Focus on the Sunday School Article/Winter 2005-06

Is Sunday School Becoming Outdated?

By David Frasure

Recently I heard a teenager say, “That’s so ‘90’s.”  She meant that an item of clothing was outdated, ancient history since it was well over six years old!  If you read some of the church growth “experts,” you may get the idea that Sunday School is “so ‘50’s.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Let’s explore a few questions that may be topics of discussion at your church:
 

1.  Aren’t off-campus small groups replacing Sunday School?  In Thom Rainer’s book, Effective Evangelistic Churches, the author does research on nearly 600 of the fastest growing churches in America.  He researched churches of various sizes and locations and discovered several surprises.  Of these great churches only two had replaced Sunday School with of-campus small groups.  In fact, many contemporary churches, including Willow Creek, Chicago, have moved their off-campus small groups to the church campus on Sunday Mornings.  They have found that having small group Bible study on Sunday morning solves the childcare problem and it is more convenient for members and unchurched people to attend.  What a thought!  On Sunday mornings, it is also less likely that the small group will become closed to newcomers.  Some churches are having good success doing Sunday School open groups while doing discipleship small groups off campus.

2.  Isn’t Sunday School more for discipleship than evangelism?  Again Rainer’s research would not support this misunderstanding.  Nearly 90% of these churches see Sunday School as their most effective assimilation tool and 63% said Sunday School was a major factor in their evangelistic effectiveness.  Certainly there is a discipleship quality to Sunday School and some churches even offer a discipleship track, without eliminating the open-group Bible studies that the unchurched are more comfortable attending.

3.  Isn’t it more effective to let pastor’s do the evangelism from the pulpit and let the Sunday School classes focus on fellowship and assimilation?  This question represents the often unspoken attitude of many people.   Not only is this thinking faulty, it is not biblical.  According to Ephesians 4:11-12, pastors are given the task of equipping the saints so we all can do the work of the ministry.  Evangelism is the task of every Christian, not just a gifted few.  What better way to take the gospel to the unchurched than to equip and mobilize the Christians who are already meeting on God’s day around God’s Book empowered with God’s Spirit?  The Christians in your local church will associate with far more lost people in a given week than almost any pastor!  When they envision the potential of their class reaching people for Christ, the possibilities are incredible.

     I can still remember wearing tie-dyed t-shirts and bellbottom paints in the ‘70’s.  In the youth clothing stores you can find these same items today.  If it worked for bellbottoms, maybe we shouldn’t throw out one of the most effective tools the Lord has ever given the church.  Maybe it is time for Sunday School to make the big comeback!   Think of it as retro-evangelism!