I’m so thankful to have the pleasure of introducing a new development within our children’s ministry here at AFBC! When I entered my role a little over a year ago, one clear expressed desire from both our parents and volunteer Sunday School teachers was for a new curriculum that would not only better serve our grade-school students, but also include our preschoolers, toddlers, and their families both inside AND outside of the church on Sunday mornings. I am excited to let you know that after much discussion, research, and prayer, we are now beginning to implement a new curriculum called Orange!

The name “Orange” is intentional, and it comes from the organization’s strategy to align the church and the family. They describe their mission in the following way on their website: “The church is yellow, symbolizing light. It delivers biblical teaching and a formative environment for young people as they mature in their faith. The home is red, symbolizing love. Nothing influences kids and teens more than family. We’re Orange. Our mission is to create resources and experiences that help you bring together the church and the home and create a greater impact in the lives of kids and teens.” To read more about Orange’s mission, team, and goals, you can follow this link: https://thinkorange.com/what-we-do/.

This curriculum is also noticeably modern, and it does a great job of offering new ways of connecting and doing ministry together. Orange recognizes how valuable our time is and how, especially today, the church has fewer and fewer hours to take part physically in the spiritual development of your children and families. So, while their “in-church” curriculum is strong, they also offer much that allows families to stay connected with what is being taught inside the church as well as tons of resources to use in everyday life.

One such resource that I am in the beginning stages of setting up for us is the Parent Cue app. If you have children (whether they are participating in our programs at AFBC or not), I will highly recommend going ahead and downloading this app! This will be a great resource to you for many reasons, but I will emphasize two here. First, it will offer a way for you to see what your child is learning on Sunday mornings as well as to access supplemental tools and activities that you can use throughout your week to build upon what the children are learning at church. Secondly, this app offers tons of strong parenting resources such as newsletters, articles, age-specific guides, and a shop with fun and formational tools for the whole family. Just downloading the app and creating an account will get you some of this, but Orange even offers an affordable subscription that grants you full access to more resources for $5 a month or $49 a year! I know I pay more than that for other subscriptions that aren’t nearly as important or impactful as this! If you want to go ahead and download the app or even read more about it, you can follow this link: https://theparentcue.org/parent-cue-app/. Whether you pursue the subscription or not, I would encourage all parents to download the app and create an account for free. Then, click on the “Church” icon at the bottom of the screen and link your account to “Aiken’s First Baptist Church!” Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

As I said earlier, we are only beginning to implement this new curriculum, so please know that there will be more to come as I help to train our volunteer leaders as well as send things out on the app. For now, you can be on the lookout for take-home materials that your children will receive at the end of Sunday School each week. Thank you all for your continued support as we strive to be the best we can be for our children and families!

In truth and love,

Matt Waller

(704) 466-2321

mwaller@fbcaiken.org