Sunday schools everywhere are sputtering, staggering and sometimes dying. The supply of attendees remains, but constancy continues to decline.
Here at Trinity, we’re going to try something different this year. No magical revitalization is promised. That relies on you. But we are hoping to offer a quality program of which we pray you avail yourself. The theme is – the Bible-backbone; a sweeping broad-stroke overview of the biblical narrative. This year – the Old Testament. Next year – the New.
We’ll all try to be on the same page, too. What the children study, the adults will too; facilitating, we pray, many fruitful discussions on the ride home from Divine Service and beyond. Being in-sync in this way can prove extremely beneficial, we hope.
What is more, these lessons and their focal stories can be found & accessed by anyone on our church website, so that if your family misses a week (which should seldom happen), you can fortify your family’s growth in biblical understanding at home.
But the bottom line is, again, that it comes down to you.
I don’t ever want to hit the panic button; I don’t believe in hand-wringing, nor do I subscribe to the idea that distress is necessary to motivate. But, sticking our heads in the sand is the acme of foolishness, too. Now is not the time for apathy. The church languishes not in the face of its foes, but due to the indifference of his friends.
Divine Service is always number one. That’s top-priority. Sunday school is not a substitute. But it can be an enriching support. The Sunday school is the grammar-school wherein we build our vocabulary so that we can assimilate better the gifts that the Divine Service confers.
As a life-long learner and as an educator for the past quarter of a century, I have come to the conclusion that the most necessary ingredient to education is motivation, and that motivation must come from the recipient. A teacher can give ‘til he’s blue in the face; but if those to whom he extends himself wishes not to receive – he’s sucking air.
Your Sunday school teachers are giving themselves willingly and lovingly to you. I urge you to avail yourself to them & make being here on Sunday mornings top-priority.
In Christ, Pastor Picard