Supplemental Sunday School Materials

While I see many of the problems Joseph presents and would agree almost completely as regards to using material for adults, I would differ when it comes to children.

We purchase children's SS materails becaus of the take-home papers, the worksheets, the do at home devotions, and the visuals. We investigate the materials to make sure that they are sound Biblically and our teachers study their lessons in the Word of God to be properly prepared.

 

If your material is based on, heavily saturated by, and focused on the Word, it is very effective. to say that the only effective method is to use only the Bible and no other materials is ludicrous. Will it work? sure, and the teacher is really the key to how well it works there, but materials if used properly and chosen carefully allow for very effective study of the Word.

 

The SBC SS Board got away from having the seminary professors writing the materials to having lay people do it. One of those people was a woman in one of the churches I pastored. I was shocked at how little knowledge of scripture she had but yet she was writing for the SBC.

Some of the materials the professors wrote received a lot of letters. For example one of them wrote on Job and talked about the use of hasatan. The SBC SS Board received a lot of letters about that. Some people just don't like the truth.

Surely many have seen the decline of the Sunday School materials in the past few years.

 

Well, Joseph, I guess I can't really comment on Lifeway, since I've never used it.

The Bible is our foundation and authority. No question. I would guess, though, that you use tools to help you study it more efficiently. A concordance, Bible dictionary, commentary, and so on can aid a person in his study of God's Word. GOOD materials can do this as well.

I somewhat disagree. The Holy Spirit uses people as teachers. We do things like Sunday School because we belive that God has called beleievers to be active in discipleship and application, do we not? Otherwise, we don't we just set up a correspondence course where we ask people to read the Bible, then send back answers on what it means. It does have something to do with us- us being willing to submit to the authority of the Word of God, prepare, and effectively explain and apply its truths.

Just "reading the Bible," does not give us a systematic theology, for example. Students of the Word of God have compiled passages to help belivers better tie together the truths from a multitude of Biblical sources. GOOD material (whether for adults or children) will organize, communicate and apply Bible truth.

 

You do know that Lifeway takes great liberty in editing. When I had Dr. Lea for class I bought his commentary on Timothy. As I read it, it didn't seem to agree with what he taught. What he told me was not what one would would expect of a denomination that calls itself conservative and claims to believe the Bible. I have been published in professional magazines and never once have I had that kind of experience. Leon McBeth was asked to write a book on women in Baptist history. The SBC didn't like the truth so after a few books were publsihed they killed the book.

After it's all about image and not truth.