The Origins Of Sunday School And The Call To Compassionate Innovation

Have you ever wondered how the great Christian tradition of Sunday School got started? It was in England during the late 1700’s, just as the Industrial Revolution was in full swing. Large groups of poor people had moved into the cities to work in the new factories. Children as young as eight were hired for brutal six-day work schedules. On Sundays, which was the only off day, the children blew off steam by smashing windows, breaking into homes, and pickpocketing the city’s residents.

Eventually, an Anglican layperson named Robert Raikes decided that the plight of these children was something Christian folk should be concerned about. He started a school on Sunday to teach them reading and writing, the Bible, and proper morals – the only way these poor children would receive any sort of education. The “Sunday School” was born. Raikes, who was also a printer, published large sheets with the Ten Commandments and other Scriptures verses on them – the first-ever Sunday School curriculum.

Over the next few decades, the idea spread across England and to the United States, eventually being offered for all people – not just the poor street children. It wasn’t long before Sunday School become an essential part of the culture and the church’s witness to the world.

What Raikes accomplished with his first Sunday School was nothing extraordinary. His program didn’t require a huge investment or some sort of miraculous intervention like the Parting of the Red Sea. It simply took a basic concern for needy children, the willingness to try something new, and the perseverance to stick with it and make it work.

As we begin a new year of Christian Education around the nation, I hope we can continue to teach the children and adults of our time with that same compassionate vision. I have always said that there is no more important task for the church than educating the people in the faith.

I also hope that we can be open to new ways to spread God’s Word that respond to the changing conditions in our world. We are not facing the same problems that Raikes faced with the new factories and the children in the street – but we certainly have our own challenges and our own calling that is unique to our context. May we be faithful witnesses to God’s love in our time with the same sense of compassion and love.