What are we teaching again?

I have mentioned before that as a Sunday school teacher of children I often worry I might not be up to the task.  When I taught in the nursery I had it handled, they were all babies,and the lesson was always “Jesus loves you, please don’t pee on Mister Judson”  But yeah, once they get to Kathleen’s class (3 to 6) there is a lot more pressure to “get it right.”

For example, last month when Kathleen and Matthew were at the World Food Championship I taught the lesson about Isaiah in the valley full of bones that get reanimated.  They were very skeptical and the next week when Kathleen was back they wanted to tell her about it, in case I made that one up.  Because 100% they believe I’d tell them a story about zombie bones when I should be teaching them about the bible.

Which brings us to last week. First sunday of advent is always a big deal.  We have an advent banner to make, someone’s family will be lighting the advent candle so we all go and watch that part of the service and listen to some Christmas hymns. The key to the chaos is to just keep telling them what is going on.  Why we celebrate advent, how we celebrate advent, and what it means, along with frequent bathroom breaks. So as we were bathroom breaking and preparing to head to the sanctuary for the advent part of the service, one of the littles wanted to ask a question. It took a few minutes,and you could see that the wheels were turning, but they really struggled to get it out. Eventually, they revealed they wanted to know why our church was focused on God and Jesus all the time?  

It really is a great question. Since Kathleen was MIA I did my best to answer, because I think it's important that the littles ask questions.  So I said, “well, that is one of the things that the adults in the church have in common, we all share the same faith in God and belief in Jesus.”  (So far so good right?)  But then I faltered. “And so it's important to your parents that all the littles are indoctrinated in the same beliefs.  So it's my job to indoctrinate all of you.”  And of course that is when Kathleen returned.  

Apparently Teach is a more appropriate word for what we are doing.  We are teaching the littles, not indoctrinating.   God is in the details.