Children's Sunday School

Q. I started teaching Sunday School about a year ago, we have a very small church, in grades 1-5 I only have 3 sometimes 4 children. We attend a church where the children sit through the entire service with their parents, and Sunday School is after fellowship time.

Any ideas on how I can get the adults to see to it their children stay for Sunday School? I give little object lessons at the beginning of the worship service and I'll have sometimes 12 children come up for that, but still only 3 come to Sunday School.

A. First of all, thanks for your efforts in teaching the children! I have worked in mostly smaller classes and it can be very rewarding because you really get to know the kids well.

Your object lesson strategy is a great one – you are reaching the kids where they are. My thought would be to hand out something to the kids after the object lesson – maybe a worksheet that they can work on during the service. And tell them that if they come to Sunday school they get a special incentive – a prize or trading card. (I have free trading cards on the site you can print that can match the lesson). The idea is to get the kids to convince their parents to stay, not you.

Another idea would be to do a monthly or quarterly push with a specially themed class, and do an all out blast in the bulletin, object lesson, etc to advertise it. Maybe some families will get their feet wet if they don’t feel like it’s a weekly commitment. And if the kids enjoy it and want to come back – they can convince their parents to stay. They know all the tricks.

The problem is each family has their own reason for not staying and unless several families have the same obstacle you can address, your battle is uphill. It’s awesome that you’re willing to go beyond your class hour to try to reach the kids.