Teaching Creation in Sunday School

This is a guest-post by Evolutionary Biologist Douglas Hayworth, and is the eleventh installment in our “Evangelicals, Evolution, and Academics” series.

In my previous post, I discussed issues related to teaching science in a homeschooling setting. For that topic I focused on middle- and high-school levels, where the main challenge is finding curriculum that does not promote young earth creationism (YEC) or some other version of the faith / science conflict thesis. I now turn my attention to that other realm of teaching and learning in which most devoted evangelical Christians regularly participate: Sunday School. In so doing, I will shift my focus from older to younger children for several reasons, which I trust will be obvious as I proceed.

Sunday School Begins with Creation.
Most Sunday school curricula for grades 1-4 comprise a repeating one- or two-year cycle through the stories of the Bible. Lessons 1-4 at the beginning of the sequence are usually creation, Adam and Eve (the fall), Cain and Abel, and Noah (the flood). After going through this bible-story cycle several times, children graduate to middle school where Sunday School curriculum is almost always topical or creedal (catechism) in format. If creation and the garden of Eden story are ever discussed again, it is within the context of discussing the creation/evolution issue or as it relates to specific doctrinal statements in one's catechism. I suspect that some churches never again revisit the Genesis stories with their teens and adults. Fortunately, some good resources do exist for discussing creation "issues" and theology with teens and adults (e.g., Allan Harvey's lesson plans). Whether churches will take advantage of these resources is unclear.

My main concern relates to the formative elementary-school years. I fear that the creation-evolution controversy has so dominated the landscape that it has diverted attention from the most important lessons of the Genesis story. In fact, YEC organizations are so well funded and clever in marketing their message that they have convinced many churches to use their children's Sunday school materials. As a result, children are preconditioned not only to adopt the conflict thesis but also to understand the Genesis stories in very narrow theology terms. Creation is reduced to meaning "in six days" and "no evolution" when it ought to evoke our deepest and most profound thoughts about our existence, of God's sovereignty and intimacy, of his transcendence and immanence, and of our calling as his image-bearers.

Don't misunderstand me. What our children need in Sunday school is not a counter-offensive aimed at correcting YEC's scientific or theological flaws. That would keep the attention on all the wrong things. What our children (and friends) need is a presentation of Genesis that sparks the imagination like a good fairy tale or children's story. Genesis is the opening chapter of God's great story, not the preface to an instruction manual or science textbook. Fortunately, children may be better prepared to understand the Creation narratives than adults because they are less concerned about distinguishing between "fact" and "meaning".

Tell the Story. Explore the Story.
The creation, garden, and flood narratives are certainly MORE THAN mere stories, but they are NOT less than that. Just as the four gospels cannot be understood properly (or the differences between them reconciled) unless each author's individual theological purpose (i.e., "story-telling purpose") is appreciated as the primary framework, so, too, the creation narratives cannot be understood without keeping in mind the story-telling context. And aren't we all agreed (evolutionary, progressive and young-earth creationists alike) that the point of Genesis chapter 1 is that God created everything that exists? It is irrelevant whether it took six days, a blink of an eye or billions of years. Keeping the "story-telling" theme in the forefront helps to keep focus on God's message (i.e., the moral of the story) rather than theologically insignificant details.

So, call it a story and tell it like a story. Describe Genesis as God's story to the children of Israel through Moses. Then explore the story as the moral tale that it is. Use the "framework" model to outline the creative works of days 1-6. (Even if one takes the six days as literal, the framework is still the best way to understand the significance of those days.) For a craft, don't have the children draw the events of each day on separate pages (as is commonly done). Instead, have them add the days' events sequentially to one picture; then ask them if there is any part of the world that is missing. For the garden story, ask the children to think about what the various elements represent? Tell them that "Adam" means "man" (it is an individual's proper name only secondarily). What does the serpent represent? What do the trees represent? What do Adam and Eve's disobedience represent? Ask the children how they are like Adam and Eve. Do they like to learn about different animals and learn their names? Do they ever do things they know are wrong? Do they feel ashamed when they do wrong?

Give the Simple Back Story. Don't Over-answer Questions.
When questions arise, provide a little more of the back story. Explain how the pagan people in Abraham and Moses' day worshiped the sun and moon and believed in many gods that battled one another and created humans to be their slaves. These pagans also had garden-of-Eden stories that attempted to explain why humans always struggle to do what is right yet constantly fail. Genesis is God's retelling of these pagan stories in a way that corrects their wrong ideas. It is perhaps an understatement to suggest that our Sunday School teachers may need some training about the back story themselves.

Most of all, don't provide more answers than children need at their level, and don't strong-arm them by giving definitive answers. We evolutionary creationists shouldn't try to explain how we know that the creation stories aren't literal, and YEC's should not try to insist that a literal interpretation is the only valid and "safe" Christian interpretation. Children (and our Sunday School teachers) need to know that there are some things about which they must suspend judgment until they are older or more widely read. When children ask about reconciling evolution and the creation account, remind them of the story (literary context) and then explain that adult Christians differ on how exactly they make sense of the two ways God reveals himself to us. However, we all share a trust in a faithful God, a God who has a message of purpose and love for all of us Adams and Eves.

Tell the stories and let God speak for himself.