Part 1: How NOT To Teach Sunday School

Why we need not a revival or reformation, but a revolution

Force of Habit

"But even so", they object, "this is the way it's been done for centuries. Surely it must be the will of God." Well how would they know the way it should be? Did they study church history, much less read what the Bible actually says? Do two wrongs make a right? No, and neither can we appeal to the length of time an error has been perpetuated as an excuse to continue. That would be like arguing that corporate officials caught embezzling pension plans should be allowed to continue, since they had been at it for so long!

We have such a hard time stepping outside the box. We've been content to be quiet passengers on the road of church history, never even daring to look out the windows much less disembark, especially if no one else goes with us. We are terribly codependent, wanting always to see if others are going in a given direction before we'll so much as put a toe in the water. We have been conditioned by the very leaders we admire to let them do all the thinking. But this does not absolve us of our individual responsibilities before God, who has given us so much. We have, as I mentioned earlier, a wealth of information at our disposal, yet we do not make use of it for fear we may find ourselves disagreeing with "the anointed ones". We will have no excuses before God.

But what can be done to turn the tide, especially by "we the sheeple"? Isn't it the leaders who should be doing these things? Sorry, but again, we are all responsible for what we know, and even the newest believers are told to start reading the Bible for themselves. It was this same fear of ordinary people doing serious study that kept the church in the dark for so long. Elitists then and now have always threatened us with the dire consequences of people actually making up their own minds, warning of rampant heresy unless we are all kept in our place. Yet heresy seems to be alive and well in spite of the multitude of leaders and scholars in the church today. Keeping the deep truths of the Bible from the masses has a poor track record of guarding against false teachings, so the argument that we must blindly follow the leader just has no basis in reality.

So what can we do? Hopefully, by looking at some details of how Sunday School typically operates week to week, we can identify the problem so we can see the solution. But whatever we do, we must do soon, for the time is short.