Beginnings of Sunday School

In our parish, Sunday school is the generic term for Sunday morning pre-service classes offered for all ages. The book discussion on Surprised by Hope (N. T. Wright) has been for one of the adult groups, and a new member catechesis class and church history class being offered at the same time for other adults. This week, though, I'd like to look at the Sunday school from the ground up--starting at 18 months.

How do Christians Look at Sunday School?

Like many of my readers, I grew up in churches with Sunday school but without children's church. At the outset, it helps to define both of these, before diving into more of the US context of Sunday school. Please note that the linked article described a survey that had much more diverse opinions than those reported.

"Sunday school," for the purposes of this post and based on the article, denotes an instructional time on Sunday mornings for children who are usually segregated by age or age group. "Children's church," conversely, denotes a parallel worship time for children of all ages together, separating them from adults who are engaged in corporate worship. I won't say anything further about the theology of children's church, save that children are members of the Body of Christ too, and (to quote Husband) "Jesus isn't polygamous."

History of Sunday School

Based on goood old Encyclopedia Britannica, the history of Sunday school as a phenomenon is quite interesting. Religious education beyond weekly worship services has been in place since the first generations of Christianity, but "school" on Sundays originated much later.

Robert Raikes, an 18th-century English newspaper writer/editor, saw a need for children to grow up in ways that would keep them out of lives of crime. Because of child labor at the time, children were not working only on Sundays, so he started the first formal Sunday school in 1780 working alongside a local Anglican priest and training laypersons to lead instruction.

By Raikes' writing about what he was doing in his newspaper, others heard about it to the point where additional English localities implemented Sunday schools starting around 1783. Before long, the United States adopted similar programs. In the US, however, the emphasis on Sunday school was greater than in Great Britain because US schools didn't provide religious education.

In and after 1791, each denomination developed its own Sunday school policy, and some denominations worked together to develop more widely usable materials. Individual denominations used their own catechisms and the Bible initially, not developing formal curricula until later. Currently, Sunday school takes place during the school year, plus 1-2 week Vacation Bible School (under various names). Laypersons, trained or untrained, continue to provide volunteer instruction.

Traditions Emphasizing Sunday School

As noted in the Britannica article, Christian traditions practicing or emphasizing Sunday school fall within the Protestant stream (e.g., Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, etc.), as well as a somewhat minor focus in Eastern Orthodox churches. Roman Catholicism does not have Sunday school as a practice, emphasizing rather religious instruction in parochial schools.

Typical Age Groups in Sunday School

The congregation I grew up in was large enough for each grade to have its own Sunday school class, but most congregations have 100 or fewer members. Depending on how many children are present and how many adults are available to lead, age groups may be combined to various degrees. My sources are Building Faith, Ministry to Children, and Children's Ministry.

Foci of 4-5 year old Sunday school include gross motor activities, allowance for their typical clumsiness, intertwining fantasy and reality play, redirection and routines as needed, and guidance in using words because they tend to choose actions instead. 

For 6-7 year old Sunday school, considerations include frequent movement breaks, guidance on conflict resolution (not yet prevention), paired work, strong adult authority as children test it, security and structure, discovery-based learning, and a pace that accommodates their tendency to hurry.

For 8-9 year old Sunday school, shifts include same-sex groups of 3-4; discussions on morality and anxiety/self-centeredness; and adult guidance on competition, relaxation, and avoidance of sarcasm.

For 10-11 year old Sunday school, groups can be larger and more social to focus on learning, while activities include games, attention and reward, and some abstract thinking. Puberty may be coming on some, and clumsiness on others due to growth spurts.

(Around age 12, while I could still have gone to 8th-grade Sunday school and youth group, old-soul me decided to hang out with my father and some other men of the congregation in a pastor-led study of the Book of Concord. I won't dive into high school youth groups in this post because my focus is on the very youngest students.)

Given the small congregation size typical, there are practical reasons to combine age groups, sometimes having all children of the congregation in one "large" group with a few leaders. What are some considerations for doing so?

• Older and younger children can beneficially be paired together for Scripture memorization and craft projects; it is important to make sure older voices don't dominate the time
• More experienced readers can read aloud, to take some burden off less experienced readers
• Almost all activities can be done in multi-age groups (with varying degrees of modification), as every homeschool mom of > 1 child knows!
• Larger groups are (usually) more fun!

How do Anglicans Do It?

I have not had the opportunity to delve into the totality of ACNA congregations and their Sunday school practices. Therefore, I'll use our congregation as a case study. Take a peek at what Child has been doing for this school year so far.

Start Early 

In my past experience and glancing through various Internet resources, I had never seen Sunday school starting younger than kindergarten or so. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to hear from our priest's wife that not only would there be a nursery-age Sunday school offered starting in fall 2023, but also that she would be the one teaching it and anyone over 18 months old would be eligible to attend.

The next grouping of children in Sunday school at our parish is 7-11(?) year olds, who are typically in the next room about 20 feet away from the nursery at the same time. Things get a bit noisy at times for that reason! During this hour (50 minutes), all members of the congregation, including littles, are invited to be engaged in structured learning relevant to instruction in the faith.

The group Husband and I are leading is in diagonal line of sight of the nursery windows, so when I happen to glance that way, the children are engaged in movement, song (Steve Green for memory work of 1 verse every month or so), or other activities including listening (while moving) to stories from the lectionary. In February, they started learning the Apostles' Creed with hand motions, and later on they will learn other parts of the liturgy. (Permit me a one-sentence soapbox to recommend creeds by way of an article from TGC on the unbiblical phrase "no creed but the Bible"!)

Be Flexible

Membership in our congregation is just over 100 with an upper limit based on the African model of church planting used by the ACNA. Under 5 of those are toddlers and pre-kindergarteners who semi-regularly attend Sunday school. Child and a pastor-professor's youngest son are two of the most regular. For others, they may be there once or twice per month.

Thus, there is necessarily some continuity for the regular attendees, but mixing that with standalone activities and crafts for those who can only attend sometimes. No matter how many or how few littles are there, the paired teachers engage each child and individualize to their abilities and attention that morning.

Follow the Lectionary

By now, I hope it's clear that our congregation is liturgical and uses the 3-year Revised Common Lectionary. Currently, we are in Year B; most of the time, the Gospel or Old Testament reading contains a narrative or parable. If at least one of these is the case, the leaders plan a lesson around that concrete story. Although this means that it takes toddlers approximately 3 years to get through most of the Bible (since they are also in church with their parents listening to all of the readings each week), it means that they are also systematically instructed in the fundamentals of the faith.

How does your church do Sunday school? What have been aspects of your or your children's experiences? Feel free to share in the comments!