Archive for Enrollment – Page 2

Enroll + Care = 50% in Attendance

50percentWHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Too many classes are on an ensmallment campaign–continuing to get smaller. One of the reasons is enrollment decline inevitably leads attendance to follow. For our classes to grow, enrollment must increase. But adding names to the roll by itself is not enough. Care must accompany enrollment. In fact, adding someone to our enrollment is because we and they desire care.

WHAT DO I DO? If we enroll people, and provide care for them, about 50% will attend. How do I know that? That is what is happening in our classes already! In smaller churches, that might be 60-70%. In larger churches, that might be 40%.

Ask the unenrolled if you can add them to the class care list? What is a care list? It is the list of people for whom your class prays, ministers in time of need, and invites to fellowships and projects.

This is much more than adding them to a prospect list. Enroll them. Follow God’s leadership to pray and care for them. Invite them to meals, fellowships, and projects with your members. Enroll them. Call them weekly to share prayer requests, check on prayer needs, and pray with them. Respond to stress and needs discovered in their lives as if they were faithful attenders. Enroll them.

Enroll. Care. Then invite. When classes practice these in this order, about 50% attendance will result. Focus the prayer and care of the class on them. Then invite them your group this week!

Enrollment: The Driving Metric for Group Attendance

SS board“I want to be in your group!”  That’s what I desire to hear from those that I’m seeking to connect with and I hope you have the same desire.  You and I have been given a wonderful privilege in leading and teaching other adults.  Jesus has saved us, gifted us, called us and commissioned us to make disciples.  For us to teach them they need to be in our group and that’s what ENROLLMENT is all about.

Its been proven over and over, the more people you have enrolled in your class the more people will attend your class.  It really is simple because here is what happens when you enroll someone in your class.

Intercession: The person can be prayed for regularly whether they attend weekly or are struggling spiritually.

Invitation: The person can be regularly invited to participate in fellowship opportunities where meaningful relationships can be developed.

Involvement: The person is encouraged to engage in weekly Bible Study that strengthens their relationship to God, to family, and to Kingdom service.

Inclination: The person is challenged and more likely to engage in evangelism and outreach than a person not enrolled in a small group.

When you enroll a new member in your class they can’t help but want to be there when they are being prayed for, included in activities, engaged with God’s Word and equipped to serve Jesus and others.

So here is my challenge to you.  This Sunday in your Sunday School class, set a goal for the number of new members your class will seek to enroll.  Begin praying for those to be reached and go invite them.  If your class has 10 members why not set a goal to reach 1 new member between now and the end of the year.

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Dr. Smith serves as a state missionary with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and is the Groups and Faith Development Specialist.  Visit their websites at gabaptist.org/groups/ or gabaptistgroups.org for more information and other resources to aid your Sunday School or Small Group ministry.  You can also connect with Dr. Smith at facebook.com/GABaptistGroups, twitter.com/GABaptistGroups or pinterest.com/GABaptistGroups.  Dr. Smith’s email address is tsmith@gabaptist.org

 

How Many Lost People Should Be in My Small Group?

How many lost people should we have in our small group?

That’s a great question! If your Sunday School or small group seeks to reach lost people with the Gospel, then it only makes sense that you need to have lost people in your group. The simplest answer to the question is as many as you can! But most Sunday School teachers or small group leaders would like some way to measure how effective their group is when it comes to sharing the Gospel and inviting lost people to be part of their group’s community.

The great Southern Baptist Sunday School pioneer J.N. Barnette actually researched the ratio of church membership compared to Sunday School enrollment and discovered some startling, although in hindsight, rather obvious information. Below is a graph from Barnette’s ground-breaking book, One to Eight.

One to Eight (1)

As is obvious from the title, Barnette’s goal was to enroll one lost person for every eight people enrolled in the group. However, he states in his book (page 7) that for most churches, even a modest +25% (1:13 ratio) would result in solid evangelism. Although these ratios might have changed over the years, the principle is still the same. The more lost people a small group can share the Gospel with, the more people it will see come to Christ. (In other words, your group will catch more fish in an ocean than a swimming pool.)

How many lost people should belong to my group- (2)

For a pastor or church leader, Barnette’s discovery emphasizes the importance of group enrollment. If more people are enrolled in Sunday School or small groups than church membership, it is going to see more people baptized. The higher percentage… the better! To hit Barnette’s reasonable goal of 1:13, then your enrollment needs to be 60% higher than your church membership (see chart above). If the church attained this number, then 12.5% of your Sunday School enrollment would be baptized every year at this ratio!

Personalize it
So let’s bring this down to an average group. In fact, not just any group… but your group. If your group has 26 members (enrollment) and 20% of the group are not church members, then your group’s membership would look like this:

21 group members would also be members of the church
5 group members would not be church members

Results:  2 group members would probably accept Christ as Savior each year (1 baptism for every 13 group members)

What is the essential ingredient? That’s right… asking lost people to join your small group (enrollment)! Now imagine if 20% of the people enrolled in your Sunday School were not church members? Based on our example above of a group with 26 members, then if your church has 10 groups, then you could expect 20 lost people to receive Christ and follow Him in baptism. Why? Because 1 of 5 group members are not church members and are likely to be unsaved.

The graph above actually illustrates two vital evangelism principles.

  1. Lost people must come into contact with the Gospel message in order to be saved (Romans 10:13). Enrolling unsaved people in Sunday School places them in a place where they can see the Gospel on display, hear it, study God’s Word, “kick the tires” (so to speak), and ultimately repent and believe.
  2. The second vital principle is that the percentage of church members that are participating in small groups reflects the value of the church’s commitment to its groups strategy to evangelism and discipleship. Churches with lower percentages may have a high commitment, but the communication of the value of its groups strategy is not connecting with church members. The less committed the church is to using small group organization as its primary strategy, the fewer church members will belong to a group.

Realize it
Here are five steps to bring reality to the concept of an evangelistic Sunday School:

  1. First, decide if your group is going to be evangelistic. Personally, I do not think that this is an option if you believe the Great Commission, and I can not imagine an open group intentionally choosing not to have soulwinning as its primary mission (see Mark 1:17). But…
  2. Have some type of Gospel emphasis at every group meeting. Examples… Develop a group evangelistic prayer list; enlist a group member share their testimony; invite lost friends to group social events; teach a Gospel presentation; memorize important verses about evangelism. Any of these activities can be done in five minutes. Rotate them and you can have one evangelistic activity for each Sunday of the month.
  3. Ask guests to join your group! Your group (and your church) may be missing out on dozens of evangelistic opportunities if you never ask people to join your group. If your group is that great, then who wouldn’t want to be a part of it!!
  4. Follow up on guests to church events. The men’s fish fry had guests attend? Follow up! The church just had Vacation Bible School? Follow up! Dozens of first-time guests attended Easter? Follow up!
  5. Celebrate what you want done. When a group members shares with the group that he or she shared Christ with a friend… celebrate!!

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Bob Mayfield is the Sunday School/Small Groups specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. You can follow Bob on Twitter at @bobmayfield and also follow his blog at bobmayfield.com. Bob also leads the ReConnect Sunday School Initiative that produces quality online video training for Sunday School and small group leaders at reconnectss.com.