High Expectation Churches by Thom Rainer
Chapter 2 Above All: Sunday School and the Back Door
Many church leaders have helped perpetuate the myth for twenty or so years.
The myth is that Sunday School is no longer effective evangelistically or as
an assimilation tool. And those who believed the myth are suffering the
consequences today. Don Cox |
After nearly a decade of research of two thousand
churches of different sizes, locations, and denominations, I cannot say that I
am surprised that Sunday School was rated so highly as an assimilation tool. My
surprise in this study, however, was the intensity by which the church
leaders expressed their beliefs that Sunday School is the chief
assimilation approach. Essentially the
churches told us that involvement in Sunday School was the gauge by which they
determined if effective assimilation had taken place. Burkemont Baptist Church
in Morganton, North Carolina averaged 566 in Sunday School in the latest data we
received. Amazingly, that level of attendance was 93 percent of the average
worship attendance of 610. And in the previous year Sunday School attendance was
actually higher than worship attendance. Burkemont is typical of
the churches we studied. The leaders believe that involvement in Sunday School
is tantamount to effective assimilation. For example, one of our survey
questions asked the following: "Please list the guidelines you use to determine
if a church member has been successfully assimilated into your church, i.e. how
do you know when a member has 'a sense of belonging and is thus involved in the
ministry of the church'?" Burkemont's response
was straightforward and typical: "We follow-up with new members to get them
involved in Sunday School classes." But the church goes well beyond expecting
that new members merely attend Sunday School. The church also utilizes Sunday
School outreach directors and "class care givers" to get each new member
involved in ministry. Santuck Baptist Church is located in
Wetumpka, Alabama, near the capital city of Montgomery. The church experienced a
significant increase in Sunday School attendance, from 187 to 264 in just one
year. The pastor, Morgan Bailey, rated Sunday School a "5" (essential) in its
importance in assimilation. Interestingly, Santuck has a four-step
strategy to assimilate new members, none of which explicitly mention Sunday
School. The strategy includes: 1. Believing--leading
people to a life-changing commitment to Christ.
2. Belonging--guiding people to commit to
Christ's church through believer's baptism and meaningful church membership
3. Becoming--helping people become what God
has created them to be, particularly through involvement in discipleship.
4. Behaving--encouraging people toward
regular attendance, ministry involvement, community impact, and personal
evangelism. Indeed the "Santuck strategy" includes goals beyond
Sunday School involvement, such as spiritual gift assessment, ministry
involvement, and completion of a new members' class. But no member is considered
"assimilated" until he or she is actively involved in Sunday School. The
church recognizes the critical importance of Sunday School. An annual Sunday
School worker appreciation banquet recognizes those who work in this critical
ministry. New workers are also installed annually, recognizing the importance of
their positions and ministry. I could repeat over 200 church responses to
the importance of Sunday School for assimilation, but the material would be
redundant. The data is convincing and overwhelming that Sunday School is
critical. At this point we are more interest in telling the "why" and "how"
perspective of Sunday School. But first, please allow me a few words about my
own pilgrimage.
Confessions of a
Sunday School SkepticIn the 1980s I had become a certain Sunday
School skeptic. Though I did not try to dismantle the Sunday Schools in the
churches I pastored, I certainly was not a leader in making the organization
stronger and more evangelistic. If anything took place, the Sunday Schools of my
churches suffered from pastoral neglect. I was not alone in my sentiments.
Many of my peers were like me, enamored with some of the latest methodologies
and innovations to help a church grow. Sunday School just seemed a bit
old-fashioned compared to the "cutting-edge" information we were receiving from
a plethora of sources. Indeed I had my doubts that Sunday School would be a
viable growth and assimilation tool in the twenty-first century. But two
developments led me to see my biases in a different light.
First, I noticed that many of the highly-touted growth
innovations had an unusually short life span. What was hyped to be the
methodology for the church was gone in a year or so. In other words, it proved
to be a little more than a fad. In the meantime, Sunday School continued to be
the dominant program in most churches. Second, I embarked on my
first major research project on the local church in the early nineties. I was
serving as a pastor, but my church allowed me the time to visit other churches
and interview their leaders. Over the course of two years I had made
contact with nearly 200 different churches. About 150 of the churches were from
my denomination, and the remaining 50 were from six other denominations. What I
discovered both disturbed me and convicted me. In almost every church I
heard pastors and leaders talk about the role of Sunday School for their
evangelistic growth and assimilation. Though many did share some new and
innovative methodologies, almost all the leaders said that their sustained
growth would have been impossible without the Sunday School. Any lingering
doubts I had about Sunday School were erased when my research team and I at
Southern Seminary conducted a study of 576 churches in America. I learned once
again that the leading churches in our nation value the Sunday School in growing
a church and assimilating members. One would think that I would have no
surprise when the strength of Sunday School became evident in yet another
research project. This time, however, the overwhelmingly positive response
regarding the Sunday School surprised me. No assimilation methodology came close
to Sunday School in effectiveness. The leaders told us the methodology was
number one with no real competition. What inherent characteristics of
Sunday School make it the chief assimilation tool in evangelistic churches
today? How has the methodology of antiquity weathered the storms of change to
remain effective? What did we learn from nearly 300 evangelistic churches? To
these questions we now turn. Sunday School and
the Back DoorChart 2-1 compares the Sunday School's assimilation
effectiveness to other approaches. As a reminder, the values in parentheses can
be understood by the following scale: 1 2 3 4 5 Not Only
Slightly Important Very Important Essential Important Important But Not
At All Essential

No methodology was deemed more effective than the Sunday School in retaining
members. And, as we shall see later, the leaders in these churches understand
well the value of Sunday School, and it has thus become a high priority in their
own ministry. For example, Ken Stalls, pastor of South End Baptist Church
in Frederick, Maryland not only ranked Sunday School with a "5" in assimilation
effectiveness, he place a comment by his evaluation which simply said "it was
the key element." Another one of the many pastors who saw the critical
importance of Sunday School was Kenny Qualls, pastor of Springhill Baptist
Church in Springfield, Missouri. For Springhill, their measurement of successful
assimilation begins with "involvement in (not merely enrollment in) Sunday
School."

Though the ways churches utilize the Sunday School in the assimilation process
are numerous, the success of retention can be categorized into six major
factors. Look at these fascinating issues addressed by the leaders.
The Expectation FactorSunday School is neither neglected or
accidental in the churches that are closing the back door. To the contrary, the
churches that we surveyed were highly intentional in their approach to Sunday
School. Perhaps the key Sunday School issue that separated the
higher-assimilation churches from the lower-assimilation churches was that of
expectations. Our research team is presently studying non-Southern Baptist
churches to compare with the data we presently have on the Southern Baptist
churches. I recently interviewed the pastor of a non-Southern Baptist church in
the Washington, DC area. His testimony on the rediscovery of Sunday School is
not atypical of other comments we heard. "A few years ago," he told us, "I
was ambivalent about Sunday School. I did not plan to eliminate it from our
church, but I certainly was not giving it a priority." But, in 1994, he began to
read and hear about churches that were rediscovering the strength of the Sunday
School. "I guess you might say I had a wake-up call," he told us. "I
realized that our church had been evangelistically apathetic, and that our back
door was wide open. I began re-thinking my lack of priority about Sunday School.
Then things began to change as our church made some intentional efforts to
revitalize this ministry." Among the intentional efforts, the most
dramatic were related to raising the commitment level of those who led and
worked in Sunday School. Look at some of these changes: · Teachers would
covenant to prepare their lessons each week, and to attend a Wednesday-night
workers' meeting where the lesson would be discussed. · Each adult class
would establish a goal to start one new class each year. · Each class
would form care groups of no more than five per group. The care group leader
would have responsibility to see that ministry to the others in the group was
carried out. · Each class would have an outreach leader to make certain
that all guests were contacted, and that members were accountable for developing
relationships with unbelievers. · Teachers and other leaders would
covenant that they would arrive early for Sunday School each week. · An
annual covenant renewal service began in 1995, where Sunday School leaders made
these and other commitments formally. This church began seeing
amazing results as expectations were raised. "Once we declared that Sunday
School was important, and that we had expectations of the leaders, the changes
were dramatic," the pastor said. Attendance not only increased among the regular
attenders, nominally-active members began to attend regularly as well. Turnover
among teachers dropped dramatically. Ministry through the Sunday School
increased almost exponentially. And, for the first time in the pastor's tenure,
people were won to Christ through the Sunday School organization.
Repeatedly in our research, we heard about the renewal of the Sunday School. And
we heard about results similar to that of the Washington church. But, more than
any other factor, we heard about the back door closing because of higher
expectations. It would appear that the Sunday School organization in many
churches is suffering from benign neglect. The reasons for this neglect are
numerous, but the pastors' comments could be summarized in a few categories.
Some pastors have had the same attitude I once had, that Sunday School is a tool
of antiquity. They have become convinced, even though the data shows the
contrary, that newer models of ministry are better. Thus their time and energy
is diverted away from Sunday School to other more "contemporary" approaches.
Others pastors have simply taken Sunday School for granted. It is the largest
organization in their church and it will always be there, they reason. It has a
momentum of its own and needs no further emphasis or attention from the pastor.
A third group told us that they had given so much attention to the corporate
worship service that the Sunday School was relegated to secondary importance.
Undoubtedly the renewed interest in worship has been a blessing to churches and
to their growth potential. But when Sunday School is neglected as a consequence,
the wide open front door is often countered by a wide open back door. In
our interviews with the leaders of the higher-assimilation churches, we asked if
their moving of Sunday Schools to become high-expectation organizations had
caused any problems, their answers were an unequivocal "yes." Some teachers and
leaders refused to agree to stricter requirements and dropped out of ministry
and service. Others resisted, implying that high-expectations in the Sunday
School hinted of legalism. Never did we hear that the expectation issue
was addressed with ease. But in virtually every case, the pastor or staff member
told us that the pain was worth the gains realized. A pastor in South Carolina
commented, "Our desire to have greater commitments to Sunday School came at a
cost. We lost some members, and made others mad." But was the move
ultimately beneficial we asked?. "Without a doubt," he replied. "The people in
our church realize more than ever that Sunday School is our primary teaching and
assimilating arm of the church. And I predict it will soon become our chief
evangelism arm." The Organization FactorI was recently
leading a seminar called "Closing the Back Door" in Wichita, Kansas. I spoke for
approximately one hour on the importance of a quality Sunday School organization
for effective assimilation. In this context I mentioned the need for care groups
within the Sunday School, regular workers' meetings, ministry involvement of
class members, quality teaching, enrollment emphases, and opportunities for
fellowship. At the conclusion of that particular portion of my seminar, I
asked for comments and questions. One sixty-ish gentleman asked how my Sunday
School emphases were different from those with which he was familiar in the
1950s. His point was well made. In essence the principles have changed little,
nor should they change. What then are some of these principles? A
well-organized Sunday School will integrate the principles of effective
teaching, effective evangelism, the ministry of all believers, and Christian
fellowship and relationships. The key words, however, in the preceding sentence
were "well-organized." When we divided our study churches into two groups,
we found some interesting relationships concerning organizational emphases.
Lower-assimilation churches mentioned organizational emphases in only 32 percent
of the surveys. Higher-assimilation churches cited the need for strong
organization in 92 percent of the responses. The inescapable
conclusion could be paraphrased by the cliché: "Sunday School will work only if
you work Sunday School." In the higher-assimilation churches, basic
organizational principles were at work continuously. Teachers were trained and
taught weekly. New members were assigned to Sunday School classes. Care groups
were created in all classes so that ministry could be effective. Outreach and
evangelism were organized through the Sunday School. The successful
assimilation churches had strong Sunday School organizations. And that
organizational quality did not occur by accident. The quality was the result of
hard work, persistence, perseverance, and a willingness to suffer short-term
looses for long-term gains. Bob Lilly has been pastor of Catonsville
Baptist Church for decade. The church is located on the edge of the Baltimore
city limits. The racial make-up of the church is 80 percent Caucasian, 15
percent African-American, and five percent Asian. Though not a large church, the
Sunday School attendance jumped nearly 40 percent in one year. Also, 95 people
accepted Christ and were baptized in two years. Catonsville is
experiencing significant growth for a church that had been averaging only 100 in
Sunday School in previous years. How are you retaining these members? Pastor
Lilly admitted that a formal assimilation process "is really non-existent. I
have been doing most of it. We have many new babies [in Christ] but who are
strong [spiritually] are often doing double duty." What then has been the
glue of assimilation in this fast-growing church? Among other methodologies,
Sunday School was rated a "5" (essential). Indeed attendance in Sunday School is
one of the church's four benchmarks of assimilation. Catonsville's story
is not atypical in the churches we studied. The churches are growing
evangelistically but the leadership is concerned about closing the back door of
the new growth. Yet when they evaluate their assimilation approaches, they
discover that Sunday School has been their "glue" even when they are less-than
pleased about the overall success at closing the back door. Indeed, one of
the gratifying results of this study was the new awareness of Sunday School as
an assimilation tool expressed by church leaders. Listen to the words of a
pastor in California: "I have taken Sunday School for granted most of my
ministry. This study has shown me that I must lead my church to make our
organization more effective than ever. I will no longer neglect the Sunday
School organization."
The Ministry Factor
Thomas James, pastor of Alpha Baptist Church in Morristown, Tennessee, has seen
remarkable growth at the church. In one year alone Sunday School attendance
increased from 251 to 320. In that same year 164 people joined the church, 95 by
profession of faith and baptism. Like most of the church leaders who
participated in this study, Pastor James saw Sunday School as the key
methodology to close the back door. A question on our survey that produced
some of the most interesting responses was: "Please list the guidelines you use
to determine if a church member has been successfully assimilated into your
church, i.e. how do know when a member has 'a sense of belonging is thus
involved in the ministry of the church'?" Alpha Baptist's criteria are
threefold. First, the member must be active in Sunday School. Second, they must
be a regular participant in worship. And third, they must be involved in
ministry. Nearly 200 of the survey churches indicated that their primary
means for members to be involved in ministry is through the Sunday School. Thus,
attendance in Sunday School is not the sole indicator of assimilation. Ministry
through the Sunday School is a critical factor. How do these churches
involve their members in ministry through the Sunday School? The beauty of this
organization is that so many possibilities are available. Below are just some of
the ministries indicated by our survey churches. 1. Teaching--The most
commonly associated Sunday School ministry, but certainly not the only one.
2. Care group ministry--Many churches divided each
Sunday School class into care groups of typically four to seven persons. While a
care group leader would coordinate the ministry to each member, all
Sunday School class members were to be ministers within their groups.
3. Evangelism and outreach ministry--These churches indicated that about five to
twenty-five percent of their members are gifted or desirous of being involved in
evangelism and outreach. The Sunday School is an organization which can provide
this opportunity. 4. Hospitality ministry--A majority of church members
perceive that they have the gifts of service or encouragement. The Sunday
School, through its fellowship and contact systems, allows these gifts to be
utilized. 5. Leadership and organizational ministry--A number of
Christians are particularly inclined to ministries that require keen skills or
gifts in administration or organization. Certainly the Sunday School is in need
of such skilled persons. 6. Prayer ministry--Over one-third of the
churches studies had prayer ministries through Sunday School classes. As many as
one-half of their class members were typically involved in these ministries.
What we learned from these churches is that no organization in America today
provides more opportunities for ministry than the Sunday School. The small-group
movement is certainly to be lauded for its contributions to the Kingdom. But, as
George Barna recently noted, the movement has been on a numerical decline for
the past few years. Barna cited a tendency toward weak teaching, lack of
leadership and accountability, confusion of purpose, and inadequate child care
as possible explanations for the downturn. For reasons we will see at the
end of this chapter, Sunday School has been able to avoid these pitfalls and
open the door for the ministry involvement of millions. And involvement in
ministry means that a significant step has been made to close the back door in
our churches. The Relationship FactorMy mother
died suddenly and unexpectedly on December 9, 1997. At the time of her death, I
was in regular contact with two groups of people. The first group was my
co-workers, friends, and students from Southern Seminary. Numerous people from
the seminary showed an outpouring of love and sympathy toward me. The
second group were people from Carlisle Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville,
where I served as interim pastor for a year. I was overwhelmed to the point of
tears when a group from Carlisle drove 550 miles one way to attend Mom's funeral
in Union Springs, Alabama. Outside of these two groups, I had no regular
contact or relationships with any particular group. I was therefore surprised
and touched when I received food, visits, cards, and words of concern from
another group, my Sunday School class at Springdale Church in Louisville.
For nearly three years my attendance at Springdale has been sporadic because of
my outside speaking engagements and interim pastorates. But when my family and I
moved to Louisville nearly five years ago, I joined Springdale and the Agape
Sunday School class. For almost a year I was active in the class and I developed
strong relationships with many of the people there. Those relationships
were sufficiently strong to engender an outpouring of love even though my
absences had been long-term and conspicuous. Indeed that Sunday School class
remains my tie to the church today. Chart 2-3 provides a breakdown of
participants in the morning worship services in the churches studied. Some of
the categories are overlapping so they do not add to 100 percent.

When we asked which of these groups were most effectively assimilated into the
church, the responses were overwhelmingly clear. The two groups represented in
chart 2-3 that are regular Sunday School attendees were least likely to leave
the church or to become inactive. A pastor in California expressed this
position cogently: "Our church has tried everything to create relationships
among the members: small groups, dinner clubs, family ministries, you name it.
But we keep coming back to the Sunday School. That's where people get to know
one another best. We've finally gotten smart enough to decide to put our best
efforts in relationship building there". The Doctrine Factor
A few studies have established the relationship between doctrinal understanding
and assimilation. For example, a study of the churches in the Presbyterian
Church (USA) denomination found that younger generations tend to leave the
church within about twenty years if the church has a low view of biblical
authority, and if the doctrine of the church is not communicated clearly.
Two questions may surface immediately. How is doctrine related to the closing of
the back door? Why has the relationship between doctrine and assimilation been
mentioned so infrequently? The issue of doctrine and the closing of the
back door is closely related to expectations and assimilation. The clear
teachings of biblical truth are demanding and convicting. The Holy Spirit speaks
through God's Word in such a way that the cost of discipleship is understood. No
higher expectations could be placed upon believers than these truths of
Scripture. And, as we have seen throughout this study, high expectations are
clearly related to assimilation. Virtually all of the higher-assimilation
churches in our study used a comprehensive plan to teach the Bible for all age
groups. For most of these churches, the denominational Sunday School curriculum
served this purpose well. A pastor in Colorado expressed the sentiments of
many of the leaders in the higher-assimilation church: "Needs-based studies and
special emphases in Sunday School are okay for a short while. But those type of
studies need to be the exception instead of the rule. Many people in the
churches are woefully ignorant of the Bible. And doctrinally-weak Sunday Schools
are partially to blame." The second question
asked why the relationship between doctrine and assimilation was mentioned so
infrequently. The primary reason is that the assimilation problem is more
long-term than immediate. Sometimes the adverse effects of weak doctrinal
teaching do not begin to show for five, ten, or even fifteen years (when an
entire younger generation leaves the church). But the average tenure of pastors
is far less than five years. A potential problem ten years away thus is not
perceived to be the problem of the present ministry.
The Evangelism FactorOne of the reasons I visited the
non-denominational church in the Orlando area was its remarkable evangelistic
record. The church had grown from less than 100 in attendance to nearly 300 in
just two years. And most of the growth had come from conversion of adults.
The first question I had to ask the pastor was: "How is your church reaching so
many people for Christ?" I had examined the demographic data of the church's
community, and the growth potential in the area was modest at best. How had the
church baptized nearly 200 people in two years? The pastor could best be
described as easygoing. His mannerisms and words reflected someone who was
definitely not in a rush. His answer to my question was straightforward: "Sunday
School," he said. Wait a minute, I responded. You simply do not hear of
churches today using Sunday School as their primary evangelistic arm. "We do,"
the pastor deadpanned. Though I had originally planned to stay at the
church through Friday, I made the decision to stay for the Sunday services,
particularly for Sunday School. One class in which I had particular interest was
an adult Sunday School class that had reached fourteen people in the past year.
Perhaps the fact that the church kept accurate records of the number of persons
baptized by Sunday School class should have been a clue to me. I was already
seeing an accountability for evangelism within the Sunday School. I
arrived at the evangelistic Sunday School at 9:00 a.m. since the scheduled
beginning was 9:15 a.m. Much to my surprise, not only was the teacher present,
but nearly half who would attend that Sunday were already in attendance. No one
arrived later than 9:15. The class was a bit large; approximately twenty
were in attendance. But I learned that the class had started with an average of
twelve in attendance at the beginning of the year, and that two new classes had
been started from the class in the past eighteen months. I was impressed!
Equally impressive was the fact that two-thirds of the Sunday School class
members had been trained in personal evangelism in the context of their own
class. On the day I attended prayer concerns began with prayers for lost persons
to whom they were witnessing. Most of these persons were co-workers or
neighbors. I would discover at the end of the class that two
non-Christians were present the day I attended. When I asked the teacher how
those non-believers felt with so much evangelistic emphasis, the response was:
"Why don't you ask them?" Indeed the teacher called the two to join our
after-class conversation. Somewhat hesitatingly, I asked the two
non-Christians if they felt uncomfortable in the class today. Their response was
so quick that it caught me off guard. One quickly said, "Not at all! We know
these people care for us because they show their concern every day. The reason
we attend is because of the love they have shown toward us." This
non-denominational church taught me some things that would later be reinforced
in this study of Southern Baptist churches. Let me highlight the lessons I
learned. Lesson #1: The only reason churches are not evangelistic
through the Sunday School is that they make no intentional efforts to do so.
Somewhere in the recent past, many of us stopped talking about evangelism in the
Sunday School and many churches stopped doing Sunday School evangelism. We then
decided that this methodology could no longer be evangelistic. Such is a myth
that has no factual basis. In our previous study on evangelistic churches,
we discovered that Sunday School-based evangelism was the third most effective
approach. The only evangelistically-dead Sunday Schools are those that have
chosen this path. Lesson #2: The Sunday School organization engenders
evangelistic accountability. The time of prayer in the Orlando-area church
was also a time of accountability. The members of the class came to expect
relationship evangelism as a way of life because of their accountability to one
another each Sunday. Lesson #3: The Sunday School can be a natural
training ground for personal evangelism. The class members already know one
another. Many have close relationships. Evangelism training is often easier in
such a setting. Lesson #4: If leadership emphasizes evangelism through
the Sunday School, others will follow. A pastor in Texas emphasizes
evangelistic outreach through the Sunday School on a regular basis. The result?
Since he began this emphasis three years ago, baptisms have tripled.
Lesson #5: Evangelism through the Sunday School will not be effective unless
evangelism is a priority in the entire church. The power of the priority of
evangelism was evident in this study and our previous study. Lesson
#6: These evangelistic Sunday School classes could be called high-expectation
Sunday Schools. Repeatedly in this study we heard about the biblical
expectations placed on these class members. Not only do they respond with more
evangelistic enthusiasm, they are also likely to remain productive and active in
the church. Sunday School class members in the higher-assimilation churches
describe themselves as "content," "hard-working," "enthusiastic," and
"fruitful," to name a few. They had no intentions of dropping out.
Lesson #7: Sunday School-based evangelism results in more effective assimilation.
I returned to the Orlando-area church one year later. The two non-Christians
were non-Christians no more. They had accepted Christ about ten months earlier.
Their growth in Christ was obvious. And, like most of the new Christians in this
church, they obviously intended to stay active in the church. Perhaps the
most significant lesson is that effective assimilation for new Christians is
directly related to the way the people were evangelized. We reviewed the records
of hundreds of church members who had made professions of faith five years
earlier. We then asked the staff if these persons were primarily
worship-service-only attenders or if they also attended Sunday School regularly.
The contrast between the two groups was stark and amazing.
As chart 2-4 depicts, the new Christians who
immediately became active in the Sunday School were five times more
likely to remain in the church five years later (we did not include those who
moved to another community or those who died in the "dropout" category.). And
those churches that were emphasizing evangelism through the Sunday School were
most naturally seeing new Christians become involved immediately in the Sunday
School.

Why Not Cell Groups? Look at the contrast between the
assimilation effectiveness of cell groups versus Sunday School . Chart 2-5 shows
the Sunday School ranking to be 4.91, while the cell groups ranking was 1.45.
What could explain the discrepancy between the two approaches?

We asked church leaders that had utilized both Sunday School and cell groups why
they ranked Sunday School higher. Four responses were given with frequency.
First, the church leaders told us that Sunday School was simply easier to
organize and administer than cell groups. Typically, the cell groups met in
diverse locations of many different days and times. The strength of the diverse
schedule, we were told, was offset by the difficulty of maintaining basic
records for a accountability. Second, Sunday School more easily included
all age groups One of the persistent problems we heard with cell groups was the
issue of child care. A minister of education in Oklahoma noted: "We started cell
groups in the summer with a pretty good track record. But once school started,
many couples with children stopped coming. They had activities for their kids at
school, or they just couldn't find adequate child care."
Third, many of the leaders in our study were concerned
about the doctrinal integrity of their cell groups. Whereas most Sunday Schools
used a standardized curriculum, the cell groups tended to allow the group leader
to determine the study each week. Robert Wuthnow of Princeton University noted
this problem with his research that found cell groups "do little to increase the
biblical knowledge of their members." Instead of a strong objective study of
Scripture, Wuthnow noted, the cell groups "encourage faith to be subjective and
pragmatic." Finally, the church leaders told us that sequencing
Sunday School and worship services on the same day provided many practical
benefits. "I came to realize that our cell groups were separating families for
yet another day in the week," a Michigan pastor told us. "We solved many
problems when we started emphasizing Sunday School as our small group. Now
families can come to church together and leave together." We must not
conclude from this study that cell groups have little value. There have been too
many lives changed positively to reject categorically the benefits of these
small groups. Nor must we assume that Sunday School must fit one pattern (e.g.
Sunday morning only). But from the data we have gathered over the past four
years, the traditional Sunday School has been the dominant methodology to close
the back door, and it has been one of the leading evangelistic approaches.
And though this study focuses upon Southern Baptist churches, both our past and
future research included hundreds of non-Southern Baptist churches. The data
seems to indicate that the Sunday School model is the dominant approach for
effective assimilation in these churches as well. Above
AllThe research is clear if not
overwhelming. Sunday School is the most effective assimilation
methodology in evangelistic churches today. It is a place where teaching,
discipleship, ministry, fellowship, and evangelism can all take place. It is the
place where relationships are formed and people become connected to the church.
But the mere existence of a Sunday School does not produce assimilation. The
classes must have the best and most thoroughly trained teachers. Expectations
must be clear that ministry and evangelism should take place within each class.
And the organization itself should be well run with good records and strong
administrative leaders. Sunday School works. But only if we work Sunday School.
We have known that Sunday School is a vital component of the past for American
churches. Its history is almost as old as our nation itself. But more and more
the research indicated that Sunday School is not only our past, it is our future
as well. And we who are leaders in the church will ignore this reality to our
churches' peril. |