Back To Basic, Please!

For years the educational establishment has been trying to define the basics of education. In our state of Washington they have instituted learning “benchmarks” and “grade level expectations” to provide consistency in the educational process.
It is a difficult, long, and arduous task to define and implement standards in education. What exactly should children learn and at what age? What is the process for learning? What processes are most effective? What is the evidence of learning? How do you know that you have made a positive impact on student learning?
These questions are paramount in teacher education.
Now, shift to Sunday school education.
I was amazed recently, while teaching an elementary Sunday school class, at the variety of answers to standard questions regarding God and faith.
When asked who Jesus is, students responded with answers ranging from “the son of God” to “God himself” to a “disciple” to “an angel” to “a nice guy in the Bible.”
When asked how the earth was created students will explain with answers from “in six days” to “millions of years ago” and every number in between.
When asked how to get to heaven, they replied “be nice” or “be saved” or “believe in God” or “treat others as you want to be treated.”
When asked what heaven is like, they describe “a place where Jesus lives,” or “where the angels are” or “a place where dead people are.”
When asked about the Bible I was told from “it’s the word of God” and “it’s a history book” to “it tells us how to run our life” and “it’s a story book.”
When I ask how it was written, they tell me, “By God” or “By men” or “By Jesus” or “By Noah.”
The questions continued and the wide variety of answers amazed me.
This is a multi-age classroom in a small community church.
There are eight students ranging from 3rd grade to 5th grade. A couple of them are very theologically grounded, two are somewhat grounded, and the remaining four are all over the board with their concept of Christianity.
It reminds me, again, that the basics of Christianity are not being clearly digested by these students. Some of the answers they gave in regards to creation show the prevalence of the modern evolutionary push by public education and science. Some of the answers are straight out of misquoted Bible verses. Some probably come from discussions at Sunday school, and many come from television and movies. For example, I’ve heard almost as many quotes from the Simpsons as Bible verses.
All that aside, I wonder where the mark has been missed in their theological (church or home) experience.
Now, some will quickly answer that it is the job of the parent to make sure the dots of their Christian theology are connected, but I do not believe that.
In fact, I think many parents, particularly new Christians, struggle themselves with the basics of Christianity. The church as a whole may not be doing a very good job of teaching the basics to parents. How can we expect them to solely carry the weight of teaching their children? Back to the discussion.
In this Sunday school class, in which I’m the substitute teacher, I immediately look to the curriculum that is provided. On this particular Sunday I’m supposed to teach that God speaks to us from the Bible. That’s an interesting subject, I admit, but I’m concerned that they don’t understand the concept that Bible is the inspired, infallible, word of God. Without that basic understanding, how can they trust or believe that God speaks to them through the Bible?
So I ask them, “Do you know that the Bible was written by God?” A few of them give me knowing nods, the rest look skeptical.
I affirm that that is indeed the truth.
Then I ask them, “Do you know that the Bible is perfect- every word in it is the truth?”
Most of them now look blankly at me. So, instead of teaching the daily lesson, I head back to the basics.
I talk to them about the authors of the Bible, how they were inspired by God. We look though the books of the Old and New Testament and discuss the elements of the Bible. I tell them that no part of the Bible has been discredited. I talk to them about how the Bible has survived over time, in tact, and how recently it has been confirmed as authentic (ala The Dead Sea Scrolls.)
Then our time is up.
They leave with their crash course of Bible basics and I’m feeling not better, but worse.
What would they have learned today if I had stuck to the original game plan?
This leads me naturally to wonder where all the other gaps in their theology lay, then, of course, what should we be teaching them from week to week?
Even the simplest knowledge has to be learned one step at a time.
You have to crawl before you walk, learn letters sounds before you can read, add before you subtract.
Yet when it comes to Sunday school education we tend to skip around, teaching behavior based concepts, or take the Bible in chronological order (for which it is not written in, creating a hurdle for young minds as well.)
Wouldn’t it be better to get the basics down first? Shouldn’t we make sure that they understand a core of knowledge before we start teaching the nuances?
When I was a seventh grade teacher I had many students who were solid in their writing skills. They had consistent teaching and could write at or above grade level.
But about half of the class were making mistakes that they had learned along the way. For example, they weren’t sure when to use commas or used too many. They struggled to make complete and thoughtful sentences. Many couldn’t define the parts of a sentence or different types of writing. I always looked at my job as that of a ‘cleaner.’ I spent the entire year ‘cleaning up’ the mistakes of their past and pushing them towards concise, knowledgeable writing.
It felt good to repair the mistakes.
As a Sunday school teacher I have more urgency than a writing teacher. I don’t feel very good because I look at theological mistakes a missed opportunity for spiritual growth.
I don’t want them to learn the wrong theology, because I know that it will get in the way of their journey with God. That’s a problem.
So what are the basics that should be taught? When you boil it all down, what do they need to know?
In a nutshell, here they are:
God created our world and everything in it.
Jesus is the son of God.
Jesus is perfect.
Jesus died on the cross for their sins.
Jesus wants to have a relationship with them.
Sin gets in the way of a relationship with God.
We ask for forgiveness to further our relationship with God.
Easter is about the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus.
The greatest commandment is to love God, the second is to love others.
God gives each of us the opportunity to tell others about Jesus.
Prayer is a conversation with God.
Faith is believing in what we cannot see.
We go to church to be with other followers of Jesus, to worship and learn about God.
The Bible is the infallible word of God.
You can only receive Salvation through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection .
Jesus wants to give you salvation and have an eternal relationship with you.
You can receive the gift of salvation by asking Jesus into your life.
All the rest are just (wonderful) nuances of these core concepts. They matter indeed, but without the basics they are not connected.
So, what does a ‘basics’ program look like?
If you are creating your own program, then use these concepts as your basic subjects or weekly goals. Teach one each week, for example, or one a month. Use Bible stories and verses as the examples to back up and examine these concepts. Repeat them often and find as many different ways as possible to explain them.
If you are using a created curriculum, then take a hard long look at the goals and scope and sequence to find these concepts. If they are sporadic or vague, then how can you make them clear? Can you repeat them more often or expand on your current program to incorporate them?
If you cannot, then find another program.
Of course I’m biased. I’m a basics kind of girl. I believe in the basics. I’ve spent years teaching and designing a ‘basics first’ Sunday school curriculum. But that doesn’t mean I have all the answers. I don’t know the perfect way to teach every concept because I don’t believe there is only one way to teach well. As I’ve stated in others writings, inspiration and passion are critical to the teaching process. Therefore, I believe you can make other programs and curriculums work while teaching the basics.
But honestly, it does bother me that huge holes in Sunday school programs are predictably creating chasms of theological inconsistencies.
Finally, I believe that anyone who is inspired to teach the basic concepts of Christianity will be wildly successful in winning hearts, minds, and souls for God, and at the end of the day that is all that matters.