Valuing God's Word

Last year our small group at church decided to gather up some money, purchase some Bibles, and give them out to children who visited our church. Oh and also to any member's children who didn't have a Bible--just in case there were any.

So we bought the Bibles. Twenty "real" Bibles and ten picture Bibles for the very young. Then, we set about figuring out how to best distribute them and to whom.

We found out a little girl in our new small group didn't have a Bible. Well, she had a picture Bible but she did not have a real Bible of her own. So this morning I happily presented her with her own Bible. She just beamed. Oh she was so proud!! Her family is going through hard times right now and it felt good to be able to provide this need for them.

Little Bit moved up last Sunday to the 1st and 2nd grade class. Those kids are learning to read/are readers so they need real Bibles now. I had to get one from our shelf for Little Bit last week. Time to stop carrying the picture Bible.

So, I decided to go into her class and ask if there were any other children who needed their own Bible. No fewer than 7 hands went up. There were 11 kids in the room. Oh dear.

I was so upset by this. Mostly, these children's families are new-ish to our church or new-ish to church at all. I suppose it's not unheard of that no one has thought to buy them a Bible yet. It's shocking to me...but I'm sure it's very common. Some of them are not new at all. That was the most concerning of all.

I'm happy to say that next week ALL the children in that class will have their own Bible. But I wondered today why those parents had not gotten a Bible for their children yet. I wonder every week why so many adults do not carry a Bible to church.

Do we value God's word? Do we know what Christians in other countries would do to get their hands on one page of scripture? Most of the students S has in World Bible school do not have their own Bible. (The lessons have all the scripture included so they can complete the lessons without a Bible.) In fact, we've mailed a Bible to one of our students in Africa. Good grief, they can be had from Wal-Mart for $5.

But the scriptures are on the screen at church or printed in the program. You don't really have to carry one to church. You can get by without it. Besides, if someone doesn't have a Bible with them we have them in the seats and extras in the classrooms. That way you don't have to lug it around, right?

So what about Monday through Saturday? How many folks leave their Bible in their car all week? I've been guilty, I'll admit it. Are we encouraging the study of God's word? The reading of God's word?

Do we realize that it is alive? That it changes lives? That God has preserved it for over 2,000 years? That we are honored to own a copy in our language free from the fear that we'll be arrested?

Are we reading it? Studying it? Appreciating it? Obeying it? How can you please God unless you know what He wants from you? How can you know unless you read?

How will our children turn out if they do not even OWN a Bible, much less read it, study it, and obey it?

I think statistics have already answered that.

How can we help others around us value God's word?

Some Food for Thought

Boy, yesterday's comment section made me feel kind of sad. Hearing about preachers who hire babysitters to keep their young ones at home on church days....thinking about all the children who will one day have to adjust to sitting in worship after years of children's ministry...and oh, hearing about the changes in that little country church. It just makes me weary.

So today I'm going to link to some articles on the topic. I know we really didn't DECIDE anything yesterday. Of course, the decision is to make with our husbands...not here on my blog anyway. Still....it seems that things are really wrong.

Here is a 2 part article by Voddie Baucham on "Nehemiah's Nursery." I had never heard this argument before, but this is a good look at scripture. Part 1 Part 2

This article is worth scanning.

Children's Ministry isn't going away in my opinion. There are curriculum writers and lots of companies who make good money off of children's programs. Many parents EXPECT something great for their children when they show up at church. Children's ministry will morph as time goes on, just as it has been doing.

So clearly, we can't wait until everything is perfect and rosy to attend church. Ain't gonna happen. The bottom line is...each family needs to prayerfully and carefully decide what their response will be. In view of scripture, and in willing obedience...what will we do?

Thanks for sharing all of your thoughts and experiences during this series!

Giving Up on Sunday School

This post is part of a series that began here.

This all started a week ago Sunday you know. I subbed in Little Bit's Bible class and boy did that get my mind racing. It has been enough years since I taught Bible classes on a regular basis that it was a really eye opening experience for me.

That got me to thinking about how all of it has changed since our country was founded. Sunday schools were started to educate the poor children and keep them off the streets on their only day off. Then public schools took over the task of academic training so Sunday schools focused instead on religious training. Then, flash forward many years here, the schools removed religion from the picture all together. Now I feel that the church is removing academics from the equation as well.

Where does this lead us?

Hopefully, it leads us to the conclusion that we, the parents, are responsible for our children. Even though the church, and specifically the tradition my family is from, has done a great job in the past of teaching God's word to children, we cannot rely on that. As was mentioned in the comments on the last post, we've spent too long thinking the church is going to do for our children what it did for us. That ship has sailed. That pendulum has swung. Those days are over. YOU might attend a church that does a stellar job of Bible instruction. I am so glad if you do. However, it does not remove your responsibility. In fact, maybe it's a good thing that many children aren't learning very much in Bible class anymore. Perhaps it will open more parents' eyes to the fact that they need to be about the business of instructing their children.

For several years now I have understood this. I began to understand that the Bible tells parents to train their children. Not school teachers. Not ministry volunteers. Parents. That is part of what led us to homeschooling. I did not always understand this. And even though I understood it--I still hadn't accepted it. My husband told me over and over, "We have to teach them here at home. Anything they get in Bible class is icing on the cake." I agreed. But I haven't really wrapped my mind around it until now.

I guess you could say my eyes have been opened and I can accept as fact that my children will not learn what I want them to learn in any children's ministry. No matter how awesome it is. Will they get something out of it? Of course! But not what I have had in mind all this time.

And guess what? They aren't really meant to. They are meant to learn here at home from me and their dad. This is why there are home churches and family integrated churches by the way. Once you get this--it changes your life. But what about those of us who do not home church or go to a family integrated church? What about all the Christian parents who weekly send their little charges down the colorful hallway to what was formerly known as Sunday school?

What are we going to do about it?

I'd like to hear from you before I go on...

When Education and Religion Got Separated

In the last post, I told you there were two things that had happened since schools became the main academic teachers and churches became the main religious teachers. Whereas Sunday schools began as a way of teaching academics and training in religious instruction....the churches and schools had since split up those responsibilities. I also discussed the first of those changes and that was that religion left the public schools.

The next change is the one that we are still smack in the middle of today, in my opinion. And here is where I'm wading into the waters known as "trouble." I'm NOT trying to step on any one's toes here....just reporting what has occurred to me.

This next change, that is still ongoing, is that learning is leaving the church. Have you noticed this? In the 70s when I was growing up, we always had an "Education Minister." He was in charge of selecting the curriculum for all the classes from the nursery to the older adults. The 9:00 Bible hour and the mid-week Bible classes were his domain. He recruited teachers, made sure they had everything they needed, and kept the Bible classes running smoothly. In fact, the church we attended when the girls were really little had an education minister.

You don't see a lot of education ministers today. Mostly because, we don't have an education mindset when it comes to Bible classes. I know this is certainly not true everywhere in America....I'm just telling you what I see from where I stand. (And I don't live in Podunkville either--so I can see quite a lot from where I stand.) In fact, we have moved from "Christian Education" to "Children's Ministry." Do you hear the really big difference of focus in those two phrases?

To me, "Christian Education" implies that my children will learn at church. "Children's Ministry" implies that my children will be ministered to at church. Do my children need to be ministered to? No, not really. However, all the seekers' kids need to be ministered to. But surely they don't need to learn. That doesn't appeal to people. People don't want their children to learn at church. They learn all week. What they want is for their children to have fun and like church. I have known families who left their church home to find another and did....because their kids liked the DVD curriculum and upbeat activities.

In fact, we really don't even call it Sunday school or Bible class anymore. Now it's "Kid's Quest" or "Journeyland" or "Kingdom Kids."

So I know this little boy who goes to a more traditional old-school church (ha ha) and he can say all the books of the Old and New Testament. He's 6. It's really not that amazing...he just goes to a church that still believes in teaching. In general, what I see is that of course our children are still learning something when they go to Bible class, but they aren't learning a sequential scope and sequence set of things that you can be sure all 5th graders will leave the children's program knowing. We aren't set up like that anymore.

It's ministry, not Christian education. Will the pendulum swing back the other way? Maybe. But maybe it doesn't even matter. I'll explain why next time.

Last post in the series found here.

The Switch From Education

Part 1
Part 2

My interviewing hasn't worked out so far to find out how Sunday school was in earlier times. So we'll move on....

So by the time I was born it was understood that schools had the responsibility to teach academics and Sunday schools had the responsibility of religious training. Now two major things have happened to change this arrangement somewhat.

First of all, public schools do not include religious undertones at all. Fifty years ago, schools might have even read from the Bible to begin the school day. The Lord's Prayer and the 10 Commandments could be found on classroom walls.* When I was in elementary school around 1977, we began our day with the pledge of allegiance, a patriotic song, and a "moment of silence." This was done school wide on the P.A. system. When I was a teacher the moment of silence was gone. So, where as Sunday schools began as a means of teaching poor children how to read, using the Bible.....today's public school is still charged with teaching, but without any religious means of doing so.

And here is where, apparently, private Christian schools and homeschooling began to really come into play. Parents who wished to have their children's education NOT be separated from their religious education began looking at these choices more and more. Ironically, what began as a mission for poor children now did not serve them at all. Poor children have been left to the public school alone.

Next....the second change.

*source

Christian Education in the Seventies

Post 1 in the series found here.

Before we dive into the 1970s, I have a question for you. If you read about the origins of Sunday school, and how it all changed when public education became more commonplace....then there is something else you must consider. Who taught children to read, write and do arithmetic before? Who taught them morals before? Who taught them religious theology before? Who was responsible for teaching children all this stuff before Sunday schools and public schools came into the picture?

Any guesses?

Now....let's move on and come back to that later. Just wanted you to think about that.

The reason I'm jumping all the way to the 70s is because that's what I know. I was raised in the 70s (and 80s) and my experience in Sunday school is what I can talk about. I grew up in church. Went every Sunday morning, every Sunday evening, and every Wednesday night. If the doors were open, there we were--and 20 minutes early to boot. I know your experience will be different if you grew up in a different type of church than I did, but here is how it went for me.

You started out in the Cradle Roll department. I have no idea why they called it that. They did not roll us around in cradles as far as I know. Promptly at 9:00 on Sunday mornings and 7:00 on Wednesday evenings, I was dropped off in the nursery and cared for by a lady named Mimi. Mimi kept babies at our church from the time Moses was a child until Paul the apostle was an adult. Or so it seemed. When you were old enough to sit up at the table, or in little jumpy chairs, you learned lessons from Winky Bear. I loved Winky Bear.

(That's baby S being patted on by Mimi in the cradle roll department, circa 1970.)

After that, you moved to the Preschool Department, then the Primary Department, then the Junior Department, etc. There were always teachers, songs, Bibles, a Bible lesson, prayers, memorization, stickers on a chart for remembering to bring things and do things, and even open house. I well remember putting on a skit of Elijah and the prophets of Baal for our parents on open house Sunday (they let the adult classes out early that day). I remember it well because we were in the 5th and 6th grade class and I got to be Elijah and S has to be one of the prophets of Baal and dance around pretending to cut himself. He thought I got the better part.

I should tell you this. Before I was born, or when I was an infant, our Sunday school changed DRAMATICALLY. My mom was one of the teachers or department heads on the Sunday they made the big change and she remembers waking up with a headache that morning because she was so nervous. Here's the deal: they changed from children sitting in rows of desks (yes, at Sunday school) and the teacher writing on the board in front of them, to "open concept" and "learning centers." They were way ahead of their time. Our church's education minister used all the current educational philosophy and transformed our Bible class time.

When I was in the preschool department, we moved from room to room (there were movable walls within the larger room to partition off separate rooms) and did different activities. I remember my mom led singing time in one room. Mr. John and Mrs. Mary Ann told the Bible story in the next room with a puppet that was a worm inside of a nest. If we were too noisy he got scared and wouldn't come out. They also used flannel boards. Then we went to the art center and cut out pictures from magazines and glued them on paper or something like that. Then we went to the play center and helped Mr. Norman take care of baby dolls while he talked with us about how God cares for us. The activities within each center varied. There were also puppets called Pibb and Charley and one of them got torn and Mom brought it home to sew it up and I thought we were clearly the luckiest family alive because Pibb and Charley were at our house!

Still, even with our radical new Sunday school format, many things remained from the old days. Like I mentioned: charts with stickers for attendance, Bible verse memorization, remembering your Bible, etc. We got prizes for memorizing the books of the Bible (Old and New). We had teachers, circle time, music time, a lesson, were divided by grade level, and took a paper home each time. It was a lot like school, only without a report card. Oh, and if you got in trouble, you got taken to your parents' class instead of the office.

Now, how much of this was a hold over from the original Sunday schools I do not know. It interests me to find out what happened in the 70+ years between yesterday's post and my experience in the 70s. Tomorrow I will share with you what I find out.

Next post in series here.

Let's Talk About Christian Education

I substituted in Little Bit's Sunday school class this week. I haven't taught children's classes, except the occasional helping out like this Sunday, in about 3 years. I wrote about quitting here. Anyway, after that long of a break, teaching again was eye opening and made me think about many, many things.

So I'ma gonna blog about 'em. And this series has the potential to get me in all kinds of trouble but here we go.

Before I delve into all the things I got to thinking about yesterday, I must make sure everyone knows the origins of Sunday School. Here is a link that has a brief summary. It may not all be 100% correct, but most of it looks like what I've read elsewhere. If you know of another source, please share!

Sunday school began to change with the beginnings of free public education. Oh boy is there a lot to talk about on the beginnings of public schooling! But that is not what this series is about, so I shall refrain. Here is some information on how Sunday school changed after public schooling started:

As the public school began to emerge and change to suit the needs of the entire American population, Sunday school was the agreed mode of teaching the specific doctrinal truths of different denominations. The purpose of this was to make the public school truly nonsectarian by taking religion out completely. According to McClellan, though, most families saw the public school and Sunday school as complementary. Public schooling was a way for all children to be trained in the same moral values, and then the specific theological beliefs were covered in Sunday school.

Read more at Suite101: The Role of Sunday School in Society: Education and Morality Training in America http://newteachersupport.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_role_of_sunday_school_in_society#ixzz0rUu3hdlx

Now Sunday school was no longer just about general "education" but specifically about religious education. So it is with this background that I will jump forward to the 1970s. In the next post. :)

Part 2 here.