Why Have Sunday School

If that is what your church needs to do, then do it. It's not good, bad, or ugly.

Another thought - Rather than throw out the baby with the bath water, why not try having a family SS class/bible study that has no age segregation. Families study and worship together. No need for nursery workers and those that work in nurseries can be a part of the Bible Study.

 

I don't think it is good, bad, or ugly. I think it may be unwise and presents a false dichotomy. Why skip SS to let dad's teach at home? Why not just have SS and have dad's teach at home. SS fills a vital role here of interactive teaching where we can teach people how to think and how to study. For instance, my class is very interactive. I am always asking questions of the text for people to answer. It teaches them how to study the word and I know they are doing it because I can hear their answers on the spot. The church service is ill-equipped for that.

In addition, with the lack of SS you probably will have a lack of relationship building with people of common life situations. One of hte great benefits of SS type classes is that people get together with people who share a life context. Someone tried to use Jesus's rebuke of the disciples as a rationale for the necessity having children and adults together. I hope he was kidding about that. If he wasn't, then that shows a prime example why SS is necessary ... to learn to study the word.

To me, the point of church is to fill purposes. SS fits two, and marginally three, of those purposes for us. It is teaching, fellowship, and evangelistic. If you can do that in another forum, then by all means go for it. But remember that "dad's teaching at home" is not a function of the church. SS teaching is.

Many churches are replacing SS with small groups, which I think is a good idea because you have the teaching interaction and fellowship of hte church body.

 

While at the same time all of this church's single adults, childless couples, senior citizens, widow(ers), etc., are at home eagerly engaged in .......

 

Let's keep SS and get rid of the Sunday evening service and have family night.

 

Why not keep the Sunday evening service and have family night on Friday and Saturday night? That way, you have two family nights, and time of honoring God's word and learning from him.

 

That would be great for a family that works an 8-5, M-F. For me personally, Friday night is not a good night to do anything, but go to bed early. Saturday is just another work day.

SS, morning worship, men's Bible study, Wed. night Bible study, family devotion, personal devotion and any time I'm riding in my truck by myself is spent as a time of honoring God's word and learning from him.

 

Although our church has Sunday School, and SS does have it's merits, I believe the family needs to be more intact than churches normally allow these days- that being Awanas, Sunday School, youth groups, etc. I believe that a lot of men and women do not teach their children at home because they are exhausted with all the church responsibilities, or either they think it is enough to learn at church.

Here is an excellent article that says it eloquently:

Returning to Biblical Order in the Church and the Home

There are many articles on this site about restoring Biblical order. I'd be curious to see what some thoughts are on it.

hsmom3

 

TC, we wouldn't mind if the sermon lasted an hour, we've even told the pastor that. Doesn't bother us staying longer.
But we still like Sunday school too, becasue we like learning scripture, and end up discussing both the class and sermon on Sunday afternoon.

 

Us too, Donna. I don't wear a watch and we've told Pastor Rick not to rush on OUR account. When the Spirit is finished, the Pastor will know.

 

You know of course, that the Church of Christ is correct: there is not even a hint of musical instuuments being used in the New Testament Church. It is true that "Trinity" is nowhere in the Bible.
But it is also true that neither the Lord Jesus, nor the apostles set down, in order, "This-this and this is what you are to do."
If what is being taught is the truth from God's Word, is that some kind of evil?

 

So the churches at Jerusalem, Antioch, Philippi, Ephesus, Corinth, Galatia, Colosse, Thessolonica, Rome, etc. plus every church that existed before Robert Raikes invented Sunday school in the late 1700's were declaring they weren't responsible to teach new converts?

Wow! I can't believe the responses on this thread. And you people accuse us IFBers of being traditionalists! No one said Sunday school was wrong. If your church chooses to have it, great (mine does, by the way). But just because a church like Dr. Bob's chooses to not have it doesn't mean they're not teaching people, not ministering to children, or any of the other ridiculous, reactionary things that have been stated. All the things everyone has pointed out just prove the weakness and shallowness of our churches. If the parents (deacons in one case mentioned) can't and won't teach their kids the Scripture, that church is already a failure. The role of pastors is to equip the people for ministry. Part of that is teaching the fathers to be the leaders in their homes and teach their families God's Word. The fact that they don't or won't doesn't make it incumbent upon the church to create new ministries - it does make it biblically incumbent upon the church to do a better job of training men in Biblical manhood.

 

Greg,

Perhaps I missed it, but I didn't see anyone saying that. SS is a valid means of accomplishing one or two of the missions of the church, but not hte only means.

More food for thought: What about families without spiritually mature fathers, or even fathers that attend church? To me, this is yet another reason for something like SS. It gives opportunity for ministry to these people as well.

I think too often we have church for people who are already like us and leave hte rest hanging out to dry. SS provides teaching for kids who parents don't come to church or don't teach them at all, or simply aren't spiritually mature enough to have the desire and knowledge to teach them at home.

We need to train men to be biblical men, but we also need to not put all of our eggs in the basket of fathers teaching at home because biblical manhood starts when the child is 3 or 4 years old and if a father isn't training him, someone has to. Plus it is always good to hear the same thing from 2 or 3 different places.

 

I have a BRIGHT IDEA ya'll!How about we solve the problem by renaming sunday school?We could call it Discipleship School since we ARE commanded to make and teach disciples!Every child of God is supposed to be one and do that so maybe all this is is a big word game we've been playing with this topic since teaching IS in essence discipleing....right?? wrong?? what??

your most humble Greg Sr.

 

And another thing...In my humble opinion I don't see anything at all wrong with any Bible Believeing local church doing anything whereby their people are TAUGHT/DISCIPLED in the truths of the blessed Word of God as long as the program or method employed does no violence to the TRUTHS of the Book themselves.Having classes of some sort grouped by age simply gives us a method whereby the different needs of each age group may be accomodated and addressed.Example..it would be pointless to teach a group of toddlers a 4-part series of classes on the bible doctrine of Sanctification...it would be WAY over their heads!!!Let's use some common sense here people.As Born Again people,God gave us a regenerated mind at salvation to use for something more than a hat-rack.Now lets learn..as the song says...."more,more about Jesus"!

Love Ya'll....Greg Sr.

 

OK> I am going to try this for the third time. The system does not appear to want to allow me to post. Anyhow...

When considering how we should progress with Church, there are some things that we often overlook.

Consider the early church and the modern church. The early church was not hindered by the same things. There were no televisions, radios, video games, computers, etc. School did not exist at the level it does today. The written word was highly inaccessible to the masses. Very few people could afford to have luxuries. Entertainment was based steeply in oral tradition. Children enjoyed hearing father call the family to hear "stories" around the table or on the floor of the great room.
Imagine, if you will, the following:
The wind is whistling softly outside. The desert was hot today and will be quite cold tonight. The animals are in their stalls and have been fed. Their mother has just finished preparing a loaf of bread in the hearth oven. It is crisp on the outside and tender fluff inside. There is a sauce tonight, thanks to the neighbor who will share in supper tonight. He brings news from the city!
"Come children. Hear what Althazar has to say from the city!"
"It was busy this day! There is talk about a man who came to the city where a woman was about to be stoned by the croud. The man stopped it! Then he told her to "Go and sin no more!"
"What does it mean, father?"
"It means, daughter, that he loved her so much that he knows that she, despite having been sinful, is worth while. It means that he sees the sin of all men."
The children gleemed with joy. To think that someone could love them so much that he would save them.
This has been a demonstration of the early church playhouse.
I am certain that history would not translate these family gatherings as Sunday School.
Sunday School is just a name. Probably not the best with the attitude children have toward school, over all. Anyhow, that is irrelevant. We have lost oral tradition and the opportunity for fathers and mothers to teach and share the word in the home as our children are busy with things like ballet, cub scouts, after-school programs, etc. and our parents are involved in long work hours, parent away days, etc. Society has evolved and in many ways not for the best. "Sunday School" helps to support the family in teaching the word of God where some families will fail to do so.

 

Christian...that was a wonderful word picture and a good point as well!You have a gift!

Greg Sr.

 

Thank you. Isn't it just so wonderful how God loves us so very much? Can we even imagine how much it touched children in the early church to hear from their father and mother about Jesus, Mary and all the others who have come before us? What would it have been like for a child to come running into your home and say "Mamma! Daddy! What are you going to share with us tonight?
Something else that we often fail to consider is that the early church was under the same persecution that many modern churches are under in other countries, today! My last client in London was a man from Uganda who, if he was deported, would be executed for his faith upon return. Yet, the government would not grant his request for assylum. I often wonder what has become of him...or his family.

 

The truth of the matter is that parents ought to be teaching their children biblical truths. Bottom Line. That is what the Bible teaches. Parents are teach when they rise up, when they are going places--every opportunity they have.

But, as someone who cares about children who don't have good parental influence, I would definitely provide opportunity at church because in some families, it ain't gonna happen.

 

Deuteronomy 11:18 "Impress these words of Mine on your hearts and souls, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your fathers. 22 For if you carefully observe every one of these commands I am giving you to follow-to love the Lord your God, walk in all His ways, and remain faithful to Him-

 

Great Scriptural choice, Diana. Hence why the Jewish people wear the [I forget what it is called] on their forehead. Placing scripture on the gate...I can imagine someone creating a scripture garden. Place your garden against a wooden fence. On each board, write a scripture. Make plaques and stepping stones for the garden with scripture on them. Have children do an exercise where they walk through the garden. Each child who can quote that scripture gets to move onto the next stone. Once one child recites it in the presence of a child who doesn't know it, they can hear it said and repeat it, allowing them to move on. Oh, wow! I now have a goal for my next home. Thanks Diana.