What is Sabbath School?

Credit: Moses Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church

The concept behind Sabbath School has a wonderful foundation in God’s passionate desire to have fellowship with His human family, and to provide His human family enhanced opportunity for fellowship with one another.

Consider first the meaning of each of the two words of Sabbath  and  School.

Sabbath — a day dedicated by God for mankind1 for building relations with Him, with family2 and in ministering to the needs of others3 by laying aside our own concerns and pleasures4 and giving attention to learning to be like Jesus—through faith in the power of God’s word5.

School — an institution for learning transferable skills that can be applied to a variety of challenges that relate to creating and doing things of value for society.

With the meanings of Sabbath and school fresh in mind, consider next the inference of “value for society.”

The society here envisioned is the society of God6 and all His creation. Therefore, the foci of learning should be upon that which God places value. Since God has clearly revealed what is of value to Him7, we here have good direction. It must include:

The transferable skills we try to focus on in Sabbath School are the ones that place the student in a learning paradigm that maximizes learning breadth, depth, retention, empathy, truth, excellence, synthesis, and Godliness, and that motivates an eagerness to share the gospel.  

Jesus taught by incorporating all the senses and using multiple learning styles and multiple intelligence-measure approaches to learning. Therefore, we strive to approach teaching and learning from many approaches and perspectives, but always Bible-based, and always with a view toward growing in grace and of valuing that which is of value to God.

Credit: Moses Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church