# Sunday School Distance Learning



## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

I'm on our church education committee, and we have been discussing what Sunday School should look like this fall if we continue Distance Learning or whatever they may call it. If we are not able to congregate even this fall, what, if anything, is your church planning to do? The school district is undecided as what they are doing but are in planning stages.

I realize this may be a bit premature, but I would rather be prepared. Thank you!


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Have church as always, have wash stations with hand sanitizer and be deligent about educating people about the dangers (as if they’ve been living under a rock) of coming to church sick. Other than those....make sure your spiritually ready should you be selected to meet the maker. I don’t think there is anything more you should do.....


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Stack I believe I worship in the same faith you as you. I'm not sure when the church can get back on track. I have a bit of fear, here in the East ..The ELCA will not survive if the time does not come, and come very soon when you pack up the kids and head to SS Church on a Sunday morning..


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

endrow said:


> Stack I believe I worship in the same faith you as you. I'm not sure when the church can get back on track. I have a bit of fear, here in the East ..The ELCA will not survive if the time does not come, and come very soon when you pack up the kids and head to SS Church on a Sunday morning..


I agree, but not just ELCA. Basically all churches in general. Best friend is Catholic and his mother is their church secretary, said they are in the same boat. Their Reverend is afraid people are going to get used to not worshipping in person and just stay home. Their giving is down tremendously.


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## Chase72 (Nov 12, 2017)

My church opened back up on the 17th, all we are having now is morning worship, no midweek or night or Sunday school. We marked off 6 feet apart per family in our worship hall and it has worked so far


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

Our governor says we can have services with 25% of capacity, so this coming Sunday, June 7, will be our first service since mid March. To accommodate everyone, our Pastor will be having 3 services. Everyone is asked to choose which service they wish to attend, thereby keeping each service at 25% or less.

I've heard from other sources that church contributions have dropped off sharply. Our congregation has been blessed. At the end of each month, our checking account is still in the black. It's a small congregation, but very close knit.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

A pastor that used to be at our church move to a church In Lake Elmo Minnesota. Many people from our church in Pennsylvania kind of missed the guy, So many of them watch him every Sunday on the live stream from that church. I hope we can soon get back the church people get in the habit of doing different things on Sundays


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

These are blatant tactics designed to keep people from worship. I wouldn’t do any such 25% rule, btw 25% x 3 doesn’t equal out  they need to allow churches back open and let the folks at the church decided what restrictions need to be in place.....the act up there as if people can’t think for themselves. There is no legal precedent for restricting worship services, what’s more appalling is that folks are willing to “lay down” and accept it.....purty sure judging by the rioting and marching that this covid has been extinguished....


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

You cannot believe a single word anymore that is put out by the media services....any of them. We are being manipulated and controlled and are like lemmings following the orders. Our government is the ocean and like lemmings we are just plunging into it and swimming until.....

Folks need to think for themselves. It's not hard, just do the right thing.

Regards, Mike


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

Vol said:


> You cannot believe a single word anymore that is put out by the media services....any of them. We are being manipulated and controlled and are like lemmings following the orders. Our government is the ocean and like lemmings we are just plunging into it and swimming until.....
> 
> Folks need to think for themselves. It's not hard, just do the right thing.
> 
> Regards, Mike


I absolutely agree 100%. We have been trying many new things in our congregation, but there's no replacement for people in the pew. I do not like the orders coming down from the State as we can only have 25% (?) of people in church. Who decides who gets in and who gets shut out? We share a Pastor with another church so multiple services at each parish isn't really an option. 
We are just kind of spitballing potential ideas but as of today, we are planning for Sunday School in person this fall. Some things just can't be adapted properly.


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## Troy Farmer (Jul 31, 2011)

I live in a small rural community and attend a small membership church. Our Bishop has restricted us from inside worship and other gatherings since early March. In mid May we were able to begin "drive-in" worship. I was opposed to this in the beginning but, as it has turned out, our attendance is about where it normally is for a normal worship service. We will be allowed to worship inside June 14th. Throughout all of this our Pastor has delivered a message each Sunday and Maundy Thursday via video.

In listening to the feedback from our members, I now realize how fearful people actually are. Most of our congregation would be considered in the "high risk" category and they are truly scared. The media and government have done a fine job of scaring people!

We'll see how it goes this Sunday. We have all kinds of rules. No Sunday School, no congregational singing, seating in every other pew, no touching each other.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

What an important conversation! I am a member of a Southern Baptist Church and we don't have an organization above the local Church so in reality each Church is making their own decisions. Here have seen in the last three weeks local Churches of many different labels opening for inside services. Think the majority are working with the six feet distance and with some including ours using both the sanctuary and our family life or fellowship building for additional room. We do have congregation singing but no handshaking or even passing offering plate. So far only having Sunday Morning worship service.

Last Friday night bumped into a former Pastor and we had long discussion on what has happened and what could happen. We both hold the belief this is part of a well plan attempt to destroy the Church at least do as much damage as possible with the Covid as cover. What he went on to say surprised me. He said he was hearing many preachers who thought the current setup should be the new normal. No real in Church just virtual. I know "THE" Church will not fail and but it will not grow without fellowship.

I really believe this is a wake up call to THE Church and those who are prepared will be blessed and grow and those who don't probably will close.

Know some Churches who never had Sunday School like many do but have it in peoples homes with each one setting their own time and day for the Bible study. Maybe we see in home Bible studies or even in home Churches come out of this.

Do agree the simple thing is do with all sickness the same any reasonable person will do is stay home when they are sick. I think our Church will need to divide our adult classes as they are really crowded classes or were. Youth maybe and children not crowded.

Todd's comment about being ready...great advice.


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## Farmineer95 (Aug 11, 2014)

We currently are not having children's church (Sunday school) we were fortunate enough to start with live streaming as soon as the state closed. With a small group in the sanctuary we we able to show a seemingly normal Sunday Worship service. We opened back up as soon as the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the stay home order. Since then we used every other pew, with attendance growing, we offer real time video in the lower level with good opportunities to social distance. The thing is, our goal is to be respectful of either side's position. Make way, stay away unless it's mutual not to, and no coffee/doughnuts.
We have a lot of kids in our fellowship. The families with infants and toddlers are tending to stay home on their own accord.
Our Wednesday night AWANA program was cut short this spring with it up to the families to finish out the learning year. We haven't discussed this fall yet, but I suspect there will be a program pretty close to normal. Exceptions to the 3 & 4 year olds, might have added guidelines. The goal is to teach and instruct the Word, raising up our kids in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. We need to adapt and continue.

I don't think, no I know, distance learning doesn't work, not for elementary and middle school anyway. Without a structured day some kids have no sense of the value of time. Learning with peers is a part of it. Fellowship in the Church is also part of it. I feel strongly to follow the law of the land, regardless if I agree. If there is a law that's one thing, if there's a "guideline" do our best to follow it. I just read Romans 14. Look at it from the believer's perspective. 
Teaching requires instructing more than one perspective. If we choose the forgo teaching Life, we inherently teach the opposite, don't you think?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Farmineer95 said:


> We currently are not having children's church (Sunday school) we were fortunate enough to start with live streaming as soon as the state closed. With a small group in the sanctuary we we able to show a seemingly normal Sunday Worship service. We opened back up as soon as the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the stay home order. Since then we used every other pew, with attendance growing, we offer real time video in the lower level with good opportunities to social distance. The thing is, our goal is to be respectful of either side's position. Make way, stay away unless it's mutual not to, and no coffee/doughnuts.
> We have a lot of kids in our fellowship. The families with infants and toddlers are tending to stay home on their own accord.
> Our Wednesday night AWANA program was cut short this spring with it up to the families to finish out the learning year. We haven't discussed this fall yet, but I suspect there will be a program pretty close to normal. Exceptions to the 3 & 4 year olds, might have added guidelines. The goal is to teach and instruct the Word, raising up our kids in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. We need to adapt and continue.
> 
> ...


Very similar to the way we have operated at my Church right down to the live streaming immediately following the stay at home command.

Regards, Mike


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Sounds familiar... Of course with my mom's fall and subsequent hospitalization, decline, and passing on, and our self-imposed quarantine over that time to prevent taking the illness to her when she WAS home before it became apparent her time was getting near-at-hand, and subsequently we've tried to minimize our exposure and risks anyway.

Of course being in Fort Bend county, which is one of the hottest 'hot spots' for the virus in Texas, our congregation followed gubner Abbott's lockdown orders when they were issued. Only in the past few weeks as he did the 'gradual reopening' of the state has "open church services" resumed... Our 6 elders and the preachers met and held Sunday services which were televised on Youtube for folks at home to participate remotely... Of course being church of Christ, we have no higher organization beyond the local congregation and their eldership, so different congregations have done things differently according to their own eldership's decisions I suppose. Mom went to a smaller congregation in a town near Shiner, and it's VERY conservative, mostly older folks, and small enough they don't have an eldership, so their very outspoken and VERY conservative preacher essentially conducted "business as usual" throughout this entire affair, with the only modifications being "social distancing" within the building, and the communion plate being handled ONLY by the usher/server, pick a cup out of it with a bit of bread and then another plate coming around with a cup of juice, and then later a plate being brought out for you to drop your contribution in without touching it... nothing passing through anybody's hands but the gloved usher/server. Sensible precautions, but having about 25-35 folks in a fairly small enclosed building, well, I told mom the Sunday before she fell that it wasn't a good idea for her to go to church that Sunday, because of her COPD and her age and other complicating health conditions, getting covid would have been a virtual death sentence for her. Course had I known that would be the last opportunity she'd have to go to church... well, I was trying to do what was best for her-- no sense in second guessing that now, and it's water under the bridge now anyway...

As for Sunday School, well, no they haven't restarted that yet. Our congregation in Rosenberg has restarted in-church services, but the preacher also gave a lesson a few weeks back on not judging one another; if folks choose to wear a mask or even forego in-person services for the time being and only choose to continue doing online services for their own health or that of their family, then they shouldn't be judged for that... just 'do the right thing'. The in-church services there has a table in the back from which you get your pre-packaged communion cups, complete with a small bread wafer in a shrink-wrapped top part above the pull-tab foil top to the juice cup below it, which the church made available for pickup in pre-packaged bags to the membership from the time this all started. We got some and have been tuning into the Youtube recording of the services on Sunday and singing along and following along with the preacher and communion prayers and having communion with our pre-packaged cups. When mom was back at home for a week and we were in Shiner taking care of her, we did the same with her the Sunday she was home. Of course we've been in Shiner A LOT trying to sort out the complete mess my parents made of their (and the farm's) business affairs, which they kept very secret, so now we're trying to unravel it all and figure out "who's on first" and what the actual game is (football, baseball, or soccer for that matter!) and that's an ongoing process, so we've been up there every weekend basically since mid-April IIRC... except this weekend. After mom passed, we attended services one Sunday with her congregation in Yoakum, to extend our thanks for the good folks there that had sent her cards and stuff and brought us food after she passed away, and last Sunday we were up there working and went to Gonzales to church, where I've visited before and feel more "like minded" with (I'm conservative, but not SUPER conservative LOL Anyway, they had a nice group and were similarly social distancing in the building, which isn't too much of a problem with a church of 25-30 people or so... They aren't doing Sunday school either yet.

My SIL is in northern Indiana and she works in the church daycare as well as teaching Sunday school, but there's no word yet on what they're going to do in the fall... I know a LOT of it is mirroring what the schools are going to do. And that is yet ANOTHER big mess-in-waiting, at least in a lot of places... I guess some places are in "wait and see" mode, but there's some BIG CHANGES afoot in our area...

I've been reluctant to return to "in-church services" in our area simply because we're planning to go to Indiana to visit the family in a couple weeks or so, and we can't do that if one of the three of us comes down sick. As I said, Fort Bend county is a hotbed of the virus at the moment (and had a resurgence shortly after the "reopening" of the county a couple three weeks ago, so we've basically minimized anything we can possibly minimize doing in this county-- fortunately we're 3 miles from the adjoining county which is more "rural" and thus lower rates of infection and stuff, and we've been doing as much as possible in Shiner and Lavaca county, which had only 6 cases up until the reopening, and has since risen to 15... 2 of the original 6 were actually "out of county" cases where they caught it in Victoria... At any rate you feel a LOT safer going to the store or to church in that area than this one where cases have topped 2,000+!!!! We did go out to eat today after our power went out behind a thunderstorm and we couldn't cook lunch here, and I had an eye doctor appointment that I couldn't do until now... Otherwise we have as little to do with Fort Bend county as possible... we stay home.

Betty has had some online meetings about the coming school year, and my sister (who is a band director at a different middle-school campus in the same school district, along with my BIL who's a testing coordinator for the district and works at a different high school than my wife) are VERY concerned... My sister, being a band director, is in dire straits over the proposed changes... she's also concerned because it looks like the school is taking the position that "let no good crisis go unexploited" and is going to give the teachers "the dirty end of the stick" this fall, because they don't foresee much teacher turnover or attrition, because "everybody knows 'last one hired, first one fired' and nobody wants to switch jobs in all this economic uncertainty" which they take a license to screw people over knowing "they won't quit or get another job"... Anyway, from a classroom perspective rather than employee perspective, the apparent changes are that they're using this basically statewide in Texas as an excuse for a MAJOR PUSH toward year-round school... basically a month off around Christmas, a couple weeks in the fall sometime, and a couple weeks in spring, with school bracketing a very short couple/three week summer break. That has been a dream of some of the education beancounters in gubmint for quite some time, and so they're using this mess to their advantage to ram it through. They're talking about all grades 6 - 12 being only alternating days on campus, so basically a four-day school week, and lengthening the instructional day about 30 minutes or so... of course more days, and the kids doing "e-learning" on the days they're not physically in school. For K-5, they'll have "regular classes" but the class loads are to be cut to no more than 11 students per classroom. That's the kicker, and a problem that has YET to have any real "substantive" proposal to solve put forward-- basically Texas has had a 1:21 mandatory maximum class size for elementary school, so going to a 1:11 ratio would effectively require DOUBLE the number of elementary school teachers. My sister, being a band director, also teaches both 5th AND 6th graders, so she's in a quandary as what will happen with this "overlap"... technically she has to be certified as an elementary teacher, and they're basically changing the contracts to suit the schools, with much more emphasis on the "or duties AS ASSIGNED", so she's convinced they're basically going to draft all the teachers that ARE certified as "elementary teachers" (she is because she teaches fifth graders) into taking on elementary classroom teacher duties to make up for this shortfall. Luckily Betty doesn't have to worry about this, as she's a high school certified teacher, unless of course the state amends the certification standards or changes the rules or issues waivers or whatever, and they just stick "warm bodies" in with elementary kids to achieve this 11:1 ratio they're talking about... leave it to gubmint to muck it up... Anyway, at any rate they DON'T have enough classrooms to halve the class sizes, so basically they're going to be busing elementary kids to middle, junior high, perhaps even high school campuses to make up for the shortfall in rooms to achieve this 11:1 ratio, which would basically double the number of classrooms required as well as the number of teachers... Crazy!!

Then of course they've also put out a questionnaire to the teachers and staff about proposed changes, that if 2 students test positive for covid should they have a mandatory 2 week shutdown, which of course Betty voted "no" to-- in a school that was built to have 3,000 kids roaming the halls and packed tightly into TWO stairwells on opposite ends of building 6-7 times a day, that's basically the same as just saying "shut the place down for good"... Even going to school every other day, that's still going to be 1500 kids roaming the halls and packed into stairwells-- what they get for building all these stupid "mega-campuses" with upstairs and downstairs, instead of just having more separate "neighborhood schools"... Which is basically the same mess we've gotten ourselves into by allowing 3 megacompanies to basically own and control most of the packing capacity for meat in the USA-- and when something like this pandemic happens, we see how UTTERLY VULNERABLE such a overwhelmingly centralized, vertically integrated system TRULY is, compared to the old "decentralized" network of smaller, largely independent local and regional packers we had 30-40 years ago, before all this stupid MERGER MANIA took over... but the big boys can't make a billion bucks that way, so let 'em buy everything up and reduce it down to a handful of mega-packing-plants in the country-- it'll be alright... it'll be alright... but I digress...

Anyway, they were pulling a lot of stuff out of their rear ends when this covid thing caught them with their pants down over spring break, which the schools never went back from. Now I think we're seeing the typical 'kneejerk overreaction' and instituting a lot of hairbrained ideas that ultimately are going to backfire in their faces to some degree... Oh, it's likely we'll see a covid resurgence this fall at some point to some degree, but the thing is at some point you have to ask yourself-- "is the cure worse than the disease?" The e-learning thing worked out *fairly* well I think, though my aunt teaches at a smaller, poorer area rural elementary school and she was having to go in to work on-campus 3 days a week through the end of school-- they didn't have enough resources for all the kids to do "e-learning" online, so they were having to make packets and send home with the parents once a week, and getting packets back of completed work and go over it and consult or tutor over the phone or whatever as needed so I gather... I don't think just going "back to normal" whole-hog is a good solution, but neither do I think we need to institute a bunch of half-baked ideas and kneejerk overreactions to stuff that will ultimately cause more problems than it solves, either...

It's a mess, is what it is, and we've not seen the last of it by a longshot, I'm afraid... Later! OL J R


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