LifeWay experts debate Sunday school, small group question

Two men faced off in the home office of LifeWay Christian Resources to debate, during a live broadcast, the virtues of Sunday school versus those of small groups.

Representing Sunday school, David Francis, LifeWay’s director of Sunday school, came prepared to debate with "small groupologist" Rick Howerton, the small group specialist with Serendipity by LifeWay.

The 45-minute debate was filmed for use as a downloadable online training resource. About 700 individuals registered to watch the event live, and several hundred of those participated in an online group chat session during the debate.

Bruce Raley, director of leadership and evangelism in LifeWay’s training and events area, served as the "battle" mediator and kicked off the event by inviting Howerton and Francis to "throw down the gloves and talk awhile."

Round one

According to Francis, Sunday school typically occurs before or after the primary weekend worship service; is located on the church’s campus; and is usually organized by life stages such as empty-nesters, parents of teenagers or couples without children.

Small groups, Howerton explained, usually meet in a group member’s home once a week and are organized by everything from life stages to addiction recovery.

"It comes to intangibles and redemptive community," Howerton said. "This means the goal for the [small group] environment is to create a place where people can confess sin, talk about their longings, their passions, their missed opportunities, and process God’s outrageous love and His expectations."

Francis insisted that Sunday school can also foster this type of community environment, though he admitted creating this model is a work in progress. In his book Connect to the Third Power, he seeks to help Sunday school classes determine their purpose and generate more community. (A free download of Connect to the Third Power is available at LifeWay.com/Sundayschool).

Round two

After allowing the contenders to establish some basic differences between the models, Raley asked Francis and Howerton to dig more deeply into the two options, particularly as they impact a family with children.

"When churches gear up and say that they’re going to focus on kids and focus on reaching kids, the young adult parents will come," Francis said, pointing out that churches have historically accomplished this through Sunday school.

Howerton agreed that children’s church education is important, but said he has noticed an inaccurate perception that small group churches are less strategic with children.

Howerton addressed this misconception with an example from North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., where members who are parents are expected to be the primary spiritual nurturers for their children.

North Point offers a children’s worship service that parents also attend, Howerton explained. The children learn biblical values with their parents, and the parents receive guidance on helping their children live those values once they leave the church building.

Staying with the theme of preparing one group to impact another, Raley directed the debate into the realm of evangelism.

Once again, both proponents highlighted their models’ individual strengths while agreeing that evangelism is a key component of both small groups and Sunday school.

"I think it’s about intentionality," Francis said. He added that if a class is serious about the Great Commission, it should pursue evangelistic goals.

Howerton said the key to being evangelistic is determining what audience you’re trying to reach. For instance, Baby Boomers should be approached differently than members of today’s postmodern generation who want to know "there is not going to be a monologue they listen to, but a dialogue they are involved in."

And the winner is

The men agreed that their movements still have work to do.

"The goal is not to see which one [Sunday school or small group model] is better than the other, but which one meets the basic needs of the Christian faith," Howerton said. "I think they both do when done in a healthy fashion."

Francis added that people have different needs during different seasons of their lives, and he declined to declare a debate winner.

"I hope the church won," Francis said. "That’s our vision here at LifeWay Christian Resources … If a church chooses Sunday school or its functional equivalent by any other name … the goal is to see spiritual transformation in the lives of people and to see the cultures impacted.

"Something special happens when you get a group of people together [and] have people fall in love with Jesus and fall in love with each other."

To download the video of the entire debate, visit LifeWay.com/SundayschoolvsSmallgroups. For more information about Sunday school and small group ministry, visit LifeWay.com/Sundayschool and LifeWay.com/adult.