There are a lot of positive things to say about Sunday School for kids. For parents, however, there is a hidden danger. Decades ago it was not uncommon for kids to attend the same service as their parents. This gave parents an opportunity to explain thoroughly what had been preached and apply it personally to the lives of their children. Frankly I do not know the exact history of what has brought us to the current system of kids having their own separate classes with activities, crafts, and snack apart from convenience. As much as children have benefited from having a class geared to their level of understanding, teachers have also grown through the preparation and prayer for children and services. This is good. But I believe parents should live as if their kids never went to church at all. Allow me to explain.
Sunday School attendance has the power to subversively deceive parents into thinking their children are being taught the Word of God and thus have all the spiritual training they need. This causes parents to shirk their God-given duty of taking a proactive role in their children's spiritual growth and understanding. It insulates the parents from concern or care of their child's relationship with God. The fact their kids go to church and hand them a coloring page or craft every week makes them content. Have we become ignorant to the fact a huge majority of "churched" kids fall away from God entirely after they leave home? They become hardened from much hearing. There is nothing more dangerous to a child than church attendance without a real walk with God. This "churchianity" breeds spiritual pride, boredom, disillusionment, hardness of heart, and hatred of church gatherings.
I suspect the vast majority of children who go to their classes are never engaged in their heads or hearts with observing, interpreting, and applying scripture. If they were their lives would bear the long-term results of fruitfulness. The fact is kids learn very quickly how to behave in a Sunday School environment. Be quiet at the right time, answer "Jesus" when a question is presented, and colour inside the lines. To have the teacher pull his parent aside would mean discipline, so the child learns to behave according to proper church decorum. Therefore the kids who are the most quiet are considered attentive and Christian, while the kids who struggle in the class environment are seen as the ones who must be reached - or at least conditioned to be quiet and attentive like the rest. All parents want their children to go to heaven. But the stark reality may be few do little for their children's spiritual benefit aside from a weekly taxi service to and from a church building.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reads: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." God commands us as parents to teach our children of God, His righteous laws, the truth of His Word, to provide an environment at home that nurtures spiritual growth, answer their questions, live out biblical truth constantly as an example, and to cultivate in their hearts love for God. It is well said that "more is caught than taught." Sunday School will never replace this personal instruction with a complimentary Christian witness, nor does church attendance free us from our personal duty and responsibility to teach and train our children in the admonition of the LORD. Do you know how many millions of souls have been doomed to hell by a parent's poor example? I would say even more have been lost because of lack of instruction, prayer, and carelessness. God says through the prophet in Hosea 4:6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." Why should our children perish because of our negligence?
Speaking for myself as a "churched" kid, my heart was virtually never engaged in Sunday School. It was little more than reading comprehension: a story was read and we would answer questions about it. I cannot remember scripture being applied to my life. Sadly, I believed my job in Sunday School was to make sure everything the teacher said was correct according to scripture. I had a reputation among my peers and teachers of knowing everything about the Bible, but I harboured a critical spirit in pride. I strained out the gnats and swallowed the camel! God used an atheist college professor and public university to humble me and compel me to seek Him. Questions were asked I had never heard in Sunday School! The validity and social relevance of the Bible were not assumed like in church services. I was forced to either throw out everything I believed or actually discover the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture. Don't get me wrong. I had great Sunday School teachers and godly parents who took the time to disciple me. But it was not until I was confronted with a challenge from a godless environment that caused me to develop spiritually.
When I was on staff at a church, God convicted me that I was not performing my duty as a parent to personally instruct my children. My kids are very well-mannered, obedient, and respectful in church. They know that if they do not behave there will be consequences! But because of their attentiveness and knowledge, they were flying under the radar. It is a sad truth knowledge can often pass as spirituality, though knowledge of God's Word does not mean a person knows God! My wife and I repented of our lax leadership, and instituted a "Bible night" where we discuss a basic doctrine of scripture. It marked the start of us walking in obedience to God in teaching our children of Him. One day a week is still not enough impart all the spiritual nourishment needed. Like the scripture states, we should be diligent to instruct them concerning God when we rise up, lie down, walk in the way, or sit in our house. God's truth should be so plastered all over our lives that when our kids see us they see Jesus Christ. I am not saying we should be legalistic, but on the contrary: our relationship with Jesus should govern our thoughts, mouths, activities, intentions, and attitudes.
Please do not fall for the lie that Sunday School provides all the spiritual nourishment and instruction your children need. It is not the primary job of Sunday School teacher or a pastor to instruct your children: it is your job! Instead of working to create a "Christian bubble" around our kids, let us labour to have Christ living inside them. No matter what struggles they face or what fiery darts Satan throws at them, they can stand firm upon the foundation of Christ as revealed in scripture when we are faithful to instruct and encourage them. Let us instruct with our lives as well as our mouths. Have you taken steps to lead your children to Christ today?
Sunday School attendance has the power to subversively deceive parents into thinking their children are being taught the Word of God and thus have all the spiritual training they need. This causes parents to shirk their God-given duty of taking a proactive role in their children's spiritual growth and understanding. It insulates the parents from concern or care of their child's relationship with God. The fact their kids go to church and hand them a coloring page or craft every week makes them content. Have we become ignorant to the fact a huge majority of "churched" kids fall away from God entirely after they leave home? They become hardened from much hearing. There is nothing more dangerous to a child than church attendance without a real walk with God. This "churchianity" breeds spiritual pride, boredom, disillusionment, hardness of heart, and hatred of church gatherings.
I suspect the vast majority of children who go to their classes are never engaged in their heads or hearts with observing, interpreting, and applying scripture. If they were their lives would bear the long-term results of fruitfulness. The fact is kids learn very quickly how to behave in a Sunday School environment. Be quiet at the right time, answer "Jesus" when a question is presented, and colour inside the lines. To have the teacher pull his parent aside would mean discipline, so the child learns to behave according to proper church decorum. Therefore the kids who are the most quiet are considered attentive and Christian, while the kids who struggle in the class environment are seen as the ones who must be reached - or at least conditioned to be quiet and attentive like the rest. All parents want their children to go to heaven. But the stark reality may be few do little for their children's spiritual benefit aside from a weekly taxi service to and from a church building.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reads: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." God commands us as parents to teach our children of God, His righteous laws, the truth of His Word, to provide an environment at home that nurtures spiritual growth, answer their questions, live out biblical truth constantly as an example, and to cultivate in their hearts love for God. It is well said that "more is caught than taught." Sunday School will never replace this personal instruction with a complimentary Christian witness, nor does church attendance free us from our personal duty and responsibility to teach and train our children in the admonition of the LORD. Do you know how many millions of souls have been doomed to hell by a parent's poor example? I would say even more have been lost because of lack of instruction, prayer, and carelessness. God says through the prophet in Hosea 4:6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." Why should our children perish because of our negligence?
Speaking for myself as a "churched" kid, my heart was virtually never engaged in Sunday School. It was little more than reading comprehension: a story was read and we would answer questions about it. I cannot remember scripture being applied to my life. Sadly, I believed my job in Sunday School was to make sure everything the teacher said was correct according to scripture. I had a reputation among my peers and teachers of knowing everything about the Bible, but I harboured a critical spirit in pride. I strained out the gnats and swallowed the camel! God used an atheist college professor and public university to humble me and compel me to seek Him. Questions were asked I had never heard in Sunday School! The validity and social relevance of the Bible were not assumed like in church services. I was forced to either throw out everything I believed or actually discover the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture. Don't get me wrong. I had great Sunday School teachers and godly parents who took the time to disciple me. But it was not until I was confronted with a challenge from a godless environment that caused me to develop spiritually.
When I was on staff at a church, God convicted me that I was not performing my duty as a parent to personally instruct my children. My kids are very well-mannered, obedient, and respectful in church. They know that if they do not behave there will be consequences! But because of their attentiveness and knowledge, they were flying under the radar. It is a sad truth knowledge can often pass as spirituality, though knowledge of God's Word does not mean a person knows God! My wife and I repented of our lax leadership, and instituted a "Bible night" where we discuss a basic doctrine of scripture. It marked the start of us walking in obedience to God in teaching our children of Him. One day a week is still not enough impart all the spiritual nourishment needed. Like the scripture states, we should be diligent to instruct them concerning God when we rise up, lie down, walk in the way, or sit in our house. God's truth should be so plastered all over our lives that when our kids see us they see Jesus Christ. I am not saying we should be legalistic, but on the contrary: our relationship with Jesus should govern our thoughts, mouths, activities, intentions, and attitudes.
Please do not fall for the lie that Sunday School provides all the spiritual nourishment and instruction your children need. It is not the primary job of Sunday School teacher or a pastor to instruct your children: it is your job! Instead of working to create a "Christian bubble" around our kids, let us labour to have Christ living inside them. No matter what struggles they face or what fiery darts Satan throws at them, they can stand firm upon the foundation of Christ as revealed in scripture when we are faithful to instruct and encourage them. Let us instruct with our lives as well as our mouths. Have you taken steps to lead your children to Christ today?
