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Is It Time to Resurrect Sunday School?

4. Make resourcing parents to disciple their children a priority.

Parents feel inadequate to teach their children about Jesus. Dad can teach Billy to shoot a jump shot or throw a curve, but doesn’t have a clue how to explain Ecclesiastes. The church has to help him, not by drilling in more Bible knowledge through adult classes, but by lowering the bar. Parents can learn right alongside their kids.

Parents need encouragement and resources that help them learn and teach at the same time. They need simple ways to incorporate biblical education into everyday life, “ … when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up … .”

They need to understand that “training up a child” is a natural part of parenting and they are more than adequate for the job.

5. Make every interaction with children intentional.

Every service, every day of VBS, every children’s activity should answer four questions:

How will this experience resource parents to disciple their children?

How will this experience help kids connect with other kids and with Christian role models?

How will this experience inspire kids to follow Christ?

How will this experience equip and connect children whose parents are not Christ followers?

Notice what is missing: The church isn’t taking the responsibility to teach children the basics of faith away from the family. The church is partnering with families to lead children to follow Christ.

I loved watching a show called Beakman’s World with my kids when they were growing up. It centered on a crazy scientist (Beakman) and a man in a rat suit doing science experiments based on viewers’ letters. (A forerunner of Myth Busters.) Often at the end of the show, the kids and I would try to replicate the experiments Beakman did.

We didn’t realize it, but we were learning science together. Rather than resurrecting Sunday School, how can your church create Beakman’s World moments for the families in your church?