Is Sunday School Destroying Our Kids

How do we make grace part of Christian living? Does Sunday School encourage discipleship and teach our children faith? People in the world often reject Christianity simply because they can't distinguish it from mere morality. The world needs morality--oppression thrives when consciences are abandoned--but we need more than that alone. We need the gospel of grace. A gospel that has largely been lost amid the dos and don'ts and preoccupations of religious culture.12 Essays on the Distinction Between Grace and Morality Includes perspectives on topics such as: Why Do Our Children Leave the Church?Graceless Goodness: The Problem with MoralismThe False Gospel of "Just Do It"The Temptations of Christian PublishingThe Ugliness of Religious RighteousnessThe Insidious Danger of "I'd Never Do That"We Read the Bible the Wrong WayComments from Readers I like what Sam Williamson has to say about how good people--people like us--may be piling burdens on our children they can't possibly bear. Has the good news of the gospel magically morphed into bad news for them? Read Sam's provocative new book to find out. -Ann Spangler, Author, Praying the Names of God (and many other books) These days we hear so much and think so little. We consume without digesting and then wonder why our body is acting strangely. In this book, Sam helps us look carefully, graciously, and wonder-fully at the Gospel and the beliefs of our heart. -Gary Barkalow, founding director of The Noble Heart, and Author, It's Your Call. This has got to be one of the best books on raising Godly children (or simply new believers) I've ever read. Thank you. -Brian This is as clearly and as beautifully communicated as I have heard the Gospel for a long time. -Bob This is such an excellent read!!! I wish all Christians could read it. What a great blessing to see this truth presented in a way that it is so easily understood. Thank you for this thoughtful book. - Linda This is a fitting warning that Christian education could fall into moralization (and idolizing "heroes of faith"). The same warning is applicable even to the whole teaching/preaching ministry of many churches. - RayFrom the Book People often pit grace against moralism. And they should. Moralism circumvents heart-changed morality. We need moral men and women, but moralism damages the foundation of heart-change. It's okay to pit grace against moralism, but let's not pit grace against morality. Grace is the source of real morality, and grace--thank God!--breaks the bars of moralism that imprison us. Is Sunday School Destroying Our Kids? exposes moralism for its false pretensions--the sham that it is--and it moves our hearts to believe the gospel, for the first, or the hundred-and-first, time.Available in Print and eBook Editions Scroll up and order your copy now.

Sunday School That Works is a dynamic new resource designed specifically to help you strengthen and enrich your Sunday school ministry while maximizing what you’re already doing on Sundays.Overflowing with expert insights from more than 20 successful ministry leaders, this book guarantees practical solutions for every area of your Sunday school ministry. You’ll learn best tips, creative ideas, and powerful strategies from dynamic leaders including Christine Yount Jones, Dale Hudson, Holly Catterton Allen, Dan Webster, Gina McClain, Linda Ranson Jacobs, Pat Verbal, Amy Dolan, Ricardo Miller, Greg Baird, Patty Smith, Gordon and Becki West, Patrick Snow, and more. Sunday School That Works will equip you in your ministry with these key benefits... • Help for key areas of your Sunday school program including: • developing your Sunday leadership team • keeping kids safe and secure • building a learning philosophy for today's kids • growing your kids spiritually • targeting age-level and special needs ministry • reaching today's families • developing great public relations • meeting the needs of today's kids • and more! • Current insights on today's Sunday school! Experts actively working in the field offer you the most current insights and advice for what's happening in churches--and what's relevant to kids and families today. • Practical ideas that are proven to work! These fresh ideas really work--in actual Sunday school ministries. They've been tested and tweaked to guarantee success in today's churches! • Insights for every level of Sunday school! Whether you're a seasoned veteran or new to Sunday school ministry, you'll refer to this resource regularly for the help you need! Learn how to maximize your Sunday school ministry with Sunday School That Works! From the makers of Children's Ministry That Works which has helped leaders create dynamic and effective ministry programs for over 20 years

"I picked it up out of curiosity and I couldn’t put it down."--Eugene Peterson Christians are comfortable saying that Christianity is about a relationship with God. Yet many might also say that they sense little meaningful relationship with God in their own lives. After all, the foundation of good relationship is communication—-but conversation with God often seems to go only one way. We may sing of walking and talking with God in the garden, His voice falling on our ears, but few have heard that beloved voice themselves. Sam Williamson acknowledges the fundamental human longing to hear God’s voice and offers a hopeful supposition: God is always speaking—-we’ve just never been taught how to recognize His voice. Williamson handles this potentially heady topic with his characteristic straightforwardness and leavening humor. This book deftly bridges the gap between solid biblical theology and practical application, addressing topics such as how to truly pray without ceasing, how to brainstorm with God, how to navigate our emotions, how to answer God’s questions, and how to hear God’s voice for others. Hearing God in Conversation offers simple, step-by-step lessons on how to hear God. Williamson begins with Scripture meditation. He then expands the practice of listening for that voice everywhere—in the checkout line, on the job, in a movie theater, and even in silence. From there, he demonstrates how to hear God’s guidance when making any decision. By the end, readers’ eyes and ears will be opened to the limitless methods through which God speaks.

The Boy and the Sunday School is a handy little guide for teenagers who are planning to make the most of Sunday school or church school. Alexander writes didactically of little tips and tricks to be able to learn and apply the lessons from church. Contents: "Fundamental Principles in Sunday School Work with Boys, Method and Organization, The Organized Sunday School Bible Class, Bible Study for Boys, Through-the-Week Activities for Boys' Organized Classes, The Boys' Department in the Sunday School, Inter-Sunday School Effort for Boys..."

Today's Sunday schools are a pale shadow of what they were in the past. Churches have found other ways of serving children and young people and carrying out adult education. From a historical point of view the Sunday schools have immense significance. As late as the 1950s approximately half the children in Great Britain were associated with Sunday schools. In the nineteenth century Sunday schools were part of general educational provision. With National, British, and Ragged schools, Sunday schools represented the Christian philanthropic impulse to provide a basic education to the public at large and at low cost. The role of the churches in educational provision is again a topic of public interest and the time is right to reflect on some of the lessons of the past. A range of experts have been asked to assess different aspects of the history of the Sunday school movement: Clyde Binfield, Faith Bowers, John H. Y. Briggs, Grayson Ditchfield Hugh McLeod, Stephen Orchard, Jack Priestley, Geoff Robson, and Doreen Rosman. They provide a remarkable survey of many aspects of Sunday schools, from their origin to their reinvention, from teaching the catechism to promoting sport.