Single Serving Sunday School

Sunday School classes are interesting animals. While the relationships within them continue week to week, class to class and, sometimes, year to year, the lessons themselves do not. We can expect students to recall and connect points from day to day but week to week is a stretch. Aside from the valuable time it takes to recap previous points like a soap opera introduction (last week on As the Church Turns...) there's the insular, secret and unwelcoming aspect to trying to link lessons from week to week. It gives newcomers one less thing they can be comfortable about. Anyone who was there, but doesn't remember the lesson is in the same boat.

However, every lesson doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. No need to start over from scratch every Sunday as if no one has ever been there before. There is great power and importance to ritual and consistency in things like how the classroom is set up, the flow of the lesson and what we do every time we meet. Those who are in the know can find a role in sharing these rituals with newcomers as a way of welcoming them in and including them.

Keep it simple. Keep it open. Keep it warm. Sunday School is not a secret society. It is not a clubhouse. It is an open space for all that come. Kids are cliquish enough on their own without us reinforcing those negative behaviors and helping them exclude.

Single Serving Sunday School is a way of welcoming in, creating a culture of inclusion while teaching, leading and shepherding children into the Kingdom of God.