.
My students have put together a "Short History of the Sunday School" which I think it pretty good... it asks a provoking question at the end...
So what do YOU think?
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6 comments:
Keith you ask good questions at the end, but the answer to all of them are no.
The government provides all those for us now.
The intriguing aspect of the history you trace is that the government didn't start a sunday school program. Can anyone even imagine such a thing happening today on such a massive scale? I'm not trying to throw a wet blanket on this, but in our current cultural climate we don't think in these types of enreprenuerial terms anymore.
Another difference is can you imagine organizing a bus ministry to poor children? In today's culture you are competing with dual income households--if you could scrape up enough volunteers they must have a background check, and you would need to jack up your insurance policies in order to provide transportation and to protect the kids and volunteers...uggh, no thanks.
I Agree With Chap. Government does much of this.
I do believe there are ways to see in a sense a new Sunday School. It might not happen on a Sunday Morning but throughout the week. Such as, Tutoring. Reading skills are down and not just in elementary school but in the high school. What a open door for the church to provided for a need and some church's do. However, I agree again with Chap that in today's cultural climate it makes it more difficult.
Mentoring young people would be great! More one parent homes.
Yet, I see homeschool families meeting some of these needs. I'm seeing homeschooling on the rise. Homeschoolers are no longer just Christian families but many non christian families. Homeschooling is mixed with poor and the well off families working together. In the Saginaw area 300 plus homeschoolers meet at Delta College. Delta college opens class room space to the homeschoolers. Homeschool moms and dads teach different classes. Ranging from Math, History, English, Band, Language, and etc... Again this is mixed with religious to non religious, poor to wealthy. Many Christian Homeschool families have taken the lead on this and impacting many non christian families. I know about 6 families at this time in our two small communities Merrill/Hemlock who are tired of the public schools not excelling in the fundamentals of Math, English, and History are looking at Homeschooling. 3 of those families are non religious and 2 are at the lower income range. I would not say homeschooling is for everyone but there are many good homeschool groups that help meet needs and many homeschool families will pass books and materials on to each other to keep cost down.
I think some Christians are ready and willing to step up. I think many believe that government does much of this and why do I or the Church need to step in?
There is hope, in our small rural community, we are trying to reach out to the "non-church" children by providing them with a ride to SundaySchool.
Our church is reaching out to our community and people are responding. We are looking outside of ourselves and the Lord is blessing.
Keith--I read your entire article. It was long, but well worth the read. There was just so much stuff in it that I don't have the time to respond to all the questions with well-thought out answers. But I'm sending this reply just to let you know that the lack of a high number of responses doesn't mean that your work was unappreciated!
Have a most blessed Easter!
thanks to all--and thanks for reading it... It is a busy week to stick up such a long article.... ;-)
keith
Thank you for this article. I am going to take some ideas its given me before our church leadership.
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