{"id":31830,"date":"2017-08-16T17:02:36","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T23:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/?p=31830"},"modified":"2017-08-18T11:05:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T17:05:29","slug":"break-free-school-sunday-school-faith-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/break-free-school-sunday-school-faith-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"Break Free of the \u201cSchool\u201d in Sunday School: Faith is a Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If we want kids to know that faith is a relationship and not a subject to be studied, why do so many children&#8217;s ministry environments have a school-like feel?<\/p>\n<p>Why do we teach kids in a classroom where we <a href=\"http:\/\/childrensministry.com\/articles\/should-childrens-ministries-require-scripture-memory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">memorize Bible verses?<\/a> Why do we study about God and encourage good attendance in Sunday school? Why do we drill kids to recite what they\u2019ve learned?<\/p>\n<p>At face value, these practices are great! But we seem to be teaching kids that faith is a matter of memorizing facts or learning concepts so they can \u201cpass the test\u201d with Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Is this really how we want kids to perceive God and Jesus?<\/p>\n<p>As a children\u2019s ministry leader, you know your friendship with God didn\u2019t come to you through performance. God\u2019s love surrounded you before you believed, and he\u2019s patient with you as you learn to trust him. Any \u201cfacts\u201d you\u2019ve learned about God that have stuck with you have served to deepen a closeness and enjoyment out of your relationship with God.<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s ditch the \u201cschool\u201d in Sunday school and focus on showing kids that faith is a relationship. Group\u2019s Sunday School curriculum is centered around teaching kids just that. Here are a few examples from <a href=\"http:\/\/digin.group.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DIG IN<\/a>\u00a0to illustrate this teaching style:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mary learns she\u2019s pregnant with Jesus:<\/strong> Why was Mary favored, anyway? This is the kind of question kids might be grappling with, as they\u2019re often concerned about popularity and being favored at school or in their neighborhoods. Through a \u201cpopularity\u201d game in the Deeper Bible activity, kids discover that Mary was an ordinary person, like they are\u2013and God can do impossible things through them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>God creates Adam and Eve:<\/strong> God breathed breath into Adam; so kids draw a face on a balloon and watch it come to life as they blow air into it. Through this activity in Core Bible Discovery, kids explore the special things God \u201cbreathed\u201d into them when he made them, and they hear that God made them for a reason.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adam and Eve eat from the tree of good and evil:<\/strong> Kids might be wondering\u2014if God wants us to make good choices, why does he let us make bad choices? When kids make their own \u201cIt\u2019s Your Choice\u201d gameboards in the craft activity, they find out that God\u2019s there for them when they\u2019re making choices and he\u2019ll help them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Looking for more examples? <a href=\"https:\/\/diginapp.group.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Download four weeks of lessons<\/a> from both the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.group.com\/category\/ministry-resources\/childrens-ministry\/sunday-school\/dig-in\/the-life-of-jesus.do\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Life of Jesus<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.group.com\/category\/ministry-resources\/childrens-ministry\/sunday-school\/dig-in\/the-bible-in-one-year.do\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Bible in One Year<\/a> and see how <a href=\"http:\/\/digin.group.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DIG IN<\/a> can transform your children&#8217;s ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we want kids to know that faith is a relationship and not a subject to be studied, why do so many children&#8217;s ministry environments have a school-like feel? Why do we teach kids in a classroom where we memorize Bible verses? Why do we study about God and encourage good attendance in Sunday school? Why do we drill kids [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":31834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dig-in","category-sunday-school"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Break Free of the \u201cSchool\u201d in Sunday School: Faith is a Relationship - Group Children&#039;s Ministry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We want kids to know that faith is a relationship and not a subject to be studied; so why do so many kids\u2019 ministry environments have a school-like feel?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wwv.group.com\/childrens-ministry\/blog\/sunday-school\/break-free-school-sunday-school-faith-relationship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Break Free of the \u201cSchool\u201d in Sunday School: Faith is a Relationship - Group Children&#039;s Ministry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We want kids to know that faith is a relationship and not a subject to be studied; 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