Sunday school for decades has been about discipleship, fellowship, and growing and learning about Christ. But a youth pastor is questioning whether church leaders need to get creative with Sunday school and create a shift away from the words to avoid the stigma that is often connected to the word "school".
Every pastor and church leader must ask themselves whether they're fighting to keep a method that is not working for their congregation or community, said Ricardo Miller. Miller is a New Providence native who runs Ricardo Miller Children's Ministries in Fort Worth, Texas; he serves as family ministry pastor at Pathway of Life Church in Dallas, where he oversees the nursery, preschool, children's, youth and young adult ministries.
"The church that wants to stay relevant in reaching families now sees the need to incorporate names like 'life group' or 'Bible fellowship' or 'advance class' or 'small groups'," said the youth pastor. "Making this shift avoids the stigma that is often connected to the word 'school', which is not so appealing to most kids today and the last place they want to go on a Sunday when they've been in school all week."
In order to effectively reach children and families today, the youth pastor said certain methods used 25 years ago may need to be discarded to implement relevant and current programs that meet the needs of the current times.
"We must remember to keep the main thing, the main thing. Now is the time for us to intensify our efforts to become better at providing quality ministry that will help children and families. Let's not focus so much on the use of the word 'Sunday school', but rather the mission that this form of discipleship seeks to accomplish -- teaching children and families the Word of God in a place where they can engage in discussion about the scriptures."
Miller encourages creativity.
Sunday school is an essential disciple-making strategy of the church that teaches biblical principles and godly living to people at every age and stage of life. But in order for Sunday school to remain effective in the 21st century, the church must both reaffirm and retain the essential elements of the disciple-making strategy, while also developing flexibility to address the diverse "discipling" challenges of a fast-paced, pluralistic culture.
As such, it's a concept that is still strongly used by churches in The Bahamas and around the world. But Miller said many churches have come to realize and accept that it is an outdated and ancient term that has lost its relevance to today's church-going family. The youth pastor said many young people see Sunday school as boring and irrelevant.
The term "Sunday school" is over 230 years old.
Historically, in the western church the concept has been used to evangelize and disciple kids.
Sunday school originated in Britain in the late 1700s when children spent six days of the week working in factories. This resulted in many of the children being unable to read. Christian leaders of the day saw an opportunity to share the gospel with poor children as well as educate them. Sunday school was born out of that, since much of the children's time was spent working, and Sunday was the only available time for the children to get educated.
Sunday school spread to the West and by the mid 19th century became popular in churches. Even parents who did not regularly attend church themselves sent their children to Sunday school.
Miller said although Sunday school started as a way to educate poor, illiterate children, Bible teaching was always an important part of it, and that the Bible was the textbook used for learning to read. He said children also learned to write by writing out Bible passages.
"From the historical foundation, we can see the necessity of the concept in the earlier years of the church. However, over the past 30 years the term 'Sunday school' has been used less and less."
The youth pastor said the shift in the modern-day church has seen churches lean toward more contemporary wording and methods as they find their Sunday school numbers dropping. In some instances, he said, some churches have found that their Sunday school programs became non-existent.
For more information about evangelizing children, equipping parents and training children's ministry workers, contact Ricardo Miller at www.RicardoMiller.com or email Info@RicardoMiller.com.

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