A Good Alternative to Traditional Sunday School
By Pastor Greg Carr

I have been around the church for as long as I can remember. My grandfather, Donald Carr gave his heart to Christ in the early 1930’s and was very active as a member of First Open Bible in Ottumwa, IA.

My parents always made sure that when the church doors where open we were at church; we attended them all: Sunday mornings for Sunday School, then church service, then Sunday evening service, and then the mid-week service on Wednesday nights. I had been to church more than 3000 times by the time I was 18 years old.

By now, I am sure the number of times I have been to some sort of church service is over 10,000, if you count all the college chapels, revivals, vacation Bible schools, and all the other things that happen at a church. I am not going to say that I am an expert on all things church but I have been there a lot! I will say, when it comes to church I have seen almost everything. Due to trends, I have seen programs come and go.

I have fond childhood memories of Sunday school. Getting up early on Sunday morning, getting to church, finding my class room and sitting through the Bible lesson. Sometimes the teacher would have visual aids, like a flannel board and sometimes they would use a chalk board. As I grew older their methods changed a little and by the time I was a senior in high school they were using VCRs!

After Sunday School, it was off to the main sanctuary for church. The churches we attended when I was growing up did not have Children’s Church programs. As a young child I would sit there in the service coloring on the tithe envelopes or on paper my grandmother would supply.  As I grew older I began to listen to the messages and would try to pay attention.

Most all of us 40-somethings who grew up in the church probably have close to the same memories.

I have painted this picture of our past so I could ask you this one question: do you think that we could take today’s children ages 4 to 11 and put them in a time machine set for 1974 and expect them to get anything out of church?

I suppose this is a question that could be debated for years to come. I am not sure that they would get anything out of church or Sunday school. Because of the changes in technology and the way information is passed on today, I feel that what I experienced then would be ineffective today.

So what are we to do? How can we help our children learn the basics of Christianity in a way that is relevant and interesting for our children? This is a question our staff at Prairie Family Church in Bismarck, North Dakota has asked and answered.

The goal of our children’s ministry department is to develop spiritually strong children by providing a base in partnership with parents to teach, train, and equip children with the word of God for service within the church, community and the world to build up the body of Christ. We believe that no child should be left behind when it comes to discipleship and a commitment to God through Jesus.

PFC is achieving this goal through our Children’s Church ministry which takes place immediately after our first congregational worship time. We have a time of praise and worship followed by a 10 minute break for coffee and fellowship. During the break the children are dismissed to their own service. They have snacks, fun, and a lesson that is based upon the Assembly of God’s Junior Bible Quiz program.

What is JBQ? According to the Assembly of God web site on JBQ, “Junior Bible Quiz (JBQ) was created and designed to help children develop a love for the Bible and an understanding that its truth can guide their lives daily. Junior Bible Quiz offers a fun, exciting way to motivate children to understand the all-important truths in God’s Word. Through cooperative learning, children work together on teams to learn and understand the questions and answers from the Bible Fact-Pak. Then using cooperative competition the children meet with other teams for a fun quizzing match. There are twenty questions in a match, with two teams of quizzers trying to beat each other to the buzzers to get the first shot at the answers. It has been said that JBQ is the fastest growing discipleship program in children’s ministry.” http://nationaljbq.org/

Many of us will remember when Open Bible had a quizzing program for teenagers. The A.G. program is similar except it is geared for the ages of 4 to 11. It is a great teaching and discipleship tool for children, one of the best I have ever witnessed.

It is awesome to see our children growing in their knowledge of who God is, why He sent Jesus, what the Word of God is and so much more. Our 10 year old daughter is taking part in this class and it is wonderful to see her studying the questions every day.

Here is a sample of some of the questions and answers:

• What is the Bible? The Bible is the inspired Word of God and is His revelation to all people of himself and His plan of salvation.
• What does “Testament” mean? Covenant (contract or agreement).
• How did death come into the world? Death first came as a result of willful sin.
• What two great events compromise the second coming of Christ? The Rapture and Christ’s revelation.

In all there are over 576 questions that students study. One thing that is so wonderful about this resource is that we can take any part of it and make it work for a lesson during our Children’s Church. Teachers dress up like Moses; we have seen Joseph’s Coat of many Colors; every class has something different and exciting that relates to the questions that the children have been studying.

Another wonderful aspect about this resource is that it gets the parents involved in the discipleship. This is extremely important! Parents need to be a part of their children’s discipleship even more than the church is and, as the parents help their children study, they too, are learning the Word of God.

Using JBQ during the church service has been a blessing to both me and our children’s ministry directors. We are finding it easy to get volunteers who are excited about the lesson and who are ready to teach when they arrive at service time. It has also been really nice not having to staff a Sunday school and a children’s church. You can only spread your volunteers so thin before they are ineffective.

I will admit, at first I was a little reluctant with the idea of using JBQ. I wondered if the kids would study; if the parents would be on board; if they would lose interest, but as the first year of using JBQ in our church is concluding, I can see that God is building up children for his kingdom. They are studying and the parents are helping. They have not lost interest but are excited about quizzing and as a result the kids are even more excited about other ministry opportunities like a kid’s choir and helping give Christmas gifts to children less fortunate. 

It is great to see the young people so on fire for God! I am very thankful for JBQ and highly recommend it to all churches.