Overview

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Overview

• Session 1 History Modern Practice
• From Exodus to the 21st Century

• Session 2 Survey Returns
• Survey returns analysis (charts and graphs)

• Session 3 4 - Theology
• Discussion on original sin
• The nature of conversion
• Faith development

• Session 5 - Sociology
• Raikes England
• State of the church ... Now and Then
• Status of the child ... Now and Then
• Prevailing cultures ... Now and Then

• Session 6, 7 8 - Practice
• Analysis of the four projects
• Ethnography of one of the projects
• Details of communication section

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Conclusion of Philip Cliffs PhD Sunday School
teachers cannot do for parents what they must do
themselves. The classroom is no substitute for
the family. (1986, p.322)
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?????? (bah-ith)
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??????????? (mish-paw-khaw)
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Time of huge change
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Child Evangelism
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Robert Raikes and the Sunday School Movement
Methodology
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Robert Raikess Letter to Richard Townley 1783
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STOP THINK REFLECT STOP THINK REFLECT

• On a scale of 1 to 10 rate your churchs
  involvement in the following areas
• Bahith immediate family
• Mish-paw-khaw wider community
• Child Evangelism reaching the
• unchurched
• 2. When you look out of your window (physically
  or with eyes of faith) what do you see?

STOP THINK REFLECT STOP THINK REFLECT

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What did Raikes Create?
Raikes was about more than teaching people to
read, his philanthropic endeavours were fuelled
by a belief that, Vice is preventable. He
eventually concluded, vice is preventable, begin
with the child. Harris (1885, p.52)
What is also clear is Raikes did not set out to
use this methodology of evangelism in his Sunday
Schools. This is something Raikes stumbled into
experientially, not through design.
No one was exempt from catechism. (Harris,
1890, p.40)
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Q. Did the world make itself? A. No, if that
clock had a maker, much more the whole world had
a maker. Q. Why must you believe in God? A.
Because if we do not believe in him, I should
deny and forget my Maker, and be without God in
the world, like those who spend their money in
the public houses while their wives and
children are without bread Q. How do you
prove there is a God? A. 1st by common sense
2nd by our conscience 3rd by tradition 4th by
the Sabbath 5th by the Scriptures. Q. How
do you prove the truth of the gospel or that
Jesus Christ was the son of God? A. By the
miracles that he wrought and the prophecies that
were fulfilled. Q. Have you any additional
proof of the truth of Christianity? A. It was
spread and established in the earth by a few poor
men, in opposition to the prejudices and
passions of mankind. The first preachers of
Christianity therefore must have been assisted
by the power of God.
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And why are we Interested?
In his letter to Mrs Harris of 1787 Raikes
comments that the Sunday Schools had expanded so
quickly that attendance now numbered 250,000.
By 1788, the Sunday School Society quoted
300,000 attendance in their annual report.
Currie, Gilbert and Horsley (1977, p.25) record
that in 1800 there were 1,230,000 adults in
church, by 1830 there were 1,958,000
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Into the 20th Century
Figures from Currie, Gilbert and Horsley (1977)
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Professional Teachers
Mr Nisbet, one of the founder members of the
Sunday School Union would rise at 4am to study
the necessary chapters which had been appointed
as the lessons for the next Sunday, aiding his
study with reference to Matthew Henrys
commentary. Watson (1833, p.76)
Booth (1980, p.80) refers to the recruitment of
Mrs Critchley who had been, prevailed upon by
Raikes to open a Sunday School. Because, Mrs
Critchley, was previously a regular school
mistress and known for her ability to cope with
rough boys.
The changes of the last thirty years or so have
affected our school buildings considerably, and
they have affected the scholars very largely but
I have grave doubts whether they have affected
our teachers to the same extent. West London
Auxiliary Annual Report (1896, p.68)
Orchard (2007, p.11) comments, By 1796 the
Methodists were still paying teachers on the
grounds that a purely voluntary system was not
reliable.
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By the year 2000, Brierley (2000, p.109) noted
six key issues regarding Sunday Schools 1.
Fewer people willing to teach on a regular basis
2. Adults attending less frequently and when
they do they prefer to be part of the adult
congregation. 3. Sunday School teachers are
unsure how to communicate to todays children.
4. Many adults do not know their Christian
faith well, but still teach children. 10 5.
Those who do teach give up after short periods.
6. The volunteers teaching on a rota system and
seeing the children infrequently are common.
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Young People as Leaders
On my first visit to the Slough Windsor Project
I noted Paul is not here today, but the
morning will follow the same routine. Luke, the
co-leader of the Slough and Windsor Project,
calls the team together. He explains the theme of
the day. Today they will be teaching the children
that they should not follow others in doing wrong
and if they stand for what is right, God will
bless the them. Luke has been working for this
project since he was a teenager. He is now in
his early 20s.
When I talked to Miriam, one of the leaders at
the Fraserburgh Project , who came through the
junior leader programme, she commented Ive been
here since it started. I was 11 when it started
1996. I was one of the children. When I went to
academy secondary school I became a junior
leader. And you are a junior leader until you are
16. A junior leaders responsibility is to sit
besides the kids, they are training for becoming
a leader, they are showing their potential. I got
to do the actions at the front, I got to help
with the games, I got to do some teaching and I
came early and set up and got to stay at the end.
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Recruit to a Vision
The Liverpool Project website stated, This is
all about sharing Jesus with some of the neediest
and most vulnerable children in our city. The
Leeds Project website stated, Our vision is to
reach children aged 4 to 11 with the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Bernie the leader of the Leeds Project
stated When I look for childrens workers, I
look for people who have a heart for the lost, a
heart for the broken people and people who love
God and thats all I need!
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Training
The largest Childrens Outreach Projects place a
high emphasis on training, 92 of the projects
reaching more than 100 children had been to at
least one training event in the last twelve
months.
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REWARDS, PRIZES, INCENTIVES
I encourage them she said by little bribes of a
penny a Section to get by heart certain
fundamental parts of Scripture. Those who attend
four Sundays without intermission receive a
penny. Once in every six to eight weeks I give a
little gingerbread. Once a year I distribute
little books according to merit. Those who
deserve most get a Bible. Second-rate merit gets
a prayer bookthe rest, cheap repository
tracts (Young and Ashton, 1956, p.240).
These little ragamuffins have taken it into
their heads to frequent the early morning prayers
which are held at the Cathedral at seven o
clock. I believe there were nearly fifty there
this morning. They assemble at the house of one
of their mistresses and walk before her to
church, two and twothe Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge sometimes make me a present
of a parcel of Bibles which I distribute as
rewards for the deserving. Raikes letter to
Townley (1783)
Although the Bishop of Rochester was clearly not
an advocate of this particular practice and
commented in the Gentlemans magazine (1800,
1076-8) The poor are even bribed by pecuniary
gifts to send their children to these schools
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The Social Dimension?
Christianity at its best has always been
suspicious of a purely spiritual view of the
Church which seeks to keep it clinically
antiseptic and uninvolved with the institutional
forms and packaging of the age and environment in
which it seeks to witness and minister. Marshall
(1984, p.165)
It is possible to institute social reform without
a religious element, but it is impossible to
provide any form of religious education devoid of
a social element.
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Empowerment
They are not surrounded by inspiration everyday,
so what motivates a kid to work if they see no
jobs at the end of it. We teach them life skills,
we teach them that they have choices. Leeds
Project
Conference we need to stop looking at our inner
cities as if they are a problem, we need to start
looking at the potential in our inner cities. The
kids that I know and the families that I know who
have been broken by crime, who have been broken
by drugs are just waiting for an opportunity, for
someone to say, come on let me give you a hand
up. To say, yes you can go to university, yes you
can make something of your life, we need to
believe in the kids of our inner cities. (Dave
Sharples, Liverpool Kidz Klub, Conservative Party
Conference in 2007)
The potential of reaching the child, who is
secure in who they are in God, and have their own
faith, and teaching them how to live, and how to
die, and how to relate and how to act, how to
react, how to cope with lifes storms. If we can
put that into children, then we have done the job
well. Wes Richards
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HYMN SINGING AND PRAYER
by the middle of the 19th century the basic form
of the Sunday School lesson was fairly regimented
and would include hymn singing, prayer, a short
biblical message, reading, writing and learning
of the catechism. Cliff (1986, p.96)
Hannah and Martha More (1789) attempted to make
school sessions entertaining and varied
Programmes had to be planned and suited to the
level of the students there needed to be
variety and classes had to be as entertaining as
possible (she advised using singing when energy
and attention was waning). Young and Ashton
(1956, p.239)
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray thee, Lord,
my soul to keep If I should die before I wake,
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.
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Im gonna jump up and down, gonna spin right
around, gonna praise your Name forever, gonna
shout out loud, gonna deafen the crowd gonna
send my praise to heaven Ill follow Jesus til
the day I drop. I can do all things through,
Christ who strengthens me When youve got such a
lot, When youve got not a lot. What? Be happy!
Fight the good fight with all thy might, Christ
is thy strength and Christ thy right lay hold on
life, and it shall be thy joy and crown
eternally.
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He made dogs that point, Pigs that oink, he made
dolphin smiles, crocodiles, He made a zillion
things, flies and wings. He even gave us tongues
so good for licking. And its lovely jubbly, all
of Gods creation. Lovely jubbly, all of Gods
creation, what a wonderful God we have.
Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the king of
creation..
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Codringtons (2000) research concluded that
younger children viewed worship services
primarily in terms of the physical experience,
what they did , she highlights how limited the
Childrens Club was in this regard, and how
helpful the sacramental practices of lighting
candles, using clay to represent an emotion or
experience and the use of paint or crayons for
expression.
The children revealed that they would like to be
more involved in the service and not just sing.
Codringtons(2000)
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STOP THINK REFLECT STOP THINK REFLECT

• What constitutes social currency where you live?
  What is it that would empower the children you
  work with?

STOP THINK REFLECT STOP THINK REFLECT

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The Community Link
Raikes (Letter to Townley 1783) writes I went
around to remonstrate with them on the melancholy
consequences that must ensue from so fatal a
neglect of their childrens morals. They alleged
their poverty rendered them incapable of cleaning
and clothing their children fit to appear either
at school or at church. But this objection was
obviated by a remark that if they were clad in
garb fit to appear in the streets I should not
think it improper for a school calculated to
admit the poorest and most neglected. All that I
required were clean faces, clean hands, and hair
combed. In other respects they were to come as
their circumstances would admit.
Bill Wilson (2000, p.30) writes These personal
visits place people in someone elses world, and
provide a person-to-person relationship. Personal
visits prevent alienation, prepare young
personalities for spiritual challenge, and
promote productivity.
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The Church Link
Growing churches do have an effective childrens
ministrybecause they deliberately see the
childrens ministry which they exercise as being
very much part of the mainstream activity of the
church. This integration mechanism of the
childrens ministry with the totality of the
church activity is as important as the quality of
the actual ministry itself if growth is to take
place. (Peter Brierley, 2005)
Different Ecclesiologies
Upon the Sunday afternoon, the mistress takes
the scholars to church, a place into which
neither they nor their ancestors had ever
entered. Raikes letter to Townley (1783)
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The Power of the Design
Sunday School
Church
Community
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communicating A CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
Numbers Attending Church Brierley, 2000, p.100
2006, p.121
It is not about forcing children into adult modes
of learning or into modes that demand cognitive
processes beyond their abilities, instead the
task is to translate the truths of Christian
faith into terms that can be both understood and
experienced by boys and girls . (Richards, 1993,
p.123) It is vital to understand their
language, beliefs and ideology in order to
penetrate the different world in which children
live. The Lausanne statement on Child
Evangelism (1980)
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Conclusions

• 1. The Leader
• 2. Geography
• Fixed Boundary
• 3. Sustainability
• Long Term
• 4. Local Church
• Integrated

5. The Ingredients

1. Professional Teachers
2. Hymn Singing and Prayer
3. Rewards, Prizes and Incentives
4. Connection with Community
5. Meeting a Social Need (empowering)
6. Connection with (and part of) Church
7. Communicating a Christian Message

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