THE secret to Sunday School growth

I subscribe to several Sunday School related blogs. I received
this one recently from Daryl Wilson of the Kentucky Baptist
Convention. I asked him for permission for forward it own to you. It
is great.


If you would like to subscribe to Daryl's blog, go to



http://www1.kybaptist.org/revolutionary 



The Secret of Sunday School Growth:


Steve Grose shared his testimony about being
a twenty-three year old church planter in an article entitled

The Secret of
Church Growth: MULTIPLY UNITS. He attended a
three-week church growth seminar in which he heard from men like
Chuck Swindoll, John Macarthur Jr, Gene Getz, Bill Yeager, and
others. One of the men was Bill Taylor who at that time was the
Minister of Education at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas,
Texas (later served as Director of Sunday School for LifeWay
Christian Resources). In the seminar, Bill Taylor said:


“Your body grows each daily by multiplying
units of itself. When parts of your body stop doing this, then
that area stops growing” he said, patting his balding pate. “The
same is true in the Body of Christ! For any area to grow, we
must first of all multiply units. If we want more small group
Bible studies, we must multiply the number of small group
leaders. If we want a larger Sunday School we must multiply the
number of effective teaching and recruitment units in Sunday
School. If we want more men in discipling ministry, we must
multiply disciplers.”


Paul summarized it simply to Timothy when he
said, "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of
many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be
qualified to teach others" (2 Timothy 2:2, NIV). This should be
built into the fabric of the body of Christ. Sunday School
classes should be working to multiply themselves. Small groups
should be working to multiply themselves. Teachers/group leaders
should be working to multiply themselves. Outreach and ministry
leadership should be working to multiply themselves. Christian
disciples should be working to multiply themselves.


A sheep pen can only hold so many sheep. A
shepherd-steward can only care for so many sheep at one time
(John 10:1-16). In order to hold onto new wine, new wineskins
are needed (Matthew 9:17). For Sunday School to grow, new units
are absolutely necessary--even if space is still available in
the old units. But new units are always easier to start when a
God-called teacher/leader has been trained and is ready to step
forward.


What are you doing to apprentice new leaders?
What are you doing to discover, train, and prepare them to
launch new units? Consider some of these steps each of which
should be done in a spirit of prayer for God's leadership and
help:



  • ask God to guide you to a potential apprentice;

  • ask the potential apprentice to help you with small
    portions of the task over a period of time (like preparing a
    short report, making a visit, calling some guests, preparing
    for a fellowship, etc.);

  • ask the potential apprentice to teach a session when you
    plan to be present (give him/her feedback);

  • show, watch, and assign other tasks to prepare him/her;

  • help the potential apprentice to discover his/her gifts,
    abilities, and experiences that God wants to use as a
    teacher/group leader;

  • at the appropriate time, ask the potential apprentice to
    become your official apprentice (this heightens the
    intentional learning/teaching process);

  • ask the apprentice to teach once each month;

  • as new unit launch time approaches, ask the apprentice
    to teach more frequently, perhaps even the entire final
    month; and

  • launch the apprentice: either send the apprentice out
    with a seed group of 1-5 persons to start a new class or
    leave the apprentice in charge of the old class while you
    the teacher goes forth with a seed group of 1-5.


Do you want to grow? Then start new units. Do
you want to start new units? Then apprentice new leaders. Do you
want to apprentice new leaders? Then begin today praying that
God will guide you to a potential apprentice. Don't go through
another year maintaining the status quo. Pray and plan to grow.
Multiply units. Be revolutionary!



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