my 'baggage' with Sunday School and Preachers...

wil

wil

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My family moved a bit as a kid.... So I lived in a number of different cities and a number of different states....when we would arrive my mother would find a church by talking to her co-workers and visiting...she wasn't stuck on any one denomination....so we attended various churches...

the biggest issue I had as a kid is... 'ya gotta have faith' ...and 'ya just gotta believe'... well I didn't quite buy the stories, they didn't make sense so I asked questions... I was considered a troublemaker in church for asking questions of teachers n preachers...

so by fifth or sixth grade I was done... I came back and joined a church youth group (for the girls) when I was in 10th grade... still had the same questions, still irritated the counselors and preachers with them. Found out the reason my dad never went was the same. He'd go once with my mom...ask the preacher, "Why can't we have a QnA after the sermon?" the preacher would tell him to ask in private, schedule an appointment. My dad's viewpoint was, if he had a question, others might have the same one...and he wanted to hear what others asked as well...

Well it didn't happen.

So at the church I attend today.... the kids can ask any question they want.. and we all discuss, look up scripture, read together and find answers.... AND I posed the same to my preacher and got him to set a once a month "ask the preacher" session... about 20% of our congregation stays for another hour once a month... and only an hour because we cut it off...
 
wil said:
So at the church I attend today.... the kids can ask any question they want.. and we all discuss, look up scripture, read together and find answers.... AND I posed the same to my preacher and got him to set a once a month "ask the preacher" session... about 20% of our congregation stays for another hour once a month... and only an hour because we cut it off...
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When I was younger the priest at my church agreed to the same sort of Q&A session with the kids in CCD, but after it went on for over three hours, he never held another Q&A session. I like the idea of setting a firm time limit.
 
StevePame said:
When I was younger the priest at my church agreed to the same sort of Q&A session with the kids in CCD, but after it went on for over three hours, he never held another Q&A session. I like the idea of setting a firm time limit.
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We have wide open questioning during sunday school with the kids... the preacher sessions are for adults... that and our weekend retreats twice a year... those that go there have the opportunity to discuss not only the nuances of the weekends topic, but darn near anything in an open forum for hours on end... and even corner the preacher during meals.
 
wil said:
the biggest issue I had as a kid is... 'ya gotta have faith' ...and 'ya just gotta believe'....
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Man, you were lucky! You wanna try the nuns at a Catholic Sunday School of my childhood. :confused: (Cue Monty Python sketch ...)

wil said:
I came back and joined a church youth group (for the girls) when I was in 10th grade... still had the same questions, still irritated the counselors and preachers with them.
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LOL. Probably cos they sussed why you were there. :cool:

wil said:
So at the church I attend today.... the kids can ask any question they want..
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Maybe you're showing your age, chum. My experience is that everyone else has moved on as well.
 
I don't know, in 85 when i was in Alaska, I tried a couple of churches... couldn't take it there either...

Catholic schools.... shortest way home in third grade was through a Catholic School playground....every now and then we'd encounter some 5th or 6th year bullies who would come at us in their ties and uniforms...we'd run...one day they caught us by cornering us down a dead end in the buildings...we was just about to get an ass whoopin when a nun came out...grabbed the two by the ears and hauled them off... I've got mad respect for the nuns...
 
wil said:
I don't know, in 85 when i was in Alaska, I tried a couple of churches... couldn't take it there either...
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LOL, That was thirty years ago ... man! Now you're beginbning to sound like me!

wil said:
... I've got mad respect for the nuns...
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I had an aunt who was a nun. I was at a Christmas party once, and she was no leave and came to pay her brother (my dad) a visit. So she came with us. One of the guests, a great laugh and a steotypical hard-drinkin', hard-fightin' northerner went pale and left the room ... he came up after and told my folks he didn't mean to be rude, but he had bad memories of being beaten as a kid...
 
Yes at the time corporal punishment was legal in public school and administered at will (and at wil).... but the Catholic School kid stories...

And yeah, I'd like to think changes are being made... But as I am happy in my church... I'm not visiting much else.
 
wil said:
My family moved a bit as a kid.... So I lived in a number of different cities and a number of different states....when we would arrive my mother would find a church by talking to her co-workers and visiting...she wasn't stuck on any one denomination....so we attended various churches...
Click to expand...

My family stayed in one area: the Bible Belt.

the biggest issue I had as a kid is... 'ya gotta have faith' ...and 'ya just gotta believe'... well I didn't quite buy the stories, they didn't make sense so I asked questions... I was considered a troublemaker in church for asking questions of teachers n preachers...
​
I was too afraid to ask questions publically.

so by fifth or sixth grade I was done... I came back and joined a church youth group (for the girls) when I was in 10th grade... still had the same questions, still irritated the counselors and preachers with them. Found out the reason my dad never went was the same. He'd go once with my mom...ask the preacher, "Why can't we have a QnA after the sermon?" the preacher would tell him to ask in private, schedule an appointment. My dad's viewpoint was, if he had a question, others might have the same one...and he wanted to hear what others asked as well...​

Well it didn't happen.​

Great idea!

So at the church I attend today.... the kids can ask any question they want.. and we all discuss, look up scripture, read together and find answers.... AND I posed the same to my preacher and got him to set a once a month "ask the preacher" session... about 20% of our congregation stays for another hour once a month... and only an hour because we cut it off​

For many churches Sunday School is the Q&A session. The problem here is how do you get people to think outside the steeple? Most churchgoers are disconnected from modern biblical scholarship. No. From my experience most churchgoers are uninterested in today's biblical scholarship.
 
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Ahanu said:
For many churches Sunday School is the Q&A session. The problem here is how do you get people to think outside the steeple? Most churchgoers are disconnected from modern biblical scholarship. No. From my experience most churchgoers are uninterested in today's biblical scholarship.
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Other teachers get riled up over kids and their cell phones... with various bible sites, I keep my kids busy looking up scripture or definitions.. rather than having a bible in their hand and looking at their cell phones under their desk...I've got them on bible gateway all with different versions as we read or discuss... they start searching on their own for commentary and associated passages...

how scripture relates to their lives...at home and in school keeps them interested...
 
So your church doesn't share a common bible?
 
There is the recommended version....NRSV... but with the kids I have a teen study bible, a couple NRSVs, KJV, NKJV, the Message, Llamsa, and a few more...but online gives them a plethora... they can discuss the differences and whether the language makes them feel different about the text...provides them with not only a number of bibles, but a number of commentaries as well...and links to history of the time...who was in power, what was going on...it makes for good conversation...getting 12-18 year olds focused and staying on topic in discussions is great...so into the discussion that the parents have to come seek them out is awesome.
 
I never much saw the point of Sunday School. 9 times out of 10, the person conducting the classes is no more qualified to do so than anyone else. Let each parent take responsibility for their own child and address their spiritual needs and concerns.
 
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Namaste Jesus said:
I never much saw the point of Sunday School. 9 times out of 10, the person conducting the classes is no more qualified to do so than anyone else.
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Too true. In the UK there are catechetic classes to teach how to do catechetics. I'm qualified as I've got the same formal education as a Catholic priest (a BA in Catholkic theology). In fact the catechetic training model established at Maryvale where I studied has been exported to the US.
 
Namaste Jesus said:
I never much saw the point of Sunday School. 9 times out of 10, the person conducting the classes is no more qualified to do so than anyone else. Let each parent take responsibility for their own child and address their spiritual needs and concerns.
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9 outta 10 parents use sunday school as babysitting while they are in church service for a length of time beyond the tolerance of the childs attention and behaviour.
 
wil said:
9 outta 10 parents use sunday school as babysitting while they are in church service for a length of time beyond the tolerance of the childs attention and behaviour.
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I remember kneeling my way through the Latin Mass every Sunday. hated it then. Love it now.

My childhood parish used to do a children's service. The priest would rattle through at a rate of knots!

At the family service at the Priory today (a happy-clappy affair), the kids go out after the Introductory. They have their own story-based service, rather than them sit through the long middle section – Liturgy of the Eucharist – and then come back and rejoin their parents for Communion and the Blessing. It makes sense to me.
 
I wrote a fairly long post here but decided against posting it. In the writing of it, though, I realized I still have quite a bit emotional baggage from my time in church. This was a mainstream protestant denomination, small to medium sized congregation and growing. At the time I joined the original pastor had resigned and a new one had been voted in. After the church began to struggle, he invited some pastor friends of his over to preach revivals.

Looking back, the type of preaching I was under might be described as fundamentalism on steroids. :) Really, I can't even type this without it all flooding back in on me again. Just like it was yesterday, the palm-sweating high pressure revival meetings, the warnings concerning backsliding, (God is long suffering, but He will eventually kill you if you don't get right), the Job's friends cause and effect hammering on those who have lost their early, young Christian consolations.

The mixture of law and grace, preachers with just enough of the spirit to be powerful, just enough of the self to be deadly. One on one, they were not bad men to talk to. They had wives, sons and daughters who they loved and who loved them. They were respected in their communities. Good works. Good men, by all human standards.

Long story short, that was the crucible wherein I exhausted everything I had, all my efforts at being a good Christian. I guess everyone has a breaking point, when they know there's nothing else they can do. When I reached that point, I fell. My next view of the Christian life was from "outside the camp", where I am now. More of a desert/dark night experience.

I don't attend any services of any kind.
 
I was sent off to Vacation Bible school once, at age 6, I think, mostly to appeased some older cousins, who were teaching it. I made such a fuss about going on the second day, after the negative stuff on the first day, my mother relented and let me stay home. I think Dad was feeding me his strong agnostic/atheist juice under the table, and was secretly pleased. That stuff had a kick. That was my one and only experience with it. Vacations were for going barefoot, making treehouses, and swimming in the river, not for more school!
 
One day I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep, so I turned on the TV. Nothing on in the mornings around here, but infomercials and TV preachers. So I settled for one of the preachers and started listening. The Pastor had such a pleasant manner about him, I stayed up for the entire show. I felt so good afterward I decided to watch the next preacher show as well. As it turns out, this Pastor was reciting the very same Bible passage as the first. This time however, I turned the show off withing the first 3 minutes. The first Pastor presented the text in such an uplifting and inspirational way that I wanted to hear more. The next fellow however, screamed the entire thing! Had that been my first exposure to Christianity I would'n't be a Christian today.
 
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