The Impact Of Sunday School, Children’s, And Youth Ministry

The beginnings of something are very important.

Here’s a look at the first 100 years or so of Next Gen Ministry. Understanding the beginnings of something really helps you to understand the present.

The history of Next Gen ministry is a remarkable journey. And quite new actually. In some ways difficult to chronicle, but, exciting to research.

One of the early known youth leaders of the 20th century was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Many have seen him historically as the theologian and Nazi activist that he was.

But, it is unmistakable that Bonhoeffer had a first love that many do not speak of much. And this love of youth and children impacted the beginnings of youth ministry as much as anything or anyone else.

But there are many other people, organizations, and movements that have shaped the history of Next Gen ministry. There would be no way to accomplish an exhaustive review of the history of Next Gen ministry in a chapter. It would require a whole book.

And there are a few streams that I have chosen not to detail here because of the time and space issue. But, the people and movements in this first chapter are inarguably the early formulators of what we call Next Gen ministry today.

I believe the most influential moments that shaped Next Gen ministry in the last three centuries are pretty clear. I will try and place them in a timeline of happenings. But, because they bleed into each other quite a bit, forgive the inaccurate overlap in the order.

Because so much was happening in a time frame of about 150 years from the late 1700’s into the mid 1960’s, it is almost impossible to create a readable timeline that looks like an accurate continuum.

But everyone would have to agree that The Sunday School Movement was the beginning of Next Gen ministry.

The Sunday School movement mostly began in America about 150+ years ago in the early to mid-1800's. The Church began aged-group emphasis to children and YTH for the training of young people in their Christian faith.

Kind of the original 'small group' so prevalent in the modern Church today. But, at the same time in the Church, there was an emphasis upon Church growth and evangelism. And one of the newest ways to do this was to reach the children of the community.

I am using a compilation of articles gathered by students from Indiana Wesleyan University who were doing a Christian Education report for their class. It is a great read with citations and more than adequate academic work.

My research found that most sources would agree with the work of these students. Using memoirs, interviews, and a widely accepted now out of print book by Lynn and Wright, these students have left us an exemplary timeline of Sunday School.

Many sources and articles agree that Robert Raikes is credited as the early father of the Sunday School concept in England about 1780s. Raikes was trying to keep children off the streets and so opened up a sabbaoth day of teaching the children of the inner city.

And what impacted this in a major way was the second grade awakening, and the thousands and thousands of young people who are coming into the church. What were they going to do with them?

The Sunday School movement swelled to Philadelphia with the Quakers in 1790, New York in 1810, and throughout the West in the 1820’s before the original states were even added to the union. This movement began so quickly because of the great need of ministry to children. And the organization began.

In America, the first national Sunday School began in 1824; its stated purpose was to organize, evangelize and civilize. The focus was intentionally evangelical, and so within the next 100 years the Sunday School had become the primary outreach arm of the church.

The Sunday School organization then expanded to include all ages. Sunday School became a way for unbelievers to be introduced to, and then assimilated into, the life of the church. By the late 1800’s, Sunday School was looked to as the main hope for church growth, a view that continued until the mid-twentieth century.

And so an effort called Sunday School began by bringing children into the Church from the surrounding communities to teach them life skills, reading and writing, and hygiene care. This became one of the earliest ideas to do outreach and evangelism in the Church and it became very effective. So many organizations today do social or welfare or humanitarian programs.

But this is not a new idea for the Church. Many of the Churches in this time would take the concept of outreach called Sunday School to the streets and even on Saturdays to neighborhoods in the surrounding communities.

There is much more to it than this, but, the concept of Sunday School and the small group evolution is elementary to the development of Next Gen ministry. This concept is in the DNA and the culture of ministry to youth. And we cannot neglect the historical evidence of graded and age-staged ministry to youth and children. This part of Next Gen ministry history is one that cannot be skipped.

Alongside the Sunday School model in the 19th century, we saw another movement grow up at the same time.

And the influence of the first and second grade awakenings cannot be understated. With the revival that was taking place, something had to be done to disciple the young people.

Tell me we don’t need that again today.