Pupils may be received in the Sunday School classes of any Church of Christ, Scientist, up to the age of twenty years, and by transfer from another Church of Christ, Scientist, up to that age, but no pupil shall remain in the Sunday School of any Church of Christ, Scientist, after reaching the age of twenty. None except the officers, teachers, and pupils should attend the Sunday School exercises.
Mary Baker Eddy Manual of The Mother Church Article XX, Section 1
A wonderful expectancy flows through Mary Baker Eddy's opening words for Sunday School in the Church Manual. Expectancy that children and teenagers will always find Sunday School classes ready to receive them in The Mother Church and in its branches around the world.
Prayer, expectancy, and a deeper appreciation of the Church Manual's By-Laws are leading to progress in Christian Science Sunday Schools. The experiences related by superintendents and teachers in this month's feature tell how their once-empty classrooms are filling up again.
The Sunday School I superintend is in a large downtown church edifice in a San Francisco suburb. In past years, as the community makeup changed, the Sunday School had dwindled in size, until four years ago only a handful of students attended regularly.
As we studied the Church Manual for guidance, we could see more clearly than ever that Sunday School was an inseparable and indispensable part of Church. It provided important education for those under the age of twenty, and it needed our full support and love.
One of the first steps we undertook was to assign eight teachers to eight classes. Appointing these teachers cut substantially into attendance at the church service and appeared unfair because so many members were being asked to come into Sunday School for just a few students. But this renewed commitment to teaching the children brought good results. The Sunday School began to grow—rapidly in fact. Attendance steadily increased to fivefold of what it had been.
There is now a very welcoming spirit in our Sunday School. Many of the students feel comfortable bringing their friends, and we have many visitors. Instead of thinking of ourselves as Christian Scientists separated from the community, we have striven to include the community in our Sunday School activity.
The teaching staff strives diligently to prove the relevancy of Christian Science by teaching with understanding, using words and ideas appropriate to students' understanding. They check themselves to see if the vocabulary they're using is communicating their intended message.
We realize that Jesus taught in parables. He met people at their level of experience. He used examples they could understand. Likewise, we need to use modern-day parables to help our young people understand Christian Science. We need to approach them from what they are experiencing.
One teacher of a teenage class had prepared a lesson on intelligence. He used the example of a computer hard disk to show that even though something material appears to be intelligent, it really isn't; that only through inspiration can new ideas be conceived. The students could relate easily to what he was talking about.
Our students are being taught how to give Christian Science treatment. We're just beginning to hear of students who've given treatment to friends outside of Sunday School.
Teachers work to develop an atmosphere of trust in class that enables children to feel free to ask anything. Questions need to come from students as well as teachers, and that happens when students know they won't be judged or criticized for questions they ask.
If a student is having a problem with alcohol, drugs, or promiscuous sex and wants to talk about it, our teachers listen. It is during moments such as these—of deep personal struggle—that children are often most receptive to learning how they can turn to God and find help.
Several teachers regularly ask their students to help teach classes. The students like the responsibility of coming prepared with a topic and lesson plan.
At our last Thanksgiving Day service almost all of the Sunday School students were there, and they gave half of the testimonies. It was wonderful to see the major contribution the children were making to the healing ministry of this church.
The progress our Sunday School has made over the last few years has not been without its rough spots, however. When a new idea comes up, even if it seems to be the best one in the world, others are not always quick to accept it. But when we work together and pray together, any needed expansion in thought does occur.
California
In our branch church there had been a feeling on the part of some that the church service is somehow separate and more important than Sunday School. Yet in the Church Manual Mrs. Eddy includes Sunday School under "Church Services" (see "Table of Contents"). We pointed this out to members at a business meeting, and the result was a much better awareness of Sunday School.
When we decided to stop accepting the suggestion that this activity of our church couldn't grow as it should, families began attending our services and enrolling their children in Sunday School.
One member volunteered to take a space in the Sunday School and pray until she had a class. She soon had five students.
Alabama
When I began teaching Sunday School, there were no children attending. For three weeks we held exercises expecting children to show up. On the fourth week a four-year-old began to attend.
He kept asking us, "Where are all the other kids?" We told him that they would come soon, and that we should pray together for the Sunday School.
A few weeks later a seven-year-old started to attend. After a few months a local resident enrolled her four children. The Sunday School is still growing.
I am sure that the prayers of that first student played a vital role in the successful turnaround of our Sunday School.
New York
Sunday school is an integral part of Church. We've often thought of Church first, then Sunday School, but they both go together. Church needs childlike thought, and Sunday School is a wonderful place to nurture it.
We think of the children in our Sunday School as future public practitioners. It's so important that we teach them to heal.
Our Sunday School staff works with the church membership so that everyone knows he or she is responsible for supporting the Sunday School. A member's commitment to Church must include supporting the growth and activity of the Sunday School.
New York
Our Sunday School had been virtually empty for over a year. We became dissatisfied with our passive acceptance of this situation and began to pray consistently about it.
A few months passed and there were still no children attending. We continued to pray, reawakening ourselves to the Manual's divine authorization—and demand—for Sunday School, the great human need for it in our community, and unique ways each of us could actively reach out to young people.
For the past several months we've had a number of students almost every week.
We know that as Christ, Truth, is lifted up in our everyday living, the light of love, mercy, compassion, and healing which we individually express will continue to draw students to our Sunday School.
California
At the beginning of last year our Sunday School had one teacher who came every week and one student who came about once a month.
As a newly appointed superintendent, I asked our executive board for two regular and two substitute teachers. I explained to them that we were going to prepare for students.
For weeks we had no students, but we prayerfully persisted, knowing that children would respond to our preparation.
Part of our study included the story of Hannah. One thing we noticed was how focused she was on lack. She was filled with mourning, weeping, and bitterness over the fact that she had no children, and it seemed she never would have any.
The Bible records that Hannah prayed to God and did conceive, and bare a son, whom she named Samuel. She turned him over to serving God, and he later became a great prophet and leader. Hannah went on to have three sons and two daughters.
We knew we too had to look to God, not to numbers of pupils, for our comfort.
We began to think about Sunday School as the place where children are being prepared for greater service to God. As our recognition of its healing purpose grew, we became more expectant of progress and growth.
The pupil who had been coming once every few weeks began attending weekly. Before long a second family started to bring their children regularly. Then a third family began attending church and bringing their children to Sunday School. Several visitors showed up. Within a few months we had two full-time classes and a third on occasion.
An ongoing goal for us is to have our teaching always speak to the needs of the students. Sunday School proves its value when students learn to heal themselves and others.
For example, one class was discussing the Bible's account of the widow woman who had no food. The prophet Elijah had asked her to make some food for him, but she said what little she had was for herself and her son, that they might eat one last meal before resigning themselves to starving. As the story turns out, Elijah healed her fear of lack, and she ended up having enough food for both him and her family for a long time.
Students in the class began listing what they thought was lacking in their lives. One boy said his family had been living in a camper-trailer for some time and needed a home. The class talked about the spiritual basis of home in terms of qualities of God and about how the boy could be sharing his home with others right then.
The next Wednesday night his whole family came to church. The mother testified that they had finally found a wonderful place to live, and that she was so grateful for what her son had learned in Sunday School about home.
This boy had become something of a "Samuel"—similar to the Bible's Samuel—for the family.
California
I would often visit a mom and grandmom in a house down the street. There were seven children in the family.
One day while sitting in their house I thought, "Instead of just sitting here, I could be teaching these children something." I started to teach them the Ten Commandments. Whenever I visited I would teach them something more. Before long they learned all the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer with Mrs. Eddy's spiritual interpretation in Science and Health, and "the scientific statement of being" by Mrs. Eddy. They were like sponges soaking up water for the first time.
After six months of this they asked if they could go to church with me on Sunday. I said if their parents agreed, I would be glad to take them. The parents said "yes."
I took them to Sunday School for three and a half years until I moved to another state. I went back to visit them a few months ago, and they were still regularly attending.
These children came from a home of very little means. They had little food, tattered clothing, and no lights or running water in the house. After about a month in Sunday School this all began to change. They soon had lights, running water, and when I last visited, the house was all clean, had a new coat of paint, and a brand-new roof.
After moving to my new place several months ago, I joined a very small church. When I first visited and saw but one child in the Sunday School, I thought, "My goodness, is this right?" I thought about the experience I had had with the seven children. I now regularly take two children to Sunday School and, depending on when they want to go, five other kids.
The children I'm taking to Sunday School are new to Christian Science, and their receptivity is astounding.
Georgia
Several years ago only one or two students were attending our Sunday School. There was a very casual and unorganized approach being taken toward Sunday School, and it was hard for the superintendent to find permanent teachers.
Praying for a solution, the Sunday School staff realized that such disorganization wasn't according to divine Principle. We worked to express a greater sense of stability and dedication in carrying out the directives in Article XX of the Manual.
With renewed efforts the superintendent obtained commitments for three permanent teachers, and for substitutes when needed.
The results of consecrating ourselves to Principle and faithfully carrying out the Manual provisions for Sunday School have been most rewarding. In a short time each class was established and filled with three or four students. Members began bringing cousins and visitors to Sunday School, and members who hadn't been attending church began coming regularly and bringing their children to Sunday School. We now have four active classes.
Our Sunday School is very lively, and we expect continued growth.
Virginia
Over the last year our Sunday School has grown considerably.
During staff meetings, much reluctance and many doubts and fears have come to the surface to be healed. One teacher admitted, "I often felt relieved when no children came!" We all knew this was a wrong feeling but had never taken the time and effort to identify it as unacceptable.
Our Sunday School is active now, a place of joy and laughter.
New Zealand
Look for "Teaching with relevance and vitality in Sunday School" in the September issue of the Journal.
To be effective, teachers must speak to youth in ways that they really understand, in ways that meet the students where they are in their understanding of God. If what is taught in Sunday School is not meaningful, there is little reason for students to come back.
Genuine spiritual inspiration—not dull human thinking and reasoning—attracts the receptive heart and creates a yearning to know more about God. It speaks in vivid terms, meets practical needs, and enables students to experience the healing power of Christian Science for themselves.
Maryland
