Family Sunday school

Adult Sunday school changed to Family Sunday school

For a number of years, my husband and I taught adult Sunday school using STS. We taught as a team. My husband Chris would tell the story, and then I would ask the questions and lead the discussion. We began leading the study while attended a small country church in Texas. Our class began with 6 faithful senior adult members. The method of discovering deep truths through discussion was very new to them. But as we shared and discussed the stories, the scripture came alive to them. Over a period of 2 years our class grew to 24 members in a church of 75 attendees. One time we had been studying the book of Jonah. After discussing the first part of the story where Johan attempts to run away from God, James, an 84 year old man said, "I've heard that story since I was a small boy, but I never knew you could take it personally until today." 

A few years later we moved to Hemet, California to volunteer at STS headquarters. Our new church in Hemet opened their hearts to STS. We've held several STS workshops there over the last 5 years. We're so thankful to say that 4 of our elders have attended workshops as well as our then associate pastor. With our pastor retiring, he will now be our new senior pastor. Our church is so open and receptive to God's directing. We had been teaching an adult Sunday school class there for 3 years. But in the early fall of 2022, we were lead to open our class to families. Our church said "Go for It!"

Our family class is now for all ages. We have senior adults, young adults (20 -- 35yrs), and families with children (ages 3-14). Having families attend is making a big difference to everyone. The impacts we've seen include: 

• Families love going to the same class. Families have a common scripture to continue to discuss and share through the week
• Learning to tell and then discuss a story has helped make family devotions come alive
• Adult members have been amazed to learn from the children as God reveals spiritual truths they share in discussion
• STS is a tool that helps unite a church as we experience that the Holy Spirit speaks to all ages. We don't need to separate the children or speak down to them; they see and apply truth from the same story as the adults.
• Learning the story all together helps adults to remember as well as the children. As several members have said, "The stories stick!"