Philosophy of Sunday School

I use a half and half model. I teach/lecture for the first half, then a group discussion for the second half.

All discussion works great with adults, but youth get sidetracked very very easily.

 

I usually aim to facillitate discussion.

 

When I did Sunday school, I would talk a little and deal with questions a little. That's about all the time that exists in the typical Sunday school hour.

I've since replaced Sunday school with community group meetings in homes, which typically meet for several hours one night a week (unless the group decides otherwise). We fellowship over food of some type, we gather to hear each other's needs, we have a lesson based on the last week's sermon (or some other pertinent topic), we discuss those issues, we pray and hug and seek to meet each other's needs as best we can -- calling in the church at large if the needs are greater than our group can bear.

Some nights it gets long -- 4-6 hours -- but that is mostly when we have some work to do, such as lead someone to Christ, deal with a difficult family issue, etc. We've so far handled a woman who was in a Satanic cult all of her life, a husband and wife, where he was deployed overseas in the military, another couple where he just got back from a tour of duty, has post-traumatic stress and is abusive to his wife, doing drugs, etc., an older couple who were pastor and wife earlier in life, but who are now on the edge of broke, and he has health problems, a family with an autistic kiddo, where mom was abused as a child, so carries with her a heart of anger and rebellion (she is not saved, which we're also dealing with), etc... That's ministry!

 

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

 

I met with the couple tonight where the husband has just returned from a tour in Iraq. He is ONE messed up dude. He has Post Traumatic Stress and the only time I could get him to smile was when he was talking about buying a plane ticket and heading back to Iraq to cut the throats of more Iraqi people. His marriage and family is in trouble, he is using and abusing legal (for his stress) and illegal drugs (wife found pot and a crack pipe in his kit bag) and on the verge of hurting his wife physically.

This is one of the kind that only comes out with prayer and fasting. Worse, he is a PK who knows all the answers and doesn't care.

Prayers are appreciated!

 

All of our groups are encouraged to be conversational. We equip our leaders with training and tools to be better facilitate discussion based groups.

In our group, or ones I've taught, I live by being conversational. I ask open ended questions and let the group move the discussion along. (Of course I keep them on track) If everybody is staring at me and not getting into the topic (which happens) we slip into lecture but always pivot to the dialogue.

I'm not a fan of lecture based small group times. Doesn't seem to facilitate what needs to happen in group times. We already have a lecture every Sunday, why push it with two lectures? Doesn't make sense.

Just part of our philosophy. Great thread idea.