Last week, we asked you which typical church function needs an extreme makeover. We gave you nine choices and let you vote, and you made it a close race. Here’s what you thought.
The church function you’d most like to make over, Sunday school, had 18% of you demanding change. The church function you’d least like to make over, seeker-friendly services, had 8% of you demanding change. That’s a small gap.
Of the seven choices that fell in the middle, vacation Bible school took the “ugliest church function” title. Next up came a tie. 13% of you think church marketing needs some changing (three cheers to you), and 13% of you think that “church in general” is in need of some help.
Slightly less of you, 11%, thought our next two activities need making over. Potlucks and Sunday morning dramas. The two terms are a little bit scary, with the potential to go so wrong. (Think hairs in soup and productions of “Christmas Shoes.”) Finally, 10% of you think the token patriotic July 4th service needs to be revamped. Only 1% of you think there’s no makeover at all needed.
So let’s hear it in the comments. How would you change these things? What else would you change? Which of these would be blasphemy to change? Let us know.
This week, look on the right side of our page and let us know if your church has caught onto the RSS trend since we posted about it.
geoffreybrown
September 5, 2007
Okay, I voted to change Sunday School (meaning Sunday School for kids).
As someone who watches the eyeball-rolling barometer of kids pretty closely, I have observed that there is more eyeball-rolling at all ages when matters of ethics and/or morals are discussed than at any other time.
There is almost no eyeball rolling when Bible stories are recounted (pretty much as written, with no exegesis). Interesting, there is absolutely no eyeball rolling when the history of the Church — everything from the Early Church through denominational history — is the subject matter.
As far as I know the research in childhood education, ethics/morals are learned in two venues: (1) family and (2) peer group. Not Sunday School.
At least in our area, one casualty of “No Child Left Behind” in the public schools has been history of all kinds, but particularly any history with which kids have an intimate awareness, namely local history, and, of course, church history.
I think that this suggests a direction that Sunday School for children might productively take — and reduce the chronic eyeball rolling in the process.
Just a suggestion!
Frank Chiapperino
September 8, 2007
We decided to make kids an intentional priority when we planted our church in October of 2000 take a look at our VBS below to get some great ideas for your VBS next year!