Sunday School Conference Held In Omaha, NE
July 2009
Sunday School’s purpose is to “lead people to Christ and build on-mission Christians.”
Sunday School directors from Kansas-Nebraska and several other Midwestern states learned how to build more effective ministries. They gathered June 5-6 at Eastern Nebraska Baptist Association in Omaha for the National Sunday School Directors Seminar.
LifeWay Christian Resources, KNCSB and the Iowa convention sponsored the event.
The seminar took an in-depth look at the basics, starting with Sunday School’s purpose:
“Sunday School is the foundational strategy in a local church for leading people to faith in Lord Jesus Christ and for building on-mission Christians through open Bible-study groups that engage people in evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry and worship.”
The definition is long, but all of the components are important, said Wayne Poling, Sunday School specialist for LifeWay.
Concerning open groups, Poling said Sunday School classes need to create a welcoming atmosphere so newcomers can fit in and feel comfortable.
“Each Sunday stands on its own.”
An open group is evangelistic and has an intentional mix of lost and saved people. The end goal is multiplication, Poling said.
The conference also examined “Flake’s Formula”—the principles of Arthur Flake, a Sunday School leader in the early 1900s. He was Sunday School director at First Baptist Church, Winona, Miss. In 1909, Flake became a field worker for the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources). Then he moved to Nashville in 1920 and joined the board’s staff.
Flake’s Formula can be summarized as “KEEP” and “GO”:
- Know your possibilities.
- Enlarge the organization.
- Enlist and train workers.
- Provide the space.
- GO after the people.
The Sunday School directors were challenged to make creating new units (new classes or departments) a priority.
“When we create new units, we create new places of ministry,” said Marie Clark, KNCSB team leader for Bible teaching.
She told of First Baptist Church, Burden, Kan., where she led Sunday School training. The church had only one children’s class that was comprised of grades 1-6. But by creating two new classes—one for younger children and the other for older children—each of the new classes has more children attending than the old one.
For more information, go to LifeWay.com/new units
Concerning Flake’s challenge to “go,” Bob Clark challenged the Sunday School directors to obey Acts 1:8. Clark is minister of education at Nall Avenue Baptist Church, Prairie Village, Kan.
“Our job’s not finished until we go.”
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