Sunday School is a great place to teach children the stories from the Bible and how the Bible can be a guide for life. But, Sunday School is not the end of the ministry to children. Sunday School helps to lay a foundation for each child, and now we have to build upon that foundation. The Bible says, “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-6 HCSB).
The Bible is clear that transformation of children is not just about an hour of Sunday School each week. The passage above indicates teaching children is an every-day, every-hour, every-minute job. Transformation is the job of Sunday School, parents and other believers. If we are going to expect children to grow and mature into faithful followers of Jesus Christ, the impact of the Bible has to move beyond the Sunday School room.
Oh! This could even be true for students and adults as well. The greatest single factor affecting God’s work in our churches and communities today may well be that only a few believers in our churches actually commit to a daily devotional that includes Bible reading, prayer and listening to God.
How different Sunday School would be if every member came read-up, prayed-up and expecting to get a fresh word from the Lord.
Transformation is more than attending Sunday School!
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Tom Belew has served as Small Groups and Childhood Specialist for the California Southern Baptist Convention since 2002. He previously served as Minister of Education in churches in Arizona and California.
I agree 100%. This message has been said regularly of Sunday School (and of Awana) for about the last year or so. I think we overlook one crucial piece though: we need to equip parents to take that responsibility on. Are we teaching parents to do this? How do we teach parents to teach their chidren? I don’t yet have a good answer for this, but it’s the question on my mind right now.
Lifeway and some other publishers have taken steps to get parents more involved by putting suggestions in adult curriculum and children’s take-home resources. Some churches are offering classes to equip parents to be more effective with their children. Churches where I previously served offered orientation opportunities, Parent Days, where parents learned about ways they could be working with their children and what their children would be learning at church.
There is still lots of room for parents, teachers and churches to improve.
Tom
A good word. My number one goal as pastor is to see that I lead people to a private time alone with God.
Josh Hunt
Good stuff! While the church does share some responsibility for the spiritual growth of children, God is very specific about the responsibility of parents to teach biblical truths to their children.Children’s leaders must recognize the primary role of parents and work to become partners with the home.
Bind it on our hands, symbol on our foreheads, paint it on our doorposts…today and everyday, on the door of my classroom, as an ongoing conversation and reminder every place I turn. God will honor this and our parents will come on board one by one. This is the Great Commission at our doorstep each Sunday and with every contact we make. Wow! Amen.