Sunday School in High Definition

Last week I attended the conference "Sunday School in High Definition" at First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Georgia. The meeting was a great time of renewal and retraining. We all need that sometimes.

During the conference we looked at the three things that must happen each and every week in each Sunday School class:
Reach People for Christ
Teach the Bible
Minister to People.

We all understand the task of teaching the Bible to our class. We do this in various ways. Some groups barely scratch the surface. Other groups dive deep, extracting Greek or Hebrew words, doing tense studies and cross references. Other groups teach relationally. Lessons can be taught by lecture, discussion, or with creative methods.

One of our leaders pointed out that Teaching is only part of the class. Sunday School classes are not College Classes, but they are Great Commission communities.

We were encouraged to reach out. There are many in our world who do not know the Gospel. There are many who do not know the name of Christ. We must share the Good News. Long ago Arthur Flake thought a Sunday School was a failure if at least a third of the attendees was not lost. Sunday School is a great place to share the Gospel as we share God's Word. Sunday School is an ideal place for members to invite friends if they fully understand the purpose of Sunday School.

Sunday School is also a community where we serve on another. Care Leaders are enlisted to accomplish this in the class. contacts are made each week to every member of each Sunday School class. If needs are found, the class reaches out and ministers. The Sunday School classes pass ministry needs and prayer requests to the Pastor each week.

Sunday School classes are created with the purpose of Reaching the Lost, Teaching the Bible, and Caring for members. We need to weekly re-commit to these tasks.