Early mission work in such cities as Chicago, Kansas City, and Detroit always included children in after-school club activities and Bible classes. Sunday schools were started reluctantly, sometimes so that Mennonite young people would not attend the Sunday schools of other denominations. The first Sunday school classes for children were largely devoted to memory exercises. Between 1874 and 1888 the Sunday school became a regular institution in all Mennonite Brethren congregations. The Amish church has never included Sunday school for children, believing that children learn by the modeling of adults in worship.
Children also participate in reading Scripture and in special singing groups.
In some parts of the church there was reluctance to accept the use of television. In 1954 the Commission of Reference and Council of the Mennonite Brethren Church warned the brotherhood against this new threat to the faith and morals of the church by issuing a lengthy declaration. Summer Bible schools were started in Mennonite churches in the United States in 1923. The General Conference Mennonite Church organized summer Bible schools in Canada in the 1940s with youth teaching in the far outlying northern areas of Saskatchewan. Boys' and girls' clubs were started in the 1950s.