I still remember sitting in a Sabbath School class with over 200 people at one of the large Adventist universities. The teacher was about 15 rows ahead of me, and I could barely hear a word—not from the teacher, and certainly not from the group discussions. Behind me, two young girls were whispering:
“Sabbath School is sooo boring!”
Their words stuck with me. I looked around at the crowd of Adventist scholars and wondered how such a large group could be so disengaged. I thought to myself: Even my small church in Bulgaria manages Sabbath School better than this.
Years have passed since that moment, but those words—“soooo boring”—still echo in my mind. How could “the most important part of Seventh-day Adventist worship”, as Elder Milen Georgiev (President of the Bulgarian Union) calls it, become so lifeless?
That’s why I was especially looking forward to the recent summit of pastors and Sabbath School teachers in Bulgaria. From May 9–11, 2025, around 110 participants gathered in the picturesque village of Arbanassi to explore ways to revive and improve Sabbath School across the country.
The weekend began with a deep dive into history—because, as we were reminded, if we forget our past, we lose our identity.
Elder Florian Ristea, Director of Sabbath School and Personal Ministries at the Inter-European Division (EUD), presented the fascinating origins of Sabbath School. Did you know where it all began? I didn’t!
It started with Robert Raikes, who launched Sunday Schools (1780–1783) for working children who had no other chance to learn to read and write. By 1789, these schools had over 250,000 students. Fast forward to 1852, during a trip from Rochester, NY to Bangor, ME, James and Ellen White wrote the first Sabbath School lessons. What made the Adventist vision unique was its focus—not just on the well-being of children, but on their eternal salvation.
James White saw the deeper need: salvation.
John Byington, the first General Conference President, was also instrumental in organizing Sabbath School within the church—ten years before the church itself was formally organized. As Elder Ristea put it, in a clever paraphrase of Genesis 1:1:
“In the beginning was the Sabbath School. Then the SDA Church was established…”
We then examined what a Sabbath School class should include:
Mission, Bible Study & Prayer, and Friendship.
As Adventists, we often focus heavily on Bible study, try to build friendships, but—let’s admit it—frequently neglect the mission component.
Why is that? Why don’t we plan for mission as part of our Sabbath School goals? What should these goals be?
To win new members
To keep them connected to the church
To inspire them to become missionaries
Which of these goals is your class achieving?
During the training, I had one burning question—one that might be worth a million dollars:
How do we bring back those who’ve stopped coming to Sabbath School?
There may be no one-size-fits-all answer, but Elder Ristea offered this practical suggestion:
Divide up the names of missing members among the class and reach out to them personally with an invitation.
Because real reform doesn’t come from the top down—it comes from the ground up—each attendee was asked to create a specific action plan for their own congregation. The goal: to breathe new life into Sabbath School in every local church.
