For advice from the general Primary presidency about how to apply the new curriculum to your family, click here.
Like others of the Church’s general presidencies and staff testing the new 2019 “Come, Follow Me” integrated curriculum, Brother Tad R. Callister has looked for opportunities to implement its patterns, principles and practices in personal and family gospel study settings.
Like the time the Sunday School general president and extended family members were reading the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon — a challenging stretch of Old Testament writings and expressions. Brother Callister engaged a teen-aged grandson with a question, asking if he could identify in 2 Nephi 15 where Isaiah prophesies about modern-day means of transportation.
The grandson identified a train by the description of its wheels and the sparks from the track. That exchange in turn led to more discussion of how and why Isaiah prophesied millennia in advance the latter-day gathering of Israel and how the ancient prophet described transportation unfamiliar to his day.
Such was a glimpse into the potential of the new curriculum and accompanying emphasis on “home-centered, Church-supported” gospel study — an elevated learning experience for individuals and for families, with benefits no matter the age of the learner or the teacher.
“I think if we develop that pattern, trying to ask inspired questions and giving our children a chance to answer, we’ll be amazed at how much insight and revelation will come to them,” said Brother Callister, adding, “if you really give them a chance, you’ll have some incredible comments from these young children who are 8 years old or from a 13-year-old teenager.”
Brother Callister recently joined his counselors in the Sunday School general presidency — Brother Devin G. Durrant, first counselor, and Brother Brian K. Ashton, second counselor — to discuss with the Church News their insights on and hopes for the 2019 curriculum and the Sunday School’s role.