I
n the book Extreme Sunday School Challenge, the authors raise the awareness of our current static Sunday School situation in American churches. In 1972 the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) reported 3.6 million people attending Sunday School. Forty-some years later the SBC is reporting that we are averaging right at 4 million Sunday School attendees. One might think that this is pretty good; however, in reality when you compare these numbers to the growth in US population, it doesn’t take a mathematician to see that we are not doing a very good job.
For years Southern Baptists have waved the banner of Sunday School and the importance it plays in the lives of Christian men, women, boys & girls. Yet, the reality is that we are losing touch with our communities. Experts are telling us that we are living in a post Christian society. The author defines post Christianity as, “A culture with language and assumptions that once were but are no longer rooted in Christianity.”
As the population has grown and society’s values vary, we have observed a couple of generations transition from a God mentality to a humanistic perspective. I am reminded of the verse in Judges 2:10 that says, “When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done in Israel.” I believe this is the reality of the culture in which we live.
Whether we
say “un-churched” or “non-churched” the reality is that many are “never churched”. Their limited exposure to the truth of the Gospel is not necessarily what they see on the TV screen, or hear on the radio, but rather what they see in your walk with Christ.
The reality is… we are not growing our Sunday Schools. We are not creating new groups, and we are not connecting with the lost. Don’t despair, there is hope. Tune in tomorrow as we unpack “Hope”.
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