Hi, Jimmy! Welcome to Rotation.org! Thank you for registering as a member.

You can find an overview of the Workshop Rotation Model here.

And here is more information on scheduling lessons.

The wonderful thing about the lessons that you will find at our site is that they are very adaptable to individual churches' needs. We are finding that more and more churches are shortening the time available for Sunday school. So we are creating lessons that can be taught in 30-45 minutes. But we also include adaptations for churches such as yours who have more time - additional games or more detailed art projects or more run-throughs of dramas, for example.

Also, churches who have a longer time often open with a group time for singing/prayer/worship before the students go to their different age-level classes.

Take a look at the resources i linked, and then tell us a bit more about your situation (such as the number of students and classrooms, the format you are currently using) and we can help you figure out what will work for your community.

Hi Jimmy. Thanks for the question.

If I had an extra half hour, I'd fill it with "gathering time" fellowship, music, snacks, small group pastoral time, and elements of authentic kid worship that didn't feel like some high-powered production. Kids need a sense of belonging and family, not a rock concert high.

FYI:  Check out Northside Church of Christ in Wichita. They have been using the Rotation Model for many years.

@Neil MacQueen posted:

Hi Jimmy. Thanks for the question.

I may be confused about what you're asking so feel free to correct me...

You wrote: If you are only teaching one section to each grade each week what does the rest of the time look like.   

By "section" do you mean the time spent in class/workshop?  Then yes, only ONE workshop lesson per week, regardless of whether I had 30 or 60 or 90 minutes.

If I had an hour each week for a lesson I'd be ECSTATIC!  Could really take your time to enjoy the lesson rather than racing through it.

In my opinion, a 90 minute lesson is probably a far reach for most lessons and teachers AND kids.

If I had an extra half hour, I'd fill it with "gathering time" fellowship, music, snacks, small group pastoral time, and elements of authentic kid worship that didn't feel like some high-powered production. Kids need a sense of belonging and family, not a rock concert high.

FYI:  Check out Northside Church of Christ in Wichita. They have been using the Rotation Model for many years.

So currently we run the first 15-20 minutes is hang time followed by a ice breaker in small groups and then 30-40 minutes in large group that included worship, prayer, and a video teaching followed by small group time that includes a snack and follow up questions.  So if I was going to rework my schedule I would keep hang time and worship time and now do the rotation how long do you usually run each rotation? I would probably have 2 groups.

@Jimmy Hutson posted:

So currently we run the first 15-20 minutes is hang time followed by a ice breaker in small groups and then 30-40 minutes in large group that included worship, prayer, and a video teaching followed by small group time that includes a snack and follow up questions.  So if I was going to rework my schedule I would keep hang time and worship time and now do the rotation how long do you usually run each rotation? I would probably have 2 groups.

Thank you I will reach out to them too

That’s a luxurious amount of time!! Some churches cram too much into too little.

I know that the Writing Team lessons here at Rotation.org are written for 40-45 minutes with adaptations to extend or condense them. The variables are that some workshops can need more or less time depending on how prepared are, how elaborate your teachers want to get, AND depending on what’s in a particular lesson. Some lessons in a set are written a little simpler and some with a little more gusto —or can be modified by you that way to match a teacher’s ability or inexperience (sometimes I would do that for new teachers, for example).  

One of the advantages of having time afterward with the whole group like you do is you can focus a little more on the lesson/stories life application in that “after time” —in case the teachers in the workshops didn’t have the time or ability to drive that home in the lesson. Nice option to have.