By Rev. George C. Martz

Hebrews 13:8 states, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." But from my experience with Sunday school as a small child, a youth, a Seminary student and now a pastor, I fear that we sometimes equate the Sunday school with Jesus Christ and tend to translate it this way: "Sunday school is the same yesterday and today and forever." If we think about the Sunday school this way – without change – there may be no Sunday school tomorrow.

From its beginning, the Sunday school movement has focused primarily on teaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. And that is the part of Sunday school that needs to be the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Good News of Jesus Christ – that Jesus died for our sins, that he defeated the power of sin and death by rising to eternal life and that through Jesus we have this same hope – is the message that remains the same.

However, the way the content of our faith is expressed or taught is different, or, in my opinion, should be different today than it was yesterday – 40 or 50 years ago. And tomorrow, it will be different than it is today.

As our language changes, as the culture changes and as the images we use change, we need to change not the content of our teaching, but the way we form that content so that a new generation will understand what we teach.

Think also about the way teaching is done. At one time the lecture method was the only way most people taught Sunday school. Later, discussion was emphasized. Another method that was introduced was to combine an activity with Bible reading and discussion. Still another model was called the "Action-Reflection method." This method of learning involved people in a ministry and then had them reflect on the way the Faith related to that ministry. Learning centers were also a way to teach. Teachers would take responsibility for different centers and boys and girls would rotate through the centers. This method could and can also be used by groups across a wide age range. In smaller congregations, tomorrow, we may well see intergenerational learning take place around the learning center method.

In what ways has the teaching method or the form of the message changed in the Sunday school you attend? If you teach, how have your methods changed over the years? What teaching methods do you think will be used tomorrow? What do you think teaching in the Sunday school will look like in the future?

Recently I was watching a TV news show in which a person was asked, "What changes – inventions or creations – have had the greatest impact on our world? The respondent mentioned three. The first was the invention or creation of language. That enabled people to communicate and to understand one another. The second change was the invention of the printing press, which enabled the mass production of important books and writings. It also led to a vast increase in knowledge and education for the average person. The impact this change had on the Christian church was to make the Bible readily accessible to the common person. For the first time, people could read God’s word for themselves. The third change we are in the midst of right now. This change is the knowledge explosion, which is being made possible by the invention of the computer and the Internet. People like me who are in the middle years are a transitional generation. We were raised without the computer or the Internet, but are now becoming knowledgeable about it, adapting to it and seeking to use this tool in the best way we can. Many of our children were introduced to the computer in high school and college and use it proficiently. The use of the computer and the Internet will be second nature to the young people who now have had the computer since childhood. And they will use it in ways that will boggle our minds.

The impact of this change was brought home to me a few years ago when the president of a seminary in the mid-west shared an experience he had when he tried to get his son to read and study the Bible. He gave his son a Bible, but try as he might, he couldn’t get him to read it. One day he stopped at a Christian bookstore and purchased one of those electronic Bibles that you can hold in the palm of your hand. The president of the seminary didn’t know how to use it. However, he took it home. He didn’t say anything about it being a Bible. He simply gave it to his son, saying, "Here is something I think you might like to use." The son took it, began to figure it out and in a matter of minutes was using it. Once he began to use that electronic Bible, his father couldn’t get it out of his hands. They boy learned Bible passages, began to ask his father questions about different passages and studied the Bible in a way the father couldn’t hope to get him to do before.

How many of us have computers? How many of us have computers in our churches? Has the computer had an impact on your Sunday school yet? Since our children use computers at school and at home to learn, should we also use them in our Sunday schools as a tool to help proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ? We are in the midst of a knowledge explosion that hasn’t begun to impact many of our Sunday schools yet. But this explosion will create many changes in the Sunday school of tomorrow.

The content of our teaching – the Good News of Jesus Christ – should not change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. The task of our Sunday schools is to help children, young people and adults learn to know Jesus and the Good News about Him. However, if we are to do that effectively, the way that we teach and the form of our teaching need to change, just as language, culture, images and technology change. I hope these thoughts are stimulating your thinking about the Sunday school of yesterday, today and tomorrow, but particularly for tomorrow.

(This article appeared in the "Winter, 1999-2000" issue of "The Herald.")