We thought it would be best for me (Mr. P.) to respond to your husband’s question earlier question about Sunday school and at the same time to respond to your last comment. Could I trouble you to pass this response on to him? Many thanks in advance, and many thanks for all your good thoughts and comments! Keep them coming!

There’s nothing in scripture that forbids Sunday School. Period. To the contrary, many people have gotten their first exposure to God’s word from a Sunday school class. My own mother received the Lord under the leadership of a Sunday School teacher – her parents would send her to Sunday School, but they wouldn’t go to church themselves. My Mom’s new-found testimony had an effect on my grandparents, and the whole family eventually came to Christ. My grandfather was soon on fire for the Lord, and before his untimely passing from a heart attack, was a fervent evangelist, a veritable hound-of-heaven, doggedly pursuing the lost. All this from the work of a Sunday School teacher.

So, here’s a quiz:

Is Sunday School:

A. Good
B. Bad
C. Redeemed

?

Paul noted that “all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient”. We praise God when he uses anything to His glory, and we praise God without reservation and without exception for all the Sunday School teachers who are out there laboring to bring kids and families to Christ. Sunday School was certainly “expedient” for my mother and is a God-send for many other kids whose parents don’t know the Lord.

But what if my grandparents had known the Lord? What if they were the ones who had led my mother to Him? What if they were in the driver’s seat for her early spiritual education? Which would have been a greater opportunity, the ability to send their kid to Sunday School, or their ability to directly guide and affect her spiritual growth as she learned with them in the meetings?

For those of us today that already know the Lord and desperately want to raise our kids for Him, the idea of farming out the spiritual education of our kids can be abhorrent. Our five-year old is perfectly capable of understanding the same spiritual lessons Mrs. P and I need to ponder, and the younger kids need the discipline of learning how to learn with their family. If our kids are capable of growing and learning WITH US (and even sometimes of helping us to learn) then that’s right where we want them.