The Evangelism Handbook
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The Sunday School Movement
It was a Sunday afternoon in Sooty Alley, the date July 1780. Boisterous children, normally shut in a Gloucester pin-making factory, played and shouted their freedom on this Sabbath day, much to the annoyance of a city gentleman living nearby by the name of Robert Raikes.
Robert was all too aware of the many families who had been attracted from the countryside to the city workhouses by the lure of easy money. Many had fallen into heavy drinking including some of the children. Few had any education, which was reserved for a fortunate elite in industrial England at that time.
Robert Raikes
This seemingly insignificant event that Sunday afternoon set Robert's mind thinking of the deprivation which existed amongst these people and especially the little ones. So began his crusade to eliminate injustice and hardship mainly through the pages of the Gloucester Journal, of which he was the proprietor and editor.
He sought the reform of a corrupt prison administration. He preached against the uncontrolled sale of strong drink, particularly to children at the gin parlors on every corner. He instigated a crusade for education which he believed to be an effective means of reform. He started what we call today the "Sunday School Movement."
Rev Thomas Scott
Beginning in a small way, he opened two schools, one in the parish of a concerned clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Stock and another in Sooty Alley. Like so many great movements of God, success did not come easily. Robert Raikes' school closed after only six months because of discipline problems. Raikes however continued to put his ideas into print and this caught the attention of the magnetic preacher, John Wesley.
Wesley was greatly impressed and called the Sunday School Movement "one of the noblest specimens of charity which have been set on foot in England since the times of William the Conqueror." The great Methodist advertised them and soon schools were springing up all over England and in Wales, Scotland and Belfast too.
Animated Question Mark
Initially, Raikes paid qualified professionals to teach but as the demand grew a volunteer force took over. The first teachers book, "A Sunday, Scholar's Companion" introduced basic words, short prayers and some hymns to young eager minds. Few rules were laid down in those early days.
"All that I require," wrote Raikes, "are clean hands, clean faces and their hair combed. If you have no clean shirt, come in what you have on." He frowned on cursing and swearing and encouraged kindness and obedience to parents. So began the Sunday School Movement and with it a new role within the church, that of the Sunday School Teacher.
Robert Raikes started the first Sunday School in London in 1780. 20 years after he died there were 1.2 million children attending Sunday Schools in England. At that time England had a population of 4.5 million, so one quarter of the population in England were attending Sunday Schools.
Though society. culture and a whole gamut of other things have changed in the last hundred and more years, the gifts required by the teacher and the problems or joys that face him or her are essentially the same. Then, as now, the teacher needed to be "an animated question mark" as someone once observed.
Other Magnificent Efforts
In researching this story, I came across other groundbreaking work promoting Sunday Schools. On August 13th 1736, the Society Promoting Sunday Schools was founded and between 1736 and 1841 had one and a quarter million students enrolled.
The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge founded six schools in London in 1700, by 1704 had 54 schools with 3,000 students, by 1712, 117 schools and 5,000 students. By 1741 they had 2,000 schools. These and other magnificent efforts were happening in England under the hand of God to promote schools and Sunday schools for children.
"Practical Christian Outreach in the Local Church"
