Prayer :: 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

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Aug

Praying for Unreached People Groups

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (0)

What kind of Sunday School class or small group do you want to belong to? A group of people who are centered around their own needs, or a group of people who want to make a difference in their community and across the world? If you are not interested in sharing the Gospel with others and impacting lost people around the world, well… you might want to come back tomorrow, because this post is NOT for you!

I firmly believe that many Sunday School classes have not discovered their mission. Your group’s mission comes straight from God’s Word – “Go, therefore, and make disciples of every nation…” The actual Greek word for “nation” is pante ta ethnos. We get our word “ethnic” from it, but this word means people groups. Your Sunday School class is how your church is organized for its mission. Notice the verse again ”make disciple of every nation (ethnos)”. You are falling short of the Great Commission if you think reaching your neighborhood is enough.

I believe that most of our members are more than happy to give their time and treasure to a worthwhile cause. Let me connect you with one… your class should Adopt an Unreached People Group. Approximately 28% of the world’s population (2.1 billion people) have no access to the Gospel – none! Your Sunday School class can have an impact on thousands of people by simply adopting and praying for an unreached people group.

This year in Oklahoma, we began challenging Sunday School classes to adopt an unreached people group for one year. To date, over 2,200 classes have stepped forward to adopt and pray for their adopted group. At right is a pic from a worship service at Northwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, whose Sunday School classes have adopted 32 unreached people groups. In fact, this week one of our smallest churches (they have one adult class) sent a mission team to Africa. They are meeting and discovering the needs of the group they adopted just a few months ago so that they can share the Gospel and begin a church among the people they have adopted.

Here are some things your group can do to adopt and pray for your people group:

Visit www.joshuaproject.net and do some research on people groups;
Go to www.bgco.org/6426project or www.imb.net and register to adopt a people group;
Those registering for the 6426 Project through the Oklahoma Convention will receive an email with information about their new adopted group;
Share information about your people group with your class. Take time during every meeting to lift your group up in prayer;
Ask group members to go online to learn more about your group;
Pray for opportunities to bring the Gospel to your unreached people group.

There are a number of resources to help you and your group share the Gospel with your group:

Order Operation World, which will help you pray daily for people groups all over the world and will also probably have some information about your group;
Visit www.bobmayfield.com/6426project to order materials such as bookmarks, bulletin inserts, and posters;
Put the name of your adopted people group on the sign outside your classroom door;
Plan a time during your worship service to actually pray for unreached people groups that classes in your church have adopted;

There are some definite benefits to adopting an unreached people group:

Any age-group can adopt an unreached people group;
By asking every class to adopt an unreached people group, more church members become involved in prayer and ministry. More doors open as a result;
By praying for those who have yet to hear the Gospel, we deepen and expand the prayer lives of our members;
Our members become more aware of lostness when they research their people group and discover the needs of those for whom they pray;
By praying for unreached people groups, we challenge our members to put the Gospel on display and expect God to move in their adopted group.

First Baptist Church of Sapulpa, Oklahoma adopted an unreached, unengaged people group. A woman in the church realized that a lady that clerked in a local business might be from the area her people group was located. She was, and she was even a member her adopted people group! After some time of developing a relationship with this lady and contacts she has back home, the church has made several mission trips to this people group. They are starting the first church ever for their adopted unreached people group.

A major reason for decline in many of our churches is that we have disconnected the purpose of Sunday School from the mission of the church. A group with no purpose belongs in a bingo hall, not in a body of believers who have a mission to carry the Gospel to every people group on our planet.

Be a leader. Lead your group to adopt an unreached people group and make a difference.

Categories : 31 Days of Transformational Class, Mission, Outreach/Evangelism, Prayer

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Aug

Prayer and the Transformational Group

By Kiely Young · Comments (0)

Are we capitalizing the awesome power of prayer through our Sunday School and Small group Bible studies? I have asked this question of many groups of Sunday School leaders and they tell me no. When we dig deeper, we discover that we mostly just pray for the sick. We don’t go deeper and ask God for needs of unreached people. We don’t ask God for those things which we may think to “that which only God can do”. That is almost like saying, “It is OK God, I think we can do this by ourselves.” What a mistake.

Do you remember Jeremiah 29:11-13, “I know the thoughts I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart.”

And what about Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”?

Don’t forget the prayer of Jabez, I Chronicles 4:10 “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.”

Are we praying for and asking God for what He wants us to ask for, OR just what we think we need? Could it be that we are limiting God in our Sunday Schools because we are not seeking Him and what He wants to do through us? Maybe, we like things the way they are TOO much. God wants to stretch us, but we don’t want to be stretched, so we don’t ask Him for more than we can see to ask about.

God told Jeremiah to ask for “great and mighty things”. Jabez boldly ask God to “bless me indeed”. Both call for obedient prayer, seeking the Blesser more than the blessing; seeking His will more than ours.

God has Commissioned us to reach our communities. He has Commanded us to love Him and to love our communities. This begins with surrendered prayer seeking Him and His will for His church and the communities around us. Let step forward in faith.

Why not intentionally broaden our base of prayer and ask every Sunday School classes and Small Group Bible studies to pray for our church leaders every week?

We could go even further and ask them to pray for every member of their class/Small Group every week.

A step further would be to ask them to pray for prospects for their class/Small Group every week.

AND all of us know of friends not in any church or Bible study, why not pray for them every week.

AND more importantly still we know friends who do not know Christ as Savior. We need to pray for them until they come to Christ.

We could be bold and ask God to give us the opportunity to build a trusting relationship with that friend so that we could tell them how wonderful our Savior is and what He can do for their life.

We have not because we ask not.

John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Let’s keep abiding, asking, and prayerfully expecting God’s blessings.

Categories : 31 Days of Transformational Class, Prayer, Sunday School

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Mar

Leave It to the Sunday School?

By Tom Belew · Comments (5)

Sunday School is a great place to teach children the stories from the Bible and how the Bible can be a guide for life. But, Sunday School is not the end of the ministry to children. Sunday School helps to lay a foundation for each child, and now we have to build upon that foundation. The Bible says, “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. ⁶ These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. ⁷ Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. ⁹ Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-6 HCSB).

The Bible is clear that transformation of children is not just about an hour of Sunday School each week. The passage above indicates teaching children is an every-day, every-hour, every-minute job. Transformation is the job of Sunday School, parents and other believers. If we are going to expect children to grow and mature into faithful followers of Jesus Christ, the impact of the Bible has to move beyond the Sunday School room.

Oh! This could even be true for students and adults as well. The greatest single factor affecting God’s work in our churches and communities today may well be that only a few believers in our churches actually commit to a daily devotional that includes Bible reading, prayer and listening to God.

How different Sunday School would be if every member came read-up, prayed-up and expecting to get a fresh word from the Lord.

Transformation is more than attending Sunday School!

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Tom Belew has served as Small Groups and Childhood Specialist for the California Southern Baptist Convention since 2002. He previously served as Minister of Education in churches in Arizona and California.

Categories : Bible Study, Prayer, Transformation

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Jan

Preparation for teaching…Personal Bible Study

By Kiely Young · Comments (1)

We have personal responsibility as we prepare to teach the Word of God to our classes. We must be prepared ourselves. This does not mean just read over the lesson, but really letting the lesson get into our hearts. This preparation begins on Sunday afternoon, in reading through the text for next week.

I remember a precious lady in Greenville, Mississippi telling me how she would get herself ready to teach each week. “I read the text for next Sunday on Sunday afternoon. That gives me time to start thinking about what God wants me to know. Then, I read it every day of the week as I begin my study. But, I will read it in several different translations through the week just to see if any other translation has just a little different twist on the context. I let that sink into my heart. I make my personal notes on what the text is saying to me. I want the text to get into my heart.”

As we teach, we really learn the most, grow the most, and receive the greatest blessing. As we are spiritually impacted by the lesson, we can expect to have greater impact on those we are teaching, no matter what their age.

We not only read the text daily, but make notes of what the text is saying to us and how it applies to our life. If we want to receive all that God has for us we must be open to the Holy Spirit giving us insight and understanding. We now combine personal study with insights we gain from reading the leader’s guide and other personal resources and God begins to put His Word deep into our hearts. As we let the text, and the Bible study lesson takes hold of our heart, we are more apt to be effective in communicating His truth each week.

It is personal preparation each day, listening to the Word, reading the Word, and letting it get into our hearts that will make us more effective communicators of His truth.

____________________

Kiely Young-Director, Sunday School; Mississippi Baptist Convention Board

Categories : 31 Days to a Better Teacher, Bible Study, Leadership, Prayer, Sunday School, Teaching

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