Sunday School vs. Small Groups

Sunday School
Those of us who came to Christ (especially within the evangelical movement) in the 70’s and 80’s and before are very familiar with the notion of Adult Sunday School. We got much of our deeper teaching in this structure, usually either directly before or directly after our Sunday worship service. In the churches I attended in the 80’s and 90’s we had age based communities, that were rather larger (10-50 people) subgroups of the church, where people who had things in common could learn together. Usually there was a single teacher, or a rotation of teachers (opportunity for new teachers to develop) and a couple of administrative types (organize socials, coordinate teaching schedules, deal with coffee and treats, etc). The social life of the church was somewhat organized through these groups, who generally formed as new married couples, or new parent groups – who helped each other and grew deep friendships along the way. Kids grew up together. Often there were bespoke college age and adult singles classes, because they were different adult communities with different synergies that didn’t really fit well in the married adult communities. Continue reading “Sunday School vs. Small Groups”