Is Biblical Illiteracy the Church’s Biggest Problem?

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“Second, we can strive to use the Sunday school hour fully for Bible teaching. In many adult classes announcements, prayer time, and discussion of community events takes up much of the teaching time. Third, we can emphasize Bible reading plans.” - SBC Voices

Discussion

How to Turn a Book into a Sunday School Series

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“Teaching a Sunday school class, especially one for teens or adults, can be tough. Prefabricated curriculum can feel a bit canned. People aren’t looking for another sermon knowing they’ll get one right after class.” - P & D

Discussion

Awana to launch Sunday School curriculum

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Awana President Matt Markins: “We see our global footprint as being a child discipleship organization. So we know for us to go into the future, we have to have a whole other set of resources to help the church effectively reach kids to the gospel and help them to make disciples.” - Christian Post

Discussion

Implementing the New Testament Emphasis in Adult Teaching Ministries

Don Anderson

From Faith Pulpit, Spring 2018. Used with permission.

The first article demonstrated that teachers and teaching are two essential components of a New Testament church at any age level. This second article focuses specifically on the Bible teaching ministries for adults.

Adult Teaching Ministries Today

Churches today utilize three main Bible teaching ministries for adults:

Discussion

Sunday School Syndrome

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“Do you believe that God used evolution to create human beings?”

  • yes. 24.6% of those who attended Sunday school
  • yes. 18.5% of those who did not attend Sunday school

Answers in Genesis

Discussion

Is It Time to Bring Back the Original Sunday School?

Susan R

Sam Weller, associate professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago and authorized biographer of Ray Bradbury, recently published an article in The Chicago Tribune that got me thinking: “Without school librarians, we’re on a dystopian path.”

In his commentary he expresses his concern about cuts in staff and funding for school libraries. During a visit to rural Shawnee, Oklahoma, he found out that their school library received no funding whatsoever for new library books in 2016. In Wichita, Kansas, certified librarians were being replaced by clerks. The Kansas Department of Education has reduced the number of certified librarians in their state by 31%. The number of school librarians in the Chicago public school system has dropped from 454 to 160.

Mr. Weller reminds the reader that Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 depicts a dystopian society that no longer values reading and education.

Discussion

Improving Adult Sunday School classes

Don Anderson

From Faith Pulpit, Winter 2015. Used by permission, all rights reserved.

My purpose in the first article was to call churches back to the priority of adult Sunday School classes because I believe they can do everything small groups can do and more and can provide the best format for discipleship. In short, adult Sunday School has the greater potential for benefit to a church. In this second article I offer some suggestions for how we adult teachers can improve our adult classes so they reach their full potential.

1. Commit to using printed curriculum that covers the Bible systematically.​

One of the advantages of adult Sunday School classes over small groups is they can cover all the Bible systematically. This kind of coverage will not happen if adult teachers are allowed to choose their own studies. Systematic coverage can only happen when teachers follow a printed curriculum that covers the entire Bible. And if a church has more than one adult class, this kind of coverage can only happen when all the adult teachers in a church follow the printed curriculum.1 For adult classes to reach their full potential, printed curriculum that covers the Bible systematically is essential.

Discussion