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Standing at the crossroads: where does adult Sunday school go from here? Wollf, Randy Peter
Abstract
Churches around the world offer Adult Sunday classes as a forum for adult religious education. This time-honored approach to church-based adult education has encountered difficulties in recent times. For many churches, Adult Sunday School is standing at a crossroads. Where does it go from here? This study attempted to determine those factors that influence adults' decisions about whether or not to attend Adult Sunday School and what changes could be made to increase participation in the program. The context for this study on Adult Sunday School is Langley Evangelical Free Church located in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. This mid-sized church of approximately 600 people provided data upon which any conclusions were made. Surveys on Adult Sunday School were distributed to 365 adults and 195 surveys were returned. Respondents were given the opportunity to volunteer to participate in a discussion group to discuss the implications of the survey results. The results was that thirty-one people participated in six discussion groups. The discussion groups were instrumental in making sense of the data and recommending changes to increase participation in Adult Sunday School. The study asked participants to rate nine factors as to their influence in determining whether or not they would attend Adult Sunday School. The factors were ranked by respondents in the following order: spiritual growth, relevance, practicality, teaching style, sharing experiences, social contact, learning, intergenerational and external expectations. Other variables that were analyzed included age, marital status, family makeup, educational level and involvement in small group Bible studies. There were some significant differences in how members of some of the subgroups rated the factors. The study also looked at barriers to participation which were categorized as situational barriers, organizational barriers and personal barriers. The discussion groups concluded that three factors should be addressed to increase participation in Adult Sunday School at Langley Evangelical Free Church: content relevance, Sunday morning format and a more systematic structure. The results of this study provide valuable information for designing a blueprint for change at Langley Evangelical Free Church which may also be suggestive for other churches as they evaluate Adult Sunday School.
Item Metadata
Title |
Standing at the crossroads: where does adult Sunday school go from here?
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2000
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Description |
Churches around the world offer Adult Sunday classes as a forum for adult religious
education. This time-honored approach to church-based adult education has encountered
difficulties in recent times. For many churches, Adult Sunday School is standing at a
crossroads. Where does it go from here? This study attempted to determine those factors
that influence adults' decisions about whether or not to attend Adult Sunday School and what
changes could be made to increase participation in the program.
The context for this study on Adult Sunday School is Langley Evangelical Free Church
located in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. This mid-sized church of approximately 600
people provided data upon which any conclusions were made. Surveys on Adult Sunday
School were distributed to 365 adults and 195 surveys were returned. Respondents were
given the opportunity to volunteer to participate in a discussion group to discuss the
implications of the survey results. The results was that thirty-one people participated in six
discussion groups. The discussion groups were instrumental in making sense of the data and
recommending changes to increase participation in Adult Sunday School.
The study asked participants to rate nine factors as to their influence in determining
whether or not they would attend Adult Sunday School. The factors were ranked by
respondents in the following order: spiritual growth, relevance, practicality, teaching style,
sharing experiences, social contact, learning, intergenerational and external expectations.
Other variables that were analyzed included age, marital status, family makeup, educational
level and involvement in small group Bible studies. There were some significant differences
in how members of some of the subgroups rated the factors. The study also looked at barriers
to participation which were categorized as situational barriers, organizational barriers and
personal barriers. The discussion groups concluded that three factors should be addressed to
increase participation in Adult Sunday School at Langley Evangelical Free Church: content
relevance, Sunday morning format and a more systematic structure. The results of this study
provide valuable information for designing a blueprint for change at Langley Evangelical
Free Church which may also be suggestive for other churches as they evaluate Adult Sunday
School.
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Extent |
9601245 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-07-09
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0055934
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2000-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.