Sunday School Lessons

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor I think it’s fair to say I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with God for most of my life, although I think we’ve finally decided to stick it out and make it work.

Growing up, we were largely one of those “Easter and Christmas” families when it came to going to church. I mean, we showed up for Jesus’s birthday and big resurrection just to remind him we were on his side, I guess. I mean, we definitely went to church other times, but as a kid, if there was some sort of pattern or reason to our church attendance, I was not made aware of it. On some seemingly random Sunday mornings, my Mom would wake us up and say we were going to church.

Which was fine, I suppose, except that meant I had to wear my “tan pants and long black socks” combo along with a shirt with a collar, none of which was really my scene. If we made it to church, it almost always meant we were also going to Sunday school. Which was fine by me. Sunday school was always more important to me than “big church” anyway. I got to sit with my friends, we got to have a snack, and we got to ask questions.

Asking questions about God and Jesus and the Bible have always been a big part of my walk of faith. I have always been curious about spiritual things, even studying the world’s different religious systems as part of my history degree in college. I think it’s important to not only believe in something but also try to understand why you believe it.

Not that everyone likes that idea. I clearly remember my Sunday school teacher in like fourth or fifth grade being very put out that we wanted to know who Cain married, since there were only three other people on the planet at the time and he had killed one of them. She didn’t really try to answer the question and it has stuck with me ever sense.

As I got older, I asked more questions and sometimes I got good answers and sometimes I did not. As a young adult, I sort of moved away from church, but my wife and children got me back into it and I’m glad they did. You need something, I think, to anchor yourself to in order to keep from getting swept away from the current of this crazy world we live in. Regardless of the kind and level of spirituality you adhere to, you can find fellowship and community in one of our many local churches. They come in all shapes and sizes and I’m confident you can find one and “get in where you fit in” as the saying goes.

I said all of that to say this … this past Sunday morning, my church, Marion First Baptist, had a special “Pack the Class” Sunday where we made a push to get people (members and guests alike) to come to Sunday school … Well, we’re fancy, so we call them “Life Groups” but it’s the same deal. The preacher shares my belief that Sunday school (sigh… life groups) are just as important, if not more important than the regular Sunday service. That, the idea goes, is where you can really make connections and form strong bonds with fellow believers who just happen to be your friends and neighbors.

I don’t know if you pay attention to this sort of thing, but church attendance is way down in recent years. The latest dip is largely being blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus gave plenty of folks an excuse to check out of church and they haven’t checked back in. It’s not just a local phenomenon either. All across the state and nation, church is falling out of favor as more and more people have begun to identify as “non-religious” or some form of atheism.

I remember a decade or so ago, many in the Christian community were worried about declining numbers. Some were converting to other religions, most commonly Islam, others were simply dropping their religious affiliations, but many were just no longer going to church. In fact, in a recent Life Group discussion, we read from a survey that only about 34 percent of Americans “regularly” attend church. That means basically two out of three people in this country are just staying home.

The “Christian majority” is barely that these days. In a different study, 58 percent of American adults responded that they were Christians. If the trend showed in the study keeps up over the next several years, projections showed that by 2030, professed Christians would be, for the first time in U.S. history, in the minority in this country.

You can make your own mind up as to whether or not that’s a good thing. As for me, I’d like to take this opportunity to invite you all to Sunday school (or Life Groups) this Sunday. You’re likely to make some new friends, and you might even learn a valuable lesson.

I still don’t know who Cain’s wife was though …