Sermon for Sunday School

Introduction

Sunday School is important not because it is Sunday School, but because of the function it serves. Growth and maturity. Reaching Teaching & Transforming Lives.

This is one of the major purposes for the Sunday School organization. We age grade Sunday School classes and assign each class the responsibility of reaching people in that age range. Youth reach youth. Children reach children. Young adults reach young adults.

Let me ask each Sunday School class a question. When was the last time your class welcomed a new member? Is your class concerned about reaching new people? When a new person comes do you reach out to them and make them feel welcome? If we are not careful our Sunday School class can become a glorified social club or a Holy huddle.

Let me ask each individual in this room an important question. How many people are you cultivating for Jesus Christ? How many lost people can you call by name that you are praying for?

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Sunday Schools

Sunday Schools. Schools, mainly for children, in which instruction, now primarily religious instruction, is given on Sunday; they are usually held in conjunction with a parish or congregation. Although there are isolated earlier examples of schools for poor children on Sundays, the movement owed its success to Robert *Raikes (q.v.), who, along with the local incumbent (T. Stock), engaged four women in 1780 to instruct the children of *Gloucester in reading and the Church Catechism on Sundays. Partly owing to the publicity which Raikes gave to the enterprise in his Journal, his example was soon followed elsewhere, both in Europe and America. Most schools at first used paid teachers. In England two national societies were founded on an interdenominational basis: the Sunday School Society (1783) to give financial support to individual schools and the Sunday School Union (1803) to help to provide books and materials. Most schools, however, were locally supported and after the early 1800s interdenominational co-operation tended to be replaced by denominational rivalry. There were also disputes about clerical and ministerial control and over the teaching of writing and other ‘secular’ subjects on Sunday. Some schools, independently of the Churches, developed into important centres for working-class culture and selfimprovement, though frequently under middle-class supervision.

With the increase of general education in the 19th cent. the Sunday Schools devoted themselves more exclusively to religious education. Partly as a result of the *Oxford Movement, there grew up a desire among Anglicans to introduce more specifically C of E teaching, and in 1843 a new society, the Sunday School Institute, was formed. It was incorporated into the *National Society in 1936.

As standards of education advanced after the 1870 Act, more education was needed for the Sunday School teachers, who, from c. 1840, were mainly voluntary workers. Under the auspices of the Sunday School Union a training college for teachers was founded in 1907 at Selly Oak, Birmingham (Westhill); the Sunday School Institute opened St Christopher’s College, Blackheath, in 1909 for similar purposes. This latter has become the St Christopher’s College Education Trust, which exists to promote religious education. In 1966 the (National from 1921) Sunday School Union became the National Christian Education Council.

The Sunday Schools of the C of E are partly organized on a diocesan basis; those sponsored by the National Christian Education Council are on a national basis. The Church of England Board of Education and the National Society offer advice and material assistance.