#4 - History of Children's Ministry - Sunday School

Sunday School started in the late 1780s in England as a response to poorly educated children. The booming industrial revolution left little time for children's education, with many working 6 days a week for 10 or 12 hours a day. Sunday was their day off, which to Robert Raikes, a local churchman in Gloucester, England, meant a window of opportunity. He bootstrapped his way to starting a "school" program on Sundays (to oversimplify), using the Bible to teach children how to read. Within 15 years, some 250,000 kids were in Sunday School. Although other Sunday Schools are on record as having started before Raikes' programs, Raikes is given credit as the one who popularized them.

About forty years later, in 1831, an additional million students were attending Sunday Schools, putting the number up to around 1.25 million. Pretty impressive, as we're talking pre-Internet, pre-telephone, and even the first electric motor only coming about in 1821! Seems like a profound need was being met, indeed.

Well, just like the pencil, sewing machine, and the World Wide Web, the UK arrived at Sunday School before North America (sorry, patriots). The first national U.S. Sunday school effort didn't start until 1817. The American Sunday School Union, then-and-now dubbed "American Missionary Fellowship", formed by that time. Their publishing branch continued using tracts, hymnals, and a reward-system for Scripture memorization for some 150 years. Their name probably stems from sending missionaries -- that is, traveling paid workers -- to other states by horseback to establish Sunday schools and revive dying ones. Through this systematic and intentional growth, Sunday school remains a prominent part of many kids' church experience.

Through this History of CM project we've been looking at the larger Kids Church experience, which hasn't received much documentation - Sunday school, however, is something that many churches have thought about. Type in "Sunday school" on Amazon on you get tons of results on everything from history to inspirational to curricula. It's something church leaders have thought about for a while. However, I suspect that in the next few decades, excitement for Sunday school will decline. I predict it will be something churches start to "fight for", not something that secular America is excited about.

(The following editorial departs from the prior historical stuff, fyi!) I find it super interesting that Sunday School was originally designed to meet a social need. While it quickly evolved into both educational and evangelistic in nature, the heart and soul at the outset seemed to be to establish a method of some kind. A routine. But not a dry routine - a helpful one that would allow for a curriculum. The many teachers I've worked with tell me that curriculum is next to useless without consistent attendance, as the idea is to build upon what's been taught previously. How great that someone saw the need, worked hard to empower kids, and went on to be successful. Best I can tell, Sunday School worked! The state school system in the UK traces their roots, at least in large part, to Robert Raikes. Mission accomplished. It wove itself into the day-to-day lives of children and parents. It wasn't just part of the system; it was the system. Fast forward some decades, labor laws firmly in place, children now in school weekly, and suddenly we have a system that, in my view, has lost its relevance to the majority of secular America. For people who follow Jesus who want to increase their knowledge of the story of the Bible, Sunday School seems like a good fit. The problem for me is I don't know many kids for whom Bible study equates to a vibrant long-term connection with Jesus. The percentage of people for whom this approach is lastingly meaningful is around 15-25%, the stats tell us. So, like, a quarter of attenders in the best case scenario. Perhaps this is the reality because we have a totally reversed reality than the industrial revolution: our kids learn all week long, and then Sunday is their day off (probably Saturday too - though in my house that was chores day). So to take the same industrial-revolution-approach to Sunday church - teach the Bible - doesn't this seem backwards? The needs have changed. The system has changed.

But, I suppose it's probably difficult to unravel something so deeply ingrained in people's minds as to what church should look like - heck, it's been more than 200 years! All to say: I wonder if many churches' rethinking their Sunday school programs is a healthy step.

As an aside: how crazy was it to have been a kid in the industrial revolution! Imagine that... work 6 full days, and then school on Sunday... what a week! Note to self for further reading!! I'm remembering my childhood, playing Street Fighter 2 Turbo and feeling like, "Wow, if I can beat Guile on level 8, now THAT'S an accomplishment..."

Further reading for all my fellow nerdlings:

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5, Source 6 (I love Google Books)

The Surprising Upshot of Opposite Birds.

In a college psychology course a few years back, the teacher said the following: there are two cliche statements people accept to be true about friendships, but we rarely think about them at the same time. 1) Birds of a feather flock together, and 2) Opposites attract. Those are competing thoughts that most people hold to be true, he said, but both aren't true. Studies show that the first one is almost always the winner. Generalizing, but statistically true: people tend to stick with those who are like them, he argued. Having married since then, I think of ways that Annie and I are similar & different. I wonder what you think about this!

One thing Annie and I want to do more is read together. One reads aloud, the other listens, then we trade. The conversations that happen are often more fun than the book, and this time we're reading The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose. He's a college student at liberal Brown University, English major, but switches paths for a semester at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. We're only 15 pages in, but we're excited as our own life stories track a bit with Roose's, but in reverse.

Annie grew up in Very Red City in Very Red State but did college in Iowa City, and I grew up in Houston but did college in Boston. I don't think either of us did that for the cultural experience per se, so I guess our inner dog-ears perk up when we hear of people intentionally jumping ships. That's probably part of what attracts me to music. It's fun to see music evolve as people take their indigenous styles to new regions. With the internet, the evolution sped up drastically, and new hybrids are being formed all the time. I mean, there's a whole documentary (I think it's still on Hulu...) dedicated entirely to mash-ups like this:

I can't help but think this is at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus, at least for Annie and me. We're sold that we're forever enriched by being intertwined with people who have different backgrounds and/or perspectives than our own. As Roose points out, one could travel overseas to find such an experience, but, it also seems that we can finding such people living next door. Plus, Annie and I are slowly coming to terms with the fact that WE are "such people", and for all the emotional messiness and embarrassing moments that may come with the territory, we feel blessed. We've had so many moments in the last month or two where we looked at each other and exchanged the facial expression, "I can't imagine our lives without our closest friends!"

I suppose this sort of unexpected friendship gives me hope that real, lasting change on any number of issues - both personal and world - becomes possible. For example, at iCamp we gave money for water filters to people in Rwanda who need and want it. Or I can remember when a close friend offered to tow my broken car around midnight one time, saving us towing fees, time, and paperwork!

There are times when I've felt blessed to help someone, and be helped by someone. If I were in school writing a paper on "what I want most in life," pretty sure that'd be on the list!

So, here's to grabbing a cup of java with an unexpected friend this week!

iCamp Recap

Last Friday we finished our second annual iCamp. While the name may be trendy, there's no connection to Apple! The "i" simply stands for interact. The idea goes: as we see needs around us both small scale (someone accidentally drops a $5) and large scale (1 billion people without clean water), we become empowered to do something when we interact with those people. It's an entry point into positive change. I'd also pitch that we're particularly empowered when we interact with Jesus - the resourcing, direction, and wisdom he provides is crucial to seeing any lasting change. Here was our schedule @ iCamp this year:

- M-F, 9a-7p

- 9a - Morning chapel

- 10a - Team games/activities

- 12a - Lunch

- 1p - Service projects

- 5p - Dinner

- 6p - Evening chapel

A few memorable moments:

- New to iCamp and our church, "Ted" (I'll call him) was not only the smallest guy, he was possibly the shyest. His default was to hang with adults, and our efforts to redirect him to other kids wasn't gaining much ground. Until Wednesday. Wednesday our team games reflected the gameshow, Minute to Win It, where kids had one minute to complete a challenge. There was one game where no one had succeeded... you can almost hear the movie trailer voiceover, "Many had tried, all had failed." We moved on and neared the end of our day. But Ted decided to give the difficult game a shot. He finished in 26 seconds! As the crowd erupted into uninhibited applause, the activities director hoisted Ted up onto his shoulders, and this was a changing moment for Ted. His confidence rose, and suddenly we found Ted starting impromptu games with others, donating input, and actually commanding other kids (we actually had to reel him back a bit)! So, a hopeful week for him.

- Service projects at several homes, The Safe House, Valley House, the police station, a retirement home, Salvation Army, & Humane Society. Common remarks were, "I didn't know all of this needed to be done!" and "It was fun to see people thankful," and, "Next year let's be sure to bring Round-Up" (that last one may have been from adults.....).

- We collected a daily tithe/offering, 100% of which was donated to 20liters.org. They work to provide clean water solutions primarily to people in Rwanda. From their website, "... water-borne diseases are the leading cause of death globally for children under the age of five, and half the patients in the world’s hospitals are suffering from diseases related to unsafe water." 140 bucks provides 20 people with clean water for 10 years, which was our iCamp target. Second-to-last day, we had around $26. After one final appeal that night, we ended the last day of camp with just over $150!

- Several kids in attendance that were not members of our church (which is where iCamp was held). One even joined us for church the following Sunday - it was fun to see the iCamp kids huddled before service, swapping stories.

- Our fantastic media team put together a recap DVD for parents to take home on the last night. So cool!

- Dunno if I'm allowed to list this, but, I was really helped by our debrief meeting afterwards. Among other very useful suggestions was the idea of flip-flopping our service projects and team game times. The afternoon is 95+ degrees outside, and doing projects in the cooler morning might help. Team games in the afternoon may also help the flow of camp (work first, games last).

So, after tearful good-byes and umpteen stories of things God seems to have done for and through kids, we had such a fun week. I'll join in with the handfuls of kids who chanted excitedly, "I can't wait for next year!"

iCamp

Next week we have our annual iCamp coming up here at my church. It's a camp for 9-12 year olds that we tried for the first time last year. We were originally offering Vacation Bible School and "Kids Kamp". We realized there were something like 12 or 13 other VBS's happening here in Twin Falls alone, and wanted to offer something unique to the community. Kids Kamp was an absolute blast -- I actually had the fun privilege of speaking there one year -- but in 2008 the economy, as we all know, went down the toilet. So we wanted to find a less expensive alternative than Kids Kamp. We were also praying about a way to be hands-on helpful to our local community. iCamp was born, which not only reduced the cost by $200 per child (a plus for, say, the single parent with several children), but gave us a new "in" with nonprofits around town. It gave us the opportunity to help them each of the five days, gives kids a chance to spot needs in our community... and then meet those needs! I couldn't be more excited!

All to say, there won't be a new post next week. And hey, if you're someone who prays, pray for us! We have high hopes for the camp, that it'll actually be a fresh, new experience of God for many kids, and that somehow it'd be a positive turning point for them. Thanks, and I'll post when we return!

#3 - History of Children's Ministry - Jim Wideman & the '70s

It was hard to contain my excitement the day, a few weeks ago, when Jim Wideman agreed to an interview for this project! For the unfamiliar, Jim is an author, leader, consultant, speaker... a man whose opinions are some of the most sought-after in children's ministry ("CM") circles -- seriously, he's been involved in that world for over THIRTY years, has worked at something like 5 churches, one of which is perhaps the single most influential church in seeing CM go from an afterthought to a movement. And as I learned in our interview, his memory for dates, people, places, and a general timeline for CM is, as my Western coworkers would say, "Like a steel trap." Heads up: I could have easily written a blog post about Jim himself, but that info is available in his books, so this post features Jim more as a conduit of information. It'll read more like a narrative about the '70s than a biography of Jim.

Today, CM is an industry, a business. Music, costumes, conferences, books, lighting, stage design -- as far as your imagination (and your budget) goes, there are products being sold. It's clear: there's an overwhelming demand for all things CM. Even just the staggering amount of conversations happening in churches and even blogs, there's a buzz that, as far as we know, is new. It hasn't been around before, which is pretty cool for those of us looking to improve in our CM efforts! But it hasn't always been that way.

In fact, just a few decades ago, the conversation was almost nonexistent. CM itself consisted of kids sitting with their parents during church. As Jim and many others have confirmed, the usual sentiment was, crassly put, "Sit down and shut up." Quite the contrast to today's puppets and pyrotechnics! The thought of a separate church service for kids just hadn't shown up on church leaders' radar yet. As Jim informed, you'd be hard-pressed to find a church of under 1,000 people that even had a children's pastor/director. But everything changed in the '70s.

The '70s was an absolutely explosive decade for CM. Virtually all Protestant churches shifted from a "Sunday School" model to "Kids Church". Let me magnify this shift. The typical adult, church service has the following elements in some order, at some time: worship songs, offering, communion, sermon, and prayer. Sunday school, for our discussion, is an age-appropriate educational format ("class") that kids attend in lieu of the (adult) "sermon", or perhaps in addition to it. "Kids Church", however, is ALL of those adult elements offered to kids, in a separate room, with no parents in the room except perhaps for volunteers. A kid's entire church experience on a Sunday is this separate-from-family experience. It's literally kids-church. The formal name and details changes from church to church, but that new model took prominence in the '70s.

With this format of person-on-stage speaking to an audience came insane production value. Think Michael Jackson's "This Is It!" DVD.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Prepare. Practice. Visually, audibly, kinesthetically enhance the experience. Deliver the experience. ... you know, production value! We could do a whole book on the companies whose bottom-line probably doubled in the '70s (Oriental Trading, etc.) due to CM product sales! Jim, himself, actually invented musical accompaniment to puppet skits, "puppet tracks", around this time.

***

My favorite discovery during my interview with Jim came forth when he brought up Bozo the Clown. CM and nonprofits set the stage for a rather complex counterpoint which surprised me. Nonprofits/parachurch orgs like Focus on the Family, Campus Crusade, and LeSEA Broadcasting Network started offering higher and higher amounts of "Christian culture" to, in a sense, battle the "sinful messages" of secular TV and music. Many provided "family friendly" alternatives to the free-spirited "make love not war" media. I even remember as a child shows like McGee & Me, and Adventures in Odyssey. BUT. While you had church people taking up arms against secular media, CM leaders -- and church leaders in general -- were actually taking their cues from secular culture on how to do church better! CM leaders took notes on teaching methods from Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, Bozo the Clown, etc.! Such shows were successfully using creative methods to teach vowels and consonants - so churches adopted these to teach Bible stories. You can still find this today - I even attended a conference in March where the opener was a pyrotechnically enhanced version of Katy Perry's "Firework" sung by the worship band. This juxtaposition of battling the content while adopting the methods is absolutely fascinating. One of the first "children's evangelists", they were called, to capitalize on this was Von Saum, a.k.a. "Captain Hook", who took his name right from the Peter Pan story.

So, like, the interview was choc-full of information. But the key question I had for Jim was, "What need was children's church trying to meet? Why did it suddenly enter so many people's thoughts as a thing to do?" His answer was totally surprising and, much like your favorite (or, maybe, your least favorite) episode of American Idol, we'll find out the answer next time! (The sound of cyber-tomatoes whizzing by my ears suddenly fills the room...)