After that, reading and writing were learned on weekdays at school and the Sunday school curriculum was limited to religious education. Nevertheless, many parents continued to believe that regular Sunday school attendance was an essential component of childhood. The trend for permissive parenting in the s, however, meant that a widespread culture of insisting that children go to Sunday school whether they want to or not especially when the parents were not themselves going to church was abandoned.
Sections Home. Bible Coronavirus Prayer. Subscribe Member Benefits Give a Gift. Subscribers receive full access to the archives. Christian History Archives Eras Home. When did Sunday Schools start? For a long time, they were the only way working-class families could receive an education. Current Issue November Subscribe. Read This Issue. To many, its evangelistic and social cause origins remain unknown.
But others continue the tradition of Raikes by using Sunday school to reach beyond the walls of the church to those in need around them. The group also offered free haircuts and legal advice. After that day, Poirrier says her heart was broken for the people there. She immersed herself in a bread ministry already serving the mobile home park. Eventually, she became the leader of Living Bread Ministry and wanted to do more as she saw the overwhelming needs. Many of the children have parents with felony records who cannot find employment.
Much like Raikes centuries earlier, Poirrier saw the needs and wanted to bring the gospel to bear on her community—and it started with helping to educate the children who lived in the mobile home park. The ministry offers Bible studies to the men and women on Saturday and specific year-round activities for the families. Funded solely by donations from Christians, Living Bread Ministries helps those in the area with groceries, medical bills, clothing, car repairs, and school supplies.
Volunteers from Sunday school classes come to a Saturday training and then go into the neighborhood to help people and share the gospel. The Sunday schools were organized by people who found that working-class children required some form of discipline. Sunday and evening schools were established to teach reading, writing, arithmetic and catechsim to the 'deserving' poor: enrollment was decided upon by visits with parents, nominations from subscribers, and individual student applications.
Students were expected to attend school four to five hours per week, and was the only schooling that most working class children ever received. Although originally hailed as a great and noble achievement, Sunday schools constantly struggled for survival:.
Consequently, the schools were financed by subscribers, who were encouraged to nominate children for enrollment. We should be upfront about the differences and work at presenting the appearance of what we are actually doing.
How can we help to encourage mutual learning between the men and the women in the church that trickles down from the ministry of Word and sacrament? This is where I see Sunday school functioning. To be an ally, we have to be equipped to teach. Necessary allies should be competent allies. Women are major influencers in the household of God. We are teaching all the time, most often in many informal ways, just like laymen in the church.
I experience this kind of help and encouragement from the elders in my own church, and it supports and shapes both my learning and teaching. I could write a lot more about that, but sticking to the Sunday school topic, take a look at this conclusion from John Frame offered to me by a reader once in my comments section on the difference between women teaching from the special office in worship, and the general office in Sunday school.
You will see that this presbytery report also agrees that appearances are important. Since I know that Todd, Carl, and I all agree on the necessary contribution of women in the church, the need to equip them well, the special offices of the ministry, and the need to give proper appearances, I found it interesting that our perceptions about the function of Sunday school were really the main issue.
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