for years about them not having this! And they’ve had it for years. Little did I know they hid it in the front of the packet. Who would ever think to look there?

I could talk about D6 curriculum all day, but you really need to see it. My friends at D6 would love to get samples of this in your hands. Every generation in your church will thank you. Also, seriously, don’t forget that game book I mentioned in the D6 store. They make great gifts. Buy six for a whole set of coasters. Or with a well-positioned piece of duct tape, you can turn a copy into a great chew toy for dogs. I’m not particular at all.

About the Writer: Jon Forrest is youth pastor at Bethel FWB Church near Ashland City, Tennessee. A 1995 graduate of Welch College, Jon is a frequently requested speaker at youth events and conferences, and preaches regularly at Pleasant View Christian School, where he is also a school board member. Jon has authored two books available from Randall House: Help! My Games Stink and the recently published Fight! Jon and his wife Carrie have one daughter, Ellie.