Exponential growth in Sunday school

The 1700’s were a time of exponential growth in production through the factory system of production powered by steam driven machinery. Work and production shifted from the home to the factory. Child labour was in existence. Factory schedules started at 5 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. with two 30 minute breaks in between.

Sunday school in the United States

By the 1790's there were several of these schools opened in the United States. They were opened and operated from the prospective of filling a need in society. These workers needed education; both in the workaday world and spiritually.

The Philadelphia Sunday school

One prime example of Sunday school in America (there were others) was the Philadelphia Sunday school. They were organized for the benefit of working persons of either sex (and of any age) that could not afford the price of education for them selves. These Philadelphia Sunday school were run by the First Day Society.

The name Sunday school

The First Day Society referred to the first day of the week, Sunday. In that time, most children did not go to school. They had a six day work week. Most never did learn to read or write. Christian leaders in England and America thought this were tragic and unacceptable. Sunday was the universal day off in America. Therefore if there was going to be school for these workers, it would have to be on Sunday and hence the name, Sunday School.

English Society and Sunday school

English Society considered children of the working class rough and rowdy, especially on their day off. They were a problem to be dealt with. One person named Raikes, who was a newspaper publisher, decided to experiment with an idea to change their lives. He rented a room on a street that had the reputation for having the worst kids and hired four teachers for Sunday school. He paid each child a penny each (about fifty cents in 1999 US dollars) to come to Sunday school class. Three years later, he published a newspaper story what he had done and the results achieved with the Sunday school. William Fox, a wealthy London merchant, was looking for a way to educate the poor so that they could read the Bible. When he read the story in the newspaper, Fox formed a Sunday school society to spread his idea.

Sunday school - to America

From there the idea travelled to America. The Sunday school paid teachers to instruct pupils in reading and copying from the Bible. The Sunday school had the purpose of teaching reading and writing and teaching self control. The Sunday school provided an alternative which channelled the students toward something useful instead of a Sunday freedom which resulted in much disinheritance and law breaking. The Sunday school taught proper behaviour, cleanliness, and even provided clothes to wear. The Sunday school punished children who participated in lying, swearing, and talking in an indecent manner.

A network of the free Sunday school

For the next thirty years, the Sunday school were part of a network of free schools that provided rudimentary education to children. The Sunday school usually placed emphasis on religious and moral instruction. The Sunday school run by the New York Free School Society, for example, combined daily academic instruction with Sunday attendance at the Sunday school.

Robert May

In 1811, Presbyterian missionary Robert May opened an evening Sunday school in Philadelphia with the express purpose to teach only religious doctrine. From this beginning Sunday school teaching became a means of expressing and spreading religious convictions. By 1820, there were several hundred Sunday schools in the United States. These emphasized religious instruction instead reading and writing. Many Sunday school organizers began lobbying for extension of a system of free daily schools so that they would be free to teach religion in the Sunday schools alone on Sundays.

Sunday school - teaching basic Christian doctrine

The Sunday school focused on teaching basic Christian doctrine to children of the un-churched poor. The Bible became the text. The Sunday school sought to impart a knowledge of the Gospel. They believed that this was essential for moral living and good citizenship.
In 1803 the consensus was that the churches should adopt the Sunday school institution as their mission and support. It was at this time that it was decided that the Sunday school literature should be created. Because of these two goals a Sunday school Union was founded. The first lesson that was produced was called, "A select list of scripture for a course of reading in the Sunday school.

The development of Sunday school:

• 1786, American Francis Asbury had much to do with popularizing this movement.
• 1790, The Methodist Episcopal Conference at Charleston South Carolina ordered pastors to form the Sunday school for whites and blacks, with voluntary teachers.
• 1803, the first Sunday school in New York was established.
• 1812 a Sunday school was instituted in Boston.
• 1816 the New York Sunday school Union was established.
• 1824 the American Sunday school Union was organized.
• 1872, the development of the Uniform Lesson System in the Sunday school appeared.

The Uniform Lesson System in Sunday school

This idea of the Uniform Lesson System was taken up and adopted by almost all Sunday schools, not only in America but practically throughout the world. The idea was to have students all over the world study the same lesson at the same time. The uniform lesson did help to bind together Sunday school forces of the world. Before the development of the Uniform Lesson System, the selection of lessons was haphazard. These lessons were a great help and a definite step forward. However the uniform lesson did not survive. One reason for its demise was the fact that they were not written to fully fill the needs of the students. But the uniform lesson plan was a foundation on which was built later improvements.

The decline of the Sunday school

Growth of church running the Sunday school has been steady ever since, until the 1960's. There has been a decline in the Sunday school since then. The decline seems to be a decline the relevance of the methods and content of the Sunday school method and message.

Sunday school World Conventions

The first World's Sunday school Convention was held in London in the year 1890 with 904 delegates registered. Three hundred and sixty of these were from the Sunday school in the United States and sixtynine from Canada.

The Sunday school enrolment of the world at this time was approximately 19,000.000

Three years later the second World's Convention for the Sunday school was held at St. Louis. One hundred and twenty-five foreign delegates attended. Then the third World's Convention of the Sunday school was held in 1898 in London. 1904 saw the fourth, in Jerusalem, 526 Sunday school delegates attending from twentyfive different countries. Half of these were Americans. In 1907, the world's fifth convention for the Sunday school was held in Rome, with 1118 delegates registered. More recent conventions for the Sunday school have been held at Washington (1910); Zurich (1913); and Tokyo (1920).

After the Sunday school having reach a peak, attendance to Sunday school events declined. The Sunday school movement with its uniform lessons has decentralized. Now, presently, each denomination has its own publishing house that supplies the needed material and literature to the Sunday school. These have their own editors, with associates and assistants. Sunday school Conferences, institutes, and training for the Sunday school are held yearly. Sunday school teacher training have been worked out. Theological seminaries offer special training in religious education for the Sunday school. Progress is being made.

The modern Sunday school

The Sunday school does its work quietly. Yes, it has many shortcomings. Much of its work is considered amateurish. It has a different mission than the preaching and the evangelistic mission. Because of this it has become deeply rooted in the convictions of Christian workers. The teacher of Sunday school has many objectives to accomplish. One such objective is to help each individual to live out his growing, developing life to the full, and to supply it with the nurture needed not only for the future but primarily for the present stage of development.

Sunday school - here we stand today

We are not in the 1780's and we do not have the abuse endured by the working families then. Our society has changed. People’s needs have changed. Sunday school is not a “school” that meets on Sunday. Sunday schools no longer operate or attempt to operate from a centralized uniform set of rules. The modern Sunday school has changed to meet the current needs in today's culture. Sunday school is and will be ever changing. It has in the past and it will continue to do so in the future. When Sunday school fails to meet the needs of the people, it will cease to be.

The Sunday school disciple-making strategy

The Sunday school teachers must undergo changes also. Sunday school grew from a “School on Sunday” to an essential disciple-making strategy of the Church. It has proven its effectiveness by any measure you wish to apply. Sunday school teachers focus on the biblical principles along with godly living to people at every age and stage of life.

In recognition of the fast-paced, pluralistic culture we live in, the modern Sunday school must constantly rethink its Sunday school disciplemaking strategy and at the same time develop flexibility in facing challenges from our culture.

The primary purposed of the Sunday school should and must be an obedient response to the Great Commission: Making disciples who fulfils the mission of the church. The tool to accomplish this, primary is the intentional, systematic, support of and developmental oversight the leaders who carry on the work of Sunday school ministry in the local church.

Sunday school material that should be used

The Bible will be the text, but not the only text used. Other material should be used in adjunct support of the primary goal of the Sunday school. Sunday school is about discipleship, fellowship, and growing and learning about Christ.

You need to know what it is you are fighting!

Many in the Sunday school ministry sense that something powerful is capturing our culture. The problem is putting a face on the ever changing enemy. If you sense this, you have taken the first step toward developing disciples among the new kind of people we are serving in the Sunday school.

Sunday school and Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a reaction against the values of the modern world. Sunday school teachers must understand where the students in the class are coming from. Sunday school teachers can not stand on the sidelines ignoring the transition society is going through. This response is simply not an option for any Sunday school teacher that is going to make disciples today. This new kind of person must be engaged, won, and grown.

Not committed to absolute truth

There have been many tools to measure American society. One of these is the ever present opinion survey. The recent opinion surveys conducted on the values of Americans shed light on the now held positions. These find generally that a large number of people are no longer committed to absolute truth. Other results show that most Americans believe in a God and trust the Bible. But they don't read it or and pray frequently. Other surveys finds that we tend to shape our values pragmatically. We bend our choices more toward what accomplishes our goals rather than adhering to some religious code.

This shows that we live in a culture struggling to reconcile a personal hunger for what is real with scepticism over whether it can ever be found.

People living today face the philosophy of primacy of experience, the subjectivity of truth, the unreality of absolutes, and the plurality of worldviews. This person facing you as a teacher in the Sunday school classroom is not literate about the Bible, sceptical, unconvinced that truth exists in absolute terms, and personally adrift. It is doubtful that the past conventional Sunday school teaching methods will form this new sort of "raw material" into a devoted follower of Jesus.

The student you are facing in the Sunday school classroom is un-churched, and from a liberal background.
These facts carve out the work for the present day of the Sunday school teacher.
Building a spiritual foundation is the task for you as the Sunday school teacher. You should be and must be part of a Sunday school group effort of the entire church. However, you as a Sunday school teacher have your work cut out. This is about more than adding videos or PowerPoint slides to Bible teaching. It is about YOUR core commitment to preparing yourself for the struggle of the minds ahead of you in the Sunday school.

The Sunday school teacher must be painfully honest

Your Sunday school students will see these admissions as an indication that you are real and believe what you are saying. Your message will have no effect with a person who sees you as some one who is unthinking in their approach in life. On the other hand if they see something working in your life, they could get more respect of what you are saying.

A Sunday school teacher mission is to make disciples

That is the only reason for your existence as a Sunday school teacher. You, as a teacher must be open and authentic down to earth person that is willing to expose your life to observation. Your students will find faith through authenticity and grow in faith the same way.

The Sunday school teacher have students depending upon him for truth and guidance

Your Sunday school students are likely to depend on you and those around them for a frame of reference. This fact will change your way of teaching. When I went to Sunday school in the 50's we set in rows of chairs and we listened to the current lecture the teacher was presenting. I cannot really remember this having any personal effect on me. I was expected to be there and I was. It was like going to a regular school, in method anyway. Today's Sunday school students have learned to discover truth most effectively in highly interactive group settings in which there are real relationships. You as a teacher need to be par pared to expose yourself to examination, to the give and take of Sunday school classroom discussion. There is no one-size-fits-all prescription here.

The Sunday school teacher must share what he found in his search

Your Sunday school student is on a mission of discovery and you must present to him the results of your discovery in your life. You cannot logic the Sunday school student into the faith.

The Sunday school teacher must realize that the past ways no longer work

Teaching in Sunday School has changed directly. When I first taught Sunday school, I was handed a set of papers and encouraged to read this to the class. I was simply passing out information. They would accept it because they were expected to. I can still remember my Sunday school teacher in the 40's. The only thing I remember about him was the way he parted his hair. I still remember him holding the Sunday school material reading from it. This will not work for today's Sunday school teachers. The Sunday school teacher today must be committed to the passing down of wisdom through experience of Christian truth. The experience here is yours, and yours to pass on. Their faith will be a result of you communicating your faith and others doing the same who live the Christian faith.

The Sunday school teacher must be a genuine Christian

The adult Sunday school student you face will be much more perceptive in recognizing a distinction between knowing the truth and living it. If the knowing the truth does not happen, the living the truth will be pretending and has no meaning to them. You as a Sunday school teacher must cultivate in the students an interested in meeting Jesus, and from that being conformed to His image rather than being given ideas about Jesus.

You, as the Sunday school teacher must extend and offer what the Sunday school student need to experience

Think back in your own life. Who had the greatest effect on you? Did you ever examine the reason why?
Your students have a need to experience things. Students will not, for example, be able to grasp a concept like love without experiencing offered love. They will not know what Jesus hold for them unless they open their hearts to Him. They will not grasp healing until they see the sick being made well or they themselves have been healed. The Great Commission will mean nothing to them until they are missionaries to their own culture.

In my own case, I grew up having gained a tremendous amount of knowledge about Jesus. It was not until later in life I came to know Him. I knew something was missing. I found my way in the adult Sunday school class, with all the questioning and give and take. The Sunday school teacher himself had spent time in prison. Imagine that!

The Sunday school teacher must use all available resources

As a Sunday school teacher you will have access through your church many resources that are written by Godly scholars interested in aiding you in a truthful way, the fulfillment of the great commission. You are right to study them. You are not expected to design your own Sunday school program and you are not expected to come up with your own Sunday school materials. However, The greatest resource the Sunday school teacher has is God Himself. Who is better to mentor the Sunday school teacher on how to shepherd students than God the Father Himself?

Ultimately the Sunday school teacher must be “real time God guided”

If you let Him, He will by the example and guide you. His compassion will pour out on you and your efforts. Jesus encountered who were "like sheep without a shepherd". When Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages, He taught in their meeting places, homes and public places.

The result was healing of their diseased bodies, healing of the emotions experience in their lives. It broke His heart when he saw the crowds with their problems. They were longing for the truth but did not know where to find it. They had not one to trust as their guide.

"What a huge harvest!"

He said to his disciples. "How few are the workers! Go on your knees and pray for harvest hands!" (Matt. 9:36. The Message.) He laid "down His life for the sheep" John 10:11 (The Message) 11-13 "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary. A hired man is not a real shepherd. The sheep mean nothing to him. He sees a wolf come and runs for it, leaving the sheep to be ravaged and scattered by the wolf. He's only in it for the money. The sheep don't matter to him. He entered into relationship with them as reflected in His own words, "I know my sheep and my sheep know me" John 10:14 (The Message)

14-18" I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. In the same way, the Father knows me and I know the Father. I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary. You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They'll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd. This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will. I have the right to lay it down; I also have the right to take it up again. I received this authority personally from my Father."

Change to message

The Sunday school teacher must be authentic Christians. The Sunday school teacher must live like you believe Jesus' words in John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Also remember the Apostle Paul's words in Philippians 4:13 which say "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

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