Telling The Stories Of Sunday School

Good things happen in Sunday School classrooms where kids and leaders get together to talk about God. Mark DeVries often tells people to “tell the good stories.” In his book Sustainable Youth Ministry he writes:

“Leaders of thriving youth ministries are harbingers of what God is doing and is about to do. They’re the bards of their youth ministries, telling students and leaders the tales of who they are and what God is up to. They’re the environmental experts, cultivating the ethos by seeding it with stories and metaphors that affirm that although the picture is not yet completed, sings of progress and popping up all around.”

I think this is true for Sunday School as well as youth ministry. We can determine what the default conversation is like about these programs. We can choose to tell the stories of frustration and failure or we can make sure we tell the stories that show the way God is powerfully moving in our programs. I’m not talking about papering over problems – these need to be named and addressed, of course. But we have an opportunity to set what becomes the prevailing narrative of the ministries in our church.

The leaders of Sunday School need to share and tell the good stories of what is happening when they gather. Did a fourth grader have a particularly good insight this morning? Did the prayer of one of the Kindergarteners warm your heart? Did one of the songs really speak to you? We can create a culture that shares the joys of Sunday school. We need to be the bards of Sunday School – the people who tell the stories of God’s work in the lives of our children and teens.

So, do you have some stories to share? How do you communicate the good stories of Sunday School to your congregation?