Archive for 31 Days of Transformational Class – Page 2

The Three R’s of a Missional Group

Have you ever heard the old saying, “Good Things Come in Threes”? Consider these:

Small/medium/large

Past/present/future

Tic-Tac-Toe

Auto Industry: The Big Three (well, for a long time)

ABC/NBC/CBS (Three networks, three letters each)

Baseball: three strikes, three bases, three outfielders

Yada, yada, yada…blah, blah, blah.

You get the idea. In the context of an on-mission Sunday School class, good things come when we practice the three Rs: Release, Reproduce and Reach.

Release:
Sometimes Adult Sunday School classes seem to forget where new leaders for the preschool, children, and student classes come from. They come from Adult Sunday School classes! As your Sunday School grows, you will need many more workers. Rather than be upset about losing class members to serve in these important areas of the church, you should celebrate them as missionaries from your class. Call them Associate Members or Members-in-Service. And make sure to keep them involved in the life of the class by keeping in touch with them and inviting them to all class functions. By doing this, more members will be willing to serve in the church.

Reproduce:
Every living thing needs to reproduce. Otherwise it will slowly die away. The same is true for a Sunday School class. If you truly want to grow, then each class must reproduce itself! When is a class ready to reproduce? When the room is too full, when the teacher cannot keep track of all the member’s names, or when your apprentice teacher is ready to lead. Instead of “splitting the class” or “dividing the class”, try “birthing” a new class. Make it as exciting as having a new child or grandchild being born. Enjoy the pregnancy period as you prepare the class, and then celebrate the birth with a party!

Reach
If your Sunday School class is going to grow and reach new people, it will take all the members being on mission. Encourage your class members to share the names of lost people they know who need to be involved in Bible study. List these names on a poster in the class and pray regularly for them. Celebrate when one comes to know Christ and when they are enrolled in a Bible study class. Challenge your members to enroll at least one person in the class over the next quarter. Lead the class to become missional by finding a need in your community and plan a ministry project to address it.

Yes, good things can come in three’s. When a class practices the three Rs, it becomes a class that’s willing to empty itself in missional activity.

_____________________

Mark Donnell is the State Sunday School Specialist for the Missouri Baptist Convention.

Multiplication is Much Better Than Addition

Remember when you began to learn the multiplication tables in grade school? As a 4th grader I was captivated by the concept of multiplication and very impressed by how quickly numbers grew when they were multiplied instead of added together.

Now several decades later, as a Sunday School leader, I am still convinced that “multiplication is better than addition” in your Sunday School ministry. Here’s why.

Addition—simply adding new members to existing classes—achieves limited growth because…

  1. Existing classes reach their maximum growth potential after 18-24 months.
  2. Established relationships make it harder for new people to break into the group.
  3. People “fall through the cracks” when a class continues to get larger.
  4. Some potential members may not fit in with existing classes because of age, special needs, or marital status.
  5. Many new members are lost through the “back door” (quit coming)—see #2, 3, & 4 above.

Multiplication—starting new Sunday School classes in any age group—is better because …

  • New beginnings create excitement.
  • New classes grow more quickly than existing classes.
  • New classes enlarge the Sunday School without sacrificing quality teaching by allowing classes to remain small enough for personal interaction.
  • New classes are easier for newcomers to penetrate because relationships are still being formed.
  • New classes can focus on target groups not currently being reached in your community or by your church.
  • New classes create opportunities for more people to use their spiritual gifts as they serve and lead.

Here is a final mathematical equation:
1 new class = increase of 10 in attendance.

Not all of the new members will be from that new class, but overall your Sunday School enrollment attendance will increase by approximately 10 people. For example, if a new adult class enrolls 5 new members (in addition to the starting core group), your church will probably enroll at least 8-10 others who are kids/ parents/ friends/ relatives of the new members. Multiplication IS better than addition.

________________

Marie Clark has served as Bible Teaching & Discipling Team Leader for the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists since 1996

The Connect-3 Class

Allan Taylor, minister of education at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, GA, has lots of little sayings.  One of my favorites is that “leaders lead, they don’t point.”   In Sunday School, leaders must lead.  Your Sunday School and Your class will never move to the next level, unless you lead and don’t point.

Two years ago, a book was written entitled  Connect3.  The idea behind the book was that every Sunday School class functions on one of three levels.  The class either functions as a Class, Community, or a Commission.  The goal of the book was simple: to identify which level your class currently functions, to discover ideas for operating on each level with greater meaning, and to decide if you wanted to move to a higher level or stay where you are.  This book prompted me to began to think about how churches view Sunday School. 

If you asked the normal church member, “Why do we have Sunday School?”  Regardless of church size, many will say to learn the Bible or to study the Bible. In other words, the class is functioning on a Class level.  If a pastor, Sunday School Director, or a teacher views Sunday School as a school, the goal is to have a satisfying Bible Study Experience for all ages.  Some ministry will get done, but the class operates primarily on a class level.  When leaders fail to lead and simply point, Sunday Schools that function on a class level can become simply an event on the church’s calendar.

If you were to attend my church, you would be encouraged to join a Connect Group.  In reality, the Connect Group is another name for Sunday School, but the name does emphasize that the pastor and staff see Sunday School as an Assimilation Tool.  They desire to see classes function at least on the community level.  Stories and testimonies of how members and non members were touched by the class are shared. Why? Because of the belief that “Life change best happens in the context of small community groups.”  The challenge for leaders who desire to lead and not point is to keep leading these groups to stay outwardly focused and not turn inward.  

My favorite definition of a Sunday School Class is “a TEAM of People on Mission with God.”  All levels can be engaged in missional and evangelistic activities but churches with classes operating on the commission level have begun to see Sunday School as the Missional Arm of the church. The class members do not just see themselves as a member of a class but as a missionary.  These Groups become proactive in reaching out to their targeted age group/life stage and initiate and support mission and service projects.  If you are leader who wants to lead and not point, don’t allow classes to become engage in so many activities they become unbalanced.  The goal is to make disciples.  Disciples are made by going, baptizing (ministry), and teaching. 

Every church will have classes on all three of these levels.  Some classes never move from just being a class, where teaching is primary.  Some groups become small communities where ministry and relationships flourish.  A few classes become those missional groups that are constantly on mission for God. 

What level is your class on?  How do you see Sunday School? Are you leading or pointing?

_____________________

Mark Miller is the State Sunday School Director, Tennessee Baptist Convention. Mark also blogs at http://drmarkmiller.wordpress.com/

Connecting with People

People make Sunday School special. Without people, well, you don’t have Sunday School. One of my favorite people is Yogi Berra. He is often quoted for the unique truths that he has stated over his life. Things like, “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” Or, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.” If you don’t make it your intention to connect with people, it won’t happen.

Dale Carnegie wrote a great book back in the 20’s that has great truths about connecting with people. His book, “How To Win Friends and Influence People” has been read and applied by people for the past 80 years. The book covers four main areas;

1. Techniques in dealing with people;

2. How to make people like you;

3. How to win people to your way of thinking;

4. How to change people without giving offense or arousing resentment.”

This book has influenced me. 

Most of us seem to have a strategy for “Connecting with People” that just sort of happens. That strategy doesn’t work when we are seeking to accomplish the Great Commission! We need a plan; we need to be intentional about relationships.  Consider these pointers about connecting with people.

Ways to “connect with people!”

  1. Watch the door: when you are in your Sunday School class and in the worship center, watch the door for people you do not know. Go and let them know you are glad to see them and that you are happy they chose to be with you today.
  2. Watch for loners: you know, those people who just seem to avoid people. Guests usually do this. Make sure they are greeted! More importantly, really be interested in who they are, where they are from, their family, things they enjoy, if they are looking for a church family.
  3. Watch eye contact: not theirs, yours! Remind yourself not to give the new person the “up and down.” You know, where you check out what they are wearing, their hair style, brands of clothing, etc. etc. Look them in the eye and put on your best smile that says, “I’m glad to meet you and I would love to get to know you more.”
  4. Watch your schedule: be sure to intentionally leave time after church to invite a visitor to lunch. I have found this to be the ultimate test. People know you really care when you desire to spend time with them. Take another church member or family with you so that they can make a deeper connection.

Bottom line; make it an intentional priority to connect with people by investing yourself in their life.

_____________________

Dr. Steve McNeil is the Chuch Mobilization and Equipping Team Leader for the State Conventions of Baptists in Indiana.

Conversation, Community, Conversion

Have you ever accidently locked yourself out of your own house? If you haven’t hidden a key somewhere or can’t remember where you hid a key, you have to check all your doors and windows to see if you inadvertently left one unlocked. As you search you hope that your neighbors recognize that it is you attempting to break into your own house and don’t call the police.

Initiating a conversation is trying to find a place to “break in” to a relationship. We pry the perimeter of our observations of another person, trying to find a place that is unlocked so we can have a conversation. Church planter Aaron Proffitt teaches the concept of “Rocking Philippians 2:3 & 4”  which means when you meet someone you intentionally “rock” the conversation to be about the person you are meeting. You consider the other person more important than you and keep the focus of the conversation on them.

Once rapport is established, an invitation to community may follow.  The person you meet may not be interested in your faith, but they wouldn’t mind having coffee with you sometime. In Tim Sander‘s, Love is the Killer App, Tim describes creating experiences for others as becoming a “bottomless cup of coffee”. This word picture portrays an attractive availability for others who grow to trust us as a result of our practical care for them.  Disciple-making requires a warm, stimulating “cup of coffee” experience. As a Christ follower, you sincerely care about others and want to include them in a community that can be hopeful and supportive of their potential spiritual growth. 

At some point, the people you have been in conversation with may want to join you in Sunday School or a small group Bible study. Once in community, conversion or life transformation can take place. What better place for a person to discover their need for the life changing work of Jesus Christ than with others who have previously made this discovery?

“Americans give a tremendous amount of credit to anyone who can name a pain that they’ve been experiencing but have been unable to locate,” says Michael Lerner. Our name for the pain Lerner is describing is the need to make Jesus Lord of one’s life. Lerner continues, “People are attracted by and motivated to groups by the experience of community, caring for others, and the group’s ability to recognize and address the deep distortions in life that are caused by a societal ethos of materialism and selfishness.” Christ followers initiate conversations and care enough to create communities (Sunday School classes and small group Bible studies) where conversion can happen.