Sean Keith :: Sunday School Leaders

Aug

Give Me This Day My Daily Bread

By Sean Keith · Comments (0)

Give Me This Day My Daily Bread: The Importance of a Personal Devotion

Food is fuel for the body. Much like food is to the body, the Word of God is fuel to our spirit. What amazes me is that as a society, we are driven to action if we discover a soul without food. And yet, we have millions of people everyday who are starving for spiritual food. A transformed life is someone who understands, practices and strives to consume the Word of God every day.

I admit; someday’s I don’t eat right. More importantly, some days I don’t feed myself spiritually like I should. Over the years I have learned a few tips that have helped to shape my “spiritual diet” and keep me “healthy” as a believer.

TIME AND PLACE – Oddly enough, some habits are good for you. Having a time and a place every day that you can be alone with God is a great way to start or end your day. Life happens. I know your schedule like mine gets interrupted. Because of that, it is even more important to make sure we start and/or end our day at the Lord’s table. Having a time and place makes that easier.

HAVE A PLAN – Use a devotional book; read the Bible through in a year; Read a chapter a day; Memorize scripture; Journal; and more. There is no one way to do a personal devotion. The key is to have a plan and to work that plan every day.

EVALUATE YOUR PLAN – Don’t get in a rut. Sometimes it is important to make sure that you keep your devotional time fresh. Buy a new devotional book; start in Revelation and go backwards; read 5 Psalms and 1 Proverb a day for a month; etc. Whatever you do, make it fresh.

BE CONSISTENT – If you miss a day, start again the next day. After awhile, you will begin to notice the difference when you miss a day. If it has been awhile since you have had a consistent “alone time” with God, commit right now to start today. It does make a difference.

The transformed life requires a daily conversation with God. Reading His Word and praying daily is the fuel to the “spiritual body” that prepares us for every good work. Be prepared in season and out. As food is to the body, so the Word of God is to your soul.

Sean P. Keith, Sunday School/Discipleship Strategist, Louisiana Baptist Convention

Categories : 31 Days of Transformational Class, Bible Study, Prayer, Sunday School, Transformation

Comments (0)

Dec

A Missional Sunday School Challenge

By Sean Keith · Comments (1)

As a child my favorite comic book hero was Superman. It seemed he could do anything. His only weakness was Krypton. While most hero’s have limits to their powers, Superman didn’t seem to have any. He was a man on mission. His mission was to “save the world”.

Like Superman, we have a mission. We are to go and make disciples. Although you may not think you have any “super powers”; we do. Matthew 28: 18 tells us “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”. (Matt 28:18 HCSB) All of God’s power is available to us to accomplish our mission. The problem is that all of our battles are not in the physical world, against flesh and blood. “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens”. Eph 6:12 (HCSB)

To accomplish our mission, we must go on the offense. Ephesians 6 teaches how to fight this battle by putting on the full armor of God. All of the armor and weapons were designed to fight offensively. Many of us are content just simply fighting from our fortresses and rarely venturing out into the battle. When will the church move from the defensive to the offensive. Instead of being content to keep the darkness out of our fortress, maybe we need to be out in the fray pushing back the darkness. Our world needs saving.

To be a missional Sunday School, we must pray. Pray for those in the darkness that they might see the light. Pray for those who are in the fray pushing into the darkness with the light of Christ. We must also prepare. Put on the armor of God. Gird yourself for battle. Prepare your weapons. But lastly, we must go and join the battle. The battle is the Lord’s but He still asks, “who will go for me”.

A missional Sunday School realizes that every time we meet for Bible study and prayer, it is to prepare to go back into the battle. In literal terms, when we leave our Sunday School class and worship services, we are released into the mission field. Go and make disciples of all the nations.

Sean P. Keith is the Sunday School/Discipleship Strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention www.lbc.org/churchgrowth

Categories : Leadership, Mission, Small Groups, Sunday School

Comments (1)

Nov

Leaders Multiplying Leaders to Serve

By Sean Keith · Comments (1)

And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Tim 2:2 (HCSB)

One of the most difficult roles for an adult Sunday School teacher is to equip men and women to serve as God has gifted them. In many cases, members must leave their class in order to serve somewhere else. All of the leaders in preschool, children, students and adults come from Adult Sunday School classes. Adult Sunday School teachers/leaders need to be multipliers.

The key responsibility of every believer and every church is to make disciples. Too often success for a Sunday School class or small group is measured by attendance. The Sunday School teacher/leader that fulfills the Great Commission mandate is measured not in how many you get to stay but in how many you send out.

The real question is how do I do that? How do I disciple adults to be missionaries in our own church and community? The simple answer is that it has to be an intentional plan and action by you. Oddly enough if you have little or no expectation of people in your Sunday School class; they will live up to that standard. They will simply find a spot to squat and soak.

But if your intention is to make and send out “witnesses…who will be able to teach others also”; then your class members will have a standard to work towards and a goal to achieve. Not everyone is ready to serve at the same time nor in the same way. The key is to work individually to accomplish what is best for each one.

At a church I belonged to in Tennessee, the adult class we joined was taught by Bill. On a Sunday in August he told the class: “If you have sat in my class for 2 years or more, you need to know I have taught you all I know and it’s time for you find a place to serve in our church”. He knew that his job was not to keep people well fed (spiritually) and happy in his class. His job was to prepare each of them to serve.

Not everyone is ready to serve. Our job as leaders is to continually encourage people to discover their role in the “body of Christ”. Maybe it’s time to challenge your people to stand up and step out in order to serve. Start today to plan and act intentionally to challenge and prepare your class to serve. Some will stay and help. Hopefully, many will “GO” and serve somewhere else.

Sean Keith is the Sunday School/Discipleship Strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. www.lbc.org/churchgrowth

Categories : Growing your Group, Leadership, Sunday School, Training

Comments (1)

Oct

Using Outreach Events to Grow Your Sunday School

By Sean Keith · Comments (0)

The purpose of church outreach events is to connect with unchurced people in the community and to collect information for the purpose of follow-up. Events allow unconnected people to check us out and sometimes provides a service to our community. The key to all outeach events (whether it is a church event or class event) is that they should be designed for the unchurched and not for us and they should include a way to collect information for follow up later.

I’ll use an illustration to make my first point. Imagine that my married adult class enjoys doing family type events where kids can come and enjoy them too. There is nothing wrong with planning events for our members and our families. But an outreach event should intentionally be focused on those we are trying to reach. Suppose the couple who are prospects for our class have no kids. An event planned to connect with them would purposefully be something they enjoy, where the focus is on getting to know them, and the attention is on them. Let’s use bowling as an illustration. We plan it because they like it. We intentionally bowl with them so they can get to know us better. We offer to buy them a soda and popcorn. We ask them about their story. Focus is the real key to planning an outreach event for your class or church.

Secondly, make sure you collect information that would help you follow up after the event. Phone, email, and address are key things to collect so you can connect with them after the event to answer questions and begin establishing a relationship with them.

Prospects become members when they feel that we are interested in them personally. It’s their choice where they attend church. How we treat them helps to make the choice easier to be part of our church family.

Blog post by Sean P. Keith, Sunday School/Discipleship Strategist, Louisiana Baptist Convention

Categories : Growing your Group, Outreach/Evangelism, Sunday School

Comments (0)

Aug

Expect Lives to be Transformed

By Sean Keith · Comments (1)

Expect Lives to be Transformed

To make my point, I need to tell you a little of my story. I was raised Catholic. I knew a lot about God, I just didn’t have a personal relationship with Him. While in college, I started dating a Baptist girl and started attending church with her. I had attended church all my life, but these people where different. To make a long story short, God touched my life through their testimony and I was transformed. The key to that transformation was something I had never understood before—forgiveness.

In all the sermons I heard; all the college Sunday School classes I attended; all the conversations I had with college students at that church; it was revealed to me that I could be forgiven. I desperately needed forgiveness. Not because I was such a bad guy, but I recognized that I needed it. I had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That truth changed my life completely.

A few years later I attended a seminar and realized that not only had God forgiven me, but God could help me forgive others. A truth that changed my destination to heaven instead of hell, also changed my relationships with others.

Now my point: We are ministers of reconciliation. Christ is our Redeemer and we are his ambassadors. That truth that changed my life and changed forever how I will relate with others was experienced through the relationships I made at Glendale Baptist Church. God used the preaching of His Word in Worship, the relationships I had with other college students and the teacher of the collegiate Sunday School class to “transform” my life. If God can use them to change my life, He can use me to transform others lives. Every day we should “expect lives to be transformed”.

Sean Keith is the Sunday School/Discipleship Strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention

Categories : Great Expectations, Sunday School

Comments (1)