Whatever you call it — Sunday school, life groups, Bible study, or a name unique to your own congregation — the gathering together of people in small groups is central to the process of producing mature and effective disciples of Christ.
“Unfortunately, I never attended Sunday school much growing up,” says Brandon Martin of First Baptist Church of North Myrtle Beach. “I now see the importance of some sort of small group within the church. Sunday school is vital in the spiritual growth of a believer. It is where church discipleship takes place.”
Martin, along with other Courier readers, recently responded to our online request to share with us their thoughts about Sunday school. A significant portion of the 29 readers who responded — 78 percent — said their churches still use the term “Sunday school” to describe their small groups, although there was some overlap with terms like “small groups” (25 percent), “Bible study” (32 percent) and, to a lesser degree, “home groups,” “life groups” and “disciple groups.”
Most respondents — 39 percent — said they are members of small churches; 32 percent represented medium-sized churches and 21 percent were from self-described large churches.
Several readers fondly recalled Sunday school teachers who impacted their lives for the better.
“My life was greatly influenced by my junior high school boys Sunday school teacher,” said Ken Jernigan of Calvary Baptist Church in Neeses. “He only had about a fifth-grade education and was a poor reader, but he loved the Lord and loved us boys and demonstrated that in so many ways.”
“I scarcely remember any lesson from the quarterly from which he taught, but I have long remembered how he made Jesus real to me in his words and deeds. I’m now 63 years old and have been a pastor for 32 years — in large part because of the influence of this godly man.”
Shirley Mahy of Fountain Inn First Baptist Church recalled that her childhood teachers were “loving and kind.” “I remember the lessons they lived and how Jesus was visible in their lives,” she said. Likewise, her present-day Sunday school teacher has created a “cohesive ‘loving family’ in our class that supports each other through life’s crises.”
Robert Ray, of Friendship Baptist Church in Barnwell, said his youth class teacher’s way of teaching and his lifestyle influenced him greatly. “He lived what he taught,” said Ray.
Betty Coats of New Beginning Church in Waterloo, a Sunday school teacher herself, said her childhood teacher served as her mentor. “Starting Sunday morning off in Sunday school makes the day, and it makes me want more of the Bible,” said Coats.
Robert Yarborough, a member of Grace Fellowship Church in Anderson and a retired police officer, said his life was influenced by his teachers. “I am sure that Sunday school was instrumental in my decision to accept Christ as my savior,” he said.
“My parents always made sure I was in Sunday school, and I have always made sure that all of our children were in Sunday school, also,” he said. For nearly 30 years, Yarborough and his wife were foster parents and helped care for more than 150 children.
Today a teaching assistant in a high school, Yarborough said he sees “so many kids that obviously have not had the benefit of Sunday school.”
“They seem to lack the peace and understanding of how to get along with their fellow man, which is taught so clearly in the Bible,” he said. “What a shame it is that so many families are neglecting the tremendous benefit of a good church life in a true Bible-believing church.”
Several readers, including Charlotte Bratcher of Belton, described how growing up in Sunday school meant memorizing sizable portions of the Bible. “I had a teacher who encouraged us to memorize Scripture verses, and we all learned the 10 Commandments,” Bratcher said. “I have special memories of her to this day, and that was 60-something years ago.”
When Larry Gunter, pastor of Grove Station Baptist Church in Piedmont, was a boy, his Sunday school teacher used a line of train cars to encourage her students to learn a “train” of Bible verses.
“At the end of the train, the teacher gave me a Bible with my name engraved,” Gunter said. “It was so competitive to see the train of all the students each week, growing and wrapping around the room. The Bible was the ultimate prize.”
Deborah Murrell said the Bible verses she memorized in Sunday school and Sunday night Training Union still serve her today. “I learned to memorize Scripture, to ‘hide it in my heart,’” said Murrell, who now lives in Louisville, Ky., but once served on the staff of Taylors First Baptist Church. “Many times throughout my adult life, I have pulled on those verses I learned as a child — verses of obedience, promise, hope, courage and prayer.”
Today, Murrell teaches a class of mature adults. “Many of them no longer can attend, so we bring in our cell phones and call them with a ‘live lesson’ each Sunday morning,” she said. “This continues the social aspect of Bible study, and it keeps them engaged in studying and sharing God’s Word together.”
While most readers expressed warm feelings about their childhood Sunday school experiences, not all felt the same after they became adults.
One reader related the story of how, when she was in her 20s, she was put into classes with people 50 years or more her senior simply because she was an unmarried adult. “I was not allowed to go into a class with married people my own age,” she said. She now attends a different church and is in a Sunday school class with a cross-section of people — “men, women, singles, married, parents, grandparents, not-yet parents, and never-been parents.”
“It is a very welcoming experience,” she said. “Our Sunday school is used as a way to make personal connections with people and to minister. We are also pretty in-depth in our Bible study, which is a wonderful way to grow.”
Another respondent noted that even though most churches have moved toward the idea of small groups, his church has Sunday school classes “with upwards of 50 regular attenders.” He said the larger classes could be divided into “about four or five” groups.
One reader said his Sunday school class “regretfully” tends to bog down in discussing politics.
Another reader declined to call his church’s Sunday school “successful,” instead describing it as “stagnant and comfortable, both words that any church or business does not want to hear.”
“I see the need for training for teachers, directors and outreach leaders,” he continued, “but also for pastors and staff who either do not know or have forgotten that Sunday school was created for evangelism. When it performs at its peak, Sunday school can literally grow a church — spiritually, most importantly, and, in turn, physically.”