Jamie Dunlop
Articles by Jamie Dunlop:Sunday School for Dummies: How to Use and Develop New Teachers
By Jamie Dunlop
Do you have more teaching slots for adult Sunday School programs than you have teachers to fill them? More than a few pastors would say so.
In my church, we have 850 members, quite a few of whom are excellent teachers. But to fill our schedule of adult Sunday school classes we need 72 teachers each year, assuming no one teaches more than one quarter each. It’s a stretch to find that many men who know their Bibles well and are capable teachers and have the time to devote to teaching a class.
Read more >
How Sunday School Can Help Your Preaching
By Jamie DunlopIf you are an expositional preacher, a topically-driven adult Sunday school program can significantly help your preaching ministry. How?
SUNDAY SCHOOL FREES UP TIME FOR MORE EXPOSITION
First, Sunday school frees up time for exposition. 9Marks has always maintained that preaching in a local church should be primarily expositional—preaching in which the main point of the passage is the main point of the sermon.
Read more >
How Sunday School Can Change Your Church’s Culture
By Jamie DunlopChanging the culture of a church is one of the most difficult things for a pastor to do. But over the last decade our church has discovered an unexpected tool for changing a culture: adult Sunday school.
HOW SUNDAY SCHOOL CHANGED OUR CHURCH’S CULTURE
Read more >
When Should Ministry Be Staffed?
By Jamie DunlopWhat areas of ministry should be taken from volunteers and given to a staff person?
It’s tempting to answer that question by saying “anything that needs to get done.” Yet think for a moment of all the dangers that staff pose to gospel ministry in a local church. When staff do ministry,
Read more >
Deacons: Shock-Absorbers and Servants
By Jamie Dunlop
The position was designed to alleviate tension in the church, but the office of deacon sure seems to provoke remarkable controversy. Elders butt heads with deacons over decision-making authority. Deacons are accused of being “turfy.” Staff treat deacons as irrelevant. And so on.
Is there a way to alleviate these unfortunate realities in your church? Yes. What’s needed is a positive, theological definition of what it means to be a deacon.
WHAT IS A DEACON?
Read more >
Book Review: Why Men Hate Going to Church
Reviewed by Jamie Dunlop
Why do men hate going to church? Even for this reviewer—who attends a church with no discernable gender gap (48 percent male)—the topic is pressing given the female-preponderant membership of many churches. Why Men Hate Going to Church, by David Murrow, explores the elements of American church life that discourage attendance and engagement of men.
Reviewed only
Read more >
Class XI: Serving and Giving
By Jamie Dunlop
In Mark 10:45, Jesus says, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." Jesus also calls us to take up the cross and follow him. Part of how we do this is to serve Christ’s body, the church. As he says in Mark 10:43, "Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant." Greatness in Jesus' eyes is serving others, especially in the church.
Read more >
Class VIII: Church Leadership
By Jamie Dunlop
Hebrews 13:17 is a hard word for Christians today. "Obey your leaders and submit to them," it says, "for they keep watch over your souls, as men who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you."
Obey. Submit. Those are strong words, particularly in our egalitarian, individualistic culture.
Read more >
Class III: Preaching
By Jamie Dunlop
As Christians, we probably all agree that preaching is important. But what's not immediately obvious is how the act of preaching—and the act of listening to preaching—contributes to the unity of a local church.
How exactly does preaching foster unity in the church? How we can be good stewards of the preaching we hear, not just for our own individual growth, but for the health and maturity of the church as a whole? These are some of the questions we'll consider today.
I. God Creates his People Through His Word
Read more >
