{"id":26997,"date":"2014-08-18T16:04:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T21:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=26997"},"modified":"2014-08-18T16:04:45","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T21:04:45","slug":"have-sunday-school-classes-increased-the-number-of-unchurched-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/08\/18\/have-sunday-school-classes-increased-the-number-of-unchurched-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Have Sunday School Classes Increased the Number of Unchurched Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Wright at Patheos<\/a> has written an article in which he suggests that Sunday school classes are a possible contributor to the number of unchurched people today.<\/p>\n

Wright sees the separation of children from the worshiping community as the central reason why many of them have left the church after finishing their Sunday school programs. He writes:<\/p>\n

We have raised the largest <\/em>unchurched <\/em><\/strong>generation in the history of our country\u2026<\/em>perhaps one of the reasons has to do with the Sunday School shift\u2026as we shifted kids out of the main worship experience, en-culturated them in their own program, and robbed them of any touch points with the rest of the body of Christ. Another way of saying it: by segregating our kids out of worship, we never assimilated them into the life of the congregation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wright ties the rise in the number of Sunday school classes to the desire to connect with Boomers.<\/p>\n

Church leaders sensed that Boomer parents wanted the one hour break from their kids\u2014that they wanted to focus on their own spiritual life for an hour away from the distraction of their children. And, again, we assumed, reasonably so, that worship targeted to adult boomers would not be all that engaging for kids. So dynamic Sunday school programs were created to engage the kids at their level in their language while their parents were in worship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the rise in Sunday school classes might have been beneficial to Boomers, Wright contends that without a connection to the liturgical life and communal life of the church, children in Sunday school programs did not\u00a0have the tools to transition from Sunday school to liturgical worship.<\/p>\n

The fact that young adults today were separated from the liturgical and communal life of the Church as children is not the only reason why they are leaving the Church; however, their separation from the worshiping community as children has not helped keep them in the Church today.<\/p>\n

There is a need today to engage our children in liturgical and communal worship so that they can be formed in the Christian faith early on. Even early Christians understood this simple principle. I think that they practiced infant communion because they understood the importance of forming the faithful in the faith and liturgy of the Church from a very early age.<\/p>\n

Wright\u2019s argument might be a bit of a stretch, but I think he is on to something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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