Feature Article: Summer 2007
Adult Sunday school
Conversations with pastors
by June Mears Driedger
A challenge for adult Sunday school is how it is perceived, beginning with the name, “Sunday school.”
The state of adult Sunday school reflects the complexity of the Mennonite Church across North America—a broad continuum ranging from enthusiastic support for Sunday school programs to mixed feelings regarding its purpose.
In a series of interviews with pastors from five congregations in Canada and the United States, Leader discovered that adult Sunday school continues to be an important—maybe even essential for some—aspect of life in local congregations.
“Sunday school is for kids!”
A challenge for adult Sunday school is how it is perceived, beginning with the name, “Sunday school.” According to Weldon Nisly, pastor of Seattle Mennonite Church in Washington state, “We call it adult study, not Sunday school,” he says. “’Sunday school’ is considered for children not for the adults.”
Norm Dyck in Graysville, Manitoba concurs: “There is a segment in the church who don’t attend because they think, ‘I went to Sunday school as a child so I don’t need to go now.’” Dyck, pastor of the small, rural congregation says, “ There is a segment of people who just don’t attend, who do not want to participate.”
According to pastor Sylvia Shirk Charles at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship, New York, adult formation is called “bible study,” rather than Sunday school. “Some people have a kind of allergic reactions to certain language,” she says.
But, at First Mennonite Church of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, the Sunday school program is thriving, according to Larry Wilson, pastor. “Adult Sunday school is one of the strengths of this congregation,” he says. “I think 70 percent of the adults in the church participate in Sunday school.”
Multi-staff churches and solo pastor Churches
For the two larger, multi-staff congregations interviewed, one pastor in each congregation gives particular care and attention to adult formation. Ilene Bergen, part of the pastoral team at Steinmann Mennonite Church in Steinmann, Ontario, is, “Pastor of Christian Formation.” She oversees the entire formation program at Steinmann with a committee of lay-people. Clearly though, Christian formation is one of her passions and the vibrancy of Sunday school can be heard in her voice. She describes the adult program as a “moving target”, meaning the number of classes that are held each Sunday can change with the topics. “We have a young adult class, plus three or four alternative classes,” Bergen says. “And we always have a class using the Uniform Bible Series.”
Bergen says Steinmann Church likes to experiment with the length of the alternative classes. “We are not tied to a thirteen week, quarter system. Some times a class will go for five or six weeks,” she says.
One two-month experiment for one of the alternatives is a “pre-sermon discussion class” where they study the texts scheduled for use the following Sunday. “I have found it to be a wonderful class, even though I was little nervous. It has become an excellent sermon discussion class with people digging deeper into the bible,” Bergen says.
This is a place for genuine questioning and longing for the Spirit.
The pastors rotate preaching responsibilities and when their turn is scheduled for the following Sunday, they attend the class, although someone else facilitates the class discussion. “It has helped with pre-preaching planning!” she says. “Questions and discussions from the class definitely influence the upcoming sermon.”
For the alternative classes, the formation committee tries to plug possible teachers into their passions. In the fall 2006, Steinmann had an environmental issues Sunday school class that was well attended and provoked further conversations in the broader congregation.
“We divided it up into three categories, taught by three different teaches for three weeks each,” Bergen said. “We had three weeks focusing on food and eating locally then three weeks on building green and then the final three weeks on energy.”
At the First Mennonite Church of Champaign- Urbana, the Christian Education committee discovered it is easier to find teachers for adults rather than for children or youth. According to Wilson, people often volunteer to teach a quarter length adult Sunday school class about something they feel passionate about studying. “People have all sorts of ideas and will say, ‘I’ll teach if I can teach this.’”
The committee at First Mennonite gives a lot of attention to Sunday school along with associate pastor Cindy Breeze. Recently Breeze compiled a listing of all the adult Sunday school classes for more than a decade. (See sidebar of an abbreviated list from First Mennonite on p. 5)
But for smaller congregations, the responsibility for adult Sunday school often falls to the pastor. Dyck has been teaching The Confession of Faith for three years and will shortly conclude the study.
“It’s been good—I usually write questions to consider in the particular article we are studying and I facilitate the discussion,” Dyck says. “But I’m not sure what we are going to do next.”
Dyck is looking for “curriculum people will enjoy and will work with,” he says. “I’m open to suggestions!”
Creating a safe environment
All the pastors interviewed cited the need for creating a safe place for people to ask hard theological questions and to express their own doubt about God and faith.
In the Seattle Mennonite Church, “We have people on the edge of faith,” Nisly says. “We have people are not sure if they want to be Christians or not.”
Nisly says people don’t come to adult study out of duty or guilt but they participate because “there is something life-giving being offered.”
Wilson wants Sunday school to be “a safe place to raise questions.” He comments on the individuals who attend yet they “aren’t sure about anything but a few years later I see them really responding to the Spirit.
“There is enough room here for everyone. This is a place for genuine questioning and longing for the Spirit and asking, ‘How do I live in the Jesus way in the world?’”
June Mears Driedger is managing editor of Leader