My last article, “Why Do We Have a Hard Time Loving People Like God Does,” got me thinking about how we can make Sunday school classes more effective in forming churchgoers into disciples of Jesus. Many older Christians are accustomed to attend a Sunday school class in addition to a service of public worship on Sundays. They may have attended a Sunday school class as children, and when they became adults, they joined an adult Sunday school class. Sunday school is a normal part of their Sunday routine. It may be much easier to make adult Sunday school classes more transformative than to persuade longtime members to participate in a small group.
A Sunday school class is a class held on Sundays, in which Christians, adults and children, are given religious teaching. An adult Sunday school classes typically consist of a lecture that is a part of a survey of the Bible or the exposition of a particular book of the Bible. The focus is on informing the attendees, not helping them to assimilate what they are hearing and applying it to their own lives. There may be some group discussion, but it is limited.
As a method of religious education this approach has its limitations. Among its limitations is that it is not transformative unless a genuine effort is made to make it transformative. By transformative I mean that it causes a major change to its attendees in a way that makes them better. The attendees make the critical transition from being hearers of the Word to doers of the Word.
It is too easy for members of adult Sunday school classes to become what the late J. I. Packer described as “sit and soak Christians.” They are like someone sitting in a hot tub. They soak in God’s Word as they might soak in hot water in a hot tub. They, however, do not put into action what they are learning. They are like sponges that absorb more and more water but are never squeezed out.
When the apostle Paul talks about doing everything for edification of a local congregation of the faithful, for building up the members of the Body of Christ, he is talking not just about informing them but also transforming them.
This is not to suggest that Sunday school classes are ineffectual: they do not produce good results. God influences us through his Word. They are, however, not as transformative as they might be if they were conducted differently.
Jesus used several different methods in his teaching. He preached to large crowds. He met with a small group of disciples, gave them further instruction, answered their questions, demonstrated what he meant, and then sent them out in pairs to do what he had shown them. Jesus also gave personal instruction to individual disciples, mentoring them. For this reason, Jesus often ministered with two or three of his disciples in tow. He did not have them tag along just to keep him company.
What happens in Sunday school classes but on a smaller scale is the first method of teaching. What is missing is the second and third methods of teaching. It is these two methods by which would-be followers of Jesus become disciples. While these two methods of teaching may be used informally, in an accidental way, we are not as intentional in their use as we might be.
We can do several things to make our adult Sunday School classes more transformative.
We can ask Sunday school teachers what they are doing in their class to help its members to become better disciples of Jesus. We need to ask them how they are specifically going about it. Some teachers may believe that they are helping the members of their class become better disciples when in reality, without realizing it, they are not.
We can offer existing and new Sunday school teachers training in how they can make their Sunday school class more transformative. This training should be mandatory. It can be presented as intended to help all Sunday school teachers to be on the same page in achieving the mission of the church. It is a good idea to offer regular training seminars for all Sunday school teachers which they would be expected to attend. A good Sunday school teacher not only has the ability to teach but also is teachable themselves.
In churches in which Sunday school classes have an independent life of their own, they may pull in a different direction from the stated mission of the church. It is important that everybody be on board where achieving the church’s mission is concerned. A clear, understandable mission statement and regular training seminars for Sunday school teachers are important steps to this end.
We can create new Sunday school classes that are designed to be transformative from the outset. These Sunday school classes will help integrate newcomers into the church as well as training and equipping them to be disciples of Jesus. Existing Sunday school classes tend to become closed groups. It is much easier for newcomers to join a new class.
Sunday school teachers can be encouraged to adopt a curriculum deliberately intended to help members of their class grow as disciples of Jesus. The regular training seminars can be used to suggest material that is suitable for this purpose.
Sunday school teachers can be urged to limit the length of lectures and to devote more time to group discussion. For the purpose of group discussion, they can be encouraged to divide the class into small discussion groups of 3 to 5 people, to give the participants in these discussion groups instruction on what they are expected to discuss, and to assign one of the participants the role of group facilitator.
The purpose of these groups is not just to discuss what they have just heard but to apply it to their own lives. At the conclusion of the group discussion each participant should be expected to have come up with something that they are going to do specifically in the week to apply what they have learned. These discussion groups should be ongoing so that at the next Sunday school class meeting the participants can report on what they did during the week and how it went.
Sunday school classes can be taught needed skills such as facilitating small group discussion, practicing active listening, forming friendships, identifying people’s spiritual addresses, starting gospel, or spiritual conversations, and other similar things.
Sunday school classes can be encouraged to take on community service projects and evangelism projects and to collectively apply in other ways what they are learn on Sunday.
We can pair more seasoned Christians with new Christians in mentoring relationships. We can teach Sunday school class members and other church members how to be anamchara, or soul friends, to each other.
Our Sunday school class may have already taken some of these steps. If so, fantastic. If it has not yet taken any of them, we may want to encourage it to do so.
Ultimately the responsibility for ensuring that we grow as disciples of Jesus is ours. God gives us the members and attendees of our church and our Sunday school class to provide us with help, encouragement, and support, but it is up to us whether we accept what they offer us. If we are not growing spiritually as we might, we cannot blame anyone but ourselves.
In this country we have far more going for us than many other places in the world. As well as the members and attendees of our church and our Sunday school class, we have a loving God, an infinite abundance of grace, a guiding Holy Spirit, an inspired Bible, two thousand years of Christian literature, and other Christians who love us and care deeply about our spiritual wellbeing.
Whether we realize it, we are truly blessed. God has indeed given us more than enough, a bountiful measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into our laps.
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