Sunday School

Why do only about 1/4 of church attendees attend Sunday School? According to Barna...

27% of women compared to 21% of men attend Sunday school in a typical week. (2006)
38% of born again Christians and 65% of evangelicals attend Sunday school in a typical week. (2006)
Sunday school remains a draw primarily in the South, where three out of ten adults (29%) attend in a typical week. In contrast, 15% in the northeast, 26% in the Midwest and 24% in the west have attended Sunday school in a typical week. This may be related to the comparatively high incidence of Southern Baptists in the South, for whom Sunday school remains a central focus of the church. (2006)

According to the Assemblies of God website study: Sunday School teaches every person at his level of understanding. The small group, graded structure of Sunday School allows teachers to tailor Bible study for the age-level needs and interests for children, youth, and adults.

Personally, I don't want to attend Sunday School. You have 45 minutes to skim the surface of a lesson found in a quarterly, brochure, or something the class teacher (hopefully they are a gifted teacher) chooses to lecture on. You don't build relationships with the others in your class unless once a month, once a quarter, once every six months or once a year your class gets together. You usually (some churches do have options) are in class with other couples your own age (what about a 38 year old that is married to a 52 year old with a 10 year old in the house and 28 year old living on her own?) or it is a singles class (single again, etc.)

Personally, I would rather serve one hour and attend one hour if given the chance. Let me change diapers, play games with a child, rock a crying baby, take up the offering, greet, sweep the floor, make coffee, etc. How do you chose who is serving and who gets to go to class? My friends that are moms are usually teaching and never get to build relationships with others.

Personally, I like big group/small group for kids and home groups for adults.

Why? For adults you have the opportunity to build relationships. Most small groups eat together (they are people of the table - I love that title) Then they get to know each other. They help each other move, they give each other small baby showers, they mow yards for each other when their is sickness or death or they hold your hand through a failed marriage or hopefully they hold your hands together as you work to salvage your marriage.

The best Bible study I ever attended was a small group on parenting. We stayed on that topic for months and I'm a better parent for it. We prayed together, laughed together, cried together and they helped us move twice during that study!

Tomorrow I'll post why my preference is not Sunday School for kids either.