The Short Answer
Of course Sunday School is Biblical. Well, specialized teaching is, and specialized teaching is all that Sunday School is.
In Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4, we are given lists
of the spiritual gifts God gave mankind. Every time, teaching is listed
as one of the spiritual gifts. If God is giving people the special gift
of being able to teach, doesn’t that mean He wants them to teach? Isn’t
that all Sunday School is?
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul tells us that he became like various groups
of people in order to reach them. That means he provided specialized
teaching in a way that those groups could understand.
Sunday School, Youth Group, Children’s ministry; they are not meant
to replace the Christian Parent’s job of teaching their Children. I understand that sometimes that is how it is treated, and when that happens, it doesn't work. Imagine if you used a hammer to try to fix a computer.
You’d break the computer, but it isn’t the hammer’s fault. These things
are important tools, don’t throw them out! Just please, learn how to use
them.
The Long Answer In order to really understand this issue, I have been trying to figure out why this question is being asked in the first place. I mean, it's obvious to anyone who has actually read the New Testament that there is no section called "How to Church." We're given different pieces and guidelines, but it's up to us to piece them together. There are different organizational models, but none of them are from the Bible; they are things the we use to fulfill the mission of the Bible.
At first, I looked at the theology driving the anti-specialized ministry movement. However, I have found people who are of different theological backgrounds. I think the real reason people are moving away from Sunday School, Children's Church, and Youth Ministry is that it's being done poorly.
The real reason, the real heart of the complaint against "Little-Church" is that the way that are being done stinks. Yes, the way it is done in many Churches stinks. It's treated as a Jesusy baby-sitting service. The workers are burnt out volunteers that rarely get to enjoy their own class or to listen to the Sermon; they are excluded from being educated and being able to worship, only to then turn around and try to teach what worship means. The curricula is often flawed, sometimes sacrificing either understand-ability or accuracy, but more often it just lacks vision. And that is absolutely a problem.
Don't believe me? Maybe your lucky enough to go to a Church that has a great program, or even a just good program, and it sounds nothing like what I'm talking about. But a lot of people might read that last paragraph and have never realized that it could be done another way.
I heard a Pastor say "Sunday School began as a fishing net, then became a safety net, and now it is a hammock." That Pastor is right. This is something that is suppose to be reaching the lost, instead, it's Childcare. This is a problem; we cannot allow people to "lay in hammocks" when the should be fishing and fighting for lost souls. Destroying the hammock might wake up the people who are asleep, but it will also make it impossible to fish. Getting rid of Sunday School might motivate parents to be more intentional about teaching their Children, but then we lose what has proven to be one of our most effective evangelism tools.
Let me tell you this from my own testimony; I would not be a Christian today without Youth Ministry. I thank God that my Church was not content with a baby sitting service. I thank God that they didn't cancel ministry because it was to hard to actually have Youth do ministry.
The Theology Behind the Issue What Theology is behind this issue? What beliefs drive the people who care about it? While I can't give you a exhaustive answer, I'll share more or less the conversations I've had prior to writing this post.
My first conversation about this topic took me surprise. I hadn't even heard of this opinion before. I was shocked. I told her that I run the Youth Ministry at my Church and went on to explain to me why what I was doing was so wrong. She came from a strict Calvinist theology and shared ideas that seem to be at the center of the "Family-Integrated Movement." She said it was her job to teach her children the Bible, and apparently believed that if anyone else talked about the Bible with her kids, then she could not teach them the Bible. I asked her about what happens to people who come from broken families. Her response made me sick to my stomach. Basically, Sunday School is a evangelism tool, and Calvinists don't need to evangelize.
I later picked up the book "Family Driven Faith" by Voddie Bauchuam. (I'll give a full critique of this book someday.) I was specifically looking for an answer to the above question, and apparently in this model the Dads from other families are suppose to take kids from broken families into their families. Which I suppose is a good thing if it works, but it still does nothing to reach the broken people in the first place.
So I read on and tried to figure out the Family-Integrated model of Evangelism. Apparently, all Evangelism is to be done by fathers. The same fathers that Bauchuam doesn't trust to teach their children the Bible unless no one else teaches them the Bible, somehow bear all the brunt of task of reaching the lost.
I also came across Anti-Children's Church sentiment from both highly liturgical Lutherans and a passionate Charismatic. It's funny that such different theologies had the same concern. In their belief system, the actual worship service plays a center role in the life a Christians. The ancient Latin chants, or the vibrant exuberant song, are to important for the Children to miss! Not to mention, the workers miss this too.
Of course Sunday School is Biblical. Well, specialized teaching is, and specialized teaching is all that Sunday School is.
In Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4, we are given lists of the spiritual gifts God gave mankind. Every time, teaching is listed as one of the spiritual gifts. If God is giving people the special gift of being able to teach, doesn’t that mean He wants them to teach? Isn’t that all Sunday School is?
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul tells us that he became like various groups of people in order to reach them. That means he provided specialized teaching in a way that those groups could understand.
Sunday School, Youth Group, Children’s ministry; they are not meant to replace the Christian Parent’s job of teaching their Children. I understand that sometimes that is how it is treated, and when that happens, it doesn't work. Imagine if you used a hammer to try to fix a computer. You’d break the computer, but it isn’t the hammer’s fault. These things are important tools, don’t throw them out! Just please, learn how to use them.
The Long Answer
In order to really understand this issue, I have been trying to figure out why this question is being asked in the first place. I mean, it's obvious to anyone who has actually read the New Testament that there is no section called "How to Church." We're given different pieces and guidelines, but it's up to us to piece them together. There are different organizational models, but none of them are from the Bible; they are things the we use to fulfill the mission of the Bible.
At first, I looked at the theology driving the anti-specialized ministry movement. However, I have found people who are of different theological backgrounds. I think the real reason people are moving away from Sunday School, Children's Church, and Youth Ministry is that it's being done poorly.
The real reason, the real heart of the complaint against "Little-Church" is that the way that are being done stinks. Yes, the way it is done in many Churches stinks. It's treated as a Jesusy baby-sitting service. The workers are burnt out volunteers that rarely get to enjoy their own class or to listen to the Sermon; they are excluded from being educated and being able to worship, only to then turn around and try to teach what worship means. The curricula is often flawed, sometimes sacrificing either understand-ability or accuracy, but more often it just lacks vision. And that is absolutely a problem.
Don't believe me? Maybe your lucky enough to go to a Church that has a great program, or even a just good program, and it sounds nothing like what I'm talking about. But a lot of people might read that last paragraph and have never realized that it could be done another way.
I heard a Pastor say "Sunday School began as a fishing net, then became a safety net, and now it is a hammock." That Pastor is right. This is something that is suppose to be reaching the lost, instead, it's Childcare. This is a problem; we cannot allow people to "lay in hammocks" when the should be fishing and fighting for lost souls. Destroying the hammock might wake up the people who are asleep, but it will also make it impossible to fish. Getting rid of Sunday School might motivate parents to be more intentional about teaching their Children, but then we lose what has proven to be one of our most effective evangelism tools.
Let me tell you this from my own testimony; I would not be a Christian today without Youth Ministry. I thank God that my Church was not content with a baby sitting service. I thank God that they didn't cancel ministry because it was to hard to actually have Youth do ministry.
The Theology Behind the Issue
What Theology is behind this issue? What beliefs drive the people who care about it? While I can't give you a exhaustive answer, I'll share more or less the conversations I've had prior to writing this post.
My first conversation about this topic took me surprise. I hadn't even heard of this opinion before. I was shocked. I told her that I run the Youth Ministry at my Church and went on to explain to me why what I was doing was so wrong. She came from a strict Calvinist theology and shared ideas that seem to be at the center of the "Family-Integrated Movement." She said it was her job to teach her children the Bible, and apparently believed that if anyone else talked about the Bible with her kids, then she could not teach them the Bible. I asked her about what happens to people who come from broken families. Her response made me sick to my stomach. Basically, Sunday School is a evangelism tool, and Calvinists don't need to evangelize.
I later picked up the book "Family Driven Faith" by Voddie Bauchuam. (I'll give a full critique of this book someday.) I was specifically looking for an answer to the above question, and apparently in this model the Dads from other families are suppose to take kids from broken families into their families. Which I suppose is a good thing if it works, but it still does nothing to reach the broken people in the first place.
So I read on and tried to figure out the Family-Integrated model of Evangelism. Apparently, all Evangelism is to be done by fathers. The same fathers that Bauchuam doesn't trust to teach their children the Bible unless no one else teaches them the Bible, somehow bear all the brunt of task of reaching the lost.
I also came across Anti-Children's Church sentiment from both highly liturgical Lutherans and a passionate Charismatic. It's funny that such different theologies had the same concern. In their belief system, the actual worship service plays a center role in the life a Christians. The ancient Latin chants, or the vibrant exuberant song, are to important for the Children to miss! Not to mention, the workers miss this too.