By Rod Pry

In the current issue of "Group" magazine (September 1990) there is an excellent article by the magazine’s publisher, Thom Schultz, entitled "Squelching Talk Of The ‘Good Old Days’." Although the article is written about youth groups, as I read the article I realized that you could very easily apply the same message to the Sunday school.

In his article, Mr. Schultz says, "Looking back, if allowed to continue unchecked, can hinder and even destroy a good youth group." Substitute the words "Sunday school" for the words "youth group" and you have a statement that is just as true. It’s correct that many Sunday schools did have a larger attendance, more children and youth and found it much easier to recruit teachers and leaders "in the good old days." It becomes very easy to look back and start comparing ourselves to the past. But, it is important for us to realize the destructiveness of this approach to today’s Sunday school.

Before we start comparing the Sunday school of today with the Sunday school of the past, we need to realize that comparing the two is, to a large degree, like comparing apples and oranges. The Sunday schools of today and the Sunday schools of the past are different because people are different, society is different, work schedules are different, the number of family members working is different, competition for free time is different, and on and on the changes can be listed. It’s also true that the way people view the church and the value of Christian education has also changed.

We’re not saying that all these changes are good. In fact, many of the trends in today’s Sunday schools are quite alarming, but still we need to look at the people of our community and try to make the Sunday school fit the needs of today, not the needs of the past.

There are also many positive things that we have today that the Sunday schools and Sunday school teachers of the past could never benefit from. Modern teaching tools like video, the abundance of self-help and reference books available today, modern graded curriculum materials, curriculum electives and many others give us many advantages over the Sunday schools of the past.

Goals for our Sunday schools are important. But remember, set your goals based on where you are now and where you want your Sunday school to be tomorrow, not on where it was 10, 20 or 50 years ago.

(This article appeared in the "Fall, 1990" issue of "The Herald.")