Sunday School vs(?) Christian Education
Lately I have been thinking of the concept of Sunday School. I can't get away from the idea that Sunday School needs to realise how much potential it has in training Christians. I feel like we have neglected this forum and put the pressure of explicating our faith solely on the sermon, or the pastor him/herself. But the sermon is usually a monologue, which allows for no discussion or questions, unless a pastor is gracious enough and the parishioner is bold enough to talk after the sermon. In light of this, I am throwing around things in my head dealing with how Sunday School can utilise its potential. The first concept in my head is to change the name from Sunday School to Christian Education. A simple name change seems that it could have an effect on the average Sunday School attendee. In doing this, the entire structure of the Sunday School would change. Instead of Sunday School Superintendent, have a Christian Education Coordinator/Superintendent /Principal/whatever. And the Sunday School board would be known as the Christian Education Board and also, there would be Christian Educators, not Sunday School teachers.
This idea comes from my experience with Sunday School growing up and even today. It seems that the main purpose of the superintendent, board, and teachers is keeping supplied in materials, teachers and in trying to grow in number. When these are the foci, we seem to be neglecting the actual substance of teaching and knowing the progress of our students in knowledge and understanding. If this is the case, we are producing dumb Christians. If we produce dumb Christians, then how are they to know how to discuss, or even claim, what they believe? Also, if a dumb Christian is speaking to a smart non-Christian, the smart non-Christian probably has the capacity to trip up the dumb Christian even to the point of the Christian leaving the Church. This is the adverse effect of the purpose of Sunday School. I guess what I am saying is that I am tired of talking to people of all ages in the Church of the Nazarene who do not know what a Creed is, not to mention what the Apostle's or Nicene Creed is. I am tired of hearing believers struggle to explain Christianity by reverting to catch phrases that we hear every Sunday in church or every day on TBN. Something needs to be done. We need to produce intelligent Christians who can claim and explain what they believe.
In the beginning, Sunday Schools were sometimes better than the public schools. Teaching all different subjects, reading, writing, mathematics, etiquette, etc., the Sunday Schools became places of academia. They even had libraries that were envied by the local schools.
I guess my question is: What went wrong and how can we fix it? Is anyone out there teaching theological concepts, the history of the Church, and ways to communicate the Christian faith to others, in addition to the normal practice of teaching the Scriptures? I would love to hear that this is happening. Can we make Sunday School "harder"? (God forbid we ask anyone to read a book :-)
Peace,
Joseph
This idea comes from my experience with Sunday School growing up and even today. It seems that the main purpose of the superintendent, board, and teachers is keeping supplied in materials, teachers and in trying to grow in number. When these are the foci, we seem to be neglecting the actual substance of teaching and knowing the progress of our students in knowledge and understanding. If this is the case, we are producing dumb Christians. If we produce dumb Christians, then how are they to know how to discuss, or even claim, what they believe? Also, if a dumb Christian is speaking to a smart non-Christian, the smart non-Christian probably has the capacity to trip up the dumb Christian even to the point of the Christian leaving the Church. This is the adverse effect of the purpose of Sunday School. I guess what I am saying is that I am tired of talking to people of all ages in the Church of the Nazarene who do not know what a Creed is, not to mention what the Apostle's or Nicene Creed is. I am tired of hearing believers struggle to explain Christianity by reverting to catch phrases that we hear every Sunday in church or every day on TBN. Something needs to be done. We need to produce intelligent Christians who can claim and explain what they believe.
In the beginning, Sunday Schools were sometimes better than the public schools. Teaching all different subjects, reading, writing, mathematics, etiquette, etc., the Sunday Schools became places of academia. They even had libraries that were envied by the local schools.
I guess my question is: What went wrong and how can we fix it? Is anyone out there teaching theological concepts, the history of the Church, and ways to communicate the Christian faith to others, in addition to the normal practice of teaching the Scriptures? I would love to hear that this is happening. Can we make Sunday School "harder"? (God forbid we ask anyone to read a book :-)
Peace,
Joseph
posted by Joseph | 4:17 AM
11 Comments:
Everyone together now:
God is good - All the time!
All the time - God is good!
Ok, that was just a joke. Down with catch phrases! Let's teach some meaning!
For me, Sunday School has been broken for a long time. I'm currently working with a church that was planted around 3 years ago and is still forming. We don't have a building and that's not a problem to us. Based on this situation, we only meet on Sunday mornings for about an hour for worship service. Throughout the week, the majority (or thereabouts) of the church meets in small groups in homes.
I could buy into adding a Christian Ed. department if people were committed to it. However, I wouldn't do it at the expense of small groups. I much prefer sitting down for a meal in a home and then discussing the matters of our faith as guided by Scripture or some particular study.
I'm only about 7 months in pastoring in a small CON parish in coastal Georgia. The congregation had been through so much (and whittled down so much) that it has felt like a church plant in many ways.
Regarding Christian Ed ... we have formed Discipleship Groups with Discipleship Group leaders sourced and shaped by a Discipleship Leader who works in conjunction with me. Discipleship Groups meet in between our two Sunday morning worship gatherings (High Tide and Low Tide), though we're on the verge of it getting really messy and some meeting in homes throughout the week: this is really exciting. We're trying to foster the small group feel centered around discipleship. This is augmented by Discovery Group that means on Wednesday nights with the Discipleship Group leaders (and anyone else who wants to come). We discuss the upcoming Sunday's material (which follows the theme of the sermons ... we're lectionary-based except for a few months of ordinary time in the summer), and it helps me shape the sermon and teaching to particular local situations and people. This summer our Discipleship Groups will be involved in a church-wide Catechism.
In brief that's what we're trying to do. I see evidence of it working. People are carrying on their own conversations with not-yet believers instead of saying, "Ummm ... you should talk to our pastor."
If anyone's interested, I'll give more detail.
Brian,
Sounds like you guys are doing a lot. You mentioned a catechism. Where are you getting this? What format will you take in teaching it? You say, "Church-wide"; what does this mean?
One problem I see is the demographic fragmentation of the church. "We need a singles class. We need a young married class. We need a college class. We need a class for one-legged, blind Norwegians." Is it possible that in breaking down every age and classification that we dilute our pool of gifted teachers. Could classes or learning groups be broken into broader categories when it comes to actual catechism? (i.e. My freshman Fine Arts class had 250 students in it with one tremendous professor.) That kind of class doesn't nessecarily need a small group kind of ratio. I am making a distinction here between catechism\Christian Ed and small group discipleship being different kinds of groups, which others may not.
Joseph--
When on staff at Nashville First Naz (yes, I must confess I was there) we developed a catechism based on the Nazarene statement of belief and articles of faith. I'll be relying on that in part, but also exploring the three major creeds of the Church.
As for the "church-wide" .... we already have a lot of crossover with adult age groups and life seasons. We only have two adult Discipleship Groups. I'm thinking we will either combine families into groups making only 3 or 4 discipleship groups for the whole church or we'll keep the catechism very simple (and mostly based on the narratives of scripture and our faith heritage) for young children. Still figuring this out. Either way, church-wide means just that.
Additionally, we host an Explore Group several times a year that serves several functions: newcomer assimilation, membership (yikes!), and question and answer for interested not-yet believers. First one will be done soon. I'll let you know how it goes. There is a catechism underlying it.
I've read the catechism from NFCN and it is a good start. I think it is lacking in connecting the C of N to the Church catholic. But for answers to the C of N articles of faith, Hoskins, Heneke, et al, at least did something.
I am interested in these 'small groups', 'discipleship' groups Brian and Scott mentioned. Can you go into further detail about what goes on in these gatherings?
Joseph
Sunday school is not just about education it is also about reaching out to the community. If sunday school is structured in such a way that the only children that feel included are those that are already included then it has failed. Sunday school has to appeal to everyone, especially the child that has never been to church before.
Julian
I am a one-legged blind Norwegian and I am offended. Just-kidding, hope this isn't so late a response it becomes irrelevant. I've laid low since school got out and have been letting my brain heal, but here it goes. To Joseph's first comments...I like it. A new face for Sunday School might be a fresh start. I'm all for the idea especially since it seem like it is so difficult to get the teens to take it very seriously when every other teacher treats it like a cupcake party. I can see where Scott's comments have opened up the conversation to include small groups. I think, Scott's comments paralleled with Brian's really reveal the heart of what local churches should be about. Rather than trying to copy Large church models (which small churches believe are the source of the large church) they are trying to find a unique way to create an environment of intellectual as well as spiritual growth. Ic is right about he fragmentation, at least in regards to 90% of churches. At a large church, in order to maintain a sense of community one strategy is to create these numerous groups to enable people to have a connection. However, this is only successful if those groups can find ways of connecting outside of their group with other groups. In a small/normal church it doesn't seem necessary to have all these groups. If you're not in a college town why have a college group, if you live in a retirement community, why have a singles class, etc. These small groups/S.S. classes should be planned around the specific needs and makeup of the community. Now back to Sunday School...I disagree with Julian, but you may have stumbled onto something. Sunday School is not necessarily an outreach tool. Schools aren't trying to grow classroom size, rather they are worried about content and development of students. Small groups is about reaching out though. This isn't to say education can't happen in small groups or be a part of outreach, but it can retard the goals and structure if there isn't a clear understanding of purpose. The thing I realized from your comment Julian is that perhaps S.S. is being offered at the wrong time. We have followed the S.S. Am followed by Worship then Sunday night option with Wed night activities for about half a century...why? If we move S.S. to another time would we be allowed to challenge the learners more directly? Sorry Joseph, I didn't talk much about S.S. accept to agree it should be harder and more diverse. Let me reiterate that I don't think you can very easily mix S.S. and small groups. The sad thing is I wonder if this is the most conversation about S.S. the COTN has had in the last few years.
We bring greetings from the Nazarene Revolutionary Guard. Our Nazbollah fighters will storm the gates of Orlando in 2009 to bring purity to our denomination.
http://nazbollah.blogspot.com/
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