Archive for 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School – Page 4

Supporting the Parents

By Marie Clark · Comments (0)
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012

This is day 14 of 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School.

Sunday School is for kids. NOT!

But that attitude has been prevalent among the general population for at least the last two or three generations. Parents feel good about sending their kids to Sunday School. They feel like their children will benefit from some religious instruction, yet they have no idea what to teach them or how. So sending them to Sunday School is a relief…they have done their religious “duty” with their children.

In contrast, God’s plan has always been for parents to be the spiritual leaders of their kids. (Read Deuteronomy 6:4-7.) Bible learning groups at church should supplement and enrich the parents’ instruction, not become a substitute for it. But what if they don’t know how…or why…or what?

A Sunday School with a missionary mentality will do its best to support the parents. Here are a few practical ways your Sunday School can support parents in becoming spiritual leaders in the home.

Kids Sunday School teachers, from preschool through youth, are key players:

  • Treat parents as partners. Make an effort to meet all of the parents and make some kind of contact with them at least 2-3 times a year. Let them know what you do and teach.
  • Take-home pages for preschoolers and grade-schoolers are helpful tools for parents. By reading the stories to their children and doing the suggested activities, parents can reinforce the Bible truth taught on Sunday.
  • Suggest that families establish a tradition while driving home after church on Sunday: each family member – including the parent – tells one thing they studied or learned during Bible study. These statements can often lead to short conversations about spiritual matters.

Adult Teachers have many opportunities to support parents:

I challenge you to choose at least one idea to put into practice starting this week.

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Marie Clark has served as Bible Teaching & Discipling Team Leader for the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists since 1996. She is passionate about Sunday School and its impact on children and is a volunteer in her church’s Sunday School.

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Categories : 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School, Bible Study, Evangelism, Group Life, Leadership, Learning, Ministry, Mission, Organization, Outreach/Evangelism, Prayer, Small Groups, Sunday School, Teaching, Training, Vacation Bible School

Save the Kids!

By Tom Belew · Comments (0)
Monday, August 13th, 2012

Reaching kids for Christ has been at the front of the Sunday school movement from the beginning. Around 1870 in England, Robert Raikes recognized an opportunity where others saw a problem. The streets were filled with unruly poor, uneducated children. Robert’s vision was to educate the children using the Bible to do it. The result was kids coming to know Christ, getting an education and solving a domestic problem in England.

In 2000, I received a call from a church planter in the Los Angeles area. He wanted me to see and hear about what a church in Los Angeles was doing to change their community. In a period of just a few months, the church had reached over 50 children in the community. Almost all of the children had never been to church and they came from homes riddled with dysfunction, drugs, neglect and poverty. Soon the worship service and Sunday school became unruly. To meet the challenge, families were asked to serve as adopted grandparents for the children. The relational approach worked and the children begin to growing in their understanding of the Bible, many accepting Christ.

David Francis, in Missionary Sunday School, points out the parent’s responsibility for the growth and development of their children. For children whose parents are Christian, the Bible indicates the parent has the primary responsible for the spiritual growth and development of their children. Thus, the church and Sunday school are support supplementing the work of the parents. Churches need to equip parents with the tools and skills to be most effective in this important role. A parent will have no greater joy than to lead their child to know Christ as personal Savior. For all the other children in our communities, the Sunday school and other children’s ministries are the only lifelines.

Today, many churches are sitting on golden opportunities to reach children for Christ. Sunday school, Vacation Bible School and many other great ministries are powerful tools for reaching kids. Churches need to survey to opportunities in their communities using demographics, prayer walks, information obtained from community leaders and community assessments. Our world is constantly changing,  what was needed in the past may be different today?

In the past two months, I have worked with churches in two communities where the single parent population was high, 40 percent in one community and 31 percent in the other. Both of these churches have set goals to start Sunday school classes for single parents and to focus their preschool and children’s Sunday school ministry on reaching the children of single parents.

A few years ago, I consulted a small church in central California that had almost totally lost their ability to reach children, or so they said. A demographic study revealed 27 percent of the population within a mile of the church was children six to 10 years of age. The Anglo congregation was not considering the potential of the Hispanic children living around them. In reality, almost all the children spoke English, English being the language of choice in over 45 percent their homes. By launching a new weeknight children’s ministry and establishing a new Sunday school time for children, the church quickly reached over 50 children from around the church and increased their Sunday school attendance by 30 percent. By moving to create a new time for children’s Sunday school the small church was able to have access to more rooms. The change made it possible for more adults to serve as workers too.

A missionary Sunday school recognized the advantages to reaching children. Children are open to the Gospel story and eager to accept Christ. When we reach a child, we put a person into God’s service for a lifetime. Many times children are the open door to reaching families. Just like Robert Raikes, many kids will be saved from poverty and dysfunction as a result of coming to know Christ and their person growth in 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.

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Categories : 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School, Evangelism, Growing your Group, Ministry, Outreach/Evangelism, Unreached people groups

Open and Ongoing Groups

By Tom Belew · Comments (0)
Sunday, August 12th, 2012

A missionary Sunday school class or small group is focused on reaching new people and ministering to people it has already reached. Today many Sunday school classes and small groups have lost their way. What is the purpose for your small group or Sunday school class?

On several occasions during my local church ministry, concerned teachers and members approached me about providing a marriage enrichment class during Sunday school. Beyond their own felt need, they wondered how many more people could be involved if the class were offered on Sunday. In most cases, the suggestion was to offer the marriage enrichment class for a quarter in place of the regular Sunday school class. On the surface, this sounds and looks like a great idea. While I never doubted the need for the marriage enrichment and was eager to respond to the request; I realized it would take the class away from its purpose and focus.

First, Sunday school classes are purposed to be an “open group.” An open group provides a class for anyone to attend anytime and be accepted. You might say, “The marriage enrichment class is open to anyone.” Your response would be partially true. On the other hand, the class would not meet the definition of an “open group.” The class would be “open” for a couple of weeks as it was getting started, but “closed” for the remainder of the 13 weeks.

So, what will happen to guests and those who do not attend regularly once the class begins? The answer is, “there is no place for them.” Providing this class during Sunday school could ultimately exclude up to two-thirds of the class members and most of the guests for an 11-week period. In contrast, a missionary class always has a place for people.

Over the years, I have discovered we have “closed” classes for another reason. Some classes become so strongly bonded they appear to repel guests. I have observed a guest enter a room where all the chairs were taken and have to go hunt a chair on their own. Many of these classes say guests are welcome, but you can feel the resistance in the air when you enter the room. An open group has empty seats and acts as if they are expecting guests.

Secondly, Sunday school classes are purposed to be an “ongoing group.” An ongoing group is available every Sunday in the case of the Sunday school or every week if a weekday small group. To reach new people, churches need ongoing missionary classes or groups. Hence, the marriage enrichment class request also leads the Sunday
school away from its ongoing missionary strategy. This subject-oriented study, marriage enrichment, is not “ongoing” for all. A true “ongoing” class is open-ended,  including openness to everyone week after week unendingly.

I have noticed three disturbing trends impacting “ongoing groups,” including closed groups, a lack of accountability for members and periodic schedule reaks. Many churches have not clearly identified the need for ongoing groups nd have allowed many “closed group” topics to fill the year’s schedule. This roduces times when there are not places for everyone. These closed group topics lead to the second trend, a lack of accountability. If I join a Sunday school class, the leaders become accountable for connecting, communicating and ministering to me. In the case of short-term topics, teachers often change after 13-weeks and in many cases members get to pick a different class and teacher. The accountability for the members is weak or not existent. Thirdly, some churches are intentionally taking breaks in their schedule. The most common of these is not providing a Sunday school over the summer. This is done with the intention of giving people a break, but it leaves a missionary vacuum in its wake. The church does not have an ongoing opportunity for members and guests to participate in Bible study. An ongoing missionary-minded Sunday school or small group is available every week and guests are welcome.

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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.

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Categories : 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School, Evangelism, Group Life, Growing your Group, Ministry, Mission, Outreach/Evangelism, Sunday School

Connecting His Story To Your Story To Their Story

By Rick Ellison · Comments (0)
Saturday, August 11th, 2012

This is day 11 of 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School.

There is power in stories. We relate to the stories in the Bible in the deepest issues of our lives. Stories relate the struggles of life and victory in God. They give us practical insights and wisdom for living. Stories especially have an impact when it comes to the work of the Sunday School.

Years ago, I read the story of Job and how he had lost everything at once. I noticed that in rapid succession Job lost his wealth and then his health. The most tragic event that struck me was that a mighty wind came from the desert and collapsed the house killing his children. I wondered what it would be like to lose your family in one day.

God allowed me to experience the loss of a wife and daughter to death. I have related to many of the stories and teachings of the Bible in walking through the valley of the shadow of death. God has used my story and experience of pain to share my faith and minister to others.

God uses stories in many ways through Sunday School to equip us to be and do all that He has for us. When the teacher leads in Bible study everyone present gets a different lesson. The scripture as well as the Holy Spirit speaks to our individual story and life path. We relate our experiences to the scriptures with others in Bible study. Our story can be used in the testimony of sharing our faith with those who need Christ. Our story can be used in encouraging and ministering to others with perhaps similar life needs and struggles. Our story is a part of growing as a disciple as well as our personal devotion to God. How can God use your stories?

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Rick Ellison: Office of Leadership/Church Health Alabama Baptist Convention State Board of Missions

 

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Categories : 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School, Ministry, Mission, Outreach/Evangelism, Small Groups, Sunday School

Training Class for Missionaries?

By Kiely Young · Comments (0)
Friday, August 10th, 2012

This is day 10 of 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School.

Does your class have the proper DNA for growth? DNA? For a Sunday School class?

Yes, Determined Nurturing Attitude!  Think about it.  We must be intentional when we approach the topic of Sunday School growth.  Does our growth mean we want to grow “deeper” in the Word? Yes, but for more than just biblical information, facts, history, dates, etc.

God has commissioned us to be disciple makers. Yes, disciple makers. That means spiritual multiplication.  Are we joyfully sending members out of our classes because we have nurtured them in their spiritual growth and we recognize it is time for them to launch into ministry? OR, do we hoard over them and tend to keep them all to ourselves.

Let me illustrate.  Over the past several years we have had sparrows making nests in our garage. One on a shelf in the corner, and one on the top of a broom with the bristles turned up.  Both in unusual places, but done very neatly.  Each hatched three to four eggs.  The mothers were very protective of their little ones, UNTIL it was time to leave the nest. THEN it is out you go.  It is time to fly.  The parents had been diligent to feed them daily, protect them and make sure nothing happened to them. AND on the day of their first flight, both parents hovered around to make sure they made it on their own.  There was an intentional plan to spread their wings and FLY.  It was a pleasure to behold.

It is also a pleasure to behold those classes whose intention is to grow, multiply, and experience the celebration of being spiritual parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents of new classes being birthed out of classes.  It is an equal pleasure when we see God convicting members to go out of our classes to serve in other areas of ministry.  That is part of the spiritual transformation process.  We are not called to sit, soak, and sour.  We called to serve. The strategy must be taught in every class if it is to be an effective multiplying class and a missionary sending class.

We must instill this Determined Nurturing Attitude throughout our churches if we expect to see God use us to reach our communities with the Good News of Jesus. It is amazing that every part of God’s creation has the DNA for growth and multiplication. Jesus made it a part of the designed plan for the New Testament church.

Somehow we have seen the baton dropped.  It is time to pick it up again and get back on track with the right DNA for growing missionaries.
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Kiely Young
Mississippi Baptist Convention Board

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Categories : 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School, Group Life, Growing your Group, Leadership, Learning, Ministry, New Groups, Sunday School
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