Potential downside (or upside, on your perspective) would be that parents could "worship" at their local St.Arbucks, or get a nice kid-less brunch or Sunday morning T-time..

My more serious question is whether it is any importance at all to be teaching Sunday School to Episcopal young people which is consistent and in harmony with our own theology and practice? On the other hand, this is perhaps one of many signs of a "postdenominational" world in the church as folks like Tickle and Butler Bass have mentioned...

Lots of food for thought,

Peter Carey+

I think implementing this model would exacerbate a couple of problems that Episcopal churches have. First, we tend to segregate our age-groups; in some large churches, the oldest and youngest never see each other, when mentoring and cross-generational fellowship is a big part of how we learn to be adults and make adult, Christian choices. Having the kids not even be in the same building with older people makes this problem that much worse.

Second, it would tend to give parents a bye on their role. As difficult as it can be to get parents involved in Sunday school, this model is just a way of perpetuating a consumerist mentality about Sunday School—when, really, going back as far as the Episcopal Sunday School movement, it's supposed to be a participatory thing done by parishioners with a gift for knowledge and teaching, not outside pros.

And third, Episcopalians do think about things distinctively. I think that abdicating our teaching responsibilities to a third party would be abdicating that—even if it were post-denominational, that would just result in our children being a new denomination called "post-denominational," just like "non-denominationals" became a denomination, and Independent Baptists became a denomination.

Mike Lockaby

Mike,

You make some great points! In many ways, I see churches trying to find ways to re-think Sunday School...and not use the old models, but this does seem to exacerbate several problems...great thoughts!

Peter Carey+

The best education is for children to be at mass with their parents, first and foremost a part of the worshipping community. If congregations are individually too small for a church school but close enough for a common one, perhaps they should think of merging on every level.

Metropolitan churches are not that different than rural and suburban churches as far as their desire and need to provide quality opportunities for children to grow in the life of faith. Some of the smallest churches have the greatest children’s ministry programs. Bigger is not always better. All churches in today’s world are faced with fewer financial resources, fewer adults who have the time to volunteer as Sunday school teachers (let alone any other ministry on Sunday morning), and the challenge of sharing facilities with the community and other church activities. These “struggles” provide the church with wonderful opportunities to engage all in mission and ministry – the newcomer, the parish matriarch, the child, the youth, the adult, the elder and those who have yet to walk across our thresholds.

As so many above have already stated, having all ages worshipping together is formational. We need to focus on adult education.

Read more of my response to Ms. Wilkie's article at my blog: http://www.roseofsharon.com

Sharon Ely Pearson, MACE
Norwalk, CT
Christian Formation Specialist
Church Publishing Incorporated

Now that a few have chimed in with their thoughts, I would only add that my wife and I have tried to raise our children in the pew to the maximum extent possible - a place where transcendent mystery is more accessible, and teaching happens with the parent, later to be reinforced with others as teacher.

I am in favor of the variety of solutions being attempted, but do have concerns about the catechesis of Episcopal Sunday-School children by folks unfamiliar with the whole Anglican ethos, or by people from a non-liturgical perspective, or by those reading scripture only one way.

Still, as I said before, at least someone's looking to the practical demands and urgencies of the future.

Torey Lightcap

As a former Methodist, I have to ask: When did Episcopalians ever care about Sunday School, except as a way to get noisy kids out of the church during services? How many Episcopal Churches even have Sunday School for kids? 10%? And even fewer have Christian Education for adults.

Our reality, which we share with the other mainline churches, is a rapidly shrinking denomination. We are going to be closing down a lot of parishes over the next few decades. Anything that gets kids into Sunday School is a great idea. We can worry about Anglican traditions in the church services and in Confirmation classes.

I want to know why we even want to try to do it on Sundays. In many communities, we would get better attendance if it was held on a weeknight and parents were given a pass to go out on a date.

Godly Play and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd are programs perfectly compatible with all mainline Protestant and Catholic parishes.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of Sunday School. It will take dozens of different approaches to address the differing needs in each diocese and each parish. Ms. Wilkie's approach is an excellent place to start.

Here's a link to the post Sharon mentions.

I have questions about whether Sunday School can be broadly effective no matter how well it is done. You get maybe 45 minutes on a Sunday morning with an amateur teacher and kids who would rather be elsewhere. I felt I was much more effective in transmitting values as a youth coach than as a Sunday School teacher. All this said, my kids go to an Episcopal School, so their Sunday experience isn't quite as high stakes for me as it might be for other parents.

In the diocese of Spokane, we experience farflung churches with fluctuating populations of children. Our summer camp at Camp Cross has become, for many fami lies, a core experience for Christian formation. As children get older, the diocesan youth ministry gathers through quarterly activities for interaction, spiritual growth, development of leadership skills, faith formation and fun. The Sunday Schools then become supported by these regular opportunities - and can serve more appropriately as introduction to the mystery of worship at age-appropriate levels. We encourage a lot of intergenerational activities, and have no need to get noisy children out of church at all. Perhaps our biggest challenge is formation for the adults - both inquirers, long-time members who stopped learning after confirmation, parents of growing families. If we are to divert the parents from St.Arbucks (or maybe meet them there?) we need more help in reaching them. Burgeoning Sunday Schools can be a great marketing tool, but we are in the business of equipping saints of all ages.

One think outside the box approach which is blossoming in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa here in Canada is Messy Church. This approach which started as a Fresh Expression in the Church of England is specifically designed to reach out to parents and their young children who were not participating in their local churches and who in fact found that traditional services did not meet their needs and that the Sunday morning schedule did not work for them practically. Here's the link for a video clip on the U.K. site: http://www.messychurch.org.uk/

Since last June when 12 of us went to a Messy Church workshop, 6 parishes have started Messy Churches which take place once a month either on a weeknight (often preceded by a meal) or on a Saturday morning or afternoon. All of them are thriving and have attracted 30 kids and their Moms and Dads or more --many more than their traditional Sunday School programs in this post-Christendom environment were drawing.

The leaders of one Messy Church here in Hawkesbury realized last Easter that their children were the only children in church that Sunday and were looking for a different approach. I attended their Messy Christmas celebration this year and there were 32 kids plus parents involved. They have now created a Kids Club every second Sunday at their church due to popular demand. But the point of Messy Church is not to re-populate or re-create a Sunday School or generate new members for an intergenerational worshipping community, it is to share the good news of Jesus with parents and children who would like to hear it in creative and fun ways. The exciting thing is that the parents who are often themselves not that familiar with biblical stories or sure of their faith beliefs get to learn alongside their youngsters in a fun, creative and welcoming environment.

I am grateful for Ms. Wilkie's article offering a platform for discussion of new and different models of being church. I'm also grateful for her courage!

I watched a YouTube video some months ago by a marketing person talking about how a fast food chain appropaches adding new items to their menu. The example was a milkshake. And he said the question they ask is not: What kind of milkshake should we have? BUT, What do we want the milkshake to do?

Therefore for me, a larger question here is "What do we want Sunday School to do?"

We are in an age of Christian Formation which translates as life-long Christian Formation. How we are formed as Christians is by hanging out with Christians. This is through worship, Sunday School, service to church and community...

And how we learn to be Episcopalians is by hanging out with Episcopalians. Here is where I hear concern about Ms. Wilkie's model. Will our children be hanging out enough with Episcopalians to learn how to be one?

Here's the other crux for me: a big part of our problem in the EC, is that our formation and education efforts end with Confirmation. Parents are largely ignorant of the Scriptures, theology, church history, Episcopal polity... I think we should be putting our eggs in the adult education basket more so that parents are empowered to impart the faith and polity to their children. Our Jewish brothers and sisters know something about this that we have largely overlooked. In fact, I'd put my eggs in the basket of the church family doing education and formation together in all-age events.

What would Ms. Wilkie's model look like in an EC, no matter the number of people or amount of money, if we focused on the formation of the whole people of God of every age?

The text of the milkshake story is here:

http://blog.datamachines.com/blogdatamachinescom/bid/40720/Dr-Clayton-M-Christensen-What-Jobs-Are-Your-Customers-Hiring-Your-Products-To-Do

I have read and appreciate all the comments on my article. In response, I would say that the ideal Sunday school (the kind where I was raised) is NOT happening in many places. We can take small actions to try to keep it "the way it was," or we can wrestle with the new reality.

The main point of my article was that most Sunday school programs are based on adult convenience (i.e., how much space and time is allowed by adult activities) rather than children's needs. In the best of all possible worlds, adults would be seeing to their own spiritual growth in a way that would support that growth in their children. My observation is that adults often do not avail themselves of the richness of the faith, in part because churches fail to impart what is clearly a treasure.

As for denominations, show me the adult who can tell you the significant theological differences between one denomination and another. Whether we like it or not, adults base their worship choices on style, liturgy, music, not theology. In a society hungry for spiritual nourishment, we fail if we insist they buy the theology first. And I don't see that anyone is transmitting that information anyway, at least not in a way that is meaningful. Offering a few after-church sessions on the Episcopal church is not sufficient to provide a meaningful foundation for worship. People need something else, and I'm not sure what it is, but I AM sure that we have the means to give children the language they need to talk about their experience with God (which experience they have even before they set foot in a church). So I propose that we focus on doing that!

Mary Jane Wilkie