Changing Sunday School - Mission Impossible?

God has created us to have imagination, curiosity and the ability to learn new things - so why are we so resistent to CHANGE??!!

• I met with a youthworker yesterday who is struggling to fit growing groups into a church building that stubbornly refuses to get any bigger. It's a problem that needs creative thinking, and a willingness by all involved to consider new ways of doing Sunday School. But the biggest problem isn't the building - it's leaders who don't want to change.

• I get regular phone calls from ministers wanting help in choosing teaching material for their church's children's work. I can make suggestions of good material to look at, but as the discussion progresses it usually turns out that at least one leader is refusing to consider using anything new.

• Today I was recommended a book by Doug Field. While checking out his website, I came across his comments about changing Sunday School, and they certainly rang a bell. As he says, 'Most youth workers couldn't change the format of Sunday School if they brought a written note from Jesus himself.'

Why are we so scared of change? Sometimes the problem is fear - as with the children's worker who doesn't want to move to a smaller room because he's scared his group will get bored if he can't play running around games with them. Sometimes the problem is time and energy - changing to different teaching material may mean more time in preparation, at least initially. Sometimes we're just stuck in a rut, doing things the way they've always been done. (I was once involved with a Sunday School that set out a table at the front every week, with two candles and a faded picture of Jesus - it was like a mini altar! They'd done it that way for the past 30 years (maybe the picture was bright when they started) and flatly refused to change.)

Change can be both good and bad. Changing things for the sake of it may just waste time and resources better used elsewhere. But we must always be ready to change for the sake of our ministry with young people. We must be willing to change plenty - the venue, the name, the timing, the programme, the age range, the music - if those changes help us to teach God's Word faithfully and reach out to those who don't know Him. We must also be ready to refuse to change - when we're pressurised to drop the Bible-study and replace it with games. Our priority should be to teach God's Word faithfully, to the Christians and non-Christians in our groups; to show God's love and care to them; to model in our own lives what it is to live wholeheartedly for Christ; and to pray fervently for the children and young people in our care. These things we should stick to like supaglue. All else is open to change.