Much to My Surprise!

Friday afternoon, August 22, 2008 [Fay is passing by, ever so gently; 77 degrees],
Your responses to my previous "perspective" have been quite interesting, even surprising, I must say. No, I wasn't surprised at the reactions I received regarding wives submitting to their husbands; as I told you, this isn't my first "rodeo." I was surprised at the numbers of you who picked up on my comment about Sunday School. This is my direct quote: "Why, the chances of my convincing married women of the message of this text is about the same as my convincing the Southern Baptist Convention that Sunday School is a detriment to the Christian life."
Actually, there were three surprises: (1) Many of you concluded that I see Sunday School as being a detriment to the Christian life; (2) Many of you agreed with this conclusion; and (3) A few of you asked me to share my reasons for holding this belief. So, I figured that I should clear that air of any confusion.
In the first place, I don't know that I would say that Sunday School is a detriment to the Christian life, at least not always, but I do think it should be banned from church and my reasons are several. I will, therefore, cover item #2 with this list: (1) Most of those who teach Sunday School are not qualified to teach the Scriptures; (2) Many (probably, most) of those who teach SS do so in order to meet an emotional need[love, acceptance, or belonging]; (3) There is very little, if any, connection between what the pastor is preaching and what the SS teacher teaches; consequently, no one is able to assimilate all that is thrown at them on any given Sunday morning; (4) Too many parents trust the SS teacher to do what they should be doing; (5) Attendance at SS is used as the gauge by which the local church's success is measured; (6) High attendance becomes "bragging rights" for local churches; (7) SS is often seen as a means of evangelism [Since 7 is the perfect number, I will stop with these].
I really did get the strong feeling that many of you would prefer that your church end its SS programs and, thereby, stop some of the nonsensical busyness that it imposes. If this is true, why don't you, well, never mind, as I would hate for you to be "tarred and feathered" for wanting to destroy the golden calf.
I once heard Peter Lord say (actually, he said it to me) that, if he had it to do over again (he had a very successful church in Titusville, Florida, not to mention, and incredible teaching ministry all over the country) he would eliminate Sunday School, replace the pews in the sanctuary with round tables, and have everyone come together for a brief teaching session on Sunday mornings, and then give them time to discuss what he just taught. In my opinion he was correct, which is one of the reasons we do not have Sunday School and do have round tables in our sanctuary. If my crowd could get me to abbreviate my sermons, we would be right on target! Not many people, but what's new?