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Testimonies, Tips and Tidbits Curriculum Challenges New Song Blues

by Robin Ulbredtch
05/10/17
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New Song Blues

Some Bible curriculums offer a variety of new songs to go along with each quarter of teaching materials. This is a great idea because it gives teachers a selection of praise music to teach their students. When the students thoroughly learn Bible songs, they remember the words and are reminded of the Biblical lessons every time they sing the songs.

One challenge, which I have named “New Song Blues,” appears when teachers try to teach their students too many new songs within a short time period. I’ve also experienced this in church because the worship leaders continually bring in new songs before the congregation has learned the previous ones. This makes praising and worshipping more tedious and more frustrating. At times I am truly disappointed because it was hard for me to enter in to the place of worship during church. I find myself focusing more on learning the words and music to the new songs instead of focusing on the Lord.

At times it’s impossible for the students to learn all of the new songs during the quarter of Sunday school. Therefore, the teacher should be aware of “New Song Blues,” and try not to overwhelm the students. While working with children, I generally limited our praise and worship time to three or four short songs. Among those, I tried to limit the new songs to more than two. When the students learned these songs, I added another new one.

Sometimes students have a difficult time remembering too many new song lines at once and get frustrated trying to fumble through the new songs. Therefore, it seemed to work well when we worked on a new song first and then sang two or three familiar tunes. Finally, if time allowed, we might revert back to the new song again to see how many remembered what they were taught. By doing this, the students learned some new songs, and they could still enter in to praise and worship by singing some of the old familiar tunes.