For the past six years I have been blessed to be the Sunday School Superintendent of the Norfolk, Virginia, Ecclesia. Our Sunday school has a 15-minute opening period, from 9:30 to 9:45 AM. This is a time when, other than the opening hymn and prayer, the superintendent has a free hand to do what he’d like before classes begin. When I became Superintendent, the time was largely filled with hymns and spiritual songs.
This was nice, but we had a problem. Folks were arriving at almost any time during the first 15-minutes. Not ideal. What could we do to improve attendance and promptness and, most importantly, stimulate interest in being present for every minute of Sunday school?
To my mind, the opening period of Sunday school is very important. It is a time to put members in the right frame of mind for the Sunday school lessons that will follow. It is also a time for us to draw closer together as a Sunday school and ecclesia. This is how the chemistry of an ecclesia develops, lasting bonds are formed, and lifelong memories are made for children and adults alike.
So, instead of making an issue about attendance (using the rod), I thought that switching up the venue with other activities might be worth trying — activities that could get everyone’s attention, get them thinking and excited, and inject some life into our Sunday school service. And ecclesial response has been good! Here is a sampling of the openers that have worked well for me.
‘Super’ initiatives
One thing I do every Sunday morning is announce the birthdays of everyone for the day and the coming week. I keep an updated list printed on card stock at the lectern. It has everybody’s birthday on it: Sunday school students and ecclesial members alike, from the youngest to the oldest. They are listed by date so I can take out the list and see at a glance who has a birthday that week. I also like to ham it up a bit! I recently used a bubble gun to celebrate with the kids! You can get as creative as you like. Another idea: put on a party hat (or have a supply of party hats and put one on every birthday kid)! The antics add an element of fun to things. But even without the antics, the announcing of birthdays has been appreciated by our ecclesia, and it hasn’t taken a lot of time to do.
You will have to create a birthday list if your ecclesia does not already have one. On the back of mine I have also listed the birthdays by name instead of date. This way I can quickly look up anyone I want. I am careful about announcing ages. Younger children are usually thrilled to have their ages announced — birthdays are big milestones for them — but I am definitely careful with older members.1
In keeping with the birthday theme, another activity that we have a lot of fun with is a game I call “Who’s That Baby?” Get as many baby or childhood pictures from members as you can, kids and adults alike. Scan them into digital form if you don’t receive them that way and be sure to return any actual photographs you get. Once you have a collection of digital pictures, create a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation: first slide = baby picture; second slide = “And the answer is …”; third slide = name (or a current picture of the person). Don’t rush the game. Give everyone time to look at each baby picture and guess who it is. But watch the time, too. If you have a lot of pictures, save some for another Sunday. This game is worth playing more than once.
Another activity that I really enjoy is moderating memory verse recitation. This kind of thing has been done in ecclesias worldwide for years. Its great value lies in stocking the spiritual toolboxes of our children and, at the same time, refreshing the minds of their parents as well.
To start, I give everyone the same memory verse printed on card stock. I like to include a color picture, too. You can usually print six or eight copies of the verse on a single sheet and then cut them out. I use card stock because the verse cards end up being used as bookmarks or saved on refrigerators, and the heavier stock wears better. After handing out the cards, I read the verse once from the platform and then have everyone read it together. During the week, I send a quick e-mail to everyone, reminding them what the memory verse is. This is easy to do with a group e-mail list that only needs to be created once. (The e-mail also catches anyone who may have been absent.) On the next Sunday I challenge anyone, kid or adult, to come up and recite the memory verse. They can recite it together or one by one, whatever they like. The children who successfully recite the verse get a prize from the prize basket. I keep the basket filled with fun and interesting prizes (bubbles, small toys, coloring books, you name it)! We do a second week with the same verse to really drive it home; I then pass out a new memory verse after the second recitation. This way, every two weeks, our Sunday school is learning a new memory verse. And parents like to be on time to hear the recitations!
Keep a record of the verses you do. A spreadsheet works well for this. From time to time, go back and see who remembers an earlier memory verse!
There are several other activities that I do on a fairly regular basis to keep things fresh and exciting. We still sing regularly, but not every Sunday. Other activities include Bible trivia games in which contestants raise their hands to answer the questions that I ask. It is great fun to praise the children when they raise their hands and answer a Bible question. The questions usually follow a theme that I get from Bible trivia books. An excellent Christadelphian publication you can use is called Know Questions on the Bible.2This book has questions directly related to the daily Bible readings. It’s an excellent source of questions for Bible-based trivia games.
Another favorite game we play is a hangman-type game. I’ve renamed it “The Armor-of-God” game. I display a Bible phrase using my lap top and a projector. The letters in the phrase are initially represented by blanks, as they are in the hangman game. The audience takes turns guessing the letters that are needed to fill the blanks and complete the phrase. I usually give a veiled hint at the beginning (the audience is extremely smart and makes short work of things if the hint is too obvious)! If they miss a letter, they lose a piece of spiritual armor. We really enjoy this game, and usually do a very good job of preserving our armor!
We also do object lessons from time to time.3These are fun and memorable, and they help prepare our hearts and minds for the Sunday school lessons that follow. There really are a lot of thing you can do to ignite the fires of enthusiasm! All it takes is a little imagination and some preparation time. Your ecclesia will enjoy the activities and have good reason not to miss the all-important first 15 minutes of Sunday school!
- Suggestion: announce baptism dates as well – Jim Harper.
- For more information on Know Questions on the Bible, with author listed as Aquila N. Priscilla, go to http://www.csss.org.au/know-questions-on-the-bible-annual.html.
- See “The Use of Object Lessons,” The Tidings, February, 2013, pp.68-70, and “The Baltimore Kids Become Teachers,” The Tidings, May, 2013, pp.169-171. Ideas for object lessons can be found online, including at http://www.pinterest.com/2harps4u/.
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