Teaching God's Children

The task of teaching God's children His Word is shared. Certainly parents bear the primary responsibility for providing for this Christian education of their children through their personal instruction at home and by bringing their children to the Divine Service, participating in Sunday School, and enrolling their children in a Lutheran school if one is available to them.

And of course, the Lutheran congregation shares this responsibility as it administers the Sacraments, especially Baptism, operates a Sunday School for all ages, and institutes a Lutheran school for the education of the children of the congregation and community.

It is a partnership. It involves mutual accountability. The congregation may at time need to remind parents of their responsibility to take advantage of the Christian education opportunities. And at times, the parents may need to remind the congregation of its responsibility to maintain high standards of instruction and curriculum in the Sunday School and other Christian education agencies.

At the end of the day, at the end of time, I doubt that excuses will serve. We didn't have enough money. I was too busy to volunteer. The material they used in Sunday School was boring. God commands that His children be instructed in His Word (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). And He promises to use such instruction to bless His children (Isaiah 55:10-11).

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

What Can You Improve?

Sunday School success is rarely a result of wholesale revision. It is more often achieved through incremental progress.

What change might you consider this year in your Sunday School to make it better?

• Re-stock the supply cabinet?
• Give the Sunday School rooms a face-lift? (refresh faded and torn bulletin board contents, paint the walls, wash windows, remove broken or unused toys and furniture)
• Recruit parents to "just be present" in the classroom, one parent each week? (It gives parents a glimpse of what goes on in Sunday School, supports good student behavior, and may lead to some substitute or full-time teaching.)
• Establish a Sunday School e-mail newsletter?
• Purchase those Teacher Tools packets for your teachers?
• Push for a 10% increase in the Sunday School budget?

What one thing could you do this year?

God bless you as you teach His children His Word.

Fall Preparation Checklist

It's the middle of June. It's time to be thinking about "rallying" your Sunday School troops. Here are some points to consider.

• Set your "Rally Day" or "Christian Education Sunday." Plan with your pastor to emphasize Sunday School, recognize and commission teachers for their service, and (if you have not already done so) advance students to the next grade. Resources for Rally Day can be found at cph.org/sundayschool under "Sunday School Tools."
• Choose your curriculum (Cross Explorations or Growing in Christ, check them out at cph.org/sundayschool) and verify your order. The fall material is available on July 1.
• Choose your "path." New CPH customers can choose either a "Recommended Path" (Old Testament in the fall, followed by two New Testament units in the winter and spring) or a "Chronological Path" (starts in the fall with Old Testament 1 and continues straight through the Bible). Continuing customers should be aware that the Old Testament 2 unit was recently offering in fall 2016; if you choose the chronological path, these lessons may be overly familiar to your students.
• Enlist teachers for the fall. Work to have two adults in each classroom; it's easier than you think.
• Contact every eligible family by phone, mail, or email to encourage enrollment in Sunday School.
• Tour your Sunday School classrooms and list physical improvements: painting walls, new flooring, cleaning the windows, repair/repaint/replace tables and chairs, remove faded/torn posters, etc.

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

How Can Your Sunday School Improve?

I heard again last week an interesting correlation: what we look at, what we measure, what we give attention to tends to improve.

Do I mean that looking closely at your Sunday School will actually bring about improvement? Well, yes! When you look, your mind will raise questions. When you seek answers to those questions, you will raise questions in the minds of others. When people ask questions, they tend to seek answers and solutions.

Imagine then the impact of looking at these questions about your Sunday School.

• How many families attend every week? What are those families like?
• How many parents of Sunday School children attend adult Bible class? How does that affect their children's attendance?
• How many families in your church never attend Sunday School? Why not?
• When was the last time your pastor mentioned Sunday School in his sermon, announcements, or prayers? What might be information he could share?
• How attractive are your Sunday School classroom? How could they be improved?
• How well-trained are the teachers? How do they improve their teaching?
• Which teacher in your Sunday School seems to have great teaching ideas each week? Where do those ideas come from? How could they be shared?
• What part of Sunday School do the children most enjoy? Why?

There are lots of ways to focus more attention on (and thus improve) your Sunday School. Too often the only way too many Sunday School leaders think of is to change to a different curriculum. (Many congregations actually make such a decision every year!) And it can work! Changing your curriculum focuses lots of attention on Sunday School, which could be a good thing, provided you are not sacrificing a core value for your Sunday School (such as teaching the Gospel clearly each week, teaching children about the Means of Grace) and not introducing heresy. But remember that the improvement in your Sunday School comes as much from the focused attention as from the new curriculum.

So, I invite you to look closely at your Sunday School. Think about what you wish were different. Then imagine what could help it to happen. Wishing might actually contribute to making it so!

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Demographics? Or Something Else?

I have heard recently that research shows a direct correspondence between birthrates and Sunday School attendance across the United States, as if to say, "The reason our Sunday School is declining is that our members are having fewer children."

I don't buy it. That sounds to me like an excuse.

Arnold C. Mueller, synod's editor of Sunday School materials from 1933 to 1966, prepared a document titled "The Sunday School Standard" that suggested five characteristics of a strong Sunday School:

1. A sound educational program (classes for all ages, doctrinally sound materials, each teacher receives all desired materials, classes weekly all year round for at least an hour a week)
2. Adequate and trained leadership (teachers are carefully selected, well trained, well prepared, and publicly recognized; teachers meetings are held twice a month; training courses held each year)
3. A planned mission endeavor (mission work is stressed, students and teachers are trained to be personal missionaries, mission offerings are gathered regularly, at least 80% of eligible students are enrolled, all members are contacted annually to enroll, absentees are contacted by phone or visited, plans are made to improve enrollment and attendance each year)
4. Good administration and equipment (Sunday School is administered by a board of the congregation, adequate space and furnishings are provided, sufficient funds to operate the Sunday School are budgeted annually by the congregation)
5. Vital home and church relationships (Sunday School students also attend church with their families, parents are frequently contacted by teachers and administrators, parents are encouraged to discuss lessons at home)

Where the characteristics Rev. Mueller describes are evident in a congregation and its Sunday School, the Sunday School will thrive because God's Word will be shared in and through it. God promises to bless our efforts to spread His Word (Isaiah 55:11).

The truth is that Sunday School is now, and always has been, hard work. Are we truly making an effort?

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Do You Want a Better Sunday School?

There are no shortcuts. Whether you have a large congregation or a small one, having a good Sunday School is hard work. The payoff, of course, is worth it . . . bringing children to Jesus through His Word.

Sunday School is not about

• fun
• entertainment
• the latest material
• going easy on the church budget

Sunday School is about

• seeing Jesus
• teaching Law and Gospel
• building relationships
• partnering with parents

Here are five steps toward a better Sunday School:

1. Talk with your pastor. Invite him to encourage families to participate in Sunday from the pulpit, regularly.
2. Make a list of children who are not attending Sunday School.
3. Get to know those families yourself.
4. Find bridge families, people you know who know some who do not yet attend. Encourage them to support marginal families in their church connections.
5. Send sample Sunday School materials to families who are not attending Sunday School or who attend infrequently. Encourage them to use the materials at home and remind them that there is a place for them in Sunday School each week.

God bless you as you teach His children His word!

Which Sunday School Would You Choose?

• Unified (all classes study the same Bible account)? OR
• Topical (different material at each age level)?

• Closely graded (one or two grades of children in a classroom)? OR
• Several grades (or all grades) in a single classroom?

• Self-contained classrooms? OR
• Children rotate to different locations for different activities during the hour?

• Lessons tied to the Church's lectionary? OR
• Chronological study of the biblical narrative?

• High tech? OR
• As simple as possible?

Sunday School can be about a lot of choices. As I look to the future, I have the opportunity to make some of these choices to benefit our customers. We will be asking our customers about their preferences in several ways. Maybe this blog can be one of them.

Given the five choices above, which would you choose and why? Which would benefit most the children you serve? I'd love to hear from you at tom.nummela@cph.org.

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Just One Minute

How long would it take you to improve your Sunday School experience next week? To engage your students a little better in the study of God's Word?

Just one minute! Really. Try it. Spend one minute right now. Here are some possible one-minute "tasks" to consider.

• Pray for one of your students, the first one who comes to mind.
• Think of an activity that always seems to perk up your students and make a note (written or mental) to incorporate it into your next lesson.
• Type an encouraging e-mail to a teacher, student, or parent. (A phone call would be good too, but that might take three minutes.)
• Read the key point for your next lesson and try to commit it to memory.
• Read a Bible verse, one from the lesson text or a favorite, and consider how it applies to you and your students. "What does this mean?"
• Write one sentence about the importance of Sunday School and send it to your pastor or church secretary for inclusion in the bulletin.

Yes, even a little bit of effort can make a difference.

I'm curious, though. What did you do with your minute?

God bless you, every minute, as you teach His children His Word!