When Sunday School Fails Us

This past year has been an incredibly informative one. In the course of studying through the book of Genesis to teach in Sunday school I’ve really come to learn more about the foundations of the Christian faith and about the biblical figures who, until this point, were caricatures in my mind. Growing up outside the church, my knowledge of the patriarchs consisted of a few smattering of stories about Noah, Moses, and something about Joseph’s coat. I can, in fact, remember sitting through an off-Broadway rehearsal of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat while visiting my uncle in New York City. As a young teen I had little to no context for the stories (and songs) being presented.

Over the course of the eleven years I’ve spent in youth ministry, I’ve come to see that my experience with biblical history as a non-believer did not differ all that much from that of students who had been raised in the church. I began to wonder why students, who had been raised by well-meaning, Bible-believing Christians, would have such a limited knowledge when it comes to basic and foundational historical facts.

What I’ve come to believe is by no means authoritative and it may certainly be influenced by my own experience as an outsider to the Christian community.

In my experience, the church (as a whole) has done a poor job of providing comprehensive Biblical knowledge. Of course, given our current place in history and the proliferation of Bibles (in this country, at least) each believer is primarily responsible to study and seek to understand Scripture (which is the Lord’s clearest form of communication to His disciples today). That said, the church has an important responsibility for and role in the discipling of young believers. Largely, we have done a poor job. We have, at times, fallen into what I call a ‘Sunday school’ mentality.

Before continuing, I want to say that I truly believe that this is not necessarily true of all churches, or all Sunday schools. It isn’t even necessarily true of those who teach Sunday school in my own church. It’s not as if we set out to do a poor job. No one does, but I believe that we have fallen into several disconcerting habits.

We Teach Sporadically and Spasmodically

In our attempt to provide quality and substantive teaching, we have a tendency to jump around from story to story sometimes disregarding the historical context that informs that story. This technique is prevalent in Sunday school classes (hence my designation of ‘Sunday school’ mentality) where it is common to learn about Abraham one week, Joseph the next, and Moses the next. While there are certainly times it is relevant to cross-reference a verse or story, this sporadic style often breeds misunderstanding of biblical chronology and general confusion about characters. The lack of context can also reduce historical biblical events into one-off morality stories.

I’ve spoken with students who have little to no understanding of when events took place within the Bible or, more importantly, why they took place. While such misunderstandings are common in all historical pursuits, it is concerning when it occurs with figures and events which should be informing how we live, work, and worship today.

In addition to this, I have in my own classes, attempted to connect Old Testament stories to their interpretation in the New. This helps students understand more of the why of the events.

We Pick and Choose Which Portions of Stories We Teach

In addition to skipping from story to story, we also have a tendency to teach incomplete versions of events. For instance, we might highlight the faith of Abraham demonstrated in his willingness to sacrifice Isaac but we may not talk about his willingness to deceive the Pharaoh of Egypt by lying about Sarah being his sister. We love to share the story of Jonah and the fish/whale but few sermons or lessons linger on Jonah’s disreputable motivations or his indignation even after the repentance of Nineveh.

The Results

Due to points 1 and 2, we tend to form incomplete pictures of biblical characters that cause us to think that:

1.     The Lord was far more involved (physically or audibly) that He was.

a.     By highlighting only moments within full lifetimes we often come to the faulty conclusion that the Lord showed up in a burning bush every day when, in reality, He did it only once in the entire course of recorded human history. We sometimes think that the Lord showed up every day in the lives of the patriarchs when, in reality, we have only two or three instances recorded throughout an entire lifetime. Misunderstandings such as this might make us feel that our own spiritual lives are somehow deficient or even cause us to doubt the existence of God since He may not speak audibly or split a sea in our own lives. Children and students often see the perceived contrasts between what they are taught of the lives of biblical figures and their own seemingly mundane lives more clearly than adults and by these false perceptions of the Lord’s personal involvement in everyday life will ring false with their own experience. We should strive to do everything in our power to reduce any opportunity for the seeds of doubt to germinate.

2.     That biblical figures were somehow something ‘other’ or more holy than we are.

a.     By highlighting only fragmentary elements of biblical stories we might come to the belief that figures such as Moses or Joshua were supermen who never struggled or wrestled with disbelief or obedience. Seeing these figures as superheroes can cause us to elevate them to another level above us ‘regular’ Christians. These distinctions are not supported by orthodox Christian theology which understands that all have fallen short of the glory of God and there is none righteous apart from Christ. We look to these figures as examples to emulate but always as models of what the Spirit of the Lord can do in spite of our own flawed humanity.

So what are we to do? We need to strive to understand Scripture not only so that we might teach it more clearly but also so that we would understand and apply it more fully to our own lives. We have all experienced seasons when the Word of God felt dry and lifeless; when stories appeared confusing and dusty without context. These lessons are for us as much as they are for those who would learn from us. We can only teach what we know. We can only know what we understand. Our first aim should be to put ourselves in the best possible position to understand the literary form, historical context, and intent of the authors. These goals, as well-intentioned as they may be, only serve to put us into a position in which the Spirit of the Lord might best work. That is the ultimate aim—the touch of the Holy Spirit which transcends human understanding and convicts the heart.

As we seek, pray, and wait on the Spirit’s revelation, we can:

1.     Read the Bible regularly – this is the most basic (and often most difficult) step. We must be involved if we expect to be changed.

2.     Read entire books of the Bible – in our own personal study we should read books in their entirety. We do ourselves a disservice if we sabotage our understanding by setting ourselves up to misunderstand.

3.     Seek to understand the literary and historical context of the book we’re reading—this is the most daunting if not the most difficult step. Part of this comes from reading books to completion, but other sources such as Bible dictionaries, maps, and concordances can also assist.

4.     Try to teach Scripture and its context in age-appropriate ways to children and youth of all ages. As we teach, there are necessarily going to be times when we will not literally read every verse of Scripture to a child, but we need to try to communicate the entirety of the story in a way that is understandable and relatable. We often give our students too little credit when it comes to helping them understand Scripture, sometimes we just need to present them with it, read aloud.