I believe in Sunday Schools and that children should have teaching specifically tailored to their needs.
A child’s way of understanding is not the same as that of an adult. ‘When I was a child… I thought as a child’ (1 Corinthians 13.11). A child can understand the truth in a simple way, but can also misunderstand. To mention a crass example, when she was a girl, there was a boy in my wife’s class named William Heaven. You can imagine the kinds of confusion that arose in the little boy’s mind from the opening sentence of the Lord’s Prayer. So it’s good that there is a time when children are taught separately from the rest of the church. Sunday School teachers do a wonderful job.
During the sermon
Our Sunday School takes place during the sermon time. Here are some reasons why.
We believe that all the Bible is necessary for our Christian maturity (2 Timothy 3.16,17). But is everything in Scripture appropriate for children? There are some horrifying things in the Bible. Is it really appropriate to preach to children from Genesis 19 or Judges 19 and 20? Do they need to hear about David being asked for a bride-price of 100 Philistine foreskins? I could go on.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …