tell me why aligning teaching topics for kids and youth won't work

First of all, we're trying it. I like it so far. We've done it for the November, December, and January series and will do it again in April, May, and June. I don't know if I can't find good curriculum that has pulled it off because it's stupid and won't work, or because it's hard and no one has had the right resources and team to try it.

But I did just hear some really compelling arguments that have me thinking. Orange arguments. My whole reason for leading this way is because of "Integrated Strategy," "Refining the Message," and "Reactivating the Family." But a few things I heard at the Orange Tour straight from the mouth of Mr. Orange himself are making me cautious. So now I'm asking you: If you keep the topics general enough to hit different angles for each different age group, will it work to try to align the series enough so that families can have relevant conversations at home about what they are learning at church? Can you keep the overall tone of wonder, discovery, and passion and still teach topically?

Here's what we've tried so far:

First of all, I admit we haven't even touched our pre-school stuff yet. We're just working through it in LifeKIDS.tv for age 6-4th grade, THE LOOP for 5th-7th grade, and SWITCH for middle school/high school.

November was sort of an apologetics (for lack of a better word) series. In LifeKIDS.tv it was more about creating a foundation for what you believe. In THE LOOP it was about what a good thing it is to wrestle with doubt because that helps you make your faith your own. In SWITCH it was investigating the evidence for the things we believe that seem questionable. All of them loosely addressed creation, the Bible, and Jesus. The three writers who wrote them collaborated to a high degree in the early planning stages.

In December, we looked at the Christmas story from the perspective of different people in it. In each case we highlighted how those people's responses to Christ coming into their life mirror the responses we all still have when we encounter Christ. The overall walk away point was that Jesus didn't come for those people back then, He came for all of us. Your Christmas story is the story of when Jesus came into your life. In LifeKIDS.tv we showed how the responses were wonder (Mary), waiting (Simeon and Anna), witness (the shepherds went to see for themselves and then told everyone the met), and worship (the Wise Men). In THE LOOP and SWITCH, we used some of those same stories but also included some negative ways people responded like the innkeeper who didn't realize the significance of Christ and didn't make room for him and Herod who refused to give up being in charge to allow Christ to be his king.

In January, we wanted to teach the ideas in the book Do Hard Things about how low expectations are shackling young people to live below what God has for them. That their youth is a launch pad into their life not a vacation from responsibility. In SWITCH we had the authors Alex and Brett Harris write and speak the messages. In THE LOOP, one of our youth pastors did his take on how the principles could get kids just entering the teen years into the right mindset. In LifeKIDS.tv we showed kids doing hard things and told kids that they didn't have to wait until they were adults to begin to live our God's plan for them. God wanted them to obey Hims now.

Now I gave you three examples we've done that worked. But we're headed towards doing this most of the months of the year. I mean there are chart and graphs and big white board calendars. Really think about it down the road and shoot as many holes in it now as you can. Tell me why it won't work or what road blocks we might expect to pop up over time. Bring it, Orange thinkers!