Yes! You can have a successful AND socially distanced Sunday School. Here’s a success story from a church that used GCP’s Pilgrim’s Progress curriculum. *They did have it outside, but you could certainly seat your families in the Fellowship Hall around round tables. That would work great! And we love this pastor’s closing comment – “Praise our King as he has provided a House Beautiful in the midst of our Hill of Difficulty!”
From July 12 – October 4, 2020 our families gathered together on picnic blankets and lawn chairs (socially distanced from other families) in our church’s front yard at 9:15 AM to teach our kids the rich doctrinal truths John Bunyan draws upon in Pilgrim’s Progress. Our members are very different when it comes to COVID precautions, but this outside picnic blanket Sunday school proved to be a good mesh for both sides of the spectrum.
Every child received their own paperback copy of the GCP’s version of this classic book (including a very helpful glossary of harder words in the back), as well as their student papers for the day’s lesson. We adapted some of the introductory and review games to be socially distanced. All of our kids (2 years old to 7th grade) loved these!
The kids most looked forward to the dramatic reading of the chapter each week. Our children who could read had fun looking up and reading aloud for our group the specific verses from their Bibles that were referenced along the way. This curriculum was enjoyed by adults and children alike! Since this study has ended, it has been fun listening to the “Slough of Despond” and “Giant Despair” being tossed around playfully in our regular conversations with one another. This was our first sign of successful in-person ministry outside of our worship service during the pandemic. And now we are building on that first success! Praise our King as he has provided a House Beautiful in the midst of our Hill of Difficulty!
With eyes towards the Celestial City,
a pastor in Washington