A person in a position to know told me on Sunday that Christian kids today don’t know the stories of the Bible. Part of the reason, this person said, was that these elementary schoolers aren’t raised in Sunday School. Instead, they go to big Sunday morning programs called “Celebration Street” or “Wacky Worship” where they are entertained but where they are not schooled in the events of scripture. This person called these programs “holding tanks,” perhaps because they keep kids busy without actually challenging them.
I share this because I want to encourage our fantastic Sunday School teachers that their work in complimenting the critical mission of Moms and Dads to acquaint their children with the God of history is holy work. Keep it up! How can children possibly be expected to know the God of history if they don’t know God’s history?
After her mother and both her grandmothers before her, our 17 year-old daughter Anne became a Sunday School teacher last Sunday, after years of being a Sunday School helper. The first lesson: Sodom and Gomorrah, for very small children! Talk about a challenge: I told Anne to sum it up this way: “The people were very naughty, and one woman turned into salt. Work that one out in your heads, kids. See you next week!”
Seriously, her first lesson also included God’s promise to Abraham, one of the seminal events in all redemptive history. Under BCC Children’s Ministry Director Kim Clark, our teachers use terrific curriculum from Desiring God Ministries (see it here: www.childrendesiringgod.org). It is the very best we’ve seen, mainly because it actually recognizes the aim of holy writ (to show Christ, and our desperate need of the gospel), rather than turning every story in the Bible into a moralistic/”be nice”/Aesop’s-fable-like/puhleeze stop slugging your sister/behavior modification nag. The top of Children Desiring God’s web home page describes the goal of the curriculum we use:
“The greatest need of the next generations is to know and cherish the infinite value of God. Therefore, we want them to become so saturated with the Word of God that they treasure Jesus alone as the one who saves and satisfies the heart. The goal of our curriculum is to fuel spiritual desire by exalting the greatness and worth of God and His glorious work through Christ.”
Whoa. Lofty aims, those. And exactly right. It worked for me: my Mom and Dad’s faithfulness was an important means of God’s claim on my life, and Sunday School was a big part of that. I have really fond memories of Sunday School with my Mom as teacher. The best part: the flannelgraphs. For those of you born in the last two and a half decades, these were paper cutouts stuck on grippy backing that clung to flannel –covered boards so you had something for the kids to look at as you told a Bible story: the high tech innovation of the day. Because my Mom was a teacher, we got to bring the flannelgraph HOME where I could play with it. My biggest thrill came from mixing up the stories of the Bible, for example putting the disciples in the hold of Noah’s Ark, where they crushed the head of the serpent and snacked on the loaves and fishes by the light on the Damascus Road. This deviant tendency was a probably a predictor of my future as a preacher, but at the time it was just cool to be able to manipulate all these characters and scenes. To this day I remember the smell and feel of those cut-outs, which took my Mom forever to clip from the sheets on which they came. Her time was well-spent: who knows what other fruit the Lord brought from her heart and hours?
So, parents and teachers: keep teaching your children the stories of the Bible and bless you for your holy work in passing on the faith that dwells in you! May it also, according to God's purpose in election, dwell in our children as well (II Timothy 1:5).
Pastor Dale
No comments:
Post a Comment