If you have read my posts, you know I am a Sunday school guy. Specifically, I am a fan of Lifeway Sunday school. I believe it works, and I think churches will grow if they use it correctly. Read David Francis’ books on Sunday school. Download then free at Lifeway’s website. There are simple things you can do that will help a great deal.
Today, I want to challenge you to try one simple trick. One little thing that I’ve seen work over and over. Pastors, this ifs for you, and it needs to come from you. On Sunday morning when you stand up to preach, say something like this:
“I hope you were in Sunday school (or whatever you call it) because we have done great classes. If you don’t attend a class, I want to invite you to try one out next week.”
Do this for 5 weeks in a row. Five times, a month plus one, unless it’s a five Sunday month. It’s short, of won’t cut into your message. Try it and see what happens. I believe it will be a great blessing for you.
I’ll try it.
Let me know how it works for you David!
My one warning would be this: if you say you have great classes, make sure you have established and encouraged greatness in your Sunday School leaders. One of the worst things to happen is have somebody decide to try Sunday School, then show up and the teacher just reads straight out of the curriculum word for word. Great classes will create a buzz and promote themselves, and when the pastor gets on board taking a brief moment to push them from the pulpit great things can happen.
I do this EVERY week! We have everyone say along with me “Its time to get to Bible Study!”
Often, I’ll mention in the sermon a relevant discussion we just had in Sunday School.
One thing is for certain, I am not in favor of age segregated SS…
So you favor family integrated in every setting, not just the worship service? You think 3 year olds should sit in with the adults in Sunday school?
I can’t imagine trying to have a SS lesson….and, the parents actually hearing any of it…with a 3 year old, or several 2 and 3 yr olds….in the room.
David
Yes. Our church is trying segregate SS right now, and I am vocally against it. Thankfully they are letting us keep our kids in SS with us, and not making a stank about it.
*stink
Joel, do u mind sharing why you are against age graded SS?
I know a lot of moms out there are ready for at least an hour (if not more) of time away from their kiddos and just reflect on what the Lord has for them.
Tarheel, the best way to express an answer would perhaps be to let you read an excerpt from the letter I sent our church body after dscussing this… “…When it comes to Sunday School, I am not as dogmatic as I perhaps seemed, though I definitely have strong feelings on the subject. When we first heard of Briarwood, one of the things which impressed us (Candice and I) the most was the family–integrated aspect of it. Having experienced both traditional and home churches in each of our collective pasts, and what passed for Sunday School in both, we have developed… Read more »
Age segregation has it’s place, I agree that often we have farmed out the obligation of disciplining children to the church, which is not good. Our is healthy in some contexts to put people in a developmentally appropriate class for peer support and directed guided instruction.
One aspect of Sunday School that age grading helps is outreach. The adage “everybody’s business is nobody’s business” often holds true when a congregation fails to age grade. If a 40 year old single lady visits your church whose Sunday school class has the responsibility to reach out to her to get her plugged into Sunday school? If there is a ladies’ class age graded 35-50 the responsibility falls squarely on that class. The danger with having three classes that range in age from 15-75 is each may assume the other classes are contacting guests.
My SS class has everything from teenagers to eighty year olds in it.
I LOVE age segregated SS.
There’s a time and value for whole family learning, especially once you get past the nursery ages, and a value in age-specific learning. The idea that we must be all for one or the other is unnecessary. There’s times that your youth and adults and even older children, should do Bible study together. There’s a need to take younger children into settings where they learn to participate. And there’s a need to know that 2 or 3 year olds are really not ready to sit still and listen for a whole lesson time. But they should be worked with and… Read more »
SOunds like a good plan, I’m doin it
We need to all pause for a moment of silence for Dave Miller. He has suffered a loss as the “King” has left South Beach.
What he gettin too many cramps down there?
Did you guys really just hijack my post with LeBron? Ug
I hope LeBron was in Sunday school on Sunday. If he doesn’t attend a class, I want to invite him to try one out next week.
If the Heat wants to win, they need Sunday school.
We do have age segregated Ss, but other opportunities for multigenerational worship and fellowship. It seems to work very well for us, allowing an hour a week for targeted teaching, but almost everything else is integrated… next Sunday we will be having a missions speaker talk to the combined Ss classes, youth included, but not the younger children.
it is just my opinion of course, but I believe that the either/or mentality has been a major detriment to SB. If we look back I think we would find that such has occurred many times in our history. We do not have to decide between age grade or multigenerational, do both. A modified Flakes Formula can be helpful. Select your target group, secure a teacher, provide space, and begin a new class. For those who like age grading do it. For those who like multigenerational do it. This method will provide several new classes. It has been my experience… Read more »
I have always believed in and strived to maintain a strong sunday school. The key to SS is the teacher. If I were pastoring today I would shift my mentoring emphasis to SS teachers. I would spend time investing in them and teaching them scripture and how to teach. A good sunday school teacher is a good outreach tool. The teacher is also the logical person to minister to folks when there is a ministry need. If a pastor has 5 good teachers he has 5 good associate pastors.
“If I were pastoring today I would shift my mentoring emphasis to SS teachers. I would spend time investing in them and teaching them scripture and how to teach.”
Excellent statement
To be honest I am not a fan of either age graded SS or Family Integrated Worship. I don’t think that age graded SS fully appreciates that everyone regardless of age are at varying spiritual, intellectual and emotional level. So although we do have a SS set up along age lines we allow people to go to whatever SS class they feel meets their needs. One of the best SS teachers I ever served with in a church I pastored was a 16 year old young lady, very mature. I also think that generational gap is often widened by our… Read more »
From reading many of the replies, it would appear that too many folks have been encouraged to do so or they have in and of themselves come to the conclusion that SS is “discipleship.” This misunderstanding falls squarely on the shoulders of Pastors who did not/do not understand the purpose of a proper age-graded/affinity graded SS program (yes, I used the dreaded P word). SS is NOT primary or even secondary discipleship. Also, please do not make the mistake that preaching is primary discipleship either; it should be considered secondary at best: i.e. if they aren’t reading daily or studying… Read more »