Suppose an observer came to visit your church’s Sunday school classroom. Would they see and hear:
- the singing of songs that are permeated with biblical truth?
- Scripture visibly displayed and regularly recited aloud by teachers and students?
- activities that encourage Bible skills and Bible memory?
- prayers that reflect the greatness and worth of God as revealed in the Bible?
- a teacher teaching from an open Bible?
- Bibles in in the hands of every student during the lesson time (first grade and older)?
- a teacher guiding students to be actively engaged in looking up texts, reading, and answering questions from the Bible?
Why do these questions matter? Because, as John Piper says,
We are a people of the Book. We know God through the Book. We meet Christ in the Book. We see the cross in the Book. Our faith and love are kindled by the glorious truths of the Book. We have tasted the divine majesty of the Word and are persuaded that the Book is God's inspired and infallible written revelation. Therefore, what the Book teaches matters. Doctrine is important for worship and life and mission. Education for Exultation is education saturated by the Bible. (“Building Our Lives on the Bible”)
If our goal and heartfelt desire for our students is that they come to know, honor, and treasure God, setting their hope in Christ alone so that they will live as faithful disciples for the glory of God, then we must keep the Bible front and center in all that we do in the classroom!
As you plan for your classrooms this coming year, are you taking strategic steps to make sure your class is undergirded and permeated with God’s Word from the moment students walk in the door until they leave? Here are some additional free resources to help you:
“Four Compelling Reasons to Use a Printed Bible when Teaching”
“The Importance of Biblical Literacy for the Next Generation”
“10 Priorities for Pursuing Biblical Literacy"
