Sunday Schoolsaurus

How did Sunday School become a dinosaur?

When I was a kid, more people attended Sunday School than the Worship Service. That was what really counted. In fact, there was a "scoreboard" near the front of the church that listed:

* Sunday School Attendance This Week
* Sunday School Attendance Last Week
* Sunday School Offering

We don't have one of those scoreboards in our church here in Hayward. (We use "score cards" instead -- a little box in our bulletin that tells last week's worship attendance and how much money was given in last Sunday's offering. So, I guess, you could say we're still keeping score -- but counting something different. )

I'm embarassed to admit how few people come to our Sunday School. For example, a few weeks ago, we had 748 in our worship services -- and only 118 in our Sunday School classes.

People gave over $11,000 in the offering -- but our Sunday School offering totaled less than $50.

As I've conversed with other senior pastors of large, growing churches, it seems that our situation is the norm. These days, a church with a strong, thriving Sunday School is the exception rather than the rule.

What in the world happened to Sunday School? Why is the old dinosaur on the verge of extinction?

Here are a few possible explanations:

1. The focus of Sunday School has switched from Outreach to Instruction.
Originally, Robert Raikes invented Sunday School to reach the uneducated and unchurched children of the community. It was an evangelism tool -- much like churches use ESL and computer classes today. Now, it is primarily a vehicle to instruct the children of church members (with a few classes in Christian coping tossed in for their parents.)

2. The "invitation" of friends is to the worship service, rather than a Sunday school class.
As a kid, I always looked forward to the big "bring all your neighbors to Sunday School" contest! The winner would receive a special prize, on the line of "Let's Make a Deal." I've not heard of any Sunday School Contests in a looong time -- but who would scramble to bring unchurched friends to a program that's not designed for them? The Worship Service has become much more "seeker friendly" (thanks to Willow Creek and Saddleback), and by default, the Sunday School has become more "seeker hostile." (One guy told me he didn't dare go to Sunday School because he didn't people to know how stupid he was about Bible doctrines.)

3. Midweek gatherings have replaced Sunday School as the "second hour."
35 years ago, the Sunday School was the "first hour." Over the next couple of decades, it slipped to the "second hour." Now, it has taken a distant third, with midweek programming capturing the second spot. I have never yet seen a church that is good in both small groups and Sunday School -- it's either one or the other.

Our midweek, for instance, is going full steam ahead! We have tons more children and teens at our midweek gatherings than on Sunday mornings. There are nearly as many adults in small groups throughout the week, than gathered in our worship services. Perhaps it's because our midweek programming remembers point #1: Outreach. Over half the kids who come midweek are not from "churched" families.

4. Sunday School is the "coffee shop" and the midweek programs are like "Starbucks."

Traditional Sunday School -- sitting around a table with a flannelgraph board, reminds me of the old downtown coffee shop. It's a quaint memory -- but I'd rather go to Starbucks.

5. The biggest reason for the demise of Sunday School is because the leaders have quit working it.

It's easier to launch something new, than to transform a sacred cow. Whenever Sunday School leaders monkey with the format, the traditionalists holler, "That's not the way you're supposed to do it! What??? Get rid of the quarterly?? God forbid!"

So, rather than fight the battles, the leaders move into other areas (i.e. Midweek) where they can provide creative and relevent ministries without the cumbersome structures.

I wonder, if the leaders of children, teens and adults were given total freedom to create a ministry that would have maximum Kingdom impact on the lives of their students -- and if they were willing to roll up their sleeves and really work the Sunday School hour -- what might happen??

Maybe Thom Rainer is right when he says, “Sunday School has not stopped working for churches; churches have stopped working Sunday School.”

Comments

  1. Anonymous8:57 AM

    Now here's something that's really close to my heart!! I'd love to sit down with you and Jeremy sometime and expound on this. I've been noticing those attendance figures and thinking, we used to have 200! (or was it 197--you never did kiss that pig). Yes, I feel SS has been somewhat neglected. One thing though--we DO NOT use flannelgraphs.

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  2. Anonymous10:33 AM

    Mark, thank you so much for this article about SS decline. As I struggle at being SS Super. I deal with this every week. I took the liberty of sending a copy of your article to our Sr. Pastor, and he wrote right back to say that he would like to share it with our Deacons... I was sure you would not mind. I also enjoyed Naomi's response.
    Miss all of you there at HWC, but we are doing fine. Dannie is serving a term as one of the deacons, so we're both kept fairly busy.
    Glad that Kathy is better. Blessings to all.
    Shirley Kirby

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  3. Anonymous10:44 AM

    Mark, some great thoughts regarding Sunday School. I am a great supporter of Sunday School. We are having a teacher appreciation day this Sunday, and we will also be recognizing those who teach midweek. I wonder if size of church affects this. In my observation small churches seem to have a better ratio of SS attendees to worship. Our Sunday School in Martinsville is doing well averaging about 10 less than worship. I'm sure there is a reason, not so sure I know what it is. It could be the community/family nature of the smaller congregation. Thanks for the thoughtful post. You make some good points about being intentional about Sunday School. And we don't use flannelgraphs either.

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  4. Anonymous9:44 PM

    Naomi,
    You are right -- we don't use flannelgraph -- or quarterlies either! For a Sunday School, we have some cutting edge stuff happening -- but I've been somewhat perplexed about the small attendance. Our total midweek, however is larger than our combined worship services.

    Shirley,
    Glad you could use the article, and I hope it sparks good discussion.

    Dale,
    How wonderful to hear of your excellent Sunday School turnout. We could learn a few things from you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The frustration I've heard expressed more than once lately about Sunday School is the lack of a viable discipline system in place in case one of the kids (frequently a "pillar of the church's" child) acts up. I know people who won't work in SS because "those kids" can't be controlled and can't be temporarily removed.

    What gets me is that we apparently have no trouble "laying down the law" for the unchurched kids in a midweek outreach program, but we seem to adopt a "kids will be kids" attitude with our own on Sunday morning—maybe because Mom and Dad don't want to be inconvenienced during their worship time!

    OK, I've finished my "morning vent".... We now return to our regularly scheduled programmiing.

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  6. Anonymous11:59 AM

    Thanks, Mark. You have listed several choice nuggets for objective and subjective analysis. In 1968, TWC had a S.S. attendance of @ 135,000 on an average Sunday. In 2006, it is now 85,000. We must broaden out our efforts to obey Jesus final command while He walked on the face of the earth - "MAKE DISCIPLES!" One "drum" I've been beating is: "It doesn't matter when you disciple someone. What matters is that we do disciple everyone." On an intruiging note, nothing has taken the place of Sunday School from my view, either. While I write, I'm on my way to train 200 teachers and Spiritual Formation leaders out East. May all we are and do honor Jesus! Good article, my friend. Jim Dunn

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  7. Anonymous5:25 PM

    Thank you Jim. I admire the work you are doing to train disciplers. Thanks for reminding us that the content is more important than the container.

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  8. Anonymous7:06 PM

    Pastor Mark, a few thoughts on why Sunday School is limping a bit. First of all, a larger percentage of people attending worship are new Christians and have not grown up with Sunday School like some of us have. They may not know, see, or understand the role and benefits of Sunday School. Secondly, a former Pastor told me once if there was a choice of the parents dropping the kids off for Sunday School, or skipping Sunday School and just attending worship with the kids the best choice was bringing the kids to church and worshipping as a family. Having Sunday School year round may be a stressor to teachers and staff since they don't get a break in the summer. People are busier and miss more Sunday worship than they have in the past. That may be another reason too.

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  9. I want to revive Sunday school in our church. My wife and I are starting a class this week. Great article!

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