Effective Evangelistic Sunday Schools

1. Effective Evangelistic Sunday Schools Bob Mayfield Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma

2. Effective Evangelistic Churches Successful Churches Reveal What Works and What Doesn’t Author – Thom Rainer Dean, Billy School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

3. What Exactly is “Growth” • Evangelistic Growth is not “Church Growth” any more…. (Donald McGavran, Bridges to God) • Church Growth has come to mean “total additions”

4. What Exactly is “Growth” What Evangelistic Growth is not… • Total additions • Total baptisms • Increased attendance

5. What Exactly is “Growth” • Evangelistic growth is the actual growth of reaching lost, unchurched people with the gospel of Christ.

6. “Effective Evangelistic Churches” • Based on a survey of 576 churches • 41 states • Churches of all sizes, from less than 100 to over 1,500 in average attendance • 40% of churches surveyed had an average attendance between 100 and 299

7. Criteria for an “Effective” Evangelistic Church • Churches surveyed had to report at least 26 baptisms in one year on the ACP • Churches surveyed had to have a baptism ratio of 20:1 (20 members for every 1 baptism)

8. Opinion vs Facts Many people have strongly held opinions about church growth and evangelism Often, the FACTS do not support OPINIONS “Truth vs Conventional Wisdom”

16. The Sunday School Factor What is a “Sunday School”? • Systematic teaching of the Scriptures. • Regular Bible teaching for ALL ages. (cradle to grave) • Ministry and fellowship provided within each class • Regular outreach beyond the people in the class

17. The Sunday School Factor • The feel among Southern Baptist that Sunday School is waning. These 576 churches however strongly affirm the Sunday School as a primary evangelistic tool • 63% rated Sunday School as a major factor in their churches evangelistic effectiveness.

18. The Sunday School Factor 90% of the churches identified Sunday School as their most effective assimilation tool!!

19. The Sunday School Factor A follow-up question revealed that one effective evangelistic church has 1/3 of its SS attendance involved in SS leadership.

20. Sunday School Lessons Lesson #1 – A Healthy Sunday School is Evangelistic • Sunday Schools must participate in some form of structured evangelistic outreach. • Sunday Schools must teach the plan of salvation on a regular basis.

21. Sunday School Lessons Lesson #2 – A Healthy Sunday School provides Biblical education to all age groups. • A study of mainline churches revealed that a major cause for decline was that they let an entire generation grow up without regular biblical training.* • Leaders noticed failure in involving people in evangelism if they were not first involved in Bible study. *Hoge, Johnson & Ludens, Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1994)

22. Sunday School Lessons Lesson #3 – A Healthy Sunday School provides means and opportunities for ministry. • Effective Evangelistic churches use the Sunday School as a primary area of providing ministry.

23. Sunday School Lessons Lesson #4 – A Healthy Sunday School assimilates church members. • 90% of the assimilation and discipleship methodologies were directly or indirectly related to Sunday School.

24. Keys to an EffectiveSunday School Key #1 – Quality Leadership • Effective evangelistic churches put their best teachers and their best leaders in the Sunday School. • Focus on quality. • Training is periodic and intensive. • Quality necessarily requires a focus of time and resources.

25. Keys to an EffectiveSunday School Key #2 – Accountability • The Sunday School is an accountability organization. Evangelistically effective Sunday Schools contact absentees and hold them accountable to attend. • SS workers are called to a higher accountability than other church members. (attendance at worker meetings, preparation, involvement in outreach, etc.)

26. Keys to an EffectiveSunday School Key #3 – Organization Quality • Effective Evangelistic churches involve individuals in the organization who have organizational and administration gifts. • Evangelistic Sunday Schools are well organized.

27. Keys to an EffectiveSunday School Key #4 – Evangelistic Intentionality • Sunday Schools are evangelistic by design, not by accident. • Although worship is a primary front door, SS is the place where guests are intentionally invited and where relationships form. • New members or converts who do not get involved in the SS within one year disappear.

29. 10 Surprises • Few Effective Churches use Event Evangelism Issues • Decisions do not match with the amount of money and time for the event • Few people reached were actually “folded” into the church *Events were musicals or other major “on campus” events.

30. 10 Surprises 2. Revival Evangelism is still effective • A big key to an effective revival is spiritual preparation. Effective revivals require major amounts of prayer and preparation. • These churches use “full-time” evangelists. Preachers who have a “gift” of harvesting.

31. 10 Surprises 3. Best baptismal ratios are in the medium size churches. • Ratio for SBC convention, 44:1 • Ratio for 576 churches, 17:1 • Ratio for the medium sized churches, 12:1 • Small churches have difficulty offering programs to attract • Large churches struggle with the “anonymity” issue

32. 10 Surprises 4. Advocate Evangelism Training • Single program training is rarely effective • Effective Ev. Churches do not expect immediate results from evangelism training • Purposes – equip believers to share Christ in their everyday relationships • Purposes – create and evangelistic expectation or environment in the church.

33. 10 Surprises 5. Weekday Ministries are not effective for evangelistic outreach • Many pastors see weekday ministries as effective for CHURCH growth, but not evangelistic growth • “Putting out the fires” syndrome • Takes resources of the church out of evangelism

34. 10 Surprises 6. Traditional outreach is alive and well • These pastors do not see resistance to home visitation as being any greater than in the past. • Many pastors see the decline of weekly outreach to be an accommodation to the culture rather than obedience to the Great Commission. • Pastors value the “mentoring” that weekly outreach gives them with their people.

35. 10 Surprises 7. The age of the church was not related to evangelistic effectiveness • Half of the 576 churches were over 50 years old • An inside look at these churches reveal they have pastors who are evangelists. • Pastoral tenure seemed to be an important factor.

36. 10 Surprises 8. Location is not a factor • Location is an important factor in Church Growth • Conversion growth does not increase with better location • Evangelism is more affected by persistence and intentionality than location.

37. 10 Surprises 9. Few of the 576 churches offer seeker services. • A seeker service is different from a seeker sensitive service. • Seeker service – very mindful of a largely unredeemed audience. • Seeker sensitive – sensitive to the presence of lost persons, but the service is for the worship of God • Are we trying to offer services where the seeker is “comfortable” or “welcome”?

38. 10 Surprises 10. Offering choices does not necessarily help the church’s evangelistic effectiveness. • Further examination revealed the issue is more over “contextualization” vs “accommodation”.

39. Ideas for Effective SS Evangelism • Start small, 1 Teacher or class (pilot project) • Provide evangelism training (OVE, RR) • Take your leaders visiting with you (mentor) • Celebrate Successes

40. Ideas for Effective SS Evangelism • Ask your teachers if their classes are evangelistic (then ask how many people they reached the past quarter) • Use facts from YOUR church – baptism ratios, # baptized, outreach attendance. • Replace “should” with “will”. Then replace “will” with “are”.

41. Remember the “1:10 Rule” One new unit = 10 new people attending