Blueprint for Growing Your Sunday School

1. Blueprint for Growing Your Sunday School

2. Blueprints… 1

3. Blueprints… 1

4. Luke 14:28 For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?

5. Arthur Flake Committed layman and Sunday School Director at First Baptist Church, Winona, Mississippi. Salesman by vocation. Sunday School was his passion. So successful that he in 1909 he was employed as a field worker in Sunday School. 1920 he move to Nashville to head Sunday School work for Southern Baptists. His 5 step formula, Flake’s Formula, have been a blueprint for Sunday School work ever since.

6. Your table group is competing with the rest of the table groups. Take turns at your table taking a block from the bottom or middle of the stack and placing on the top of the stack. Count the blocks as you move them. Continue until the stack falls.

7. What are similarities between the game “Jenga” and growing a Sunday School?

8. There are principles to buildings and structure just as there are principles to building a Sunday School. • Similarly a Sunday School must have sufficient organization and support in order to function effectively and be able to teach, reach, and minister effectively with those for whom they are responsible.

9. Have you ever seen a building be imploded?

10. Have you ever seen a building be imploded?

11. Flakes Five Step Formula K – now your possibilities. E – nlarge the organization. E – nlist and train workers. P – rovide the space. GO – after the people. 1 1

12. your possibilities KNOW 2

13. What is our primary ministry area? Broadview Missionary Baptist Church

14. KNOW YOUR POSSIBILITIES • Who does God want us to reach? • What is our primary ministry area? • Does our Sunday School have plans to reach the people there? 2

15. KNOW YOUR POSSIBILITIES • Where is our Sunday School currently growing? • Are we prepared organizationally to continue reaching those people? • Where is there potential to reach people that we are not currently reaching in our church’s primary ministry area? • What are some of those groups? • Is our Sunday School effectively assimilating our church members? 2

16. Has your Sunday School accepted its possibilities? • Does your Sunday School know its potential for reaching people? • Does your Sunday School accept its responsibility for reaching people? • Does your Sunday School have a heart for those it has the potential to reach? • Is it clear which class/department is responsible for reaching the specific people? 2

17. Seeking to discover your possibilities • The Church Membership Roll • Inactive Sunday School members • Worship service visitors • Sunday School Classes and Organization for saturation • Vacation Bible School • Special Events • New Comers • Friends, Relatives, Associates, and Neighbors • Demographics and census data • People search, Opinion Poll 3

18. What do you do with the information? Having prayerfully determined your possibilities influences all of the next actions.

19. the organization. ENLARGE 4

20. “Organization is placing ourselves in the best possible position to be used by the Holy Spirit.” Max Caldwell

21. Four Major Issues • Purpose– leaders and members have a correct understanding of the purpose of the Sunday School. • Leader-learner ratios-- sufficient numbers of leaders. • Unit size-- classes the appropriate size growth and effective teaching and ministry. • Targeting– A Sunday School that clearly defines the target of the ministry and outreach of classes. 4

22. The key element in enlarging the organization is starting new Bible study units.

23. The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest. Luke 10:2

24. Starting new units is a great way to involve a great number of classes and members in the harvest.

25. Issue in a smaller Sunday School The issue in a smaller Sunday School (and in all Sunday Schools) is not when do the numbers necessitate a new unit, but when do we have the opportunity to begin a new unit.

26. Value of Starting New Bible Study Units • New units reach people at higher percentage than existing units. • It is harder for outsiders to fit into existing unit because of group dynamics. 8

27. Value of Starting New Bible Study Units • New units grow faster when they receive help from an existing class. • Usually new classes reach new people which open new opportunities for ministry. 8

28. 12 Proven Steps • Create a climate for new units. • Identify target group(s). • Win the confidence of members of existing units before beginning new units from them. 9

29. 12 Proven Steps • Seek sponsorship. • Enlist and train a leadership team. • Provide space for the new unit. • Create an atmosphere of success for the new unit. 9

30. 12 Proven Steps • Promote the starting date and location to the target group. • Invite and enroll prospects. • Conduct the first session. 9

31. 12 Proven Steps • Celebrate the beginning of thenew unit. • Establish a mindset for open group. 9

32. MODELS for starting new units • Restructure existing class/department 10

33. MODELS for starting new units • Assign leadership team to an unchurched target group 10

34. MODELS for starting new units • Identify an unreached group and start Bible study when and where • they can/will meet. 10

35. MODELS for starting new units • Start short term group that becomes entry point for ongoing group. 10

36. MODELS for starting new units • Blitz target group • with publicity and • ensure first session • is well attended. 10

37. Only God can make an apple out of a seed. Ask Him to help you see the seed in the apple.

38. ENLIST and train workers. 12

39. Listen to this conversation Narrator:The next day Moses sat down to judge the people, and they stood around Moses from morning until evening.  When Moses’ father-in-law saw everything he was doing for them he asked, Jethro: “What is this thing you’re doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?” Narrator:Moses replied to his father-in-law,

40. Listen to this conversation Moses:“Because the people come to me to inquire of God.  Whenever they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I make a decision between one man and another. I teach [them] God’s statutes and laws.” Jethro:“What you’re doing is not good,” Narrator:Moses’ father-in-law said to him. Jethro “You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone. Now listen to me; I will give you some advice, and God be with you. You be the one to represent the people before God and bring their cases to Him. Instruct them about the statutes and laws, and teach them the way to live and what they must do.

41. Listen to this conversation But you should select from all the people able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating bribes. Place [them] over the people as officials of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They should judge the people at all times. Then they can bring you every important case but judge every minor case themselves. In this way you will lighten your load, and they will bear [it] with you. If you do this, and God [so] directs you, you will be able to endure, and also all these people will be able to go home satisfied.”

42. A Process for Enlisting Sunday School Leaders • Pray. • Make a list of needed workers. • Make a list of potential workers. • Could this person serve, if willing? • Would this person be acceptable to the church? 13

43. Places Where You Can Identify Names of Potential Leaders • Adult Sunday School Class Roles • Recommendations from adult teachers • People presently serving as Apprentices or in associate or other class positions • Church membership rolls • Vacation Bible School leaders • Graduating college students returning home • Training course participants • Former Sunday School leaders not currently serving • Persons who respond to interest surveys • Potential leader training participants. 14

44. A Process for Enlisting Sunday School Leaders 13 • Make a list of training opportunities. • Training opportunities come from four basic sources: • Sunday School training events your church will conduct • Sunday School training events sponsored by your association in the next 12 months • Training events conducted by your state convention • Training events conducted by LifeWay Christian Resources

45. A Process for Enlisting Sunday School Leaders • Pray again. • Decide on one person for each position. • Begin the process early to avoid trying to decide on a backup if your first choice turns you down. • Make an appointment. • Enlisting Sunday School leaders in the church hallways hinders the process. Make an appointment; this is important work. 13

46. A Process for Enlisting Sunday School Leaders • Make an enlistment visit. • Personal visits should be made by the person to whom an individual would be responsible. • By following this process (without taking any shortcuts), you can discover all the workers God has provided for your Sunday School. 13

47. Make the Enlistment Visit 15

48. PROVIDE the space.

49. Provide the Space

50. Arthur Flake Building a Standard Sunday School, p. 31. “There is no such thing as building a Sunday School great in numbers in small, cramped quarters. Neither can a Sunday School of the highest efficiency be operated without proper equipment. While good equipment does not necessarily guarantee an efficient Sunday School, at the same time, it is necessary if a Sunday School is to do the best quality of work.”