Is Sunday School going extinct? …or are some churches merely suffering from their own ineptness, uninspired leadership, and the accumulated effect of bad habits?

(Now you know where I come out on the issue!)

According to a recent Barna Research Study, currently, more than 9 out of every 10 churches offer Sunday school for elementary grades (92%) and adults (91%)  These levels are statistically unchanged since 1997. (See link below for source.)

In fact, Sunday School is THRIVING in many churches, and struggling in others. There are many local issues and situations which any one church might point to for reasons of its own decline. But in my experience, “decline” is often self-inflicted. Decline becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in many churches because they decline to do the things that make for long term success. But rather than do them, they cop-out –pinning the death of their program on “cultural trends” or “parents these days.”

I was recently quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about “the decline” of Sunday School. The writer saw an article I had written online and called me for some quotes. I did NOT like the article because:

a) It selectively quoted statistics. See the section below for the stats they reference.
b) It offered very little in the way of analysis or strategies for success. 

The article was boldly titled “Why Sunday Schools are in Decline” and the author told me over the phone that she was raised in Sunday School but no longer goes.   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124598071177158161.html

The WSJ article DID quote some Barna Research stats about Sunday School that are VERY interesting, but the WSJ DID NOT PROPERLY QUOTE the statistics. You’d think the WSJ would fact check! (see link below). 

The WSJ article says, “The decline in Sunday schools appears to be gradual but steady.”   Yet Barna’s 2005 study which the article refers to says, and I quote: “Church reliance upon Sunday school has remained stable: 19 out of every 20 Protestant churches (95%) offer “a Sunday school in which people receive some form of planned or systematic Bible instruction in a class setting.” Nearly the same proportion of churches – 97% – offered Sunday school eight years ago, when the tracking research began.” 

Here’s the link to the study the WSJ misrepresented:  http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/175-sunday-school-is-changing-in-under-the-radar-but-significant-ways

It can’t both be “in decline” and “steady”.  In fact, what the stats DO say is that youth classes are in a slight decline.  But could this be due to a greater reliance on youth groups to pick up the slack?  Is this a demographic/population trend? The article and research doesn’t go into it, but somebody should.

The most IMPORTANT statistic was this: Only 15% of ministers regarded Sunday school as a leading concern (!!!)  And…the younger the pastor, the study showed, the less emphasis they placed on Sunday school. Yet once, again, the Wall Street Journal writer gets it wrong.  This stat only indicates that 85% of minister might think that maybe Worship and Mission are higher priorities than Sunday School. Can’t argue with them. Read the Barna Report!  …it clearly ALSO says that 95% of minister rate Sunday School as an “important” concern.

But here’s why I think some younger pastors have a lower opinion of Sunday School:
a) They remember their own boring S. School experience and “10 foot pole” the program.
b) Most young pastors during their training years concentrate in youth work, and not children’s ministry.
c) Most young pastors are too busy doing other things to focus on a program they grew up disliking.

I have no doubt that Sunday School is in decline,
     –but it’s not due to the culture,
               ….it’s due to the people who decline to do it well.

Case Study:

I was a volunteer in a small church that had a thriving Sunday School in the 80’s. They held classes for te kids DURING worship. So if mom and dad brought their kids to church, the kids went to class while the parents stayed in the sanctuary. Then in the early 90’s that church moved Sunday School to the hour BEFORE worship, …which is a great idea. Kids belong in worship with their parents as much as possible. And for the next two years attendance was pretty good.  But attendance started to decline, and here’s why…

The switchover to a Sunday School hour required PARENTS to attend Bible study classes, and the church did a poor and inconsistent job of offering such. And because don’t drive themselves to church, their attendance started to decline.

Oh, they did TRY on occasion, but it was haphazard. The pastor rarely taught a class, and rarely promoted  them from the pulpit. They didn’t form an adult education committee or consistent group of leaders. The class would meet, and then stop meeting. They didn’t bring in outside speakers to occasionally attract new attenders, -though there were plenty of speakers to be found in the metro area.

And they did some foolish things. One fall they tried to start a new Sunday morning study with this approach: whoever showed up would be given the lectionary reading for the day. They’d read the verses and everyone would take turns saying what they thought it meant. The class lasted a couple of weeks. 

They DID have an ongoing older-adult study that had 6 or 7 regulars. But it was known to be so conservative that some people who gave it a try literally walked out of the class.  Parents who brought their children didn’t want to go to these “classes” and so ended up WANDERING in the hallways.  Eventually, they stopped coming.

They did offer some other creative fellowship events, such as, an inter-generational VBS’. But one of the secrets to successful Sunday morning Bible study is CONSISTENCY and QUALITY of effort. And it just wasn’t there. 

I did offer to help. I had led a successful Adult Ed program in a previous church. I offered to teach some series of Sunday morning Bible studies. But in 10 yrs of attending there, they never took me up on that offer. They said they wanted me to keep teaching the kids.  And perhaps, just maybe, they didn’t really want help. This is one of the other problems with some leaders, they’d rather let something die than ask for help, or let someone else try and succeed where they have failed.

Fast forward several years, and now you have a Sunday School “Declined,” and a membership that doesn’t take it seriously, or increasingly want it.  Over that same 10 year period , they were taking in small numbers of new members each year who were not joining the church because they wanted Adult Sunday School.  They were joining a church that didn’t expect them to come study the Bible.  Within a few short years, that small church had a growing group of adults who didn’t care and didn’t miss Sunday School for themselves, let alone for their children. 

Attendance is a habit easily broken, and difficult to create or fix.

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How to turn around a “failing” Sunday School…   a couple of thoughts:

Leadership is one obvious answer. If your pastor is one of the 85% who thinks Sunday School isn’t that important, you either need to:

a) Find a better pastor now, or next time
b) Convert that pastor to the importance of learning the Word of God! Often, they need to become involved in order to see it’s value.
c) Work around that pastor by gathering together a committed group of people who understand the importance of the ministry, and how not to make the same old mistakes*

*Not making the ”same ol’ mistakes” is another part of the answer. Failure is usually accompanied by a lack of passion, creativity, and long-term commitment. But in my experience failure is also the result of a hundred small mistakes along the way.  :: Dirty rooms, boring lessons, a dirty improperly staffed nursery, lack of quality communication, poor planning, poor execution, lack-luster leadership, lack of quality oversight, etc etc.

Other keys: This is a blog, so I’m going to end this post here, short of the goal. But I encourage you to read more of my thoughts on The Future of Children’s Ministry over at www.sundaysoftware.com/stats3.htm  where I lay out the “characteristics” of such a healthy Christian education ministry, and offer many more suggestions.