Contact every person…every week!  Really!  In Transformational Class, David Francis writes, “I’m often asked, ‘Did you mean contact every absentee every week?’ No I mean contact every member every week! We’re not contacting them to get them to attend; we’re contacting them to let them know we care, to learn of needs that may require prayer or care, and to share opportunities for them to participate in praying and caring for others in the group or class.’”

A conference leader once shared the Bill of Rights for Sunday School members:

Every member has a right to:

1. 1. To be called by NAME.
   2. To be missed when absent.
   3. To be encouraged when faithful.
   4. To be admonished to grow in Christ likeness.
   5. To be ministered to in time of crisis.
   6. To be prayed for regularly.

One of the research findings from Transformational Church was that the churches studied were intentional about relationships.  Transformational Churches have a desire to move from being friendly to being relational.  Attendees and members and guests are encouraged to belong to a class or group.  Why? This is so that people would know them by name, miss them when absent, encourage them when faithful, admonish them to grow in their faith, be ministered to in a time of crisis, and be prayed for regularly.  These were not just rights…they were essential actions.  Actions that could all be accomplished with one simple idea: Contact Every Persons Every Week.

For many years, I taught a Sunday School class, but during the last few years, the opportunities to preach in various churches made it impossible to continue teaching a class.  Since I was traveling, my wife began searching  for a new Sunday School class.  After several months, she stopped attending a one class to attend another class with a friend.  In the weeks following, she was not contacted by the old class to determine if she was sick or mad.  She was never called to see what’s was going on. In other words, no one missed her.  She has never returned to that class…why would she?   This class needed a process to  contact every person every week.

Through the years, I have seen lots of systems to ensure that every member and every prospect is contacted every week.  Being a Saturday Night Caller was one of my favorites. Neal Jackson used to advocate that every teacher should be a Saturday night caller.  The goal was to simply call every member every Saturday night.  I practiced this as a Minister of Education and would contact every teacher every Saturday and as a teacher, I made it a practice to contact every member, every Saturday.  It works.

A preferred way is to organize every adult (and youth) Sunday School Class into care groups of 5-7.  Ideally, the care groups are divided by gender. Each care group would have a Care Group Leader.  What’s the job of a Care Group leader:  Contact every member of their group every week.

The bottomline is Transformational Classes value Relational Intentionality.  Do you have a strategy to contact every person, every week?

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Mark Miller is the Sunday School Director for the Tennessee Baptist Convention. You can also read Mark’s personal blog at http://drmarkmiller.wordpress.com.

I went to a minor league baseball game with a friend one night this past week.  We cheered for our team on a pleasant summer evening.  The ball park was not packed very tight and we had room to spread out a couple of seats apart.  There were only a few other people sitting in our row and we didn’t have to get up once to let someone slip by us.  So we enjoyed the space we
occupied in the public arena and our team won. But I could not tell you the name of another person who went to that
game with me, except for my friend.  It was a public space.

David Francis, in his book Transformational Class, tells about his love for Panera Bread stores where he gets coffee and writes (pages 22-23).  He may know a few of the regulars and someone may call him by name, but by and large it is a social space where he is comfortable, but yet allowed to relax and do his business.

He mentions there are also personal spaces such as a gathering of family or friends (even friends you haven’t been around in a while, but you enjoy seeing them).  And most people have an intimate space, such as your own home, or a place where you share with a close personal friend or a small group that is accountable and highly relational.

Francis argues that Sunday School operates on that social space level and allows people to come to the class, attend, be somewhat comfortable, but does not require them to get too personal or intimate with the class unless they are ready to go to that level.  Sunday School classes that allow people to freely come in (an “open” class environment) will help people find their comfortable space in Sunday School.

Think about the ways you can help you Sunday School classes be a safe, open and friendly space (but not too personal) for first-time guests:

• Have well-marked rooms that are not too hard to find.
• Have a couple of class greeters, but don’t “smother” people when they arrive.
• A good cup of coffee or some orange juice available provides a “safe” way to mingle (and if you are a little timid, you
  can “hide” behind that Styrofoam coffee cup).
• Have plenty of seats, so folks can spread out and keep their personal bubble of space around them.
• Use name tags and make introductions, but allow people the freedom to be semi-anonymous if they wish.
• Give opportunity, but don’t push for a repeat commitment to attend the class again or to enroll if the person seems slightly hesitant.
• Please don’t embarrass persons in this “social space” by calling them out or asking them to read out loud or pray without determining if they would be comfortable doing so.

Note: David Francis quotes Joe Myers in the book The Search to Belong for the discussion on the four kinds of spaces.

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Richard Nations is the Church Health Strategist for the Baptist Convention of Iowa, Des Moines, IA. Contact him at rnations@bciowa.org.