Sunday School on Holidays

"Since we are here anyway ..."

Seriously, I see no reason to cancel services, but then I am the strange one here about that ... (and some other things too). Why cancel? It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me ...

I figure if you have it, those who are there are going to be there. The ones that aren't won't be. It doesn't take many people to have a Bible study, so have it ...

 

Well, hopefully holiday services and whether or not to cancel them have been decided way beforehand, in some type of long-range planning of some sort, even if it was decided at the members meeting the month or quarter before. I think it depends on the context. You know your people better than anyone. My preference is to not have an evening service on a holiday. If you have to combine some SS classes because you don't have subs for the group leaders, so be it. This is one of the benefits of having some sort of unified curriculum and not leave it up to each individual teacher to do their own thing.

 

I suspect it boils down to the personal commitment of the congregation and how they have matured. I've seen farm/ranch churches that were solid year round attendance wise and some like the one you mention.

Don't you know, any excuse will do and summer holidays are great ones.

Like the rancher that wanted to borrow some rope. When asked what he was going to use it for he said he wanted to tie up his milk.

When confronted - you can't tie up milk - well one excuse is as good as another

 

In that case, I would combine the kids and have a large children's chuch type of thing with a complete break from the regular curriculum. That way it doesn't mess up any body's teaching schedule. It can be a specially put together class just for that.

 

A few churches I know about have different teachers for the summer than during the school year. This gives the regular teachers a summmer break. They seem to like that arrangement well.

 

I like your idea of the unified class. Just because most of the people are on vacation does not mean that God has taken a vacation. There still may be a Christian in need of rebuke, reproval or counselation & inspiration. if there is but one soul willing to learn then that makes everything worth keeping a class open

 

My pet peeve nowdays is cancelling Sunday night services on Sunday morning. Nobody knows if they're coming or going.

 

You know, it isn't the end of the world to cancel a service. Or Sunday School. Why do we act like it is taboo?

As one who is always there when the door is open, I am kind of glad when the doors are closed!

BTW, we only had a.m. church on the fourth of July. CELEBRATE!

 

I think the problem with cancelling services on holidays is that it looks like we are saying that our celebrations are more important than worshiping our Lord.

 

Amen booklady Jesus is the true reason to celebrate. If paul and peter can worship in the middle of a prison then I can worship on a holiday

 

Wally Gator is right. These things have to be thought out in advance.

Booklady, we aren't talking about cancelling services that are man-made. We're talking about the extraneous. We wrongly assume that anything less than two services on Sunday morning and night with Sunday school and a Wed evening prayer meeting (which doesn't have much prayer anyway) is dishonoring God. Too many have made traditions out of service times and numbers, and other such things and turned them into brazen idols that, like Stephen said about the temple in Acts 7, has become a barrier to the Lord instead of a conduit to Him.

 

I missed Sunday School one time about a year or so ago. Before that, it had been another year or so and I was at the hospital in the E.R.

I see no reason to cancel Sunday School and wonder what churches will do when Christmas falls on Sunday in a couple of years.

Diane

 

I have bagged Sunday School along time ago. Mainly because growing up, it was so boring.

I like "Wambaland" or "Promiseland" or "Kidzquest" with the goal of creating an environment where God can speak to children using some of the creative ways of communication that we have today.

Have mutliple services so at the same time church is going on...children are having the time of their lives learning about God. And the greatest thing about it is children drag their parents to church because they love it so much.

And if during the summer their is a resource challenge when a church is small by all means take a month to let the people involved take a break. We don't live under the law. Have fun...smile...God is good.

 

I don't think we have ever canceled Sunday School, but we did cancel the evening service on July 4 because so many of the staff and members were going to be out of town. We were out of town and attended church out of town. Many of the other members also went to family reunions and attended services elsewhere.

We worshiped our God, but not in our regular church.

Churches in the area have started to combine services on Holiday evenings.

 

My cousin's church canceled 7/4 evening services as well (morning services remained). As far as typical kids' Sunday school, we've never cancelled Sunday School, but have changed the format on certain Sundays, like Easter. Instead of several individual classes of varying ages, theere are two or three classes of similar ages.

 

Don't get me wrong. I will be there when the door is open, and sometimes when it is closed.

But, in the same sense, it is nice to stop once in a while, especially when your life is immersed in it.

 

What if my church decided to cancel Sunday School because many of the teachers were going to be out of town and that was the day that someone decided to come to Sunday School for the first time?

 

book that is a very good point! They would show up and find no one and get the effect that this Church is not really committed to Christ