From Emil Turner

This is simple advice. And you know what? It will work. Will you try it? If you're not a Sunday School teacher, offer to help your teacher with these things!

| Arkansas Baptist State Convention

Sunday School and Reaching Lost People



“Hey, Emil. How’s it going this week? Anything I can pray for you about? Great! I’ll see y’all Sunday.”



Every week my Sunday School teacher called every couple in his class. If I missed a Sunday, he’d come see me. Our class started a new class about every 18 months. And we reached lost people.



Pastor, you may want to share this with your Sunday School teachers. You don’t have to change the music to grow. You don’t have to spend a lot of money (although you will need to spend some). You don’t need to paint murals in the children’s department.



If 75% of your Sunday School teachers to do a good job your church will grow. What should they do?



1. Invite everyone (age appropriate) they encounter to attend their Sunday School class.



2. Call every member and every prospect every week. (You can call both groups while you are watching TV. Voice mail will work as well as a conversation.)



3. Plan a social gathering once a quarter.



4. Organize the class so that there is an assistant teacher, an outreach leader, an activities planner, and a prayer coordinator. Give them job descriptions.



5. Utilize email or snail mail to learn and share prayer requests and church events.



6. Invite the pastor to visit your class on a regular basis.



7. Visit and minister to prospects at home or at work.



8. Make it your goal to average more this year in Sunday School than last year.



9. Lead the class to pray for lost people and prospects by name.



10. Make it a goal to start a new class in 2 years.



If your Sunday School averages 70 in attendance, you probably have ten classes. If each class averaged one more per year, you’d soon average 80, and the following year 90. If 3 of your classes made new classes you’d have 13 classes and soon you’d pass the 100 mark. Your budget would grow, and you’d need more space (you’d clean out some closets first, and meet in those.)



And more people would go to heaven and less people would go to hell.



Its not “rocket surgery”, but it is work. We can help train Sunday School teachers. Email Sonny Tucker. stucker(at)absc.org


turnere.JPGEmil Turner serves as executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons and two grandsons. Turner enjoys fishing and hunting in his spare time.