Read The Word(s)

Churches have long served their communities by providing educational services. Toward the end of the eighteenth century churches in England established “Sunday Schools” to educate orphans and poor children from working class families. The “Sunday School” movement soon spread to the United States, where prior to mandatory school attendance laws, churches played a key role in providing basic education for children. For the most part, churches have stopped serving their community in this way, and have left reading instruction to the government. This partly explains the current illiteracy crisis. We believe that churches should step back into this role of loving and serving their local communities by meeting this critical educational need.