MANY CHILDREN today are avid television watchers, computer users, and travelers on the Internet. And most of them make these journeys alone, without parental guidance.
Back in the 1950s, few, if any, Christian educators anticipated technology's pull on the next generation's attention. What they knew was that attendance both in church and in Sunday School was declining—dramatically, in some cases. That trend, with a few exceptions, has continued. Key factors in the decline may have been an inability and an unwillingness to respond to changes in society with inspired Sunday School teaching.
In the 1970s and 1980s, faith in God's work in the world got a boost as the Berlin Wall came down and an expectation of lasting peace began to emerge. Yet intractable problems in the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Africa, and Central Europe persisted. Sunday Schools' failure to tackle these problems, as well as those that might relate more to students' day-to-day lives outside of these regions—problems such as divorce and teen pregnancy—made spiritual education appear irrelevant.
