Sunday School That Really Works, Lesson #1 A Discussion Guide to Steve Parr s Book. Good Questions Have Groups Talking

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1 Sunday School That Really Works, Lesson #1 A Discussion Guide to Steve Parr s Book. Good Questions Have Groups Talking your group and ask them to Google around and look for stories on fast growing Sunday Schools. Here is one site you might point them to: Note: questions in bold are ready to ask in class. Material below the questions is supplemental and may or may not be used at your discretion. Chapters 1 & 2 OPEN Let s each share your name and one thing you love about Sunday School. DIG 1. How do you feel about the name Sunday School? When you hear the name, what sights and sounds and smells come to your mind? I did some research on this. Most churches that have Sunday School don t call it Sunday School. However, Sunday School was the most popular name. Here is a breakdown: By the way, the survey may still be open. You can participate here.

2 2. Is there a name you prefer over the name Sunday School? One of the pressures facing the Sunday School movement today concerns its very name. I ve often quipped that there are only two things wrong with the name Sunday School: (1) Sunday School is not just on Sundays, and (2) it s not a school. When the Sunday School movement began more than two hundred years ago in England, it was both. It was established to teach reading and writing, using the Bible as the primary textbook, to boys and girls on their one day off, Sunday, after laboring six days each week. When the movement first spread to America, it continued a similar mission of promoting literacy and good citizenship. The movement evolved over the years into a predominantly church based ministry that is still practiced in most churches in the United States. Scheduled before or after the primary weekend worship service, Sunday School has taken on additional purposes in many churches that extend beyond the hour or so spent in a Bible study group. In fact, many churches expect Sunday School to be a 24/7/365 network of care, prayer, communication, outreach, and ministry. It could be argued that Sunday School is well suited to accomplish all of the purposes of the church except the purpose of worship. That s a great expectation! But despite all the ministry Sunday School has accomplished, continues to accomplish, and can accomplish, the name Sunday School is no longer cool to some people. Guess what? I m cool with that! Change the name to whatever you want! Just don t be surprised when people still call it Sunday School. David Francis, Great Expectations. 3. How do you feel about the effectiveness of Sunday School? Do you believe really believe that Sunday School can be an effective way to reach people today? Jesus said it will be done for you according to your faith. Whether you think you can or think you cannot, either way you are right. How your group feels about whether or not you will grow strongly predicts whether or not you will grow. Here is a graph from my book, Make Your Group Grow:

3 4. On page 20, Parr says, Some leaders have never been taught the principles of Sunday school growth. What are some principles of Sunday School growth? Here are mine: Teach a halfway decent lesson each and every week; nothing less will do. You donï ½t have to be Chuck Swindoll to grow a class, but we do need halfway decent teaching each and every week. You would be surprised to learn how many teachers are not halfway decent. I was shocked by what I learned. Invite every member and every prospect to every fellowship every month. If you want to double your class every two years or less, donï ½t invite people to class. Instead, invite them to the party. I have found that if I can get them to the party, I cannot keep them from class. Read how a whole denomination is putting this idea to work in Australia. Give Friday nights to Jesus for an informal time of fellowship, Diet Coke, games and laughter. Invite friends and invite those who have no Christian friends. Encourage the group toward ministry. It is the responsibility of those in ministry to recruit those not yet in ministry. The best way to do this is through a team. Reproduce. The future of the church is the multiplication of groups. 5. P. 20. Have you ever heard a prominent leader dismiss Sunday School or say it is ineffective? Here is an example of one writer that does not think Sunday School is an effective tool: The same goes for Sunday school. Sunday school didn't appear on the scene until 1,700 years after Christ. Robert Raikes of England gets the credit for starting the first Sunday school in Again, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with the idea of Sunday school (even though it's really not working right now), but you're not going to find it in the Bible; it's not a biblical element of "church." So then, if your Sunday school isn't working like it should, why not do something different!? I'm not saying you should do away with it (as we have stated earlier, we advocate major radical changes), but I am saying that you definitely could cancel your Sunday school program and not violate any specific example in Scripture. Ham, Ken (2009). Already Gone (Kindle Locations ). Master Books. Kindle Edition. 6. Page 21. What is the price that must be made to keep Sunday School growing? Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. STEPHEN KING Best selling author with over 40 books in print, many of which have

4 been made into movies. Canfield, Jack (2004). The Success Principles(TM) (Kindle Locations ). HarperCollins e books. Kindle Edition. 7. On page 22ff, Parr mentions three benefits to paying the price to getting your Sunday School growing. Can you think of others? Imagine our Sunday School was growing rapidly. What would be the benefits? Throughout church history, whenever this plan has been implemented, the church has born great fruit. In such a situation, everybody wins. The equippers win each time they see God greatly use the volunteers they have recruited, loved, trained, and empowered. The volunteers win, because they get the thrill of moving from the spectator s seat to the playing field. They become instruments of healing, hope, and transformation in the hands of God. The surrounding community wins as it receives the service of a loving, unified, multigifted force for good. And of course, the Architect of the whole plan wins because God has the pleasure of seeing his children carry forward his grand purpose of fixing this broken world. Hybels, Bill (2009). The Volunteer Revolution: Unleashing the Power of Everybody (p. 61). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. 8. If Sunday School can be effective, why are they so often not effective? Sunday School. It is our unwillingness to pay the price! Growth requires two things. First, it requires change. The well worn definition of insanity applies here: to continue to do what you have always done and expect different results. If we always do what we have always done, we will always get what we have always gotten! Change is imperative for growth whether it is on a personal or an organizational level. The second thing growth requires is commitment. Commitment is what takes good ideas and turns them into reality. Commitment is not realized until personal convenience is jeopardized. I still believe that Sunday School works! Many have pronounced her dead on arrival saying she is a worn out method of a foregone era. Many naysayers proclaim Sunday School as no longer effective in a modern day. It is outdated and no longer has an appeal they say. Many reject it simply because it is traditional. Take caution! We need to be careful in discarding something simply because it is traditional. If we want to eliminate tradition in the church, then we will have to purge our churches of preaching, prayer, fellowship, Bible study, offerings, soul winning, discipleship, and worship. All are traditional and have been practiced by the church since Pentecost!

5 Sunday School is only as effective as those leading it and working it. When we do work the Sunday School fields, a harvest can be reaped. It is with this in mind that I present this book. I believe Sunday Schools should explode with growth as we practice the three tasks of Sunday School reach people, teach people, and minister to people. Sunday School is overlooked and underworked. Today s fog around Sunday School is causing many not to see it; hence, it is overlooked, and because it is overlooked, it is naturally underworked. Enter Sunday School in HD. If we will see Sunday School for what it is and what it can do, we will all champion her cause! Taylor, Allan (2009). Sunday School in HD: Sharpening the Focus on What Makes Your Church Healthy (pp. 2 3). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Chapter Two 9. Did Jesus have a small group? Jesus primary ministry was that of small group leader. He minister to the masses. He taught the many. He concentrated on the few. Jesus ministry stands in stark contrast to many modern ministries ministries with a constant thirst for more, more, more. Today, we want bigger. We are only interested in small groups if we can have lots of them and they can help us reach big groups. Jesus priority on the small group can be seen in a number of passages. Here are a couple of examples:: Mark 6:30 32 (NIV) The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. Luke 9:10 (NIV) 10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, Matthew 14:13 (NIV) 13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.. This fact is the essential message of Robert Coleman s seminal book, Master Plan of Evangelism Billy Graham said about this book, Few books have had as great an impact on the cause of world evangelization in our generation as Robert Coleman's The Master Plan of Evangelism. Here is what Coleman said about Jesus priority on his small group: Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that there was a rapidly diminishing priority given to those outside the Twelve. (The Master Plan of Evangelism) Josh Hunt

6 10. Luke In what 4 ways did Jesus grow? What do we learn about following God from this? Luke 2:41 52, the only biblical account of the adolescent Jesus, reveals something surprising, in that He was increasing in wisdom. This shows that Jesus who was fully God was experiencing growth! Prayer, Scripture study, and the use of His gifts were bringing about maturation in the Son of Man. Jesus was sinless and perfect, yet He still experienced maturity. How much greater is the need for that growth in sinful man! Stanley, C. F. (2006). Pathways to his presence (346). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers. 11. Page 36. Is it possible to grow spiritually without growing socially, intellectually and physically? The early years of Jesus' life are summarized in this simple statement, And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52) Note that Jesus grew in four key areas: 1. Wisdom: When was the last time you deliberately fed your mind? When seated, read a book; when moving, listen to a tape. 2. Stature: Physical health is the result of proper diet, rest, and exercise. 3. Favor with God: Spiritual growth increases through such important spiritual disciplines as personal Bible reading and study, prayer, and fasting. 4. Favor with man: We must continually invest in the key relationships of our lives to grow socially. If Jesus needed to grow in these four areas, how much more must you and I? Dave Earley. The 8 Habits of Effective Small Group Leaders (Kindle Locations ). Kindle Edition. 12. Luke Is it a good thing to go to church out of habit? In Disciplemaking Teachers, I call this kind of question a jump ball question. Hopefully, it will stimulate discussion even an argument. Going to church out of habit is better than not going at all, but it is not the best thing. The best thing is, I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD. Psalm 122:1 (NIV) 13. Luke What do love about spending time alone with God in prayer and in His Word? It goes without saying, I suppose, that people who enjoy God enjoy prayer. How could you enjoy someone and not enjoy talking to them? J.I. Packer comments, Men who know their God are before anything else men who pray, and the first point where their zeal and energy for God s glory come to expression is in their prayers. (Packer: Knowing God, p. 24) Josh Hunt 14. Page 38. Why do you think a small group was important to Jesus? It should not be thought for a minute that Jesus completely neglected the many for the purpose of ministry to the few. The vision of the multitudes was always before him, and frequently the Gospel records make reference to his ministry to the masses. But Jesus was wise enough to see that before

7 the multitudes could be permanently helped, they would need more personal care than he alone could give. His real hope of ministry to them lay in training a small group who could later lead the multitudes in the things of God. The pattern of Jesus should teach us that the first duty of a spiritual leader is to lay a foundation on which an evangelistic ministry can be built. Laying such a foundation will require concentration of effort on the time and talents of a few. Though the obvious results of such a plan will likely be slower in coming and probably unnoticed by most, the amount of good done and the number of people reached will ultimately be far greater. Robert Coleman. Master Plan of Evangelism, The (Kindle Locations ). Kindle Edition. 15. Luke Were the disciples volunteers? Did Jesus make an announcement and say, ya ll come? Would it be appropriate for a pastor today to select a small group of men to disciple without inviting anyone who wanted to do so to come? In this connection, it is not without great significance that the leading evangelist in the world today, Billy Graham, recognizes the tremendous potential of this plan when used properly in the church. In response to the question "If you were a pastor of a large church in a principal city, what would be your plan of action?" Mr. Graham replied: "I think one of the first things I would do would be to get a small group of eight or ten or twelve people around me that would meet a few hours a week and pay the price! It would cost them something in time and effort. I would share with them everything I have, over a period of years. Then I would actually have twelve ministers among the laypeople who in turn could take eight or ten or twelve more and teach them. I know one or two churches that are doing that, and it is revolutionizing the church. Christ, I think, set the pattern. He spent most of his time with twelve men. He didn't spend it with a great crowd. In fact, every time he had a great crowd it seems to me that there weren't too many results. The great results, it seems to me, came in this personal interview and in the time he spent with his twelve."3 Here Mr. Graham is merely echoing the wisdom of Jesus' method. Robert Coleman. Master Plan of Evangelism, The (Kindle Locations ). Kindle Edition. 16. Page 41 Parr discusses inviting (enlisting) people to be a part of your group. Honestly now: when was the last time you invited someone to church or Sunday School? What holds us back from inviting? Once someone gets added to the roster, usually after the first visit, the highly effective leader will contact the person. This usually involves a short phone call thanking them for coming, asking how they liked the group, and inviting them to return. As these new ones come back and get connected to the group, the group grows. We found the power of the principle of contacting when we started our church. We began with eleven people meeting in my basement, and the church grew to 100 in 6 months and 200 in 18 months. I called almost every family every week. I spend a few evenings a week and Saturday afternoon making these five minute phone calls until the church got to an average attendance over 200. Then the five members of our leadership team divided the calling up

8 between us. We found that the principle of contacting made the difference. Dave Earley. The 8 Habits of Effective Small Group Leaders (Kindle Locations ). Kindle Edition. 17. Luke 9.1ff Why do you think Jesus assigned this work to his men? What would this assignment do to them? What do we learn about making disciples from this? What do we learn about Sunday School from this? Jesus was always building his ministry for the time when his disciples would have to take over his work and go out into the world with the redeeming gospel. This plan was progressively made clear as they followed him. The patience with which Jesus brought this out to his disciples reflects on his consideration for their ability to learn. He was never premature in his insistence on action. The first invitation to the disciples to follow him said nothing about going out and evangelizing the world, although this was his plan from the beginning. His method was to get the disciples into a vital experience with God, and to show them how he worked, before telling them they had to do it. On the other hand, Jesus did not discourage their spontaneous reactions to bear witness to their faith, and in fact, he seemed delighted that they wanted to bring others to know what they had found. Andrew got Peter, Philip found Nathanael, Matthew invited his friends to a feast in his house and Jesus responded to these new introductions with gladness. It is well, also, to note that on several occasions Jesus specifically asked those who were helped by his ministry to say something about it to others. However, in none of these early instances is the real purpose of their life of witnessing made a matter of explicit command. He used his disciples in other ways to help along his work, such as caring for the manual burdens of getting food and arranging accommodations for the group as they followed him. He also let them baptize some people who were aroused by his message (John 4:2). Outside of this, however, it is rather startling to observe in the Gospels that these early disciples really did not do much more than watch Jesus work for a year or more. He kept the vision before them by his activity, and in his call again to the four fishermen he reminded them that following him they were to be fishers of men (Mark 1:17; Matt. 4:19; Luke 5:10), but it does not seem that they did much about it. For that matter, even after they were formally ordained to the ministry a few months later (Mark 3:14 19; Luke 6:13 16), they still showed no evidence of doing any evangelistic work on their own. This observation perhaps should cause us to be more patient with new converts who follow us. But as Jesus was beginning his third general tour of Galilee (Mark 6:6; Matt. 9:35), he doubtless realized that the time had come when his disciples could join him more directly in the work. They had seen enough at least to get started. They needed now to put into practice what they had seen their Master do. So "he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth" (Mark 6:7; see Matt. 10:5; Luke 9:1 2). Like a mother eagle teaching her young to fly by pushing them out of the nest, Jesus pushed his disciples out into the world to try their own wings. The Master Plan of Evangelism.

9 18. Why wasn t it enough to just teach them? Again, what do we learn about following God from this? A Sunday school that really works is more than a Bible study. It is a life changing experience for the participants. The teacher has a holistic view of ministry and understands that he or she is commissioned to lead a group of followers on a spiritual journey. It is a group into which new people are added and from which established members are released each and every year. The group is challenged to grow in their intimacy with the Father, to work together to act on the (Great) commission of the Son, and to exercise their gifts in the power of the Holy Spirit as they serve and fellowship together. The journey of Jesus' life and leadership is the pattern. Steve Parr. Sunday School That Really Works: A Strategy for Connecting Congregations and Communities (pp ). Kindle Edition. 19. Closing question: what do you love about our church and your Sunday School group? 20. If you could change one thing about our church or your Sunday School group, what would it be? Note: If you enjoyed this lesson format, I would invite you to try Good Questions Have Groups Talking. I write 4 new lessons each week that correspond with Lifeway s lessons, as well as the International Standard Series. They can be used supplementally or stand alone. Each lesson is similar that this one, with 20 or so ready to use questions and answers from leading experts on the subject. Good Questions are available on a sliding scale basis that is affordable for any size church. See for more information.