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Filling the void: The future of Sunday school
Ed Stetzer explains how research shows evangelism opportunities lie in small groups
“Sunday school and small groups are the most likely places to be evangelized,” said Stetzer, who also serves as missiologist in residence for LifeWay Christian Resources.
“I’m passionate about small groups. We have research that shows people in small groups grow substantially faster and have substantially more disciples than those who are not,” Stetzer told church leaders and Sunday school teachers at the annual Sunday School Week, held July 11-14 at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center.
“We live in a season of decline of our churches,” said Stetzer, noting that baptisms have remained constant since 1954 as the general population skyrocketed. “It is essential to think biblically so we can engage the culture.”
Engaging people worked well for reconnecting “empty nesters” at First Baptist Church in Martin, Tenn., said minister of education Larry Washburn. Previously, several had left Sunday school altogether.
“There was a void there that we had not met,” Washburn said. Then “LifeWay came out with its new Bible Studies for Life curriculum designed around life stages rather than ages.”
Washburn and his wife, Carmen, attended Sunday School Week at Ridgecrest in 2007 and started the class just after Labor Day with eight couples. In nine months it grew to 40 people and also expanded its focus to include several outreach projects in the community.
Stetzer said the key is focusing on individuals, not programs.
“Not every program (even great programs) works every time,” he said. “Programs don’t make disciples. They make graduates. When tools become rules, we lose the focus of the rule in the first place.”
Sixty-six percent of church staff and lay leaders polled say there is a “lack of clear, concise, overarching ministry planning for adults,” said Joe Sherrer, coordinator of the doctorate of educational ministry program at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. In a recent and ongoing survey, that was the biggest problem selected, Sherrer said.
“Some churches are very reluctant to talk about where we want to be in five years. There’s no strategy,” Sherrer said.
Some may suggest that adults have been left to flounder, with the emphasis on children and youth ministry. But student minister Ben Shoun said the youth emphasis also may be missing the mark.
“LifeWay Research tells us that that 70 percent of high school graduates are going to leave the church for at least a year when they graduate high school,” with many never returning, said Shoun, of Sevier Heights Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn.
Of those, 97 percent say they “just needed a break” from church, he said.
Shoun said Sunday school should communicate meaningful accountability, not just a social club. It also should give students responsibilities that demonstrate where the person’s gifts are needed and how they fit in the ministry of the class, he added.
“If we’re not careful, when we think of youth ministry, it’s about pizza and fun, right? Six Flags, trips to (Atlanta) Braves games,” Shoun said. “It could be a building.”
Stetzer said churches have put too much emphasis on programs and buildings as “attractional” ministry, and not enough on being the “incarnational” church.
“We’ve convinced ourselves that if we spruce up the music, we’ll attract people,” Stetzer said. “We taught people that evangelism is inviting their friends to church, because it worked.
“But we forgot that evangelism is living next to the world and demonstrating the love of Christ,” he said.
It is more crucial, he said, as the church is being seen in more hostile terms by the culture, and more people are “de-churched.”
“You can’t separate evangelism and discipleship, but we have because we’ve turned it into a large group sport rather than a small group function,” Stetzer said.
“The small community becomes the place where we get each other to do good deeds and where we make the switch from attractional to incarnational,” Stetzer said.
For Kim Cataldo, programs director for North Stuart Baptist Church in Stuart, Fla., the statistic that added to the sense of urgency to re-energizing Sunday schools was that only 4 percent of people in their 20s claim a relationship with Jesus Christ, vs. 65 percent of the World War II generation.
“I just know that people feel more connected when they’ve gotten in that small group in Sunday school as opposed to slipping in and out the back door after the service,” Cataldo said.
Stetzer said: “I believe that in a denomination that is declining as ours is, if we’re going to see transformation – it’s going to happen at the lever point, and I believe that is the small group.”
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