The Challenge To Do Better

In my "Why do I love Sunday School?" entry I shared that being a Sunday School teacher challenges me to "do better".

This is one of those scary posts where I risk sounding critical or obnoxious. I hope you'll be able to hear my heart behind these musings. I think that as Sunday School teachers it's important to regularly evaluate if our approaches are effective and helpful. What we do matters and sometimes even small improvements have a big payoff. Striving for better doesn't mean we become "the best" but the process of trying to be our own best is usually a worthwhile exercise.

I also want to preface this with another disclaimer. I believe that the most important contributions a Sunday School teacher can make in the life of a child are time and relationship. These two things form the largest expression of God's love. Methodology and lesson styles are always secondary to these things. So, if you find yourself teaching in one of the styles below that I "critique" - remember that we all have our own approach to what's "best" within our own personalities and contexts. Any time spent with kids on a Sunday morning is a good and worthy contribution.

Below I'll share some of the ways "doing better" has begun to shape my own ministry.

1. I want kids to love God's story. I want to teach the Bible in a way that helps children fall in love with the narrative so they'll keep reading it over and over again as they grow.  I think Sunday School has missed the mark on this sometimes. When Sunday School curriculum presents the Bible as an answer book or a checklist of moral imperatives there is no reason to continue reading it once you "know the answer" or "know the expectation" (let's not even get into how we handle failing to meet those expectations).  When we read the Bible as a grand narrative, every time we open scripture we discover new parts of the story. The characters come to life, new words jump out at us and if we pause to listen we might catch a whisper of God's voice within the pages. I want kids to be listening for that voice every time they open the Bible and I want to ignite a love for the story that inspires life long reading and re-telling.

   
   

2. I want kids to know and tell the story. You know those family stories that we tell over and over and over again? The ones that make everyone laugh or feel united around a shared moment? I want God's story to be like that. I want kids to know and love God's story so deeply that it gets retold in their hearts and in their actions over and over again! Stories like this help us know God and they also form our own identities Sunday School has often taught stories so quickly that we just get a "Cole's notes" version of the story. This overview doesn't form deep connections. For this reason, I don't teach a big list of stories in a year. I use the strategy of repetition where we hear single stories over and over and over again. I want us to stick around to listen to each story for a while. I'll share more about this in posts to come but I'm convinced its a better way of teaching and it's critical to the journey of becoming active participants in God's story.

   
   

3. I want students to be fully involved in their learning and own their faith. There is a joke in church settings that when you ask a question to kids (or adults) in Sunday School you'll most often get the response "Jesus." This response is called the "Sunday School Answer." This joke exists for a reason. Some Sunday School settings don't require much of children. Children show up, hear a story, play a game, make a craft and give some pat answers. Maybe there is a yummy snack, a funny video or a reward chart that keeps them intrigued. The setting is positive and kids are hearing the name Jesus but activities struggle to inspire thought or action beyond the "Sunday School answer". I think that our choices for resources and activities need to be sifted through a filter that asks "how does this activity challenge a child to become an active participant in their own faith?" This filter has guided me towards activities that engage instead of entertain. It's led to changes in teaching like: art instead of crafts, guided improv more than scripts, open conversation and questions of curiosity instead of right/wrong answers, imagination instead of memorization. I like resources that let children express themselves in relationship to God's story instead of resources that produce predetermined products and responses.

   
   

4. I want kids to know the love of God and see themselves as dearly beloved. There are so many intangible ways this happens—through a warm smile, a moment of shared laughter, a lesson crafted with a specific child in mind, or the simple joy of being fully present. But over the years, I’ve also developed a list of tangible elements I strive to prioritize: Every child is welcome. Every child is loved. Every child deserves a safe space to worship (This includes a robust and fully implemented safety and abuse prevention policy—it’s non-negotiable.) Every child will be celebrated and included. (This means committing to learning and improving how we support children with disabilities or unique needs.) The list keeps growing. I’m on a constant journey to figure out how to do this well.

   
   

5. I want to be careful in presenting theology. I strive to approach theology with care and thoughtfulness. This continues to require significant study, and I remain a student—always learning, regularly being challenged and corrected and thankful for wiser companions who teach and lead me. My teaching is grounded in historical and cultural backgrounds, invites kids to ask questions, and offers a broader view of Bible stories while trying to intentionally avoid harmful interpretations. I aim to present a theological perspective that is thoughtful, inclusive, and focused on helping kids encounter Jesus authentically.

   
   

   (One resource that’s resonated deeply with me lately is Meredith Miller’s Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Have to Heal From. She’s beautifully articulated so many of my own thoughts, and I highly recommend it to anyone exploring this approach to teaching.)

   
   

6. I want to teach in a way that's sustainable. I've done the themed VBS kits, hosted elaborate nativity plays, decorated whole wings of a church and prepared enough cut and paste activities to give me arthritis (literally, I have aching thumbs). I have happy memories tied to these but people have less time, volunteers are harder to find and budgets are tight. To make a Sunday School ministry succeed we have to make things more sustainable and for me this has meant I need to do better at simplicity. Doing better in this area has changed how I coordinate volunteers, assemble class groups, decorate, plan and budget. And guess what - it's actually made my teaching better because....

   
   

7. I want to focus on what's most important. Focusing on sustainability and simplicity has made me laser focused on what is most important. Spoiler alert - it's not the elaborate themes/decorations, cute take home trinkets, fully rehearsed drama productions or even the latest flashy curriculum that makes a successful Sunday School. While these things may work to attract attention, I do wonder if they have the long term payoff we're all hoping for. Focusing on what's important is starting to look like this for me: I prioritize time spent in study and relationship. Knowing God's story and knowing the kids and families I hang with is most important. I use repetition. Teaching one story for many weeks is a better use of time/resources and it's more effective too. (See how I've used repetition to reinforce this idea?!). I commit to learning and developing teaching techniques that are tried and true. I can use these techniques to teach many stories and when done well kids never tire of them. I've found that sometimes the simplest teaching tool done well has a magical effect of removing distraction and allowing the Biblical narrative to be the star of the show.

   
   

8. I want to strive for excellence in my teaching. Perhaps this bullet refers to everything above but it also becomes my bar for every individual lesson I write or lead. Warning - this is also going to sound a little more harsh. I think that we've too often settled for mediocre Sunday School teaching materials and sometimes even ones that are downright bad. I've read hundreds (maybe thousands) of Sunday School lessons and I always see the same problems. Creative ideas that don't achieve strong enough outcomes (biblical knowledge, connection in community or spiritual formation). Weak or harmful theology. Boring. Rote learning. Rich teaching but lacking energy and fun. Cool idea but way too time intensive to pull off. Entertaining but not engaging. My list goes on and on. I'm on a mission to create, find and share teaching materials and Sunday School experiences that strive for better than this.

What's your experience been? Where are you experiencing the challenge of "we can do better?" How are you tackling that challenge? I'd love to hear from you!