You just got handed the fall schedule. Kids show up in a few Sundays. Nobody handed you a plan.
I’ll say this up front: I’ve gotten this wrong myself. When I taught, I couldn’t stay on one theme for a month. And later, I guessed wrong about what a small church could afford.
I know that spot you’re in. When I taught at my church, our teachers worked on quarterly schedules. Every time a quarter ended, we had a decision to make.
Keep going with this curriculum, or switch? The switch almost always happened at back-to-school.
That’s why people search for a 52-week Sunday School curriculum. Nothing broke. The calendar turned.
Somebody had a planning meeting and said, “Let’s get next year set up.”
This post is for that person. First, what a one-year bundle should hand you. Then what the All-Access Pass is, and when it makes more sense.
We’re a small team, and we sell both. So read this like advice from a friend who also happens to run the store.
Why churches go looking for a 52-week Sunday School curriculum
My guess is that three moments send churches looking for a whole-year plan.
- A quarter ended, and the next one isn’t picked.
- The church took a summer break and is coming back in the fall.
- Someone new took over the children’s ministry. Their first job is figuring out what to teach.
None of these are emergencies. They’re calendar problems. A calendar problem wants a calendar answer: a plan with a Sunday-by-Sunday map for the year ahead.
What a 52-week curriculum should hand you (scope and sequence first)
The magic words are scope and sequence. That’s the one-page map of what you’ll teach and when. Print it.
Pin it to the bulletin board. Now everyone can see where the year is going before it happens.
That one page matters more than any single lesson. My guess is the person buying a 52-week curriculum usually isn’t the one teaching every week. They’re handing lessons to volunteers.
Most volunteers don’t have a Saturday afternoon to rework a lesson. The plan has to work as-is.
This is what I’d look for in any 52-week Sunday School curriculum, ours or anyone’s:
- A scope and sequence you can print. (Here’s ours for the 2026–27 school year, free.)
- Fully scripted lessons for every week, so a first-time volunteer can teach from the page.
- For kids 6–12: group games, hands-on object lessons, and open-ended discussion.
- For preschool 3–5: guided play stations, simple movement games, and picture-based storytelling with easy crafts.
- A supply list built from household items.
- Files you download and print.
The scope and sequence is the first thing I’d check. It tells you whether the year was planned or just piled up.
Where a one-year bundle runs out
A 52-week bundle solves this year. That’s what it’s for. But next August the calendar turns again, and you’re back at the planning meeting.
That’s not a flaw. Plenty of churches are happy to buy a new year every year. If that’s you, our back-to-school 52-week bundle runs August through July, in a Kids track and a Preschool track.
There’s a free four-lesson sample from it, too. Teach one before you buy a year.
But the question that comes back every year is the real problem. So a while ago we tried to build something that answered it.
What the All-Access Pass is (and what it is not)
We wanted to create an offer that was better than anything we had done before. That led us to think hard about what churches actually struggle with. The curriculum question comes back every single year.
The All-Access Pass is every lesson on The Sunday School Store. Both age tracks. Ten years of curriculum series, and every new series as we release it, including our Vacation Bible School.
One payment.
It is not a subscription. There’s no renewal, no monthly fee, no auto-charge, no expiring links. Your files sit in your church’s Drive, and they’re yours.
One purchase, and you never have to buy curriculum again
That sentence is the whole offer. One purchase, and you never have to buy curriculum again.
It doesn’t mean you’ll never want to. We keep making new curriculum, and some of it will look pretty interesting. But every new series we release is already yours.
Back when we set the price, I figured a purchase around $300 would be a burden for a small church. (Today’s price is on the Pass page.)
Then churches started buying it. Once they understood it was once and done, they didn’t hesitate.
One church leader wrote us: “We know a good deal when we see one!” Another told us it looked like it might be a scam, too good to be true.
I was surprised, and I was wrong.
Kids and preschool on the same Bible story, the same week
With the Pass you get the Kids track and the Preschool track. Same Bible story, same week, written for each age.
One leader put it best. Her favorite part was that preschool and elementary were on the same material, so the whole family could talk about it at home. If you run more than one classroom, that’s the feature to look at first.
52-week bundle or All-Access Pass: a simple way to decide
Ask two questions.
How many age groups do you teach? One classroom, one age range? The 52-week bundle fits.
Kids and preschool both? Look at the Pass first. It covers both tracks, and it doesn’t end next August.
Will you be back next year? If you’re trying us out, buy the year.
If you already know you’ll be shopping again next August, the Pass ends that. One purchase, and you never have to buy curriculum again.
Small churches are a special case. Some may not have a curriculum line in the budget at all. The purchase is either a one-time request to the church, or a volunteer paying out of pocket.
If that’s your situation, the Pass is one request instead of one every year.
And if the church can’t swing it this season, the free samples and the scope and sequence are there for you. No strings. Use what you can.
Current pricing for both is on the All-Access Pass page, along with a full list of what’s inside and our 365-day refund promise.
What a year of curriculum really costs you on Saturday night
The money isn’t the part I care about most.
When I was a children’s pastor, every hour I spent on Saturday revising a lesson was an hour I stole from my own kids and my own life.
Most children’s ministry leaders I know are volunteers. They’re parents. They have jobs.
Some of them also run the women’s ministry. And then they think they have to write the best Bible lesson every week on top of all that.
That’s work you don’t have to do. It’s hurting the kids in your class. It’s hurting your family.
And it’s hurting whatever else God has put in front of you this week.
Some of this is on pastors. Too many hand a leader a hard job, put them out of sight, and don’t send help when it’s needed.
Some of it is on us leaders. We think the lesson has to be the best one ever written.
And some of it is just how God made us. Everybody has limited capacity.
The weekly scramble is not a mark of faithfulness. It’s a sign the plan is missing.
We don’t want to take all your ministry money, either. Curriculum should leave room in the budget for better snacks, better supplies, or a little something for the volunteer who shows up every week. And if you’re the one paying out of pocket, I’d rather you take your kids out after church than send that money to me.
Your turn: how does your church pick curriculum?
I’ve told you how I’d choose. But I’m not your treasurer, and I don’t know your church. I’m also the guy who couldn’t stick with one theme for a month when I taught, so weigh my planning advice accordingly.
I have friends who work for other publishers, and they think I’m crazy to sell it this way. Maybe. But this goes back to the whole mission behind our ministry: help as many churches as possible, at the least cost possible.
Now I’d like to hear how it actually works where you are. Who decides? Who pays?
Does the calendar drive it, like it did for us? Leave a comment below. I read every one, and your answer helps the next leader who lands on this page.
