101 Tips For Sunday School Leaders

Transcription

1 101 Tips For Sunday School Leaders Written and Compiled by Steve Parr and Tim Smith of Sunday School/Open Group Ministries Georgia Baptist Convention Dear Sunday School Leader, Sunday School and small groups have a major impact on the health of the local church. A church can have a growing membership and a growing worship without having a strong or effective Sunday School. However, every church that has a growing Sunday School also has a growing worship and membership. It is the desire of the Sunday School/Open Group Ministries staff of the Georgia Baptist Convention that every church have an effective Sunday School Ministry. Thank you for what you do to make your church strong. It is my desire that this booklet will give you fresh ideas and insights to make you even more effective in your leadership. Almost every church has a Sunday School or small group ministry. However, only about one out of three is growing. What makes the difference? The effective churches apply tools and principals that are time tested and relevant to the health of a strong Sunday School Ministry. Please use this booklet to refresh you and/or teach you the common tools and principals that make a difference. Apply them to your Sunday School and ask God to work to make your Sunday School or class a Great Commission tool that makes a difference in your church and community! Dr. Steve Parr, Specialist Sunday School/Open Group Ministries Georgia Baptist Convention

2 Keys to Effective Sunday School Ministry TIPS # Leaders understand the purpose of Sunday School. (See Tips 9-17) 2. Sunday School is organized for growth. (See Tips 18-24) 3. Enrollment is properly defined and applied. (See Tips 25-35) 4. Contacts are made with consistency. (See Tips 36-41) 5. Leaders are trained for effectiveness. (See Tips 42-75) 6. Space is provided for growth. (See Tips 76-88) 7. There is a plan for outreach. (See Tips 89-93) 8. New units are created. (See Tips ) Leaders Understand The Purpose of Sunday School TIP #9 Sunday School is the foundational strategy in a local church for leading people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for building Great Commission Christians through Bible study groups that engage people in evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and worship. -Sunday School for a New Century, Lifeway TIP #10 If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. Do you know the purpose of your Sunday School? Do the teachers know the purpose of your Sunday School? Do the members know the purpose of your Sunday School? TIPS #11-17 Develop A Missions Statement For Your Sunday School 11. Gather all Sunday School leaders. 12. Give each leader a stack of post-it notes and a marker. 13. Have them write one or two word phrases per page that describe excellence in Sunday School. 2

3 14. Place (stick) all notes on a wall. 15. Group all notes that are similar in columns. 16. Make a summary statement for each column. 17. Using summary statements, develop a sentence to describe the mission of your Sunday School. Example: The Goal of Sunday School at Baptist Church is to teach the Bible to change lives, reach the lost with the good news of Jesus, and care for people through prayer, ministry, and fellowship. Sunday School Is Organized For Growth TIP #18 Organize for the small church by establishing: General Officers; include a Sunday School Director and a Secretary Two Adult Classes with at least one leader each Two Youth Classes with at lease two leaders each One to two Children s Classes with at least two leaders each One to Two Preschool Classes with at least two leaders each TIP #19 To age-grade or not to age-grade? *Adapted from Ken Hemphill s Revitalizing the Sunday Morning Dinosaur Advantages of Age Grading (A-G) A-G simplifies organization A-G is easy to explain to guests A-G facilitates evangelism and assimilation A-G counters stagnation by encouraging new relationships A-G makes it easy to organize outreach and calls for accountability A-G makes Sunday School easier to reorganize TIP #20 What is your unit to attendance ratio? It should be about one unit for every ten in average attendance (1:10). A higher ratio is usually indicative of too few units and may hinder assimilation. Your attendance is probably less than 50% of enrollment. A lower ratio is usually indicative of rooms that are too small and may hinder outreach. Your attendance is probably more than 50% of enrollment. 3

4 TIP # 21 The Sunday School is not another organization in your church. Sunday School is your church organized to reach the lost, assimilate newcomers, to minister to members, and to teach God s word TIP #22 Organize with ALL five purposes of the church in mind: Evangelism, Discipleship, Fellowship, Ministry, and Worship. TIP #23 Adult and Youth Teachers: You can t accomplish all that needs to be done by yourself. Do not rob your members of an opportunity to serve by neglecting organization. Place all members on a ministry team. You can compensate for a lack of personal organizational skills by enlisting a Class Coordinator to help in this important aspect of leadership. TIP #24 Organize your class: Get all members involved and assigned to leadership roles. Place three posters on the walls if the class. Label one prayer, another share, and another care. Have each member of the class move to one of the three posters. Each group is now a team: a Prayer team, a Share team, and a Care team. Arrange for a time to strategize; plan a way to engage the class in their area of assignment. Give them time to meet every four to six weeks during class time. Enrollment Is Properly Defined and Applied TIP #25 An incorrect definition and application of enrollment can become a barrier to Sunday School growth. TIP #26 WRONG DEFINITION: Enrollment is a list of people that attend the class. TIP #27 WRONG APPLICATION: Attend three times in a row to be enrolled. If a person misses three times they are dropped. TIP #28 Effective Sunday School s practice OPEN ENROLLMENT. Anyone can be enrolled anywhere at any time as long as they agree. TIP #29 RIGHT DEFINITION: Enrollment is a list of people that we commit to minister to. TIP #30 RIGHT APPLICATION: Anyone may enroll at anytime (even before they visit). No one is removed unless they die, move away from the area, join another church, or request to be removed. They are removed when they can no longer be ministered to. 4

5 TIP #31 Enrollment should be equal to or greater than the churches resident membership. TIP #32 New members of the church are automatically enrolled when they join. TIP #33 Open enrollment will hurt our percentages! The real issue is people, not percentages. TIP #34 You cannot shrink to greatness. -Andy Anderson TIP #35 Enrollment should be 40-60% of attendance. Less than 40% indicates deficiency in care, contacts, ministry, and/or assimilation. More than 60% indicates deficiency in outreach, evangelism, visitation, and/or prospect discovery. Contacts Are Made With Consistency TIP #36 Contacts are visits, phone calls, cards, letters, s, and/or day to day contact with members and prospects for ministry and/or evangelism. TIP #37 Contacts should be reported each week. Contacts are made and reported by all class members, not just teachers. TIP #38 An effective Sunday School reports contacts equal to or greater than 100% of enrollment. TIP #39 Utilize care group leaders to ensure that every person on the roll is contacted every week. Thank those who attended and take prayer requests from the absentees. One care leader should be assigned for every four members or four couples. They make four contacts each week. TIP #40 Get the entire class involved in contacts. Have name tags for every member. At the conclusion of the Bible study pass out post-it notes to the class. Ask them to write down the names of two members not present (as they observe vacant name tags on the wall), place the notes in their Bible, and to call those two class members the following week. TIP #41 What would you think if you were absent from church for three weeks and no one noticed? This is exactly why most people drop out. Their first couple of absences are for legitimate reasons. After a couple of weeks they realize that they are not missed. Absentees MUST be contacted EVERY WEEK. 5

6 Enlisting Leaders TIPS #42-47 Equipping is a biblical mandate (Ephesians 4:11-16) Necessary qualities may not be obvious. Focus on good attitudes. Let them know exactly what you need. Ministry descriptions will help. Invite them to potential teacher training. Standards will improve quality. Raise the expectations slowly, but surely. Train them to do the ministry. Training Leaders TIPS #48-52 Translate the vision to your leaders regularly. Regular training improves quality. Train at least monthly. Accumulate training ideas by surveying leaders about their needs. Invite the pros to assist with training your leaders. Nurture and keep leaders by ministering to their needs. Training Opportunities and Options TIPS # Weekly Workers Meeting 54. Monthly Workers Meetings 55. Quarterly Workers Meetings 56. A Launch Event (Rally) in August 57. An annual leaders retreat 58. Participation at Ridgecrest 59. Participation in State Sunday School Conferences 60. Participation in Associational Training Conferences 61. An annual Teacher Appreciation Banquet with Speaker 62. Books read by leaders 63. Audio or Video Tape training How Are Your Leaders Being Trained? TIP #64 An untrained Soldier is nothing more than a target for the enemy. -Andy Anderson TIP #65 Every Sunday School leader should enlist an apprentice for on the job training. The goal is to move them into a leadership role in six to eighteen months. 6

7 Follow These Steps When Enlisting Leaders TIPS # Pray for a particular person. 67. Make an appointment with him or her. 68. Share the responsibilities and support system to the prospective leader. 69. Ask them to pray about the leadership role. 70. Follow up in one week. TIP #71 Pass out index cards to the church asking them to write recommendations for potential Sunday School leaders. TIP #72 There is a connection between training and enlistment. A trained leader is a growing leader. A growing leader will raise the level of those he/she leads. As their level of maturity and effectiveness grows the prospective pool of leaders grow. Are you providing training? Who Is Responsible For Training Leaders? TIP #73 According to Ephesians 4:11-12 equipping is a mandate for Pastor s and staff. Pastor s and staff to provide training. TIP #74 According to II Timothy 1:3-6 equipping is the responsibility of each believer. Every individual is responsible for stirring the gift that is in them. Negligence of the Pastor or staff does not absolve the individual leader from the responsibility of receiving training. TIP #75 Sunday School Directors are not enlisted to be counters, but to be leaders. As a Sunday School Director, what are you doing to equip your teachers? Space Considerations And Creative Options When You re Out of Space TIPS # Dual Sunday Schools 77. Mobile Units 78. Portable Dividers in larger spaces (such as fellowship hall) 79. Storage Area, Choir Room, Offices, Gym, etc. 80. Adjacent Space in homes, office buildings, or schools. 81. Adding weeknight Sunday School classes. 82. Multiple classes in large area such as Gym. 83. Classes that meet at time other than Sunday morning. 7

8 Recommended Square Footage Specs TIPS # Preschool 35 square feet per person 85. Children 25 square feet per person 86. Youth 18 square feet per person 87. Adult 18 square feet per person. TIP #88 Divide the total square footage of a room by the appropriate age groups spec and multiply by 80% to determine capacity that room can average. Outreach And Prospects TIP #89 Every church should have a Master Prospect File and every class should have a Class Prospect File. TIP #90 A person is not a prospect until you have name, age or grade, address, phone number, and spiritual condition. TIP #91 A church or class should have as many prospects as they do members on roll. FAITH is an excellent way of doing outreach and ministry through the Sunday School. For information on FAITH evangelism/sunday School strategy visit or TIP #92 Average attendance at weekly visitation should be equal to or greater than the total number of classes in the church. TIP #93 Count people in instead of counting them out by providing a variety of ways to be involved in weekly outreach. Set up a prayer room, post card station, phone bank, ministry visits, absentee visits, as well as evangelistic training and visits. Allow people to participate at their level of comfort and move them toward the areas that require boldness over time. NEW UNITS TIP #94 On average a new class will enroll an additional 23 people and increase attendance by 12 within a year. TIP #95 Success is not found in splitting or dividing classes. Success comes by the birthing of new classes. The terminology you use sets the tone. 8

9 Steps for Birthing a New Class TIPS # The teacher should enlist an apprentice. 97. The apprentice should be allowed to teach once each month. 98. The teacher should announce the birth of the new class six weeks in advance. 99. Four to six members or couples should be asked to commit to go as missionaries to help birth the new class The veteran teacher takes the missionaries to birth the new class The apprentice becomes the teacher for the established class. CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE FOR RESOURCES, LINKS, AND INFORMATION ABOUT EQUIPPING OPPORUNITIES AT: 9