Sunday School Directors Look At The Basics
By Eva Wilson
June 2010
“Are people’s lives being changed?”
That is the measure of an effective Sunday School, according to Wayne Poling, a Sunday School specialist with LifeWay Christian Resources.
Poling was one of leaders of the National Sunday School Directors Seminar (NSSDS) April 16-17 at Metropolitan Baptist Church, Wichita, Kan.
It marked the second time in the past year that Kansas-Nebraska has hosted that event. Eastern Nebraska Baptist Association in Omaha was the site of the NSSDS in June 2009.
The Wichita event attracted people from as far away as South Carolina and Houston, Texas. However, most of the participants were from Kansas and Oklahoma.
During the opening session, a veteran Sunday School worker at Metropolitan Baptist Church was recognized. Mary Schults has been teaching preschool for 70 years.
“And she still gets down on the floor with them,” said Naomi Jacobsen, another children’s Sunday School teacher at Metropolitan.
Sunday School directors were challenged to focus on the basics, including:
- The definition of Sunday School:
“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 two major purposes of Sunday School:
1. Lead people to Christ
2. Build on-mission Christians
- The tried-and-true principles of “Flake’s Formula:”
Arthur Flake was a renowned 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:”
1. Know your possibilities.
2. Enlarge the organization.
3. Enlist and train workers.
4. Provide the space.
5. GO after the people.
- The constant need to multiply by starting new Bible study groups (units) because:
1. New Bible study groups reach people more effectively than existing ones.
2. It is harder for outsiders to fit into existing units because of group dynamics.
3. New groups grow faster when they are helped by an existing group.
4. New groups reach new people, and this can create new opportunities for ministry.
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