The Case of the Disappearing Sunday School

It's a great mystery! All across our church, Sunday School students are disappearing. In the past 20 years, Sunday School enrollments have dropped by half (325,000 students preschool through grade 8 in 1994; just 153,000 students in 2014). Where have they gone?

Well, obviously, those 1994 students have grown up, but where are their younger siblings and children?

It is not just a global problem. I'll bet that, for you, it is also a local problem. It's not someone else's Sunday School that is disappearing, it is yours. What can you do?

Don't say, "Oh, well. It's just the way things go. Families are having fewer children." Even if it's true, there are still lots of families and lots of children out there.

Do tend the garden. Things improve when we give them our attention. Start a conversation with your friends in church, with parents, with church leaders, with your pastor. Encourage them to talk about, and advocate for more attention on Sunday School.

Continue to ask God's blessings on the teachers, students, families, and community, so that your Sunday School can be a place God's children are taught 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!

When Was the Last Time?

When was the last time you heard the pastor say to your congregation (or, Pastor, when was the last time you said to your congregation), "Sunday School is an important tool for teaching your children more about Jesus"? Or "Sunday morning Bible class is an important tool for equipping yourself to live as God's person in the world and an important example to your children about the value of life-long Christian education."

The pastor is your congregation's single most influential advocate for a strong Sunday School. It is worth encouraging him to speak up, regularly, often, about Sunday School.

God bless your congregation as it teaches God's children His Word!