“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7

A few years ago I attended a meeting of various church leaders from throughout the USA. There was concern about the future for the congregations represented. Some congregations had been consulting various church growth experts on what they could do to grow the church. The advice the experts gave had prompted them to move in directions that some of the other congregations felt were not scriptural. I was among the more conservative attendees who thought that the experts may have known quite a bit about what people want, but that they may have fallen a little short on what God’s word requires. However, I was a little surprised at one of the points raised during the meeting. Some of the speakers questioned the wisdom of dividing congregations into age groups for the purpose of teaching. They pointed out that the generations need to be kept together and not separated. I remember thinking at the time that this was not really a new idea. In fact, the arrangement for teaching the church when it comes together as given in the Bible calls for all the generations to be together (1 Cor. 14:26-40).

The Bible clearly states that the primary responsibility for the upbringing of children rests on parents, and not on the church or any other organization. Paul writes, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). The modern practice of Sunday Schools, and dividing the church into age groups for the purpose of teaching, had at least some of its origins in England in the eighteenth century. Robert Raikes started his first school for the children of chimney sweeps in Sooty Alley, Gloucester (opposite the city prison) in 1780 (http://www.infed.org/walking/wa-raikes.htm). Sunday Schools were not practiced in churches of Christ in America until the early twentieth century.

(To read the rest of the article, click on the current issue link on the left.)