Bible Students

Introduction

Sunday school education, similarly to public and private school education, faces many educational difficulties. The difficulties of Sunday school education are unique, as Sunday school only takes place one day a week, rather than every day as many other elementary subjects do. These issues will specifically refer to elementary Sunday school education, though they may apply to junior high and highschool Sunday school education as well.

Today, Sunday school faces a handful of prominent issues. Four examples of difficulties are a difficulty in engaging students, the difficulty of communicating to a wide and diverse audience, the difficulty of sound teaching, and the difficulty of only teaching students once a week. These four problems will be addressed below. 

Today’s Educational Issues

Engaging Students

Why does Sunday school education struggle to engage students? There are a handful of factors in play. First, one difficulty with Sunday school is a common lack of culture expectation from the students. If students all sit on the floor in a group, rather than at desks as is common in public and private schools, they experience a different (and often ill-defined) cultural expectation. Sitting in a group with other students on the floor may give way to a more talkative culture, as the classroom learning culture of weekly education is not being projected into the classroom of the Sunday school. 

Additionally, Sunday school may have a difficulty engaging students in the lessons because elementary students are naturally more concrete learners, as opposed to sermon-style teachings which are often far more abstract. For example, a Sunday school lesson may sound much like a sermon, talking about a biblical story and then spending the majority of the lesson speaking about what the students ought to do with the information they just learned. This kind of learning (auditory) only appeals to one kind of learning, rather than appealing to a handful of learning styles (such as kinesthetic). One last possibility about why Sunday school education may not be engaging is that the stories and applications are too far removed from the real lives of the students they are supposed to appeal to. 

Communicating to Elementary Students

An additional issue in Sunday school education is the difficulty of communicating well to a diverse group of students. In both small and large churches the regular Sunday lesson may be a combination of all the Kindergarten through 5th grade students. Grades K-5 have vastly different developments, and therefore can comprehend different levels of information. The information presented must be both engaging enough for the older audiences and comprehensible for the younger audiences.

Sound Biblical Teaching

A third problem of Sunday school education is that teachers may believe that elementary students are not worthy of the difficult rigor it takes to teach a biblical truth properly. Though students are young, they are just as able to believe on the Lord and be saved, and possibly even more able than adults. Teachers who do not believe the lessons for elementary students matter as much as adult teachings may not put in the extra effort to firmly understand a biblical text. This includes knowing both why the teacher believes a certain view and understanding why they do not believe any opposing views. While this may seem removed from the child-like faith needed to be saved, knowing why a text should be interpreted a certain way can greatly help prevent stumbling blocks from developing later in the child’s life.

Re-Engaging Students

Finally, one last difficulty in Sunday school education is that the teaching only takes place once a week. Students may have a difficulty applying a forgotten message throughout the week, and reminding students of what they learned the previous week may take up a long time in the lesson. Continuity in lessons may show to be a critical aspect of teaching, as it continues to help students to remember what they have learned before. Are there any ways to properly address these issues moving forward in Sunday school education?

Addressing These Issues

Engaging Students and Communicating to Elementary Students

One method to address both engaging students and communicating to concrete thinkers is to demolish the stronghold of traditional Sunday school teaching. As mentioned by Gardner, if schools do not adapt to the concrete educational needs of students it may be better for their long-term comprehension if the students were enrolled in a museum instead. (Gardner 2006, chapter 8) Therefore, it may be good to consider structuring Sunday school education more like a museum than a classroom.

How would engagement and communication increase through the use of a museum-like structure for Sunday school education? This would mean turning lessons as concrete as humanly possible. To explain this point, the following are two examples. The first is a play, and the second is an object lesson.

First, consider the story of David and Goliath. Rather than teaching the story from the text alone (abstract and auditory), it may be beneficial to have a student (who has practiced beforehand) act as David, a volunteer or teacher act as Goliath, and the audience acting as the frightened soldiers of Israel and/or the confident soldiers of Philistia. The story would be acted out between major characters (Saul, David, Israelite soldiers, and Goliath) to present the story in a visual and engaging form. The text can be read after the short play, but the play could help students better understand the emotions and purpose of the biblical story. 

Second, consider a typological or symbolic teaching on either God as a rock or Christ as a lamb. In order to teach the significance of God as a rock, it may be helpful to have students play outdoors on a large rock (if this is applicable to a particular church). After the students have played outside during their drop-off, the teaching could take place outside and center on the large rock which is strong, never moves, is not phased by our strength, and never changes. These significant truths about God can be communicated through actually playing on a large rock. Additionally, when students are being taught the significance of Jesus as the lamb of God, it may be beneficial to have a child act as a lamb for the teacher to “slaughter.” The emotions of disgust, cringe, and horror would all play their respective roles to mirror how the ancient Israelites would feel toward that description of their Savior. 

Both the play and the object lessons present a more concrete method of communication, as opposed to only communicating through speaking. Visual communication can be very effective with teaching children. Apart from this kind of visual teaching, the students may fall back into the difficulty of understanding complex truths about God. In fact, the very method of communicating truth about God through stories may have been effective in the ancient Israelite context because of the effectiveness of concrete stories for understanding an abstract God. Even though God is abstract, He communicates through concrete methods. It is worth trying the same thing, especially to help children understand their abstract God. 

Sound Biblical Teaching

As mentioned by Douglas Wilson, theology is the queen of the sciences. (Wilson 1991, chapter 4) Theology is the most important endeavor for individuals, to understand who their God is and what they are here for. For example, take Genesis 1-3 and 1 Timothy 2. Genesis 1-3 retells the creation of the universe, humans, and the result of mankind’s rebellion. First Timothy 2 provides Paul’s guidelines for women teaching men. Both of these texts are incredibly nuanced, and should be treated appropriately. For example, the following is one way to introduce Genesis 1-3 to children:

“Genesis 1-3 describes how God made everything good, made humans special, why everything is no longer good, and the promise of Jesus reversing this in the future. Most Christians believe this took place around 6,000 years in the past, over seven days. Some Chrisians believe this was a longer period, taking place up to 12,000 years ago. Another group of Christians believe this isn’t talking about how God created, but why God created, and they believe everything took place over billions of years. At [this church] we believe this took place around 6,000 years ago, but the most important thing is that the Bible says God made everything, and made them for His purposes.”

This serves two purposes. First, it believes students are deserving of knowing different points of view about what a text means, while still being a devoted Christian. Second, it introduces the idea of different ideas, which prevents stumbling blocks in the future. For example, a philosophy of science which believes God is responsible for creation, regardless of His methods is far preferred to a student who thinks their belief in evolution and God are incompatible. If this teacher only presented the idea that the universe is 6,000 years old, they may find evolution to be more reasonable than God, if evolution supposedly proves God does not exist. Rather, a more robust understanding of creation would be that the exact method can be inferred from the text, but that the exact method and timeline is difficult to discern, especially from a piece of literature where there is no comparable example to cross-examine against in order to understand how it should be interpreted.

Second, the following is an example of how to introduce 1 Timothy 2:

“1 Timothy 2 is Paul’s instruction for women to not teach over men. Some Christians believe this is for all women, all men, and any kind of teaching. Some Christians believe this is for women teaching adult men. Some Christians believe this is for women pastors who have authority over men, rather than men having church authority over men. Even other Christians believe this is no longer for today. We at [this church] believe this is instruction for women to not teach adult men, so let’s look at the text to see why we believe this. We will also see why God made this rule, and how God still loves women.”

Introducing different and opposing views from different Christian camps (even if they are considered wrong) should not be feared, but should be something prepared for. If the teacher has a good reason for believing their interpretation of the text, it should be convincing enough for children. Additionally, understanding different points of view helps a teacher to know criticisms of their own view. Knowing the weaknesses of one’s view helps a teacher be transparent with students. 

Re-Engaging Students

Finally, an important aspect of proper education is a constant re-engagement with the students about what they have learned. Teachers may call back to particular stories or object lessons by recreating a small portion of them. For example, a few weeks after learning about God as the rock, a teacher could display a fist-size rock to reference the previous learning. Alternatively, it may show helpful to mirror the adult sermons in terms of topic. If the adults learn about the bowl judgments in the book of Revelation, it can be helpful to teach the students about the patience and love of God through discipline using the same text. This way the students and parents are learning the same texts and are able to possibly have meaningful discussion about them during the week, as opposed to weekly education which has no adult parallel. 

Moving to My Context

In my current context I have the regular opportunity to observe both elementary and junior high Sunday school education. These current issues in Sunday school education have been taken from the contexts I have been able to observe. While these are not necessarily prevalent or entirely the same as presented here, these difficulties in Sunday school education are likely prevalent in other Sunday school contexts as well.

I believe applying these principles to my immediate context would help to solve some of the difficulties present in this ministry. While these difficulties do not stop the ministry from bringing individuals to Christ (educating their mind and heart in the Word and God), I believe these difficulties can be combated without spending significant additional finances. Rather than spend finances, I would suggest these methods. Both plays and object lessons can show themselves to be very effective, given the time and effort they deserve. 

Moving Forward

The greatest impact of this course is toward the open-minded thinking needed to teach individuals well. In order to teach individuals, especially students, one needs to apply the knowledge of a topic to a wide range of educational methods. One student may learn well from clearly structured audible talks, while another student may only learn well when using their hands. Neither of these methods are good or bad, even though often classroom (and especially Sunday school classroom) education frowns upon the need to use one’s hands to learn. Gardner’s book on multiple intelligences has been a helpful guide to understand the wide range of needs of students everywhere, and how to move forward in educating them through creative methods. 

Moving forward, the most valuable skill to carry will be thinking outside of the box in terms of education. While pragmatism is not the philosophy of Sunday school education, Sunday school education may benefit from following the methods that work. (Berkly et al 2003, chapter 3) If preaching to 2nd graders does not accomplish biblical literacy in the same way a short play would, then it makes more sense to do whatever increases biblical literacy in the children. Children are able to believe in Christ, so therefore they are deserving of all the effort teachers of elementary students are able to muster toward giving them a solid and robust biblical education. If this is not the anthem of Sunday schools, then Sunday schools may need to reconsider the reason they exist. Biblical education (both intellectual and moral) is important and necessary for children, and Sunday schools should not be stopped by the harsh currents of tradition if effectiveness lay on the other side of the river bank.

Bibliography

Berkeley, J., Layman, J., White, Ray, Eds. (2003) Foundations of Christian School Education. Colorado Springs, CO. Purposeful Designs. Kindle Ed.

Gardner, H. (2006) Multiple Intelligences. New York, NY. Basic Books.

LucidSpark. “Visual teaching strategies to improve learning.” LucidSpark. https://lucidspark.com/blog/visual-teaching-strategies-to-improve-learning#:~:text=Visuals%20can%20enhance%20your%20lecture,solving%20and%20critical%20thinking%20skills.

Wilson, D. (1991) Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. Wheaton, IL. Crossway.