Poetry

What a timely message. This is like the urban "Screwtape Letters"

Sunday School Reform

Rob and I share our opinion on this, and although we sure don't have all the answers, we are reformers at heart.

I think just about everyone in the SBC agrees that some kind of Sunday school reform needs to occur. But just what to do and how escapes us, and Baptists are so doggedly afraid of change that we can do no major reform in the area. Churches spend loads of money on programs to grow outreach and get people in there in the first place. While outreach is vitally important, I think we may be looking so squarely at one fixed microcosm that we fail to step back and see the big picture.

First...the problems I see. Christ gave so many parables about farming in relation to the church. Present day discipling methods/efforts result in quickly grown plans with shallow roots. It seems very much like watering dry plants with dust. Well what do I mean? We are not fans of Lifeway resources (gasp!). I have heard it described as mechanical, redundant, outdated, dry, etc. But the problem actually starts way before a family ever enters the church doors. In adult sunday school the premise is to equip the adults for living the christian life and serving the church...which is good. But something is blatantly missing to me. Why is the church not teaching parents about their responsibility in discipling their children? Our lesson yesterday was about the topic of a parent's responsibility in teaching their children about the things of God. One thing that happened was that a child said "my parents would never have time for that" and so on. Another thing I've noticed is that children are a lot of times discouraged from asking questions in sunday school (Matt. 19:13-14). This might be because our teachers are not confident enough to answer such questions.

My suggestions for change that needs to occur.

1. Have a Sunday school teacher course in each church where the teachers would learn the Baptist Faith and Message, and have a prayer session each year before the start of the new school year.

2. Provide with adult sunday school some sort of daily family devotional and accountability for the parents in discipling their children at home.


3. I suggest something like Group Publishing's FaithWeaver to encourage families to encounter Biblical discussion in the home.

Happy Pentecost Sunday