Is it worth it?
The mention of Sunday school is all too often met with groans and sighs from people who are dissatisfied and fed up with this old strategy. Whereas Sunday school used to be the highest attended and most successful strategy in the church it is quickly being replaced by the regular worship service and other large group meetings. A common conception of Sunday school is standing awkwardly in front of a small group of bored people who stare at the floor from their neat rows of chairs and look as if they are in a constant state of agony. Has Sunday school seen the last of its ‘glory’ days? Many people believe so! Some leaders are of the opinion that it is an old tradition that worked in the past but is no longer suited for today’s culture and society. For them it is doubtful that Sunday school could ever meet the needs of the church today. Is it really a good use of our time and resources? Does it have a purpose? Is it accomplishing its purpose? Is Sunday school really worth keeping around?

The answer to the complex problem of an unproductive Sunday school is not dumping the program all together, nor is it completely replacing the strategy with something entirely new. We will find the answer in fully understanding the purpose of Sunday school and implementing new ideas to refresh the program and accomplish its purpose. It is my intention in this post to consider several ways to rejuvenate a dying Sunday school.

What is Sunday School?
It is important, first of all, to define what Sunday school is. It is essential that we understand the purpose for Sunday school and the reason for its existence before we begin to recognize what must be done to revive it. There are many different and conflicting ideas and concepts of what Sunday school really is. H.L. Mencken says that “Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.” Ray Johnston considers an effective Sunday school as a Bible study that provides content, action, relationships, and experience. Hemphill and Taylor define Sunday school as “the foundational strategy in a local church for leading people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for building on-mission Christians through open Bible study groups that engage people in evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship, and worship.” Many people consider the purpose of Sunday school to be a time of fellowship and study among believers, and yet others consider it to be a constant reminder of the stories in the Bible.

Since there is a wide diversity in understanding what the real purpose for Sunday school is, it is beneficial to look at the history of this strategy in order to understand its original intent. Though Sunday school began in 1780 as a school to help poor, working children in England, it eventually morphed into a school that focused on Biblical interpretation and evangelism. Throughout the years the Sunday school has always used the Bible as the central message and it has successfully used lay volunteers as teachers. The heart of Sunday school has always been evangelism. This would probably surprise and may even shock some church members, but Sunday school was meant from the beginning to evangelize the lost and to train new believers as well as mature old ones. Many new Sunday school strategies pale in comparison to what it was originally meant to be.

If we take the time to bring Sunday school back to its original intent then several things will occur. Gene Mims has drawn from Matthew 28:19-20 to create what is called the 1•5•4 principle which fits perfectly within the purpose of Sunday school. According to Mims the 1 driving force of church growth is the great commission. The great commission should lead the church to these 5 essential functions, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and worship. When the church is doing these five functions then the 4 results will be numerical growth, spiritual transformation, ministry expansion, and kingdom advance. At one point in time the driving force of Sunday school was in fact the great commission. This led the classes to reach the lost through evangelism and teaching new believers through discipleship and fellowship. Because these things occurred the program exploded and a large number of people were transformed causing the gospel to advanced in ways never thought possible. Within the last two decades of the twentieth century there has been a major decline in Sunday school attendance. It is possible that this could be directly linked to the fact that Southern Baptists began to decrease the emphasis on evangelism and instead placed emphasis on fellowship and bible teaching directed towards believers instead of the lost. Looking at several ways to revitalize Sunday school we must recognize that any new strategy or idea that develops must have at its heart the great commission and it must have as its goal evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and worship.

Organized Small Groups
It is always beneficial when Sunday school is organized in such a way that it facilitates learning and relationships. Each class should be divided up into age appropriate groups for everyone, including preschoolers to senior adults. This type of organization supports evangelism by dividing each member and prospect up into a small group that they can relate to and be comfortable with. All of the material and context for the Bible study should be design to meet the needs of each particular group, which assists in discipleship as the teachers, leaders, and members are able to build relationships and make each session more intimate. This way of organizing Sunday school can also help with ministry. As people become more comfortable and the class becomes more personal then needs will quite often be expressed and shared which allows other members to help meet those needs. Sunday school can help meet the needs of individuals in our churches that would never be noticed. As people begin to build these strong relationships in their group they are experiencing fellowship together and the new members will begin to learn about worship in their small group which helps them to participate as they begin to worship. Sunday school should be organized in such a way that provides the greatest opportunity to fulfill the great commission by achieving the 5 essential functions of the 1•5•4 principle.

Open Groups
An open group strategy exists to lead people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and to build on mission Christians by engaging people in foundational evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship, and worship through ongoing evangelistic Bible study that unites believers together with unbelievers in an atmosphere of compassion to share the gospel. Sunday school should be an open group leading and teaching both believers and unbelievers. An open group has an evangelistic focus and is an entry point to the church. If the Sunday school is not reaching non-believers, if it is not presenting an evangelistic message, and if it is focused exclusively on believers then it is a closed group. Sunday school should be in the business of reaching the lost, which it must do within the open group format.

Purpose Driven Leaders & Closed Groups
Another way Sunday school will be enhanced is if we “build leaders who demonstrate a commitment to the kingdom, Christ as Lord, the ministry to which they have been called, the church, and the mission mandate Christ has given.” The goal is to identify, enlist, and build people into what Hemphill and Taylor call Kingdom Leaders. God, through the Holy Spirit, has provided each Christian with a spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12:7), therefore it is important to help leaders learn how to use their gift in service to Christ, His church, and others. Although it is true that Sunday school has always utilized teachers and leaders who are simply lay people, it is false to believe that the church has never trained or developed these lay people to become greater leaders. This is best done in a closed group setting. Closed groups are designed to train and equip believers to be involved in evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and worship. Closed groups are designed specifically for believers alone and are not open to non-Christians. The ultimate goal is spiritual transformation of not only the leaders, but also the people that they will be leading. You can know for sure your small group strategy is working when believers become personally involved in ministry, and when this happens you can rest assured that others will follow their lead.

Win The Lost
If the driving force behind Sunday school is the great commission then the very heart of what Sunday school is about should be winning the lost. It is a fact however that many of our Sunday school leaders have not been trained to share the gospel and therefore they do not attempt it. The members of each class often follow the leadership of their teacher and if the teacher is not in the process of evangelizing then the rest of the members will most likely not be evangelizing either. Winning the lost should be the goal of our open groups, however training our leaders to share their faith should be the means by which we reach that goal. Our Sunday school classes should “engage in evangelistic actions that result in winning the lost to Christ as well as in other actions that focus on the unchurched and reclaim the spiritually indifferent,” Sunday school should not simply be a bible study with content only, but it should also include action. It is essential that the leaders and members are in the business of taking action to win the lost to Christ. Taking leaders and members through closed group studies using the FAITH Sunday School Evangelism Strategy or Share Jesus Without Fear. These are just a couple of the many ways to train leaders and members to reach lost souls. Sunday school should never lack in this area.

Bring Them In
People need to feel wanted. No one will want to join a group of people who do not make them feel as if they belong. As new people come into the church and the Sunday school it is necessary to take them in and help them to feel as if they are part of the group. Many churches report a large number of conversions but show very little increase in Bible study attendance. “This is most likely because the people being won to Christ are not assimilated into the body.” To assimilate people means to take intentional steps to make them feel of some value and a significant part of the group. The greatest potential to do this is within the Sunday school. If a Sunday school fails to assimilate its new members then often they will gravitate to a new church that makes them feel needed and involved. Every single class should take the steps necessary to make each individual feel welcomed, which is something that is virtually impossible to do in large group meetings, but very easily done in small groups. Using class records and enrollments to keep track of each person who becomes a member of the group is a good way to track what is going on with each individual. Each small group can also plan events and create other opportunities for individuals and families to get together to pray and work together in some way that helps each person get involved.

Transformational Teaching
Sunday school should be centered on transformational teaching. The desire should be to see the lives of each member changed and transformed through the teaching of the Word of Truth. This part of Sunday school is highly dependant upon the teacher. “The ultimate teaching goal is that all learners and leaders integrate intimately into their minds and hearts the biblical truth that sets the course for living.” Each teacher should take the time to spiritually prepare for the Bible teaching. Each teacher should find new ways to teach the material to facilitate the different styles of learning, such as, relational, musical, logical, physical, reflective, visual, and verbal. It is crucial that we provide the best possible teaching resources and time in order to center on transformational teaching. The members of each class should be challenged to acknowledge authority, search the truth, discover the truth, personalize the truth, struggle with the truth, believe in the truth, and obey the truth. It is important that the things learned in Sunday school can be applied and adapted to each individual’s life. “Do not merely listen to the word, do what it says.” (James 1:22) Transformation is something that occurs in the lives of individuals who encounter the word of God in such a way that it causes them to change their lives. The word of truth should bring about change and results in the lives of believers and non-believers alike as they encounter the truth. It is important that each teacher is prepared, encounters the truth, and continues to live that truth in their lives.

Outside Of The Box
Sunday school is a small group bible study that meets on Sunday morning at churches around the world. It is not, however, confined to Sunday morning and Bible study only. This Bible study has the ability to break outside of the box. People have needs, and others have the God given ability to meet those needs. Sunday school is the perfect place to serve other people both inside and outside of the class. As members come together for Bible study they can also come together to help and comfort each other. The class can also meet on other days and do ministry outside of the church for families and other people who have a need that they can fulfill. As God works in the heart of His believers there will be plenty of ministry opportunities for Sunday school classes to reach outside of their own circle and help touch others as well. Within every class there are people that God has brought together to live out the message of the gospel. We focus often on evangelistic efforts, as we should, but it is not the only thing. Meeting needs is another aspect of Jesus’ life that we should also participate in. Jesus traveled through the towns, healed the sick, restored sight and hearing, touched hearts with heavy burdens and lifted people up in acts of love. Should the Sunday school class do any less?

Copy and Paste
The leaders and classes themselves should be in a state of multiplication. In computer lingo the leaders and Sunday school classes should copy and paste themselves. As more people are being reached through small groups, these small groups become large groups. When a group gets two large it should split and make two small groups. This means that not only does the Sunday school class need to duplicate itself, but the leaders as well. If Sunday school is growing there is going to be a constant need for new leaders. New Bible study groups need to be put in place and that means new leaders need to be developed.

Searching to find new programs to draw people into Sunday school tends to slight the purpose for Sunday school in the first place. It was never about numbers, but it has always been about souls. Programs do not outweigh purpose. Programs are not necessarily wrong, they simply need to be evaluated and should line up with the great commission. The purpose for Sunday school has been and will always be “the foundational strategy in a local church for leading people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for building on-mission Christians through open Bible study groups that engage people in evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship, and worship.” The ways we revitalize Sunday school can certainly be new methods and programs, but their foundation must be built on making disciples through evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship, and worship.

Pressed
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