MennoNet.com

I myself am sometimes guilty of this, including today. I noticed quite a few companions on the way in the church door, but perhaps that's because it started raining really hard right around the normal time people drive to Sunday school.

What percentage of your church would you say goes to Sunday school versus just going to the main service?

JohnH wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2026 4:34 pm I myself am sometimes guilty of this, including today. I noticed quite a few companions on the way in the church door, but perhaps that's because it started raining really hard right around the normal time people drive to Sunday school.

What percentage of your church would you say goes to Sunday school versus just going to the main service?

I do the other way around sometimes.

Soloist wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2026 4:38 pm

JohnH wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2026 4:34 pm I myself am sometimes guilty of this, including today. I noticed quite a few companions on the way in the church door, but perhaps that's because it started raining really hard right around the normal time people drive to Sunday school.

What percentage of your church would you say goes to Sunday school versus just going to the main service?

I do the other way around sometimes.

Guess I should have added that option... my dad does that too.

I have a theory that a lot of folks miss Sunday school because of their inability to get out of bed in time to make.
If the sermon is considered the singular most important part of the service, then reversing the order tends to mitigate that problem.

sojourner wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2026 6:35 pm I have a theory that a lot of folks miss Sunday school because of their inability to get out of bed in time to make.
If the sermon is considered the singular most important part of the service, then reversing the order tends to mitigate that problem.

I used to be quite a bit more reliable in my Sunday school attendance. Now that I have a baby, a toddler, and a preschooler (or perhaps a toddler, a toddler, and a preschooler), I am significantly less reliable. My biggest motivator used to be that I wanted to attend Sunday school to get spiritual encouragement and fellowship. Nowadays I find a lot of fellowship with fellow church members outside of church on Sunday - but I want my children to have church fellowship, so my biggest motivator is making sure they can attend the children's Sunday school classes.

Don't send those kids to Sunday school!

I am truly stupefied. Now, I accept that I have lived most of my life in settings where there is no Sunday School, for it is a completely Protestant invention. That does not mean it is bad, just clearly a Protestant influenced idea.

But I am doubly blind sided how one can “miss” Sunday School but go to worship services, in that the settings I call conservative Mennonite did not break them up.

I will say, and accept there is a bit of criticism here, that if Sunday School is distinct from your service, you smell like a Protestant to me

It is fine that folks choose to have such an endeavor. But please do not ever insist that’s a biblical mandate. It is more like broccoli, it may be good for you but there are folks in heaven that never ate broccoli. For the record I like broccoli

JayP wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2026 8:00 am I am truly stupefied. Now, I accept that I have lived most of my life in settings where there is no Sunday School, for it is a completely Protestant invention. That does not mean it is bad, just clearly a Protestant influenced idea.

Yes. Protestants felt the following was important:

Sunday School was begun by Englishman Robert Raikes in 1780 as a ministry to children from England's lower classes who often worked six days per week in coal mines, textile mills or other industries. Raikes believed every child had a right to learn reading, writing, arithmetic and other basic life skills, and these formed the curriculum of his first Sunday Schools. Taught mainly by women, Sunday School spread rapidly in Protestant churches, soon becoming a major aspect of their ministries.

I guess Catholics and Old Orders had other priorities back then.

In any case, most Anabaptists rejected Sunday school.

But I am doubly blind sided how one can “miss” Sunday School but go to worship services, in that the settings I call conservative Mennonite did not break them up.

Sunday school traditionally is at a different time and is distinct from the main service.

I will say, and accept there is a bit of criticism here, that if Sunday School is distinct from your service, you smell like a Protestant to me

It is fine that folks choose to have such an endeavor. But please do not ever insist that’s a biblical mandate. It is more like broccoli, it may be good for you but there are folks in heaven that never ate broccoli. For the record I like broccoli

Well, there was a poll option to click "My group doesn't have Sunday school".

On an unrelated note, does anyone know how to unregistered at this site?


I looked around and could not find anything

JayP wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2026 10:15 pm On an unrelated note, does anyone know how to unregistered at this site?
I looked around and could not find anything

not allowed. not for you.