MWR : Is Sunday school becoming extinct?

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Sept. 6, 2010 issue

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Tags: News Congregational ministry

Is Sunday school becoming extinct?

Publisher invites ideas about future of Sunday school

By Mennonite Publishing Network staff

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Does Sunday school have a future? That’s a question being asked by a growing number of Mennonite churches as they deal with declining enrollment, sporadic attendance and the challenge of finding teachers.

It’s a question facing other churches, too, as Debra Bendis discovered. Writing on Theolog, a blog sponsored by Christian Century magazine, Bendis shared about a friend whose church has proposed a new Sunday school schedule for fall: Classes will only be held three out of four Sundays each month.

The teachers explained that this proposal would provide a break for them — an idea that’s difficult to oppose, Bendis noted, since Sunday school teachers are just as busy as the rest of us, and surely deserve a break.

But as the church discussed the proposal, a disquieting reality became clear to her friend: It’s not just teachers who want a break from Sunday school — so do families. Lots of parents not only supported the idea of taking a week off, but went on to say that attending Sunday school seemed harder and harder to do.

“The kids do baseball all day Saturday,” said one. “I just need a down day at home sometimes.”

“We can’t always be there [Sundays]. We’re trying to do soccer as well as church,” said another.

“Saturday nights/Sundays are the only days my kids can stay over with their grandmother. That’s important time too,” stated a third.

“It is all just too much to do as a single parent with kids,” added a fourth.

Bendis’ friend is stumped. “Where do we start in a session discussion of all of this?” she asked. “How do we raise a vision for Christian education, emphasize a sense of outreach and compete with societal expectations and choices that are bearing down on our young parents?”

The situation prompted Bendis to ask: “Is this situation an unusual one? Or is Sunday school slowly, or sometimes with a fell swoop of fatigue, becoming extinct?”

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Comments

Nope, this isn't Debra BENDIS, it's Debra BENDER, a life-time advocate for Sunday school. Yes, I'm old, but "we're trying to do soccer as well as church?" made me sick to my stomach. Some of my best childhood memories include Sunday school; some of my best church experiences as an adult include Sunday school, especially as a teacher, and in a couple of situations, as the teacher of classes no one else wanted to teach. Sunday school is where children and adults have a chance to express their opinions, to talk about issues facing the church, to learn the power of prayer, to become a group of fellow travelers. Is Sunday school becoming extinct? I certainly hope not.

- Debra Bender (sep 4 at 1:58 p.m.)
We have already cut out evangelistic/revival/spiritual renewal meetings, Wednesday evening prayer meeting, Sunday evening services many places.

Are our activities and money-making more important than God? Maybe we should focus for a month in Sunday School, worship, and at home on only one verse--both in the OT and the NT: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your should and with all your strength". Deut. 6:5, Matt. 22:37

No, that would not work. The people who need to do that have already frequently cut out worship, Sunday School and home.

- Les (sep 4 at 7:31 p.m.)
As a pastor of a Mennonite congregation with not even a third of our adults and a handful of children sporadically attending Sunday School, the answer is yes. We have creative S.S. teachers using Gather 'Round. It's not the teachers or curriculum. It is our over-scheduled lives. We're going to have a creative conversation with our parents and anyone in the congregation who cares passionately about faith formation in late Oct. We're going to try to think and plan outside the box.
Even if S.S. is going extinct, it doesn't mean faith formation is! Jesus and the Church still have a crucial message to offer our kids. If we don't find new ways to get the message across, Main Street and the Marketplace sure will.

- Kathy (oct 6 at 4:49 p.m.)

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