Sunday School?

I'm beginning to wonder if we should even bother to have Sunday School in our churches anymore. Do you realize that when they were begun in the 1780's, their function was to teach the children of the poor to read? those children worked 12 hour shifts 5 days a week in order to help their parents earn enough money to keep their families fed, and because of that, the parents weren't able to homeschool them and they weren't able to go to a public school either. So a school was started on Sunday's to teach them the basics.  As the economy got better, it was no longer needed as all children were then able to go to school.  Around that time it began to slowly change over to what it is today.  A place to keep the kids out of their parents hair when they were in church.

Originally the parents were expected to teach their children about God and what His Word says.  Interesting, since that's exactly what God tells us too.  I could go on about history and how parents slowly but surely gave up their obligation and rights to teach their children, but that's not what this is about. The reason I'm wondering if we should even have Sunday School any longer is because of what's coming of it.

In our country especially, people are very hard to reach for Christ because they think they know all about it already.  And the reason they think so is in good part because their parents took them to Sunday School when they were kids. While there, they heard the little bible stories, colored pictures and sang songs and played as all kids do. And I know many of them supposedly "gave their heart to Jesus" while there as well.  But did they really?  Most were too young to really know what they were doing.  They might as well have been pledging to become the next president of the US. Many of them are now atheists, agnostics, or according to them, "nothing", as they simply don't think about it.

But, try to talk to them about Jesus and they'll soon let you know that they just don't believe all that stuff!  They hear prayers & sometimes scriptures at public events; they hear talk about Christians and Christianity on the news, and by politicians constantly too, and of course have seen movies and TV shows about Jesus and other Christian subjects too, so it's not anything new to them.  All those things come together to make the person think they're knowledgeable about God and His plan of Salvation as well. They usually can't be too specific about what it is they don't believe, because they really don't remember much, just enough to know they don't believe it. Many throw in too that it can't be a big deal since the people who go to church are no different then the ones who don't.

Even if you can get them to listen to you, they don't really hear what you say because they start tuning you out before you even begin.  I'd say their salvation was completely hopeless except I know with God nothing is impossible. 

So I'm wondering...are we doing more damage then good with Sunday School?  What are the children actually learning?  I know for a fact mine didn't learn anything worthwhile and neither did I. At first I was very interested, but quickly found that when I asked questions, my teachers couldn't answer them.  I eventually gave up on "Sunday School" and started staying in church with the adults and listening to the sermons.  At least there I got some answers and some real information.

While I realize that it's difficult to get young children to sit still and be quiet for an hour and a half or however long the service is, it isn't impossible.  It just takes training and patience.  More importantly though, children are much more intelligent and capable of learning a lot more then we tend to give them credit for.

I keep thinking back to the first Christians though.  They didn't have "Sunday School" and they didn't water down things for their children either.  As soon as one or both parents began following Christ, they were immediately thrown out of their families, their synagogues and their community. No one would have anything to do with them or their children because they were heretics and blasphemers.  And that was the easy part!  It wasn't so many years later that they began to be persecuted for their beliefs.  In fact, many were persecuted from the very start.  The short period of relative calm came kind of in the middle of those early years. So these folks knew that when they decided to follow Christ, they were most likely going to lose everything and everyone they held dear to them, and if they were lucky, they might be able to keep their lives.

In situations like that, you don't decide to become a Christian lightly.  It took a lot of guts and a whole lot of faith to decide to follow Christ.  Parents had to be prepared to give up their lives and the lives of their children for Him and they had to teach their children as quickly as possible what their beliefs were and why they were therefore willing to give up their lives for Christ.  They had to do that so their children would be ready to do the same if it came down to that.

I can guarantee you that during those times, the parents didn't mince words with their children or tell them they weren't old enough to understand. Those children were taught everything the parents could possibly teach them as quickly as they possibly could. I don't think there could even be a comparison between what an 8 year old child knew and understood back then and what an 8 year old in our day knows and understands about God today.I often wonder what they'd think about our churches and Sunday Schools if someone from that time period were able to come to the future and see them now.

I know this isn't true of all churches or all children or all parents today, but I do think it's true of the majority. I think it's partly because we really don't see God and Salvation as being all that important.  Even those who see it as important, certainly don't see it as being a matter of life or death, which is a real shame, because that's exactly what it is. 

It's probably a real good thing that all my kids are grown up, because if I had little ones now, I'd raise them as though knowing God and His Word was a life or death matter and I'm pretty sure that wouldn't go over real well in our society today.  I'd probably wind up in jail with my kids taken away from me.  But even if that happened, I'd know they already knew the Truth and me being locked up would only reinforce it.

OK, I'll get off my soap box now lol.  What do you think about Sunday School?