Why Go To Sunday School?

My Sunday School kids - ages 4th - 6th grade - started asking some really good questions this morning during class.  The questions did NOT relate directly to the lesson, but were prompted by our discussion of the lesson, which was on Psalm 1. 

• If a person is saved and does really bad things and mocks God, will they still go to heaven?
• Can you become unsaved?
• Does a person who commits suicide go to heaven?

The kids asking these questions have been in church all their lives.  One might think they should know these answers already.  But here are some things to ponder:

• Just because a person sits under the godly, accurate preaching and teaching of the Bible does not mean they automatically understand everything they hear.
• We ALL - children included - grow spiritually at a different pace than the next person - much as we physically develop at different paces.  Perhaps these questions had not crossed their minds until now.
•  Sometimes children (and adults!) are afraid to ask questions for fear of being mocked or ridiculed for not already knowing the answer.

After I answered these questions, one the of girls said, "We should have a class where we just ask questions!"

Here's my point of sharing this:  Too many believers do not know what they believe or why they believe it.  When an adult accepts the fact that they are a sinner and that the only way to spend eternity in heaven with a Holy God is to accept the sacrifice that Jesus paid on the cross, we for some reason - I guess because they are adults - assume that they know and understand the same things we understand - even though we may have known Jesus for 30 years or more! 

When our children are brought up in the church, we assume they hear and understand what is being said from the pulpit just like we understand it.  We assume they understand everything being taught in their Sunday School class and in Junior Church.

But there is a lot of "not understanding" going on in our churches today.

Ask someone to explain salvation and they may toss around words like "regeneration" and "sanctification" and "sacrifice" and "holy" and "propitiation"....but ask them to DEFINE these same words and they are at a loss.  They know the language, but they don't really understand what they're saying.

The young people in my class will be the next generation of believers who lead God's church.  At least, that is my prayer.  Perhaps if we can answer their questions TODAY, they will STAY in the church - and not only stay, but be able to live that abundant life that Jesus died for because they know and understand what God expects of them.

I want my class to be a place where the kids feel free to ask me anything.  I may not have the answer - after all, I'm still growing in the Lord, too! - but that's okay, because their questions prompt me to find the answers in God's Word - which means we'll be growing together.  And in the end, what God wants is to be glorified through surrendered, humble, growing believers who obey his command to become more like Jesus...by finding the answers to our questions in His Word.

So, should we have a Sunday School class where "we just ask questions"??  The answer is a resounding, YES!!  Ask away, class, ask away!