The first Sunday School was started a little over 200 years ago—so I am fully aware that Jesus did not have a Sunday School class in the same way we talk about it today. Yet Jesus clearly did have a small group ministry with the 12 disciples. His ministry to His “class” of disciples was an intentional strategy and priority of His ministry on earth. I have been studying a little about Jesus’ work with His small group and I have discovered some principles that still apply today.
Prayer is a key strategy for reaching new people. Before Jesus enlisted His disciples, He spent much time in prayer. Each teacher would do well to have a prayer list of prospects for his or her class. Prayer for prospects focuses us on who we are trying to reach and provides insight on how to reach them. Are you and the members of your class praying for the people they are hoping to reach?
Personally seek out the people you want to reach. Jesus did not wait for someone else to enlist people for Him. He did not expect people to simply find their way to Him or drop by because they were in the area—He went after His disciples! Many Sunday School classes have no strategy or plan for reaching new people. All growth requires effort and work. We cannot expect new people to attend if we are not working a plan for reaching them. Are you and the members of your class inviting people to attend your Sunday School class?
Jesus also accepted the personal responsibility for the spiritual growth of the people in His group. I know that people have to want to grow to make any real progress, but there must also be someone willing to lead and teach them. A good teacher assumes that the enrollees are ready and willing. She sees the potential of each individual and designs the lessons with the needs of the pupils in mind. Are you seeing personal growth in the lives of the people in your class?
Jesus equipped His disciples to serve. He didn’t just fill their heads with facts and Bible knowledge and send them home with notebooks full of information. No, He demonstrated compassionate ministry and then sent His disciples out to do the same. The success of a Sunday School class is not measured in attendance alone. Instead of asking, “How many have come,” we should also ask, “How many have been sent out?” Are you and the members of your class involved in ministry projects and outreach?
Jesus released leaders out of His group to start new groups, new churches, and new ministries. If Jesus was not willing to release His 12 disciples, the church may not even exist today. New Sunday School classes are almost always started by a few committed leaders who have been learning from a faithful teacher who was unselfish enough to release them with his blessing and encouragement. It is a blessing to extend the level of your influence by releasing the people you have discipled to serve in other places.
Can you imagine a father who says that he loves his children so much that he never wants to see them marry and start families of their own? That is unhealthy and unnatural. Growing things reproduce themselves. Growing Sunday School classes do the same. Are you and the members of your class releasing people to teach and start other classes?
Jesus is the ultimate Sunday School expert. The leadership He provided for His small group of disciples is a challenge to us all. Leading a class “Jesus Style” produces amazing results!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Does Sunday School Really Work?
I can remember when I became the pastor of the first church I served in that position. Our church was in a rural setting in a small village along the Ohio River. The church had a parsonage and I could literally look out a bedroom window and see the church building less than 70 feet away. When the dust settled from moving in our furniture, I remember looking out a window to admire the church building. Then my eyes wondered past the building to the community around it. A sudden realization hit me. I was now responsible to organize and guide our church to reach the people in our community. Frankly, my formal training did not really prepare me for that part of my job and I began to feel some anxiety about how to help the church reach out to the lost and unchurched.
As I began to pray, my mind began to go back to a Sunday School conference that my home church had hosted for our Association in Columbus,Ohio. A dynamic preacher named Leon Kilbreth had taught us that following good Sunday School practices would reach the lost and grow the church. I bought Mr. Kilbreth’s sermon tapes and began to put his teachings into practice. In the first five years we saw our attendance grow from 107 to 139. Nine years later, in the second church I pastored, we also used Sunday School as a primary tool for reaching our community. We saw our average attendance grow from 30 people to 230 people in 11 years. Naturally, I am convinced that the Sunday School really works, but I am not the only one.
Steve Parr researched the growth of the Georgia Baptist Convention and put some of his findings in a book entitled, Sunday School that Really Works. He researched the top 100 fastest growing Sunday Schools based on percentage growth. He had churches of all sizes in that group and found that in three years, these churches averaged 58% more baptisms while the entire convention had 1.6% fewer baptisms. The bottom line is this, when the Sunday School grows in a church, more people are saved and baptized.
Thom Rainer is the president of LifeWay Christian Resources—formerly the Baptist Sunday School Board. He researched churches of various denominations and made a surprising discovery about the “keeping power” of the Sunday School. In his book, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, his research shows that 83% of new converts stay connected and faithful to the church when they are involved in the Sunday School, while only 16% stay faithful in church attendance if they are not immediately connected to a Sunday School class. That tells us that being in a Sunday School class nearly guarantees that a person will not backslide into unfaithfulness! What other program can make that kind of claim?
Let me give you some of my own “research.” Nearly all of the people who attend a Sunday School class do so because they were invited by someone now active in Sunday School. That is more common sense than hard research, but we all know it is true. People return to Sunday School because they have a good experience when they come—the teacher is prepared and interesting and they are well received by class members. People will attend Sunday School regularly when they develop relationships with the people in their class. They develop relationships to a certain level when they attend the class, but the relationships grow deeper when they meet outside the class in an atmosphere of fun and fellowship.
Does Sunday School really work? It does as long as we are willing to work it!
As I began to pray, my mind began to go back to a Sunday School conference that my home church had hosted for our Association in Columbus,Ohio. A dynamic preacher named Leon Kilbreth had taught us that following good Sunday School practices would reach the lost and grow the church. I bought Mr. Kilbreth’s sermon tapes and began to put his teachings into practice. In the first five years we saw our attendance grow from 107 to 139. Nine years later, in the second church I pastored, we also used Sunday School as a primary tool for reaching our community. We saw our average attendance grow from 30 people to 230 people in 11 years. Naturally, I am convinced that the Sunday School really works, but I am not the only one.
Steve Parr researched the growth of the Georgia Baptist Convention and put some of his findings in a book entitled, Sunday School that Really Works. He researched the top 100 fastest growing Sunday Schools based on percentage growth. He had churches of all sizes in that group and found that in three years, these churches averaged 58% more baptisms while the entire convention had 1.6% fewer baptisms. The bottom line is this, when the Sunday School grows in a church, more people are saved and baptized.
Thom Rainer is the president of LifeWay Christian Resources—formerly the Baptist Sunday School Board. He researched churches of various denominations and made a surprising discovery about the “keeping power” of the Sunday School. In his book, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, his research shows that 83% of new converts stay connected and faithful to the church when they are involved in the Sunday School, while only 16% stay faithful in church attendance if they are not immediately connected to a Sunday School class. That tells us that being in a Sunday School class nearly guarantees that a person will not backslide into unfaithfulness! What other program can make that kind of claim?
Let me give you some of my own “research.” Nearly all of the people who attend a Sunday School class do so because they were invited by someone now active in Sunday School. That is more common sense than hard research, but we all know it is true. People return to Sunday School because they have a good experience when they come—the teacher is prepared and interesting and they are well received by class members. People will attend Sunday School regularly when they develop relationships with the people in their class. They develop relationships to a certain level when they attend the class, but the relationships grow deeper when they meet outside the class in an atmosphere of fun and fellowship.
Does Sunday School really work? It does as long as we are willing to work it!
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