I recently had to send this message out to the other leaders in my class, to make them aware of an issue with the Sunday School materials we are currently using (which will remain nameless to protect the guilty). Actually, it's a problem with many different Sunday School materials.
"Hi Explorers' leaders. Just thought I should flag up an issue to look out for with the [Sunday School] materials.There is often a problem that it assumes the children are believers. We should never assume that!So instead of saying, for example "the Holy Spirit is with you" - it's much better to say, "If you belong to Jesus/Jesus has forgiven you/you believe in Jesus (or similar) the Holy Spirit is with you."You don't need to labour the point, but just make sure you're not making statements or false promises that may not be true of the children."
Bearing in mind these are evangelical SS materials, this is quite concerning.
How many times have we heard a testimony from someone who realised at the age of 9, or 15, or 21, that they had just been assuming they were a Christian, and had never believed for themselves? Never mind those we know who were brought up in church but never come to faith?
Of course, for children brought up in a Christian family, this may be a subtle, gradual thing. Not everyone has a crisis conversion. But children need to know that salvation is by faith - not by having Christian parents or being in my Sunday School class.
