In Episode 008 of Playfully Faith Parenting, I share the history and importance of Sunday School.
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Show Notes
Episode Summary:
In this episode, we talk about the history and importance of Sunday School and Children’s Ministry for your family. All of these benefits are to support and equip families as they pursue Christ every day in their homes and in their communities. Children’s ministry is not designed to be your child’s primary discipleship. We all need more than 1 hour of Jesus a week.
Here are the benefits of Sunday School that we discuss:
1) Kids learn that church is a fun, safe place.
2) Children develop relationships with other trusted Christian adults.
3) Kids connect with other Christian kids.
4) Kids can learn from others’ creativity and perspective, not just mama’s.
5) Parents build relationships that can provide resources for helping minister to our kids at home.
6) It reinforces lessons kids learn at home.
7) It provides a safe place for kids to practice having faith discussions outside of the home.
8) It provides a safe place for older children, teens, and adults to express their gifts and serve God and his people.
Verses from the episode:
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Links from the episode:
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Transcript
Here is a rough transcript of Playfully Faithful Parenting Episode 008: The Importance of Sunday School. This isn’t meant to be pretty and perfect but is here as a resource for those who want it.
Transcript
Hey Mamas, thanks for coming back this week.
I’m so excited to talk with you again.
We have been spending some time learning about what spiritual parenting is over the last few weeks.
And what play is and how we can use that to benefit our kids.
Faith, so today I want to talk about this awesome tool that we have as Christians, but that we very often use incorrectly and that is the gift of Sunday school Sunday school.
Is amazing and I’ve been a Sunday school director in two different churches and I know what a blessing Sunday school is for parents and for kids.
But I think a lot of us Christian families are you.
Using it wrong and to be honest, I think there are a lot of churches that may be using Sunday school wrong to not in the way that was intended or not in the way that most benefits your kids and their faith.
So first I want to tell you a little bit about where Sunday school came from.
So it started in Britain in the 1780s as an outreach for poor children.
Who spent six days a week working in factories.
So these kids were working long hours like 12 or more hours a day, six days a week and so they couldn’t go to school and the church knowing that these kids were working all the time and not going to school.
They knew that the kids would never learn to read, and if the kids never learn to read, they would never be able to make anything more of their lives than just working in these factories and the church wanted better for these kids and for their families.
So the Christians.
In that area, decided to provide kids an opportunity to learn to read, and Sunday was the only day that the kids weren’t going to work, and so the church created Sunday school.
It was an actual school where children learned to read and in the 1st 60 years.
One Sunday school grew to serve over 2,000,000 children and their families in just 60 years, so they did not set out to impact kids who were already Christians.
They started as a way to empower working class kids to break out of the cycle of poverty and they used the Bible as their textbook.
So this.
Was the original goal of Sunday school the original goal of Sunday school was not to teach Christian children how to be Christians it.
Was to teach working class kids how to read and they used the Bible to do that.
That was their textbook.
And so as time has changed over the last, you know, 250 years Sunday school has changed the purpose.
Of Sunday school today is still not to teach your Christian children everything they need to know about the Bible or everything they need to know about Jesus.
Everything they need to know about being a Christian.
I believe the purpose for Children ministry is to support and equip families.
As they their families.
Pursue Christ every day.
In their homes and in their communities and the Sunday Schools, Children, church, whatever.
It’s called where you attend and where you are a part of the community that should be their purpose is to support and equip families, not to be.
Your kids.
Number one discipleship program. Now there are a ton of benefits of Sunday school and Children’s ministry and so I want to talk about just a few of those. Number one. I believe kids learn that church is a fun, safe place or they should be.
If your kid.
Kids do not find your children program to be a fun and safe place.
You may be creating a barrier.
A wall between your kids and church.
Now this is.
Is just my opinion, but we know that I strongly believe in the power of play and that God created children to learn through play.
Shows that all of us learn better when we are engaged and curious, and play creates curiosity.
So if your kids are not engaged and curious, they’re not having fun and we want kids to want to go to church, we’ve.
Probably all experienced a Sunday morning battle.
Maybe just once.
Maybe it’s every week, depending on your your kids, but and maybe you haven’t experienced it, but you’ve seen it in other.
Kids dropping off at church.
Now that’s not always the churches fault.
I’m not blaming that on the church, but if it’s an every week occurrence then you may need to consider.
Is this the right place for your kids?
Because I truly believe that we want kids to want to go to church.
And by them experiencing a fun, safe place, we are setting the.
Them up for lifelong healthy relationship with the church.
2 At Sunday School and Children Ministry children develop relationships with other trusted Christian adults.
Now this is not the biggest factor in whether a kid will pursue a lifelong relationship with Jesus, but it.
Is an important factor.
If kids have more adults in their lives that they see authentically following Jesus, they are going to be more likely to continue that relationship when they leave high school.
And go off into the wild on their own.
Not the biggest factor, but it is a big factor and your kids need other adults that they know.
Love Jesus in their lives to be models and to be friends and mentors in their lives.
Three kids get to connect with other Christian kids now.
My oldest daughter can be shy when she first meets people, but if she were to meet a kid in Sunday school and then
Go and see them again at school.
She’s going to be more likely to be able to talk about God with someone at school and then that’s going to build her confidence in talking about Jesus to other kids her age and this and the same and it builds.
Their community to have to have other Christian kids that they can see not perfectly modeling, but other kids that they see in in a Christian home.
And that being part of their life, 4 kids can learn from others creativity and perspective, not just yours.
You are your kids.
Best teacher when it comes to disciplining your kids and I truly believe God and the Holy Spirit will give you the creativity that you need.
To do that, but your kids have an opportunity through a church to learn from more than one and in more than one step.
You may be the most creative Mama in the world and it is going to be a huge blessing to your kids.
But maybe your children volunteer in their Sunday school class is a little bit different way of thinking has a different way of thinking and you.
Might be very artsy and this other one is very analytical and so.
Your kid is getting to experience conversations.
From multiple perspectives, and I just think that the more creative, the more perspectives are kids.
It to participate in and with the better, and it’s also going to let your kids see that God works in different people in different ways.
#5 parents get to build relationships that can provide resources for helping them to minister to their kids at home. So by you.
Dropping off your kids in children’s ministry and picking them up and maybe even volunteering there, you will be building relationships with those in the church.
Search and those people can then be a resource for you as you Minister to your kids and you may be struggling with something that you’ve got someone now to ask and you know them well enough and they know you well enough that you feel comfortable asking or they know your kids well enough for you to be able to ask.
Questions and get resources and guidance and help.
Six children ministry should be reinforcing the lessons kids are learning at home.
So that doesn’t mean at home you are talking.
About David and Goliath, and so you expect Sunday school to be talking about David and Goliath, no, but your overall lesson may be that God wants to hear from your kids in praying at at church, your kids will learn that God wants to hear from them through prayer and so.
Big scheme type things.
Character of God.
Spiritual disciplines for kids.
All of these things that kids are learning at home are also being reinforced at church in Sunday school, #7 Sunday School and Children Ministry provides a safe place for kids to practice having faith discussions outside of the home. So similar to what I was talking about earlier with.
Like my daughter meeting someone at church and then being able to talk to them about God at school.
Well also we live in the Pacific Northwest, so there’s not a lot of God talk happening at school, and so that’s why my daughter being shy is more comfortable with starting that conversation, conversation and building confidence by knowing somebody already knows about God and then that conversation can expand but at church.
It gives.
All of our kids a safe place to have talks about Jesus with people other than our family, so they get to have a conversation with another grown up about God and what he is doing in their life and ask questions about.
About God and the more our kids can do that, the more comfortable they’ll be and the more they’ll be able to tell others who may not know about God about him and about the good news of Jesus and who he is and what he has done in their lives and their families so.
It’s just a great place to practice having.
Those discussions and finally #8 it provides a safe place for older children, teens and adults to express their gifts and serve God and his people, my.
Other has been my oldest daughter who was just now eight and a half. Make sure you add the app the half she has been volunteering in Children’s ministry for years and that isn’t.
Awesome place for to be able to serve and teenagers. I love seeing teens serve in children’s ministry and it provides them leadership skills and training and just a place to safely.
For her.
Explore serving God and his people, and so I think that is just a really great benefit of of children ministry is that they often can find ways to incorporate.
Even small children in serving at the church.
So there you have it.
My top eight reasons that Sunday school is really important for your kids and your family faith and not a single one of them is that it is a one and done faith training.
For for the week we all need more than one hour of Jesus a week, and that includes your kids.
So Mom’s you can do this and God the Holy Spirit and the church are there to help you do it now on behalf of God. Thanks for loving and playing with his kids. Talk to you next week.
