Simple Church Minute 34--Sunday School

34—Sunday School

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            A Christian parent is responsible before God for the upbringing of their children.  The world accuses believers of sheltering our children.  That is absolutely true.  Error can come from TV, school, library, books, or peers.  It is totally illogical to expect unbelievers to shelter our kids from falsehood or age inappropriate things, and it is totally logical to expect them to deliver it and believe they are doing a good deed.  The life of Horace Mann, the first state public schools head, is a prototypical example of this.

            Sunday School is a totally insufficient and unscriptural counterbalance.  If you sent your kids to public school, they would spend approximately 30 hours per week being taught by adults who have specialized in communicating to your child’s age group, with the training of most filtered through an anti-Christian bias.  Modern Sunday School is taught by a volunteer who usually has been given a book to look over, written so that the lesson can be presented with an hour or less preparation.  The larger the church, the less likely that you or your child has known the teacher.  I’m not implying Sunday School doesn’t mean well, but it doesn’t come close to leveling the playing field.

            You are responsible for your kids’ education—moral and otherwise.  We also know that values are caught, not taught, and that is a real challenge in our culture.  This is one more reason why we need to deeply know some other believers.  I have been in a tradition where there was an occurrence called baby dedication.  At the conclusion, everyone is asked to vow to support the new parents, and everyone, in unison, is expected to say “we will.”  The problem is, if I don’t know these people, have just heard their names, or at worst are in a place so big I can’t even see their faces, can I really support them?  Of course not.  God always deserves more than my lip service.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.