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Third-Party Providers

Lessons.church supports external curriculum providers through the Open Lesson Format. This means your church can connect curriculum from other organizations and schedule it for your classrooms right next to the built-in library, so your team has curriculum from multiple sources in one place.

Before You Begin

  • Log in to Lessons.church with an account that can manage your church's classroom schedules
  • Get the feed URL from the external provider you want to connect. It must return lessons in the Open Lesson Format

Adding a Provider​

  1. Click External Providers in the Lessons.church navigation. The External Lesson Providers page opens.
  2. Click Add Provider. If you haven't added one yet, click Add First Provider instead.
  3. Enter a Provider Name. This is the name your team sees when picking the provider.
  4. Enter the API URL. This is the address where the provider publishes their curriculum in the Open Lesson Format.
  5. Click Save.

The provider is added for your church only. It then appears as a choice under Provider when you schedule a lesson for a classroom, and under Source when you build a year plan.

Managing Providers​

The External Lesson Providers page lists every provider your church has added. To change one:

  • Edit -- Click the Edit provider (pencil) icon, change the Provider Name or API URL, and click Save.
  • Delete -- Click the Edit provider icon, then click the delete (trash can) icon and confirm.

What Is the Open Lesson Format?​

The Open Lesson Format is a standardized schema that describes curriculum content -- programs, studies, lessons, venues, sections, and actions -- in a structured way. Any organization that publishes their content using this format can be added as a provider in Lessons.church.

If you are a content provider interested in making your curriculum available through Lessons.church, you can find the full schema documentation in the Open Lesson Format guide.

Why Use Third-Party Providers?​

  • More choices for churches -- Churches can browse a wider variety of curriculum without leaving the platform.
  • One place for everything -- Volunteers and coordinators do not need to visit multiple websites to find and schedule lessons.
  • Easy setup -- Adding a provider takes only a name and a feed URL. There is no manual data entry or file uploading involved.
info

Third-party content is managed by the external provider. If you notice missing or outdated content from a provider, the issue may need to be resolved on their end.

tip

To learn how lessons from an external provider look once they're scheduled, see External Providers in the Browsing section.