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Teaching Sunday School Replaces Preaching, says Retired Pastor

by Boyce Bowdon

During his 41 years as a United Methodist pastor, Ken Tobler enjoyed preaching. “When I retired in 2003, I expected to miss preparing and delivering sermons every week, but it has turned out I haven’t all that much,” says Rev. Tobler. “I’ve found teaching Sunday school makes up for not preaching.”

He says in some ways he experiences more satisfaction teaching than he had experienced preaching. “I like being able to challenge people to grow in their Christian faith regardless of what stage of development they are in,” he says. “I find that I can challenge more effectively in small groups, like a Sunday school class, than I could when I was preaching from the pulpit.”

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‘We Still Need Sunday School,’ Says Retired Minister

by Boyce Bowdon

When Charles Wells was an infant 84 years ago, his mother took him to the nursery at Lambuth Methodist Church in Oklahoma City and placed him in a crib. “I was practically born in the church nursery and I’ve been in Sunday school ever since,” quips Wells.

He vividly remembers going to Sunday school when he was a child. “The church rang a big bell when it was time for Sunday school. I could hear it two blocks away, and if I wasn’t there yet I knew I was late.”

But the bell is not all Wells remembers from his childhood in Sunday school. “Sunday school laid the foundation for my faith,” he says. “Before I was nine years old, I learned enough to know I wanted to be a Christian and I went down front and joined the church.”

In his youth, Wells suffered a severe leg injury. He had surgeries every summer for several years to correct the damages. While he was a patient at St. Anthony, he already wanted to share his faith with others. “I rolled myself down the hall and went in rooms and got acquainted with patients,” he recalls.

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Methane—an odorless, colorless, tasteless, and lighter-than-air gas—often collects near roofs of coal mines. Miners fear methane for two reasons: It causes deadly explosions and breathing it can kill you.

Before miners used modern-day equipment that detects air quality problems, they took cages of canaries into mines with them. Since canaries are highly sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide, they were the miners’ warning system. As long as the birds were chirping and singing, the miners didn’t worry. But when they became quiet and started swaying on their perches and falling, the miners knew to act quickly.

“Sunday school is like a canary in a coal mine,” says Jim Pledger, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Sherman, Texas. “If the Sunday school is in trouble, the church is in trouble, or soon will be. I know this is true in the Bible-belt, and expect it is elsewhere.”

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by Hyeyun Hong Seo

The teachers were excited! And I could see that there is a bright future for Mongolia!

On one clear Saturday, nearly 100 teachers and prospective teachers from the three United Methodist congregations in Ulaanbaatar (Gerelt, Chingeltei, and Damba) gathered for a Sunday school teachers' seminar led by Jodi Cataldo, a Global Ministries staff member.

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What can the United Methodist Church do to stop declining and start growing again? “Nothing, according to some prophets of doom,” says Jim Pledger, a Texas pastor and former district superintendent. “They say our denomination’s decline is like our country’s national debt. It’s just going to keep getting worse.”

Dr. Pledger disagrees. He admits it would help if we could “make all our ministers younger and brighter,” but he says that’s not doable. He says there is a solution, though, that will turn the denomination around and it is doable.

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“Sunday school is the backbone of our church,” says Chris Barbieri, associate pastor at the United Methodist Church in Sandy Springs, a suburb of Atlanta. “When something needs to be done, we canvas our Sunday school classes because that’s where we find our most active and supportive members,” he explains.

But class members not only faithfully support their 160-year-old church, they faithfully support one another. Rev. Barbieri says some people have been in the same Sunday school class for 50 years or more. “Members are like family to one another.”

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If you are a Sunday school teacher, you don’t want people walking out of class saying to one another, “That was interesting. What’s for lunch?" Chris Barbieri says you want them taking something from the class that will improve their attitudes and actions, their views and values.

How can teachers help class members get more out of Sunday school? How can they get more out of teaching? Rev. Barbieri dealt with those questions in a workshop he taught this past August at a North Georgia Annual Conference training event called “Sunday School and Beyond.”

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David Severe, executive director of South Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church, vividly remembers going to Sunday school when he was growing up in Perry, Oklahoma. “When I was six, my Sunday school class met in the basement at First Methodist. We sat in little red chairs around a U-shaped table. Miss Ligon, our teacher, loved kids, and somehow I came away from that class knowing God loved me.”

Another Sunday school teacher who stands out in Dr. Severe’s memory is Eugene Sweiringen, who taught his 7^th grade class. “Mr. Sweiringen began class every Sunday with the funny papers. We read Flash Gordon, a science fiction comic strip, and he would ask, ‘Do you think that’s possible? After sharing our opinions for a couple of minutes, he had our attention, and we focused on our lesson. If I have any intellectual curiosity, it started in that Sunday school class with Mr. Sweiringen stimulating me to imagine.”

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Andrew Tevington has seen life from a variety of perspectives. He’s a graduate of Oklahoma State University’s School of Journalism and Broadcasting, University of Oklahoma College of Law, and Phillips Theological Seminary in Enid, Oklahoma.

As a journalist, he covered sports, police and city hall before becoming state capitol bureau chief for a metropolitan newspaper. He was press secretary for a U.S. senator and state media consultant for a presidential campaign.

As a lawyer, he was an assistant district attorney, state assistant attorney general, and general counsel for a governor. His focus was civil rights law, including freedom of religion. He is now deputy director for the Public Utility Division of the State of Oklahoma.

A United Methodist minister, Rev. Tevington is pastor of Chapel Community at Church of the Servant (UMC) in Oklahoma City. He is author of a new book entitled Our Faiths: A Peace Offering.

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Who are you? What are you here for? What do you do best? What are you passionate about? What do you value? What are your priorities?

People are finding answers to those questions in an adult Sunday school class at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

by Boyce Bowdon

“For the first seven years of our marriage, my husband and I looked for a church where we could plant roots and really belong,” says Jana Janzen.

Three years ago the couple found what they were looking for: New Covenant United Methodist Church in Edmond, an Oklahoma City suburb.

“Jeff and I like lots of things about New Covenant,” says Mrs. Janzen. “But our Sunday school class is why we chose this church, and it’s one reason we’ve stayed here.”

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by Boyce Bowdon

“We can’t make anybody learn anything. Learning is up to the individual and the Holy Spirit.”

Rod Newman, chaplain at Oklahoma City University, says that’s one of the most important lessons he learned at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he concentrated on practical theology with an emphasis on Christian education.

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by Boyce Bowdon

“If a Sunday school class is going to grow it has to be intentional about reaching new people,” says Jana Janzen, member of a fast growing young adult class at New Covenant United Methodist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Mrs. Janzen says one way the Life Foundations Covenant Community class reaches new people is by marketing the class.

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by Boyce Bowdon

When Diana Cox Crawford was being interviewed for the ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church, she was asked about her spiritual journey. She remembers how she began her answer. “I told the board that I’ve always known I was a child of God, and I am thankful for knowing it!”

Where did she learn she is a child of God? “At home and in Sunday school,” she says. “I grew up in Sunday school and it has been a tremendous influence on me.”

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by Boyce Bowdon

When Frances Ibanez was growing up in Puerto Rico, she went to church nearly every Sunday, but she wasn’t involved in Sunday school until she and her husband moved to America nine years ago. Helping out in vacation Bible school led her to teach a Sunday school class, and after teaching six months she felt God leading her into Christian education ministry.

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by Boyce Bowdon

What happens in Sunday school can impact a child’s spiritual growth, says Rita Hays, author of The Children’s Minister, a new book for pastors, Sunday school teachers and others who work with children. Dr. Hays, associate pastor of Connell Memorial United Methodist Church in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, says Sunday school gives children excellent opportunities for spiritual formation.

Sunday school, Hays points out, is where most children are introduced to Bible stories that can help them see God at work in the lives of biblical characters. “As children think about these stories, they see themselves in the characters and they see God at work in their lives. The stories inspire their imaginations and encourage them to reflect on who God is.”

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“Children ask challenging questions and we may feel inadequate and afraid to answer them,” admits Rita Hays, associate pastor for children’s ministry at Connell Memorial UMC in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.

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