Dare we change Sunday School?
Change or Die. Dare To Change are titles of recently published books and articles. Its true that the only hope for the future of any Sunday school is the ability to change what is already being done?
The reaction of many Sunday school leaders to the word change is a good illustration of how we almost unthinkingly adopt popular buzzwords. The word change leads us to believe it is progress, innovation, the future. Resistance to change is old fogy, stubborn, ignorant, and detached from reality. We forget that the central biblical truth is a blend of change and continuity.
When the trends indicate that the more culturally relevant ministries are reaching secular people and many established denominations are declining, isn’t it logical to blame our traditional approaches and to champion change?
The tendency is to blame previous generations for not following biblical guidelines in keeping religious values and Sunday school practices alive for their children. Traditions do not cause our own children and young people to leave the church. We lose them because we do not get them connected to the right traditions in living, meaningful ways.
And change will not keep them. The paradox is that children do not like change. They will cling to a ragged old stuffed animal. Young people quickly form traditions that are important to their sense of identity.
In this way people are like plants. If you cut off their roots, you leave them little hope for the future. The idea is compatible with Scripture. Detached from the past, people become alienated. They lose the sense of belonging.
Everything can seem irrelevant or phony.
There is a tendency to believe that people resist change for mostly negative reasons. The truth is a variety of reasons, some who cling to the past are fearful; some are lazy or complacent; some are reluctant to give up power; some are jealous of younger innovators.
But before we jump to the conclusion that all resistance to change is bad or irrational, let’s consider some reasons why we may fail to get support for changes in Sunday school we propose.
- Jumping into cultural fads and assuming that anything new is better.
- Thoughtless depreciation of previous procedures in ways that slight contributions of previous Sunday school teachers.
- Communication problems. Pushing a proposed change without adequate and appropriate explanation of need for the change, details of implementation, and expected outcomes.
- Believing that resisting persons are just against change, when actually they may be acting on the basis of real knowledge and experience, honest judgment, reluctance to jeopardize biblical principles, or genuine understanding of some flaws and dangers in the proposed change.