Archive for Growing your Group – Page 4

From a Class to a Movement…YES New Groups

By Kiely Young · Comments (1)
Friday, August 17th, 2012

This is day 17 of 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School

1+1=2…2+2=4…4+4=8…8+8=16…32…64…128…

The math says multiplication always grow faster than addition. But, can WE see it work?

Ask Jeff Sundell, who lives just a few miles outside of Charlotte, NC. It has been about three years since they started their first small group Bible study to reach their community. From that class a movement started. A member of the class felt the need to start another in another community. It grew and the same thing happened again. A member of that study had a burden for a friend in another town and went there to start another Bible study. Soon multiplication began to take place. Today, from the beginnings of that first Bible study, and a passion of Jeff to reach North and South Carolina for Christ, thus far over 400 Bible studies in 39 cities have been started and thousands of formerly non-reached people have come to faith in Christ.

What is the difference in a Class and a movement?

A Sunday School Class is a group of people who meet weekly for Bible study. They enjoy their fellowship, the comfort of prayer support, the ministry to and with one another, the blessings of worship, and the study of God’s Word. If they become content and comfortable in their environment, they become what is known as a “closed group”, that is; they are no longer energized to reach out to others, and usually grow hesitant to any kind of change.

How does such a “movement” begin? Prayer…intensive prayer + hard work + seeking the Lord’s direction for the people He wants to reach in your context = the beginning of a movement. A movement begins with a group of people with a passion to reach their community, even a specific group of people within the community, with the Gospel of Christ. They are willing to do whatever it takes, anytime, anywhere, anyway under the direction of the Holy Spirit to reach these people. They are more concerned about reaching and making disciples for Christ than they are for their comfort and personal concerns. They are excited about seeing believers in Christ grow to the point that they want to reach their friends, and even start new Bible study groups themselves to reach other friends. They want to be spiritual parents, grandparents, and even multiple generations.

Is this possible in today’s culture, where “most” of our churches are in plateau or decline; where less than ten percent of churches have experienced continuous growth? Yes, Yes, Yes.

It is not about our power, but our obedience to New Testament principles of biblical discipleship.

Any class in any church in any location CAN decide to surrender to the direction of the Holy Spirit to become a part of a movement of God to reach their community for Christ.

It is a matter of prayer and priorities.

____________________
Kiely Young
Mississippi


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Categories : 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School, Bible Study, Enlistment, Evangelism, Group Life, Growing your Group, Leadership, Learning, Ministry, Mission, New Groups, Outreach/Evangelism, Prayer, Small Groups, Sunday School, Teaching

Your People Group Assignment

By David Bond · Comments (0)
Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

This is day 15 of 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School.

 

Several years ago, I attended the International Mission Board commissioning service for some friends.  Although they were preparing to serve in Africa, if you had asked them who they intended to reach through their ministry they would have never said “Africans”.  Instead, my friends would have named a specific, identifiable people group about whom they had learned many details necessary for planning and carrying out an effective impact strategy among them.   Missionary agencies understand that “Everyone trying to reach everyone” results in duplicated efforts, confused strategies, and diluted resources.  A “People Groups” strategy results in clear assignment and accountability, concentrated resources, and enhanced equipping.

While your Church should have a vision for reaching everyone in your community, a Class may function more effectively with a more clearly defined focus.  Consider the following potential benefits for organizing your Sunday School around a People Groups strategy.

People Groups Help with Naming Classes – Determining what to call your groups can be a challenge.  Often, churches use an Organizational Name (Adult 2), a Chronological Name (Couples 30-39), A Creative Name (Faith Builders) or a Leader’s Name (Bill Smith Class).  Using People Group names (Parents of Teenagers) brings more detail, clarity, and consistency to naming classes in your ministry.

People Groups Help Form a Comprehensive Outreach Strategy – Not only do People Groups let you know who is represented in your outreach efforts, they may also identify who isn’t.  Organizing around People Groups helps the gaps in your Sunday School class line-up stand out.

People Groups Enable Leaders to Plan Better Learning Experiences – We often encourage teachers to prepare relevant discussion questions and teach lessons that lead learners to personal life application.  The difficulty of this increases when age ranges, family make-up, and other factors are widely diverse within the group. 

People Groups Give Leaders a Chance to Become “Experts” at their Role – Many resources and research projects are dedicated to the Millennial generation.  The same may also be said of the Baby Boomers now entering into their retirement years.  Any parent will tell you that things are much different when your kids are in elementary school than once they reach high school.  Leaders who prepare for only one of those age groups can dedicate themselves to learning much about their people group and can more easily make Bible truths connect to the specific life needs of their learners.  Training opportunities can also be more specifically customized for greater impact.

People Groups Help Organize Outreach – When prospective families are identified from Vacation Bible School, revival meetings, evangelistic events, community events, special services, and other sources, people groups provide churches with a clear structure for assigning them to Sunday School classes for follow up.

People Groups Help Connect Guests – When guests walk in the church for the first time and are looking for a Sunday School class to visit, people groups make it much easier for the greeters to help them get a head start on building relationships with those who share something in common with them.

While stating that “our classes are open to everyone” may sound like a noble position, that approach may actually be the very factor that is inhibiting growth.  A plan for reaching people groups may be what your Sunday School needs to begin working together as a real strategy for missionary impact.

______________________________
David Bond serves as Adult Sunday School Strategist for the Evangelism & Church Growth Team of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

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Categories : 31 Days of Missionary Sunday School, Bible Study, Evangelism, Group Life, Growing your Group, Learning, Ministry, Mission, New Groups, Outreach/Evangelism, Small Groups, Sunday School, Teaching

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.

_______________________________________
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

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.
_________________________
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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