i've been wondering
I've been pondering something the past few days. And I want to put it on paper, or in writing at least, so that I can organize it just a little.
Background- first, it seems to many (especially churches trying to reach millenials and x-ers) that sunday school is dead. The whole idea of sunday school classes, and then worship and sermon just doesn't fly with a lot of people. and in some ways, I feel a bit of agreement. Sunday School was started as an outreach tool for the church- to reach people who may not want to be in church. It was also a primary teaching tool for Christian instruction, teaching the faith, living our faith, teaching the gospel and more. But more and more people are believing it to be outdated.
with that said, our church has seen significant growth since before I got here. Some of that is older people, but in general, our pastor believes Sunday School is a big part of it. there was none and since it was started again, we've seen growth. Now, we don't know if growth has happened because of that or simply along side of that. Regardless, this has got me pondering something. As a person, and a pastor, and as a border line gen-x/millenial.
What if we do this, instead. Have Sunday school on sunday morning- multiple classes for ages, primarily. Basically, have Sunday school- maybe a little modified for each congregation. And then, after sunday school (or before- or both if you do 2 services), gather together for worship. Included are music, offering, scripture reading, prayer time- whatever else is incorportated in a worship service. And then, dismiss.
One of the reasons many people give for giving up on sunday school is that it gives people too try and grasp on a sunday morning. So if we can get the to grasp one thing well, that is better than not grasping 2 or more things. This gives us that one thing. It also gives small groups, close connection, meeting together, Biblical teaching/instruction and preserves corporate worship. It preserves the body because we're not completely individualized groups that meet away from church and barely see each other. The pastor therefore is responsible for not only teaching a class, but also instructing the other teachers so that the teaching is solid, bilical and doctrinally sound.
Would this work for a church? Does size matter in this potential model? What do you think of it? Responses welcome, by any and all who may read this.
3 comments:
As time goes on, I'm actually less and less for our traditional Sunday School approach (that's a whole other topic, actually).
I'm concerned with one major aspect of your solution to the situation: if I'm reading this correctly, preaching is left behind in favor of SS teaching.
While I'm very much in favor of small groups gathering with qualified, trained teachers who will be doctrinally sound, I am not for that on Sunday mornings in favor of a pastor preaching to the entire congregation at once.
The central focus of the corporate gathering is the preaching of the Word. I'm all for (very, very much so) small groups meeting every week (not on Sunday) and for the preaching of the Word on Sunday morning to be the central gathering of the church, its greatest joy, and its happiest time.
first, luke- i knew you would be concerned about the lack of preaching. While I understand that concern, I'd be more concerned if there were no biblical teaching whatsoever. I'm not sure I agree that preacing the Word is the focus of gathering- I'm leaning more toward the teaching of the Word being central. With that ponit in mind, however, I was simply trying to stir some ideas- and use this as an outlet for my own.
I bascially agree with you that i'd like to move away from "traditional" sunday school- for many reasons, the biggest reason being that having sunday school classes on sunday mornings seems to perpetuate the old stereotype of Christians not:
a-knowing
b-being friends
c-spending time with each other: outside of the church setting- aka, minimizing the community aspect of faith. and I don't mean that in the community being a buzz word sense- i mean literally sharing our lives with one another.
Even though my pastor seems sold on Sunday school the way we do it (in part because he sees the growth of the church directly related to it), I'm not sure that the growth IS directly related to having sunday school. Nor am I convinced that sunday school is drawing in the younger families, couples and people that we desire to build our church on.
My bad. I should rephrase...
The central focus of the corporate gathering is the Word of God -- specifically, the preaching and teaching of it.
Although not technically correct to use the tersm teaching and preaching interchangabely, I was lumping them together (maybe lazily). They go hand-in-hand and a pastor may move in and out of preaching and into teaching and back again multiple times in the same sermon. But, for our purposes here in this conversation, the two terms could probably be interchangeable.
So, I believe that the teaching/preaching of the Word is the central focus of the corporate gathering and must be the responsibility of the elders -- first and foremost, of the senior pastor.
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