Thinking back oh-so-fondly to memories of my childhood Sunday School education this past week, I was reminded of many things. I was reminded of my utter failure to memorize the bible verses selected for me, and the deficiency of precious gold stars that resulted, causing much strife. I was reminded of the abundance of stories that were told that have been forgotten. I was reminded of the snacks. Oh, the snacks.
Moving beyond these superficial recollections, I thought about those stories that I did remember, and noticed how devoid of any spiritual significance or context they all were. I thought about magical-glowing-flannelgraph-Jesus:
"And look how the baby in the manger never cried!"
I also thought about strong-man-Sampson:
"Close your eyes. Now open them and look, see how Sampson broke the columns!"
My desire in bringing this up is not to question the intent of my Sunday school teachers, because I'm sure their intentions were only for the best. But I couldn't help but recognize that this foundation gave me no basis for which to comprehend how to proclaim the Gospel. Missionality consists of going out to the world around us with the intent of bringing Good News, but if we allow such inaccurate and insufficient expressions of the gospel story to form the basis for our Christian education we are doing a disservice to the Christian community. If our very history, our own story, is proclaimed in a way so decidedly mythological we are setting ourselves up for failure.
The theological truths in these stories are perhaps too complicated to present to a young audience. But that does not warrant that they be oversimplified or cheapened in hopes of making them more palatable. The story of Jonah is, in addition to being quite outrageous, also quite terrifying. The story of Noah involves killing virtually all of humanity. But the story of the Prodigal Son contains perhaps the most essential gospel truth that there is: that God wants us back. Owning up to the meaning behind these stories is the necessary first step toward a Christian education that provides an adequate basis for missional Christianity.
…”There is a lack of true discipleship that leaves many without knowledge of how to effectively proclaim, much less teach how to proclaim, the Gospel…”
I agree fully, but I think it is also fair to say that many (not all) of these Sunday school leaders/volunteers, are people who love playing with kids and taking care of them, and that is the first maybe “vocational” reason they are hired or accepted on the children’s ministry team. I use the word “vocational” liberally, mainly because I don’t know if I definitively know how to use it in this context correctly.
Maybe if there were some sort of catechism-ish sort of program – some theological training – for these people desiring to do sunday school, maybe then the stories we “cheapen” will change, or maybe even still use the same stories, but not talk about them like they are all fun and games. Last time I checked, divine genocidal acts (Noah’s ark story) aren’t very fun or cuddly.
I also don’t want to be too critical of the leaders but I think the deeper problem is that many of these sunday school teachers don’t know how to proclaim the Gospel. There is a lack of true discipleship that leaves many without knowledge of how to effectively proclaim, much less teach how to proclaim, the Gospel. I know that I often feel wholely inadequate trying to tell others the good news I am blessed to have been told.
-Jeremiah
Aren’t there lessons though that kids could grasp that could be taught without cheapening the gospel? Some of the Gospel narrative stories are easy to grasp at first reading but open up and deepen as a person grows in knowledge and love of the Lord. His feeding of the five thousand is easy to understand: five loaves, 5000 people. But, the implications blow me away even today as I read the story: it grows on me. However, I hear what you’re saying: Sampson was a dirt bag, Jonah wanted to see the whole city burn, and Jesus was born in cow crap. I did NOT learn those in Sunday school…
It’s by me. Whoops.
Who is this post written by?