What Sunday School Cannot Teach Children About God
Updated: Oct 28
Sunday School has an important role to play.
But we might have made it the surrogate parent when it was only supposed to be a helping hand.
This article is written from the perspective of someone who grew up in Sunday School, had Seminary training in "doing it well", and have led many kids programs - but have found that there are clear limits to what Sunday School can do.
While exploring limitations and weaknesses of typical ministry models, this article will also endeavor to offer helpful alternatives: If Sunday School cannot offer X, what can we do?
May you find space here to pause, reflect, and abide.
Questions for Reflection / Journaling Prompts, before we begin:
How would you describe the goal of Sunday School in 5 words?
What are kids really encountering about God at Sunday School?
Where is your expectation, honestly? What do you expect Sunday School to DO?
What is the role of the parent / guardian of the child in Sunday School?
Looking back on your own childhood, how did you relate to God?
A verse to keep in mind as you read on:
“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” — Deuteronomy 6:7 (ESV)
The Limitations of Sunday School
I am a firm believer in age-specific ministry to and with children.
It's not that Sunday School cannot do anything valuable. It's that there are real limitations to what can happen in any program.
Sunday School is not a suitable replacement for real discipleship with children. It cannot fully satisfy a child's spiritual needs.
There are obvious structural shortcomings to Sunday School, but this article will go beyond them.
Such surface-level limitations include:
The typical class runs anything between 20 to 60 mins. There is only so much time.
There is a lack of continuity with a once-a-week program. And kids often miss a Sunday.
There are very few volunteers trained in classroom management, theology, and child development.
These all play a role, but what I'm talking about is not merely what's wrong with the Sunday School program. I want to talk about what's missing from the way these kids encounter Jesus.
We sometimes ask a Sunday School program to do something no program can do: form an entire life of faith.
What, then, is Sunday School actually for, and how can we help children grow into a faith they can live beyond the classroom?
What are we actually expecting Sunday School to accomplish in a child's relationship with God?
Our aim must never be merely to occupy the kids' time so that the parents can attend church unbothered - it's so much more than that.
It's holding space where kids can truly learn something about God, not a watered-down story from the Bible.
It's not just talking to them ABOUT God, but introducing them TO Him.
Like He's in the room...
Because He is.
At the end of this article, some more opportunities and strengths of Sunday School will be given, for a balanced perspective. But for now, let's get into it:
What Sunday School Cannot Do:
We've often placed Sunday School on a pedestal.
Parents have been led to believe that the Sunday School teacher can do what they cannot.
Pastors have been forced to usher children outside and keep them busy.
The truth is that there is only so much that Sunday School can do - even the very best, most impressive Sunday School!
Sunday School has limitations because it cannot always model faith, it can never replace parents, it fails to teach every spiritual discipline, and it can rarely give every child individual attention.
1/4 Sunday School Rarely Models (It Teaches)
A short program cannot consistently model a whole life of faith.
As a writer of kids church curricula, I'm painfully aware of the limitations in a lesson plan. Even if you have the best Bible lesson ever - there is only so much a lesson can do. Of course, we teach kids about the Bible with as much conviction, passion, and care as possible, but still it sometimes, somehow sounds a little...
e m p t y.
That's because people don't merely learn by listening. Especially not children.
They need to learn by observing and trying it out for themselves.
We cannot do it for them.
A leadership principle I absolutely adore is called MAWL -
Model, Assist, Watch, Leave. When you're learning how to drive: Someone Models it for you and shows you how to do it. Then you do it but they Assist you and tell you what to do differently. After that, they just Watch you do it, sitting quietly beside you, before they Leave and you can do it on your own.
Unfortunately, due to time-constraints and relational limitations, Sunday School barely does any of these 4. It's more often than not a kind of top-down teaching where an adult is speaking (or reading) and children are expected to listen. That's it.
Sunday School is heavily focused on teaching and rarely moves into praxis.
I've learned that it's important to incorporate different elements in your Sunday School program - like a name game, a craft, etc. - Each one of these adds something valuable to your time with the kids. Such little changes can be the differentiator between something else that feels like school and something described as real, relational, and raw.
Alternative:
MAWL for Teaching Kids Prayer: Don't just pray over the kids (Model); offer a repeat-after-me prayer (Assist), or hold space for the children to pray to God in their own words (Watch). That way, they also learn how to pray at home (Leave).
2/4 Sunday School Cannot Replace the Parent's Role
Parents cannot just drop kids off at Sunday School and expect their whole faith to take shape there.
I remember when I was working in full-time ministry how some parents would drop their kids off at the Sunday School sign-in table and walk off, disappearing into the crowd. The kids would stare at me, wide-eyed, unsure of what would happen next...
Some people might not agree with me on this, but a parent is a child's first discipler (the one discipling them - leading them to follow Jesus). The dinner table is the most important place where faith is formed. Not at church; but in the car, the grocery store, or in front of the TV.
Imagine a parent being upset with the school nurse if their kid had a cold. "Why did you not keep them healthy? Isn't that your job?" - Well, technically, it might be the school nurse's responsibility to ensure the kids' health and safety on the schoolgrounds... Of course, we know that it's the parent's responsibility to send a healthy kid to school...
If you work in Sunday School, you might resonate with the frustration expressed here: How am I supposed to teach these kids everything about God they need to know?
That responsibility is immense. And, honestly, it's not yours to carry. In an ideal situation, it would the parent's.
Faith is formed holistically. It cannot be placed in a Sunday-box. It has to be a whole-life event.
A good rule of thumb is: Who brought this kid to church?
And then: How can that person bring this kid to Christ?
Alternative:
Partner with the parents. Talk to parents about what's come up in your time with the kids. Bring them in as co-laborers in the growth of their children's faith. If they're not there yet, consider if it might be part of your role to equip them on how to really disciple children at home.
3/4 Sunday School Cannot Teach All the Spiritual Disciplines
Sunday School teaches only a snippet of spiritual disciplines (and spiritual life).
We pray. We read a Bible story. We might sing a song. Sometimes we play a game.
The things that fit into your tiny gap with the kids on Sundays are important and greatly valued - but they do not replace a whole spiritual life.
When will children learn about things like fasting, worshipping, lamenting, practicing generosity....? When will they learn how to actually read the Bible themselves, how to choose faith in difficult moments, how to bring God their difficult doubts and questions, or how to be in silence and solitude....?
Unfortunately, Sunday School does not give kids the full picture of what it really takes to live as a Christian. There is almost no ownership, individual action, or personal conviction needed.
A child can easily go through the motions of the program without ever pausing to consider how they apply to their real life.
Sunday School is focused on outward, structured, and text-based spiritual habits - but it does very little for the child's personal, deeper, introspective, and complex faith development. Which is (at least in part) why so many 18-year-olds find their faith rather flimsy and fall away from church, forming part of the missing generation.
If children attended Sunday School their whole life, but still don't know Jesus by the time they become young adults - something was missing. And, I suspect, it's not a more expensive curriculum or just more volunteers.
Alternative:
Be honest with the children about what Sunday School is not teaching them. Talk to them about it. Challenge them to practice more elements of a mature faith during the week.
4/4 Sunday School Cannot Give Each Child Individual Attention
The previous point explored why kids need to make that personal choice for God in little Sunday School moments - and this point asks how that is possible.
When you're focused on keeping the calm and putting out fires, you are limited in the kind of ministry you can actually do.
I cannot even count the number of times I've been alone and completely overwhelmed with a large group of kids, ranging from all ages (toddler through to teen). It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't done it, but in that setting your 'mode' changes.
It depends from one person to the next, but I become like a train conductor or flight attendant - "Okay everyone, look at me. What I need you to do next is ____. After that we're going to ____ and then _____. Are you with me? Okay, let's go."
While it is important to keep their attention, communicate clearly, tell them what the plan is, and connect with the group as a whole - something much more important is often lacking: the one-on-one moment, where faith truly flourishes.
Yesterday, I did Sunday School with a much smaller group of only thirteen kids, so I really made an effort to find space to talk to them individually. Even then - someone would tap me on the shoulder wanting to show me their finished craft, ask for something, or tell me what they're doing after church.
In an ideal world, you wouldn't be scheduled alone with a group of kids, but we all know that scheduling Sunday School volunteers is not a task for the faint of heart...
Alternative:
Schedule 1-on-1 time with kids during the week - doing something fun together to grow relationally. or, keep a list for yourself and identify one child to focus on each Sunday - Make an effort to really see them, connect with them, learn something about them.
A Sunday School SWOT-analysis
A SWOT-analysis is a tool used in business and problem-solving to help you see something with astounding clarity. This is how it works:
S - What are the strengths?
W - What are the weaknesses?
O - What are the opportunities?
T - What are the threats?
This article has already named some of the weaknesses and threats - like the limitations there are to teaching (versus modeling), how it cannot replace a parental role, that it teaches only a snippet of spiritual disciplines (and life), and it cannot give individual attention to children.
But - to be fair and balanced - there are also real strengths and opportunities that Sunday School offers. Read about what Sunday School can teach children about God in this other article.
*You can perhaps grab a notepad & pen to make your own Sunday School SWOT brain dump, because mine will differ substantially from yours.
S - Some strengths of Sunday School are...
W - Some weaknesses of Sunday School are...
O - Some opportunities of Sunday School are...
T - Some threats to Sunday School are...
Some examples of strengths and opportunities offered by Sunday School include,
belonging in church family
sharing God with others
learning to take ownership of faith
the value of a group gathering
safety found in numbers
What now?
Read next: What Sunday School CAN teach kids
If you're a parent or grandparent reading this, you might want to go deeper with the idea of truly discipling children at home.
If you're leading a kids ministry or Sunday School, you can read about moving it beyond entertainment or how to partner with parents.
Identifying the weaknesses and limitations of Sunday School might feel uncomfortable, but it's important for us to open up the wound to take out the thing that's hurting us. We need to allow God, the Careful Surgeon, to do a transformative work in how we think about and guide the growth of kids' faith in Him.
Prayer
Lord, when children come to Sunday School, may it be more than a program or an event. Let them experience something of You. Something divine. Something creative. Something beautiful. God, the truth is that You already know each kid better than we do. Would You help us to see what it is each one needs?
And help me to draw not only from my own strength -
as if I could lead anyone to encounters without You. May I always continue to abide in the Vine, Amen.
P.S. If you enjoyed this article and would like to stay in touch, I want to invite you to join my newsletter by leaving your email below. I send a short reflective email once a month, pondering what God is doing in and through me.
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