Re-thinking youth Sunday School

As I noted in Why do so many children leave church when they go to college?, critical thinking about faith seems to make a big difference in whether children stay in church.  A big part of that is how Sunday School is done.*

I recommend that churches re-think how they do Sunday School, at least for high school kids.  Consider these facts:

1. In high school, kids who have taken math their entire lives still have a huge range of classes depending on aptitude and experience.  It ranges from basic math to AP Calculus.
2. In church high school classes, it is typically a one-size-fits-all approach, even lumping multiple grades together.   Some kids have been well-educated theologically their entire lives and some are new to the faith.

So we have a huge range of high school classes for kids who have had life-long training, and a narrow range of spiritual classes for kids who have had a much wider range of training.

Keeping the kids together for many lessons and activities is fine, but it is inevitable that some kids will be bored by lowest-common denominator material (like mine were, which is why they joined another church) and some will find the material too difficult.

My youngest started attending an adult class at their new church with some of her friends. It was amazing. I’ve had the opportunity to visit myself and I love it. The teacher spent three years in 1 Peter, which at first glance sounds like a recipe for disaster. Yet the class grew and grew and attracted people who wanted meaty lessons because he was so thorough and meaningful.  She would come home every week talking about the lesson.  I’m grateful that she had the opportunity to join the class.

One of the reasons churches may lose post-high school kids is that there isn’t a stable place to study. They can’t go to the high school classes any longer, and the young adult / college classes are too transient to be meaningful.

So why can’t kids with an interest go to adult classes? Are there any Bible verses against parents learning with children? If we expect high school students to learn algebra, Shakespeare, biology, etc., why do we have to dumb down the Bible for them?

Note: I would make the distinction that we should have smaller age / experience appropriate groups (i.e., Mothers of Pre-Schoolers, accountability groups, etc.) where people can share and interact.  In this post I am speaking of basic Bible studies.

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* Reminder: Sunday School has a purpose, but parents still have the primary responsibility to teach their children.  The problem is that most are biblically illiterate.  They just take kids to church and hand the responsibility off to someone else.  If they actually read the Bible they’d know they were shirking their responsibilities.

Ephesians 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

That’s my youngest daughter’s life verse, by the way, though she prefers the translation that says not to exasperate your children (she likes to tease  me by saying, “You’re exasperating me!”). In case you think I’m kidding, this is a picture of her bedroom wall.  I’m glad my kids both kept a keen sense of humor!

From the “I am not making this up category” . . .

I really wish I was making this up.  Public schools in California (yeah, it is a freak state, but many of these things spread to the rest of the country) are teaching children as young as 5 about how “normal” transgenderism is.  This is state sanctioned, taxpayer-funded child abuse.  I know this goes on, but it is always extra-creepy to see it on video.  To state the obvious, this is one more reason to seriously consider home-schooling.

From Coming to a Public School Near YOU?

Fox News covered a class full of kindergartners in California being taught that you can feel like a girl, feel like a boy, feel like both, or feel like neither.

. . .

The group brought in to teach children these lessons (allegedly to prevent bullying) is called Gender Spectrum.

“People can be girls, feel like girls, they can feel like boys, they can feel like both, and they can even feel, like I said, kinda like neither.”

Hey theological Liberals and wimpy orthodox Christians who caved to the political correctness of the gay lobby pressure instead of standing up for the truth: Congratulations, this is what you’ve enabled.   As predicted many times, this is a logical consequence of supporting civil rights for sexual preferences.

Remember, you don’t need to poison the minds of kids to teach them not to bully.  All you need is a simple and thoroughly enforced anti-bullying policy: If you physically or verbally harass other students on or off school grounds you will have swift and serious consequences. It doesn’t matter if you are bullying because they are gay/straight/fat/thin/smart/dumb/pretty/ugly/etc., or if it is just because you are a mean jerk. Lesson over.

Hat tip: Glenn

Roundup

From the shadenfreude department, some Darwinian on Darwinian verbal violence – aka, PZ Myers reaps what he sowed.

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Ten resources to help you defend the resurrection of Jesus as history

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If Canada’s Bill C-389 passes, transgenderism will be taught in kindergarten – coming soon to a country near you.  This is the logical consequence of turning sexual preferences into civil rights.  It is child abuse to teach kindergarteners that they aren’t “really” boys or girls.  These people should be in jail.

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New study links father absence to increased bullying – so when people want to reduce bullying in schools across the board – instead of just protecting their favored students – remind them how important stable one man / one woman families are.

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The top three books that helped change me from a mindless, irrational Darwinist into an ID proponent

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War and killing – excellent overview of the biblical view

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Union Fights to Force You into Obamacre While Getting Waivers for Itself – one more reason to dislike unions and Obamacare.  Unions fought hard to make you pay for this but are opting out themselves.  If it is such a swell program, why aren’t they excited to be in it?  If they don’t like it, why did they lobby for it?  This is politics at its worst.

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EPA Issues First Waiver For New Greenhouse Gas Regulations – shockingly, it goes to a major Obama supporter and a recipient of major government spending.  Where are the Halliburton haters now?

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Another thing you won’t get from the mainstream media: How The CDC Coverup Now Turns to Bureaucratic Panic when they were caught hiding abortion data.

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More Assaults From the Supporters of the Homosexual Agenda – be sure to eat more chicken (at Chik-Fil-A, a restaurant with excellent governance that treats its employees well).

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‘House of Horrors’ abortionist made over $1.8 million/year, now claims to be broke — apparently abortion pays pretty well for those selfless heroes.

According to the grand jury report, a search of Gosnell’s Philadelphia home uncovered $240,000 in cash and a gun hidden in a filing cabinet in his 12-year-old daughter’s bedroom.  Other than that, his income appears to be unaccounted for except for his assets and real estate investments. “The money’s unaccounted for,” District Attorney Joanne Pescatore told the Inquirer. “The only thing we know about is the money taken out of the house.”

According to the Inquirer report, Gosnell and his wife own seventeen properties, a motorboat, a Dodge Durango, a Ford F-150 pickup truck and a Ford Expedition.

Despite these assets, Gosnell now claims to be broke . . .

 

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