So, what goes on in Sunday School in a Fundamentalist Christian church? The denomination doesn't really matter, and in fact non-denominational would be preferred. But I'm thinking Assemblies of God, Southern Baptist, hardcore evangelicals. Do women teach Sunday school? WOuld it be out of place for them to do so? What's the message, the point? I'm looking for things beyond "Jesus was a cool hippy who loved everyone." Actually, I'm looking for what kind of stuff do the kids from Jesus Camp hear in Sunday School. Anything like that would be great.
Thanks!
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Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. -Jonathan Larson
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Nov 5, 2007 - 12 16
I've attended a mainstream church and a moderately conservative (non-fundamentalist), so all I can tell you are a few generics.
One important factor is how large the set of kids might be. In an aging church (eg mainstream) there may be too few kids to run much of a Sunday school; at a dynamic one (e.g. many evangelical and pentecostal churches) there might me many kids and thus separate Sunday school classes for each age group -- and thus several different sets of teaching materials. If the church can afford it, it might purchase a set of curricula from a standard organization (possibly specific to their denomination, possibly generic).
Smaller kids get bible stories and questions with obvious answers, plus small crafts (drawing, cutting paper, glue, etc). Older kids (early to late teens) have classes preparing for the child-to-adult transition, teaching the denomination's 'catechism', but perhaps only for a few weeks or months before the event. The transition event might be adult baptism for some denominations, or 'confirmation' or 'profession of faith' for those that baptise infants. There may or may not be Sunday school in between the two groups.
The two churches I knew about both shut down sunday school during the summer, so kids might be exposed to normal adult services for that part of the year. They might be expected to just sit and be quiet; on the other hand I've seen some kids kneeling at a pew and drawing in a coloring book (still having to be quiet, of course).
If you're looking for where the controversial and intense bits of theology come up, it's more likely to be in those teen classes.
Hope that helps.