Sunday School Soap Box

Pardon me while I stand on my soap box... 

My husband is currently Sunday school superintendent at our church, which means I am the go-to person for the teachers of the children's Sunday school classes. I love being involved in Sunday school, most of the time. Anything to do with teaching is delightful for me and it pains me when I watch children slip through the cracks of their classes, whether that is school or Sunday school.

 
I taught school for a number of years, and there was certain amount prep that I needed to do to teach a class. The younger the class, the more prep I had to do. When I teach Sunday school, I maybe do half that amount of prep, if I'm motivated. I'm convinced this is a problem. Why do I take way more time prepping to make a math class come alive than I do to make the Bible come alive?

By far the majority of children in our Sunday school classes are "churched" children. They've heard Bible stories their whole lives. They know about David and Goliath, they've heard about Noah's ark. A lot of them have probably even heard the story of the king who was going to cut a baby in half. I think we forget that it is just as important to make a Bible lesson new, exciting and engaging for children growing up in Christian homes as it is for children who have no idea what a Bible even looks like. Dare I say, it's maybe even more important when working with "churched" children?? 

This topic was bothering me, so I searched out some blog posts and videos on teaching Sunday school. They gave some good ideas, but also sparked some questions for me. Think about how many young people leave Christianity behind. A lot of these young people went to Sunday school. Shouldn't they have all the foundation they need to pursue relationship with Jesus? Many of us sitting in churches don't dive into our relationship with Jesus very deeply. Why not? What are we missing? Why do children often sit through Sunday school looking bored? Why do we spout off Bible stories without really connecting them to our lives? 

We can tell a Bible story, give them some crayons to colour a picture, ask a few questions to see if they heard any of the story, give them a sticker and send them on their way.
Or we can get them involved in the story...have them act out characters, use puppets, flannel boards, object lessons.
We can help them memorize Scripture... do it with them. Instead of doing a verse every single Sunday, choose 1 or 2 to drill for a month.
Most important, we can make the stories alive. Connect it to their lives, to the things they enjoy doing, to things they observe adults around them doing. Ask questions about the theme/heart of a story, more than just the facts. If it's going to make a lasting impression on their soft little hearts, we have to put forth effort to make the Bible relevant to them. Otherwise it's just a story.

 
I'm not a teacher of a class right now, but I wish I was. I'd like to try changing how I approach Sunday school. I feel most of us have just lost the vision for Sunday school somewhere amongst the pages of the handy little booklets we teach from. Teach from the booklet, but take it further! Don't just give dumbed down versions of the Bible, but bring it to life! Stretch their minds and yours! Who knows, maybe we should go back to making Sunday school children memorize a catechism?! They might get more solid truth out of that. 🤷‍♀️

...Stepping down off my soap box. Time to find my shoes and practice what I preach. 😃