I grew up in a relatively large Sabbath School class at the First Tulsa Seventh-day Adventist Church in the late 60s and 70s. It was a large church with attendance back in the 70s reaching well over 300. Some of my older friends tell me it was almost 400 some Sabbaths. The church also had a bustling school with around 100 students, give or take a few. So childhood peers were not scarce for me growing up in the church and Sabbath School.
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I remember in Cradle Roll singing the song “I Have Two Dollies, and you Have None,” where a little girl would be given two dolls, and then share with another girl who did not have one, and then for the boys, it would be the same song but with a toy truck instead of a doll. I remember one time we were horrified when a little girl visiting our class was given the two dolls, but then refused to share!
I remember in Kindergarten Sabbath School class, the other kids singing Happy Birthday to their friend who was having a birthday that week, and the little plastic cake we would put our birthday thank offering into.
In Primary class, we had “Our Primary Treasure” magazine, with the Sabbath school lessons that my parents studied with my sister and me each night during family worship. My parents were my teachers when I reached the Junior room, and they were very active, not only in Sabbath school class, but also in socials and activities that brought us all together. To this day, I am still friends with several kids from my Sabbath School classes when I was growing up.
I have friends today who did not grow up in the large Sabbath School classes as I did. My girlfriend Becky grew up in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. She tells me that her church was so small that she and her brothers were the only kids, and so sometimes her own parents taught the class, or sometimes they just joined the adults. Later, the church grew with just a few more kids, where they would have a class with all ages, and then divide by age for the lesson study. Another friend told me that she was often the only child in her class, but it made her feel special that there was a whole class just for her.
Children’s Sabbath school classes have always been a challenge, especially in rural areas where there are not many children. Back in the day, families lived on farms and raised several children who would fill the church. Today, younger families are having fewer children and are more prone to live in the cities than in rural areas.
I remember being a Bible Worker and an elder in a small church on the outskirts of Tulsa, a good-sized city. We had an extremely small children’s Sabbath school class. While more young families with children lived in the area, most traveled to Tulsa for the larger Sabbath School class. These families told me they did not want to go to the smaller church in their area because there were not enough kids for their kids to be with. I assured these families that if they all came to the smaller church, it would not be so small. It was hard for me to watch, because the few children who did remain in the smaller church would have loved to have had more friends, and they could have had more friends if the other families in that rural area had supported their neighborhood church instead of insisting on driving 30 or more minutes into the city.
What was your Sabbath School childhood like? I hope you will comment below and share your experiences of what you loved about Sabbath School as a child and what you would have liked to be different. I hope we can all learn from each other’s experiences to build better Sabbath School classes in both rural and urban communities that will help disciple our children.
