Sunday School

What are your favorite memories of Sunday school? I have been thinking about mine recently.

It’s time for Sunday school to start again! This Sunday we will be kicking off the new school year with our Rally Day breakfast where we join together for fellowship with the students, their parents and Sunday school teachers. It starts at 9:30 p.m.

There are so many different reasons why we should encourage our kids to attend Sunday school – and I will share my list of top reasons base on my own experience. Sunday school was a very important part of my life growing up and here is why:

Make new friends:  I loved my church friends! The church I attended growing up had kids from many different schools that I looked forward to seeing each week. As I aged through middle school and high school, I will admit that I mostly attended Sunday school and youth group regularly so I could spend time with the kids that didn’t go to my school or live in my neighborhood. I can see that happening with the kids at Sixth! So many of them are excited to see each other each week.  Our youth are all so busy and have crazy schedules. Many of the teenagers here at Sixth have grown up here together and seeing each other at church activities gives them a change to reconnect and support each other. 

Participate in church traditions:   Besides the typical church traditions learned about in Sunday school such as communion, baptism, and confirmation - I loved being part of the other traditions that were more specific to my childhood church. I always looked forward to our Christmas program each year and singing in the children’s choir. I can remember not being able to wait until I was old enough to become an acolyte or be in the Sunday school class that met in the church balcony. 

What do you remember about your childhood church traditions?

Fellowship and a sense of community and belonging:  I remember fondly that my church was I place that I felt like I belonged – that I was part of the group – part of a large family.  I was lucky to be able to get to know a great group of Sunday school teachers and youth leaders who made us feel welcome and loved.

 

Learning the stories of our church’s history and how to navigate the Bible: I remember the Bible that we each got in 3^rd grade. I love books and I thought it was the most beautiful book I had ever seen! It had a black leather cover and edges of the pages were gold.  I mostly loved looking at the maps in the back.  More than the Bible, I loved hearing and reading the stories from the Bible. They were weird and confusing and sometimes unbelievable.  

What Bible stories caught your interest?

Church is safe space where we can ask questions:  My Sunday school teacher from kindergarten reminded me a few years ago that when I was in her class I asked LOTS of questions about the Nativity story. She reports that I thought that a new baby Jesus was born every year in Bethlehem. I guess I took the language of  “Christ is born today!” pretty seriously.

Church helps us learn the language:  My church and Sunday school experience helped me to learn the “language” to begin to sort out and articulate my faith and what I believe about God and Christ. It's hard to make sense out of words like salvation, grace and mercy - but church was the place where I got to hear those words  - how they were used - and begin to figure out what they meant in my own faith journey. 

Please join us for Sunday school  - there are so many memories to be made.