Thom Rainer at Church Answers.com has been focusing on the "renew" theme for a long time and especially as we come out of the pandemic. Their conclusions and advice is based on research that they do and research/polling others are doing (such as Barna).

In their August 15, 2022 newsletter, they share

"The Top Ten Post-Pandemic Reasons Guests Do Not Return to Church"

Here is an excerpt. I've added my thoughts as they relate to SUNDAY SCHOOL are in BLUE.

In our conversations with people visiting churches, the reasons guests don’t return remain the same (as they did pre-pandemic).

1. “I will not return to a church that has a stand-and-greet time.” (sometimes called "passing the peace")
We heard from over 1,000 guests, and 90 percent of them gave us this response. If you are thinking about bringing back this activity to your worship service, think again.  Anxiety in groups affects parents and kids as they try to discover the schedule and classroom locations. How can we reduce this?

2. “The people are unfriendly.”
Most church members think their church is friendly because the members are friendly to each other. Many guests felt like they were treated like unwanted outsiders. We need to look at how we are actually practicing "hospitality" and reducing stranger-anxiety from the parking lot to the front door of the church to the inside of the classroom.

3. “I could not leave my child in the children’s area. It was filthy and unsafe.”
This concern has grown since the pandemic.  I've seen so many dirty Sunday Schools in my travels. Smells, lighting, colors. Remove the clutter and think about a new rug and paint job.

4. “I could not find any information on the church.”
Even though most of these guests visited the website, they were still looking for an information center or persons to give them more information. I routinely look for children's ministry and Sunday School info on church websites and routinely find outdated and too little info. Today's parents WANT TO KNOW what to expect before they go.

5. “The church website was terrible (or did not exist).”
This issue is more of a first-time guest issue than a second-time guest issue, especially in the post-pandemic world. For most guests, if you have an inadequate website, your church does not exist.  See my comment for #4 above. No excuse for this.

6. “The signage was terrible.”
The primary complaints were about inadequate parking signage and directions to the entry of the church.  Speaking of signage, at one church I used to attend, they had a "no guns allowed" sign greeting everyone, and no directions to the sanctuary or classrooms.

7. “I heard a lot of insider language in the worship service.”
Please avoid acronyms.  This includes when you're talking about your children's programs. Visitors don't know what "Kids Kamp" or "Explorers" mean unless you tell them. Or who "Miss Suzie" is and how to get in touch with her if you don't include her phone and email.

8. “The service was boring, and I did not understand what was happening.”
Guests have choices. They will not choose a boring church. The first-time guest will not become the second-time guest. Same thing with Sunday School.

9. “Someone told me I was in their seat.”
Yes, it still happens.  Kids do this to other kids in classrooms too. Make sure new kids are greeted and sat next to!

10. “The church facilities were messy and dirty.”
A lack of attention to the facilities communicates loudly that the church does not care. Walk into your nursery and look at the floor, take a big sniff, and check out the quality and cleanliness of the toys. (Do this in every classroom and hallway too.)

Though the rankings of the reasons may have changed slightly since the pandemic, the reasons have not. And any church should be able to find ways to overcome these challenges.

Thom Rainer over at Church Answers, and formerly of Lifeway Research, has been checking the pulse of churches coming out of the COVID pandemic. Like a number of other "prognosticators and pollsters," he has been watching church attendance trends since long before the pandemic. I've been posting some of their findings and thinking about what they mean for Sunday School.

In my response below, I apply their findings and recommendations to thinking about our classrooms.

In his late September 2022 newsletter titled, Five Reasons Why Decreasing the Number of Worship Services Might Be the Best Move, Thom Rainer's own polling has confirmed what others have predicted and many have experienced:   

Post-Pandemic Worship Attendance is Down by 25%.

Further, Rainer and others are not characterizing this as "25% are slow to come back." They are seeing this as 25% are NOT coming back, Your own numbers may vary for a lot of reasons, but this trend is affecting churches of all denominations.

Among many suggestions in his article, Rainer suggests CONSOLIDATING the number of worship services because nobody feels energized by a half full room. We've all hear this "room science" many times over the years: "80% full" feels full, and any less feels like "where is everybody?" From personal experience as both a pastor and pew-sitter in a number of churches, I know that the 80% rule is generally true. "Where is everybody" is also certainly something every Sunday School teacher has heard kids express when attendance is down. I've even heard teachers say it out loud in front of their kids! But I think the real negative effect of "where is everybody" happens at home when the student complains that "nobody goes there" (least of all, their friends who have stopped coming to church).

The 80% effect can be especially detrimental if your classrooms were built for 1970's attendance and were already "too big" or poorly designed for the attendance you HAD before the pandemic and are experiencing now. So maybe now is REALLY a good time to take a closer look at our classrooms. Not so coincidentally, the Rotation Model has been doing this for a long time, but even Rotation Sunday Schools have experienced "the drop" and need to rethink how the size and configuration of their classrooms and program make kids and adults feel good about being there. (You can read and see more Rotation "workshop" ideas here, just keep in mind they weren't written with the "80% full" issue or post-pandemic attd in mind. Hence, the following suggestions.)

I've shared a lot of ideas for renewal elsewhere, but let's just focus on some PRACTICAL and immediate things any church can do NOW to get ahead of this "where is everybody" issue that will eat away at future attendance too.

Changes for Sunday School:

1. Consolidate your Sunday School. If you offer two times, consider just one. We say it a lot around here, but "less is more" certainly applies to scheduling -- especially if it helps kids feel the energy of a better-attended lesson, rather than subject them to poor attendance at two offerings.
   
   
2. Combine grade groups to create more of a "full feeling" in the classroom.
   
   
3. Work to renew and build new relationships between attenders whose friends have not returned.
   
   
4. Redesign your classrooms to feel "cozier" for smaller groups. This is something every "smaller" Sunday School should do right now.
   
   

• Remove unused furniture. Empty chairs don't encourage attendance. (See the article on the 80% rule linked below.)
  
  
• Fill empty classroom space by splitting up where in the classroom you do different things and adding things like a discussion area away from your art table. (Look at some photos and "workshop" design suggestions in our Rotation Model "Classroom Design and how to" forum.)

Read this fascinating article from the Alban Institute about the  “80% Capacity Rule” and "comfortable capacity and design rules." They apply to children too!

More about the 25% drop off...

25% is concerning not only because of the loss, but because it continues a two-decade downward trend in statistics. Rainer and others like Carey Nieuwhof, are telling us that, for a variety of reasons, many who left us before the pandemic and since the pandemic are simply not coming back, and that we must learn how to reach out to those who have (a) not left, and (b) have yet to come. And on that subject, those of us in Children's Ministry have a lot to offer!

Children's Ministry of-a-sort is exactly what many un-churched people are seeking:

• A safe place to help raise their kids.
• A place that will teach them to be unselfish, caring, and respectful.
• A place that will get them out of the house, help them make new friends.
• A place that will encourage them to be citizens of the world (a big issue among Millennials).
• A place that will encourage their creativity (another big issue among Millenials).
• A place parents can drop off their kids to get a little "me" time.
• And yes, even develop their sense of spirituality and faith (without the judgment and fear)

For a very long time, we've been marketing Sunday School as the place to "Grow faith" and "Get Bible knowledge." And yes, those things are central to our mission. But they are not the only thing Sunday School is good at or will appeal to today's parents. Like the disciples at Pentecost, we have to be open to some new languages if we're going to reach the people out on the street.

What many outside the church DO NOT WANT is for us to pressure, cajole, "convert," and otherwise make them or their children feel judged. Today's younger generation doesn't have a high opinion of the church, and we need to take that seriously as we design and carryout our children's ministries.

For more on what millennials want for their kids, read this article.

Read how judgemental Christianity repels today's younger generation (and what to do about it).

For a fascinating study on parents and their kids' spiritual and morality, read Barna's report, especially the part about "opportunity for churches."