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Contents

Editor’s Note

Jonathan Leeman & Trevin Wax

RECLAIMING SUNDAY SCHOOL

Why You Want Sunday School

Are you thinking about ditching Sunday school? Consider what you might be missing in light of this theological and pastoral argument for Sunday school.

By Jonathan Pennington with Bobby Jamieson

Why Sunday School Lost its Edge

How did Sunday school go from staple to sidelined?

By Ed Stetzer

How Sunday School Can Change Your Church’s Culture

Changing the entire culture of a church is a crucial but complex task. Here’s how Sunday school can help.

By Jamie Dunlop

How Sunday School Can Help Your Preaching

Sunday School frees up time for exposition and beefs up your ability to do application.

By Jamie Dunlop

Sunday School and its Rivals

What are the pluses and minuses of different discipleship contexts?

By Trevin Wax

REFORMING SUNDAY SCHOOL

Not Your Grandma’s Sunday School

Here is a Sunday School model that systematically moves people through a five-year curriculum that covers different areas of life and doctrine.

By Garrett Kell

How to Reform a Sunday School Program

Here’s how one pastor both modified a traditional Sunday school program and started a new one from scratch.

By Juan Sanchez

HOW TO DO SUNDAY SCHOOL

Whatever the Model, Don’t Be Afraid to Teach

No matter what approach you take to Sunday school, be sure to teach. And consider how to balance out the weaknesses of your model.

By Jonathan Leeman

Sunday School for Dummies: How to Use and Develop New Teachers

Do you have more teaching slots than teachers to fill them? Here are some guidelines for using and training new teachers.

Jamie Dunlop

Five Things Every Group Leader Should Do

How can you grow as a Sunday school teacher? Here are five simple steps.

By Michael Kelley

The Advantages of Curriculum

Curriculum can save time, serve new teachers, and generate interest among the congregation. So why reinvent the wheel!

By Bobby Jamieson

MISCELLANEOUS BOOK REVIEWS

Book Review: Bringing the Gospel Home

By Randy Newman

Reviewed by J. Mack Stiles

Book Review: Conformed to Christ in Community

By James G. Samra

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Book Review: Preachers of a Different Gospel: A Pilgrim’s Reflections on Contemporary Trends in Christianity

By Femi Adeleye

Reviewed by Trevin Wax

Book Review: Health, Wealth and Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ?

By David W. Jones and Russell S. Woodbridge

Reviewed by Trevin Wax

AUDIO

Cross-Cultural Ministry with Mack Stiles and Friends

*Listen online Now »

Five Christian workers from three continents discuss the power, challenges, and joys of cross-cultural ministry.

* This audio might not be supported by your particular device

Posted on January 1, 2012

Jonathan Leeman & Trevin Wax

Editor’s note

Churches kick adult Sunday school to the curb for a host of reasons: they don’t have enough teachers; they don’t want to burden Sunday schedules; they believe it’s a relic of the past.

Basically, adult Sunday school is a dinosaur, right? That’s why young churches often don’t have them, and mature churches let them carry on as they’ve always done.

You file into the “Fa-Ho-Lo” class (faith, hope, love) that you’ve been attending for years. You chat with friends about Saturday’s college games for 10 minutes over a cup of Folgers finest. The leader calls for prayer requests and updates. That’s another 15 minutes. Then come the 35 desultory minutes of the study itself, which breaks down into 25% instruction, 25% marginally helpful remarks by classmates, and 50% rambling by two particular classmates.

If this is your experience with Sunday school, like you we’re tempted to kick the whole affair to the curb.

But wait! Do you know what you might be missing? What if we could use it to pack gospel-centered biblical content into our congregations? And equip the saints for the work of ministry? And change our church cultures in everything from dating, to evangelism, to knowing God’s will?

If we content ourselves with a 45 minute Sunday sermon for instructing the saints, we’re letting the Friday night movie beat out our time investment into them by double.

That’s why the two of us want to push the retro envelope and encourage you to reclaim adult Sunday school. If you don’t have it, get it. If you have it, consider how you might make more of it. In the immortal words of Huey Lewis, it’s hip to be square.

The two of us have slightly different ideas about how to structure a Sunday school program. Trevin wants to cycle good material through fixed classes. Jonathan wants to cycle people through good classes. But the big point of agreement is this: don’t be afraid to teach. And teach comprehensively and systematically. That’s our challenge to you.

Jonathan Pennington starts us off with a Sunday school apologetic. Ed Stetzer offers an interesting historical perspective. And Jamie Dunlop and Trevin consider several different advantages of holding adult Sunday school classes. Garrett Kell and Juan Sanchez get into the nuts and bolts of reform, and Jonathan, Jamie Dunlop, Michael Kelley, and Bobby Jamieson get specific about strategies for Sunday school. If you only have time for one article, jump straight to Jamie Dunlop’s on changing a church’s culture.

Bottom line, we invite you to consider what you might be missing.

By Jonathan Pennington with Bobby Jamieson

Why You Want Sunday School

I’m not entirely sure why, but it seems that everywhere I look, churches are abandoning adult Sunday School. There may be some valid reasons for this, but I would suggest that such churches are in danger of throwing away a key tool for training church members to be wiser and more faithful disciples of Jesus.

So, in this article I’m going to present an apologetic for Sunday school. I’ll begin with a couple reflections on personal experience.

EXPERIENCES WITH AND WITHOUT SUNDAY SCHOOL

In addition to either participating in or teaching Sunday School for about twenty years, I’ve had two especially noteworthy experiences with it.

The first was at the Evangelical Free Church in Sycamore, Illinois, which I attended immediately after I became a Christian during college. In those days, an older man who was a second-career seminary student taught a theology class in Sunday school that was similar in scope and content to Grudem’s Systematic Theology. As a brand new Christian, I had fireworks of truth going off in my mind and heart every single week. My early growth in Christ was profoundly shaped and helped by that faithful, weekly doctrinal teaching.

Further, the church had a thriving “after-church Sunday school” for college students. Students would congregate for lunch every Sunday and discuss a theological book or video series (such as RC Sproul’s Holiness of God) in an older couple’s home. Twenty-plus years later, I still remember the books we read during those times and their impact on me.

The second experience with Sunday school worth mentioning is actually about a lack of Sunday school. During my graduate studies in Scotland, I noticed that many churches didn’t have Sunday school, and there seemed to be a correlation between the lack of adult Sunday School and the generally lower biblical literacy among the congregation.

I’m sure that there are other factors involved, and that there are many churches in the United Kingdom that are exemplary in both biblical literacy and adult education. But the experience stuck with me, and it cast the value of Sunday school in a new light.

AN APOLOGETIC FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL

There are three planks in my argument for Sunday school: first, the foundational role of knowledge in discipleship; second, the division of labor between preaching and teaching; third, the unique teaching potential of Sunday school compared with other contexts.

1. The Foundational Role of Knowledge in Discipleship

First, knowledge is foundational to discipleship. The gospel is a message. The Triune God has revealed himself to us in a book. And he calls us to love him with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matt. 22:37).

All Christians are called to grow in the knowledge of God as a means of growth in godliness. In Hebrews 5:12 the author rebukes his readers, saying, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food.” He expected these believers to be consistently growing in knowledge.

Or again in 1 Corinthians 14:20 Paul writes, “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” Paul here shows us that it is the responsibility of every Christian to grow in their thinking about God.

Therefore, those who lead the church should have a burden to equip every single member of their flock with a well-rounded, scripturally derived, steadily increasing knowledge of God and his ways. We pastors should want every single person in our churches to grow in their knowledge of Scripture, to develop a biblical worldview, and to be increasingly able to apply the gospel to every area of their lives.

2. The Division of Labor between Preaching and Teaching

Second, in the church there is, and should be, a division of labor between preaching and teaching. Preaching is central to the life of the church, but it is not the only ministry of the Word that a church should regularly receive.

Preaching aims to exult in God and the gospel and to transform those who hear it. It is proclamation, celebration, and exhortation. Preaching is grounded in teaching and contains much teaching, but its aim is more focused: preaching aims to slice right through the heart of the listener and bring about repentance, comfort, joy, obedience, and worship, all in the moment of hearing.

In addition, preaching is a monologue addressed to the entire congregation. This will usually include believers and non-believers. And the Christians present will represent a wide range of seasons of life, callings, and degrees of spiritual maturity.

On the other hand, teaching, specifically in a Sunday school context, has a different end and a slightly different means toward that end. While not neglecting the heart, teaching gives special focus to the mind. And while teaching will involve monologue, it should also feature dialogue. In fact, that’s one of the great strengths of a classroom setting.

Further, Sunday school classes are to some degree self-selecting. If you teach a class on parenting, parents and would-be parents will be the bulk of your attendees. Those who are interested will come, and those who aren’t, won’t. This allows you to devote more attention to a subject and to delve into greater depth than if you were addressing the whole congregation.

The less formal and more intellectually focused atmosphere, the possibility for dialogue, and the self-selecting nature of the classes all adds up to a great opportunity for addressing subjects more comprehensively than the pulpit is suited to.

For example, consider a practical and pastorally sensitive subject such as parenting. If a pastor is preaching through Scripture, parenting will come up occasionally in places like Proverbs and Ephesians 6. And pastors should regularly apply other texts to issues in parenting to help parents see how the word of God bears on that important calling.

Yet the pulpit’s ability to address parenting issues is limited. It would be inappropriate and distracting to delve into conflicting philosophies over discipline or schooling. Further, preaching’s monological mode limits the congregation’s ability to ask questions, push back, and clarify matters. These are important steps in the learning process, especially when dealing with gray areas, second-order issues, and practical matters on which Christians can legitimately disagree.

Thus, in many ways a Sunday school class on parenting can accomplish more than a sermon series. And again, a Sunday school class would generally be a more appropriate way to address the topic at length, since it will only be directly relevant to a portion of the congregation.

There are also more intellectually demanding topics that are foundational to discipleship which are better addressed from the lectern than the pulpit. Consider, for example, the subject of how to study the Bible.

Now, a scripturally faithful sermon does model how to read the Bible. A church member who sits under a steady diet of faithful preaching will learn much about how to read Scripture in a contextually sensitive and spiritually transformative way.

Yet listening to a sermon in order to learn how to read the Bible is like playing a round of golf with a master: you’re experiencing the final product. So you absorb some of their habits and instincts, but only what you can pick up by imitation.

On the other hand, a Sunday school class on how to study the Bible is like a series of lessons with a master golfer. They teach you proper technique, walk you through the game step by step, evaluate your swing, and so on. They make you aware of dozens of factors that go into playing the game well—things they now take for granted, but that you have likely never even thought of. A course on how to study the Bible can address hermeneutics, genre, translation, and many other issues that are generally out of place in a sermon, yet are foundational to reading the Bible well. A sermon models good Bible reading, but a Sunday school class trains people in good Bible reading.

In sum, I would suggest that it is healthy for there to be a division of labor in the church between preaching and teaching. There is surely much overlap between the two, yet they have distinct means and ends. And there are crucial topics on both the practical and intellectual ends of the spectrum that can be addressed much more thoroughly—and with greater overall pastoral impact—in a class than in a sermon.

2. If Not Sunday School, Where?

Third, Sunday school is suited to addressing these topics in a way that other contexts, particularly small groups, are not.

It seems that today many churches which don’t have Sunday school rely on small groups of one kind or another to accomplish some of the same ends. These small groups tend to incorporate fellowship, prayer, missional outreach, and some kind of Bible-based discussion.

Let me say at the outset that small groups like these have many strengths, and I have experienced much blessing through leading one in my home for several years now. But when it comes to making disciples through biblical teaching, small groups have several serious weaknesses.

First, the environment inherently prioritizes relationship over instruction. Sitting knee-to-knee on a couch in someone s living room is generally not a context that is conducive to serious intellectual engagement on many topics. Again, this is not a bad thing in itself, and this context can greatly aid in building relationships, one of the single most important aspects of church life. But small groups are not primarily geared toward a teaching context.

Further, small groups are just that small. Their strength is in the greater intimacy which a group of eight or twelve people can attain compared with a gathering of thirty, seventy-five or even two hundred that might attend an adult Sunday School. If churches are going to rely heavily on small groups for teaching discipleship, there will need to be a lot of them. This means that a church will need a lot of people to lead them. This, in turn, means that you will need to enlist people who are less gifted and experienced teachers. So, if a church intended to use small groups to address serious, theologically challenging issues such as divorce (or any other theologically and pastorally difficult topic), they would be hard pressed to find enough teachers who could handle such tricky territory and handle it well.

On the other hand, a Sunday school class can be almost any size and still retain most of its usefulness. This means that fewer teachers are needed, and, therefore, the more gifted and qualified teachers are able to use their gifts to build up the church, which is as it should be.

Thus, I would suggest that this “size vs. number of teachers dynamic is another strength of Sunday school over against small groups as a vehicle for teaching-based discipleship. Sunday school allows the most gifted teachers in the church to exercise a vital, life-giving ministry. It multiplies the elders’ and other gifted teachers’ ability to minister the word to the congregation for their edification, all the while addressing topics that are not best handled in the monological pulpit.

The number of teachers who can dig deep into the Word and equip the church regarding challenging biblical and theological issues will always be smaller than the number of those who are sufficiently relationally mature to lead a small group. So, Sunday school allows a more precious resource of the church to be invested more widely and strategically. It allows a smaller number of gifted teachers to influence a larger portion of the body week in and week out. This creates a bigger, stronger engine for the church’s discipleship.

The bottom line here is, if not Sunday school, then where? If you don’t have Sunday school, where are you going to teach people how to study the Bible? Where are you going to give them a thorough grounding in systematic theology? Where are you going to discuss the ins and outs of parenting, or dating and marriage, or evangelism?

I’m afraid that when churches abandon Sunday school, some of these things are simply no longer being taught to the congregation as a whole. And churches are thereby missing a significant opportunity to equip their people with biblical building blocks for faithful discipleship.

CONSIDER WHAT YOU MIGHT BE MISSING OUT ON

For all these reasons, I would argue that Sunday school is a valuable tool for conforming our churches to the image of Christ. It feeds our people the knowledge they need to grow in godly living. It complements and supplements the regular pulpit ministry. And it is able to do what other contexts such as small groups can’t, namely, foster rigorous intellectual engagement about a wide range of matters that are crucial to discipleship.

My goal is not to scold churches that don’t do Sunday school. I’d rather offer an invitation to consider what you might be missing out on. Consider how you might be better able to equip your church for works of service if you devoted weekly time, in addition to the sermon, to laying intellectual and practical foundations that will equip your whole church to grow as disciples of Jesus.

About the author:

Jonathan Pennington is Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is one of the pastors of Franklin Street Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the author, most recently, of Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction (Baker, forthcoming). Bobby Jamieson is assistant editor for 9Marks.

By Ed Stetzer

Why Sunday School Lost its Edge

It’s probably not a secret that Sunday school is no longer the en vogue program of the local church. Its reputation has, well, suffered over the years. My focus here is not to give answers or prescriptions, but to help us consider how it lost its reputation—its edge—and how a once thriving program is now often seen as a relic of the past.

Some have noted a trend of established churches abandoning or modifying adult Sunday school in favor of off-campus small groups. You would be hard pressed to find a contemporary church plant that includes Sunday school as part of its structure. Adult small groups in new churches are most likely meeting in homes or “third spaces” (like coffee shops) at various times during the week. For many, Sunday school is a thing of the past.

So, what happened to the Sunday school? Has our current culture so changed that Sunday school will not be able to avoid extinction? How and when did Sunday school lose its edge? Ken Hemphill wrote Revitalizing the Sunday Morning Dinosaur, a pro-Sunday school book, in 1996. His work described how many people feel about this once-flourishing ministry giant. Is it now just a big thing in our past that will never roam the earth again? The Sunday school movement evolved through many transitional forms since its beginnings in the late 1700s. None of them have been perfect, but what we have now seems to be a low point.

Let me highlight four shifts that have led to Sunday school losing its edge.

FROM TRANSFORMED LIVES TO CHURCH GROWTH

For starters, Sunday school once existed for the sake of transforming lives, whereas now it often exists for the sake of increasing a church’s attendance.

Churches across America often have buildings filled with “educational space” but fewer people desiring to be educated. The Sunday school boom of the 1970s is gone. Why the boom? Churches at that time embraced Sunday school as the key to church growth. Ken Hemphill wrote, “The Sunday school is the finest integrated church growth tool on the market today.”[1]

It’s easy to say right thing about your Sunday school program: “Our goal is evangelism or discipleship.” But a church’s actual mission for Sunday school shows up in how it measures success. If its primary goal is simply to increase attendance by 20 percent, then the goal is “church growth.” If, however, a church’s primary goal is to help the present attendees, as well as any additional ones, to grow in Christ, then the target is “transformed lives.” If we then ask how most churches today are measuring “success,” we will probably conclude that the general understanding of what Sunday school is has changed.

History gives us reasons why Sunday school has drifted away from its original focus. From their inception around 1780, Sunday schools existed for the sake of cultural and personal transformation. The first Sunday schools were parachurch organizations. So no church growth agenda drove the beginnings of the movement. The movement’s pioneer Robert Raikes (a newspaper publisher) was motivated less by evangelistic zeal than he was by prison reform. Through Sunday school, millions of British children were afforded education basics (reading and writing) and a guide for moral and ethical behavior (the Bible). This helped to keep them from prison. The good news was that this movement constantly exposed non-churched kids to the gospel.

Today, many Sunday school classes exist for Bible study, in-reach, and fellowship that grow the numbers of the church attendance.

FROM VOLUNTEERS TO PAID PROFESSIONALS

Sunday school has also morphed from a movement led by volunteers to denominational and church programs led by paid professionals.

The early Sunday school movement was generally rejected by churches because of its parachurch status. As churches began to embrace it, the parachurch nature of the movement gradually faded. Once Sunday school moved into the church ministries, clergy—or quasi-clergy—began to lead the work of Christian education.

This change, however, removes leadership from church members, who now typically serve as teachers or department leaders under the leadership of pastors. For many years the “Minister of Education” was one of the first staff positions churches would fill, which further shifted Sunday school away from its “movemental” momentum.

In its inception, Sunday school was used by everyday people to make an impact on the lives of marginalized children. In its modern iteration, Sunday school has become an organization led by professionals to educate a declining percentage of church attendees with less volunteer leadership and, as a result, often less engagement and shared community.

FROM MOVEMENT TO PROGRAM

Sunday school had all the qualities of a movement in the earliest days. Sunday school missionaries travelled the American frontier planting thousands of Sunday schools for millions of people. In a period of 50 years, as a part of western expansion, records indicate that they established 61,297 Sunday schools involving almost 75 percent of the total western population. Steven Paxton was one of the best-known Sunday school missionaries in history. A hat-maker and salesman by trade, Paxton became a Christian in 1838 and soon became passionate about establishing Sunday schools. He once started 40 schools in 40 days.[2]

David Francis argues that the success of Sunday school in the early days can be explained as a movement. He writes, “The best evidence that something is a movement of God is that He planted His idea in the hearts of many people…I believe that’s the reason many people embraced the idea of Sunday school so eagerly, because it resonated with something deep within their spirit.[3] The movement that affected so many on the American continent seemed to meet a God-initiated need among the early pioneers.

Over time, this movement became a program, and this program soon gained a different reputation. Sunday school became associated less with the cause that fueled a movement and more with when and where it met. There is nothing wrong with the name “Sunday school,” except that it is not always held on Sundays and it is not a school. Sunday schools met in pubs, homes, and buildings dedicated to the Sunday school mission. Sunday school was about people on the margins that were hurting. Sunday schools were ministry and mission strategies, not merely teaching and care centers.

In the early days, Sunday school did not exist in order to grow churches. Preserving the Sunday school brand, although powerful, timeless, and recognizable, was not the cause then (and perhaps should not be our cause now). Originally, they saw themselves as those on a mission of societal and personal transformation beyond the walls of the local church.

FROM CHILDREN-FOCUSED TO CONSUMER-FOCUSED

Sunday school began with a clear people-group in mind: children from “the wrong side of the tracks.” Marginalized children were the heart of the first Sunday school movement. What may surprise some is that Sunday school lost its edge because it lost its people-group focus. The initial focus was not to meet the consumer needs of the primly dressed children of the town luminaries, but for kids who had little hope for a future outside of poverty and/or prison.

Perhaps Sunday school most recently possessed a missionary edge in North America during the height of church bus ministries in the early ‘70‘s, peaking in 1974. Bus ministries in many contexts focused on poor areas and the children who inhabited them. Some churches even had separate Sunday schools for them because of their behavioral challenges. Yet, this was as close to the original Sunday school movement as we have seen in quite some time. Today, the shift has moved from reaching children to educating Christians. Both are valuable, yet today’s approach to education seems to lack the vision that inspires people to more than a consumerist education exercise for a declining percentage of church attendees.

In conclusion, Sunday school does not have the reputation it once did. Yet we should not forget that it has been a tool that God used in amazing ways. Over time, Christians and churches did what they often do: they turned a tool into a goal. Thus, they knew they needed a Sunday school, but perhaps forgot why.

Sunday school need not continue to struggle its way into complete extinction. A new emphasis on Sunday school could position it to roam the earth again, becoming the giant it once was—focused on teaching scripture, building community, and helping people engage in mission.

I will leave others in this issue to debate the “hows” (as that was not my assignment), but the reality is that the vast majority of churches use Sunday school merely to educate a declining percentage of believers—and it appears that in its current form, it is simply not inspiring more to greater participation. Yet, Sunday school is the tool most churches use—and will for the foreseeable future. If that “Sunday school hour” could be retooled, not necessarily in the same way as the movement’s origin, but perhaps moving from consumerist education to gospel-centered disciple making, teaching the full counsel of God to those seeking to live it out, the impact could be great.

As such, we need to ask what forms we might adopt to bring a Great Commission and Great Commandment focus to Sunday school and Bible study. Perhaps we can help Sunday schools (once again) become the domain of gifted, passionate, called believers who teach and provoke others to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24) to the glory of God.

About the author:

Ed Stetzer is president of LifeWay Research and is the author, most recently, of Transformational Church (with Thom Rainer).

By Jamie Dunlop

How Sunday School Can Change Your Church’s Culture

Changing 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

Here’s an example. For some time, our elders were concerned that dating in our church too closely resembled dating in the world. People dated for fun, and only sometimes with an eye toward marriage. They treated their roles interchangeably, failing to view their interactions as a chance to prepare for the complementary roles of husband and wife. For instance, men would not lead and shoulder the risk in relationships, but instead sit back to see if a woman was interested before he put his cards on the table. And of course many couples maintained cavalier attitudes toward physical touch.

Periodically, several married men in the church conducted evening seminars for single men and women in an effort to inject biblical teaching into their thinking. And, while helpful, these seminars did not accomplish the culture change that the elders desired.

Enter a Sunday school class on dating and marriage. The elders asked a man in the congregation to prepare seven weeks of material on marriage and six on dating. The first seven described the goal of marriage, while the next six applied the principles discussed there to the process of finding a spouse. This class has been repeated each year for ten years now.

The class was controversial, especially at first. The questions became so lengthy and involved that the leaders quickly decided to devote an entire class to Q&A, and for several years they held an additional Q&A session at an elder’s home on a weekday evening.

But today, the culture of dating in our congregation is markedly different. Not all dating relationships in our church are conducted according to biblical principles, but most of them are. And while only a bare majority of our single members have taken the class, virtually all of their conversations about dating are overshadowed by the content of that class. Couples more naturally ask, “How can we make our relationship more biblical?”

Sometimes, people have those conversations in reaction to the class: “I’d like to start dating you, but I want you to know that I’m not completely in line with X, Y, or Z from the dating class.” But even statements like these show how much the class has changed members’ expectations about dating. It provides the basic framework for discussion, even for people who have never taken it.

Wonderfully, our adult Sunday school program has effected changes not only in our church’s dating culture, but in other areas as well. Conversations about church discipline, fear of man, evangelism, gender, and singleness increasingly embody the content of their respective Sunday School classes. Just recently we have developed a class on work.

In fact, the lack of a Sunday School class on an important topic has sometimes inhibited culture change. Without a single, comprehensive body of material that adequately covers a topic, the job of teaching and influencing thinking in the church is left to sermon application that, while helpful, is neither comprehensive nor interactive. A topical sermon series can help, but a preacher can afford to preach topically only so often. And even when a topical series touches on some matter, it touches the matter just once. Most of our churches are increasingly transient, which means that some subjects need to be addressed regularly.

HOW TO USE SUNDAY SCHOOL TO CHANGE A CHURCH’S CULTURE

Of course, not every adult Sunday school program is equally effective at changing the culture of a church. Here are a few lessons we’ve learned across the past ten years about how to make Sunday school into a tool for changing a church’s culture.

1. Teach each class on a recurring basis.

It was only in the fourth or fifth year of teaching the dating class that we began to see a real culture change take place. If you address a topic only when someone “has a burden” to teach it, or when your denomination publishes curriculum on it, you will most not likely make a different in your church’s culture.

2. Make your notes available to everyone.

Our church has always posted class notes (including the teacher’s manuscript and handouts) on our website. Our initial goal in doing this was to give other churches that chance to use our material, but along the way it has given our members’ the ability to study those notes when a class is not being taught.

3. Encourage discussion outside of class.

As they teach, our teachers suggest books to read alongside the class. They set up informal times of Q&A outside of the class, especially for controversial topics. And they put their email address on a class handout and encourage the class to ask questions throughout the week. Ideally, Sunday school is not merely an event but the instigator of a dialogue.

4. Take the time to comprehensively cover a topic.

An effective Sunday school class does not need to answer every question, but it must be thorough enough to provide a framework that could answer any question. We’ve generally found that six to thirteen weeks is long enough to develop and apply such a framework.

5. Reference adult Sunday school in your preaching.

As a pastor preaches through Scripture, they often hit upon sermon applications that cover the same terrain as a Sunday school class. In moments like these, the preacher has the chance to direct people to the class: “If you want to think about this further, consider attending…”

6. Use the class to teach Scripture.

One of the dangers of topical teaching is that the substance of the class becomes wise advice, with the Bible used merely as proof text. Of course, there is a time and a place for wise advice, and a time and a place for proof texts. But while your people may change their behavior in response to wise advice, they are more likely to change their thinking and attitudes in response to a better understanding of the Scriptures. So wherever possible, we have found it helpful to walk people through larger passages of Scripture related to the topic at hand.

Suppose, for example, that you are planning a class on why we must live lives that support our evangelistic witness. You could brainstorm six different guidelines with a Bible passage for each. Alternatively, you could spend the whole time walking the class through the book of 1 Peter. This will probably cover those same guidelines, but much more as well. Along the way, you will not only ground your teaching directly in Scripture, but you will help your class to see things they have never seen before (such as the fact that submitting to earthly authority helps the church’s witness to the gospel—a key theme in 1 Peter). What’s more, your church members will walk away knowing a section of Scripture better so that they can mine it for years to come.

About the author:

Jamie Dunlop is an associate pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

By Jamie Dunlop

How Sunday School Can Help Your Preaching

If 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.

Yet there are many topics that a responsible pastor feels he should explore in more detail with his church than the regular course of expositional preaching allows. For example, issues of gender are especially important for Christians to think about today. Gender issues will naturally come up in sermon application from time to time as you faithfully preach through the Scriptures. And yet only rarely will you preach through a passage where gender-related issues are the main focus. The same would apply to parenting. It’s an important topic that you will inevitably hit on occasionally in sermon application, but will rarely deal with comprehensively.

As a result, most pastors occasionally preach topically in order to address subjects like these. Yet you cannot afford to preach topically very often or you will lose the power of a primarily expositional preaching ministry.

How can you equip your flock with the topical teaching they need without compromising your approach to preaching? One way to do this is to introduce a forum in your weekly schedule devoted to Scripture-centered, topical teaching. In other words, adult Sunday School.

SUNDAY SCHOOL STRENGTHENS YOUR ABILITY TO APPLY THE WORD

A topically-driven Sunday school program can also help your expositional preaching by growing your ability to draw insightful application in sermons.

One of the great challenges in preaching is to generate specific, textually faithful application week after week. This is a challenge across two dimensions. First, depth of insight. Your preaching should consistently help your congregation discover ways to apply the text that they hadn’t fully appreciated before.

A second challenge is breadth of application. Your application should relate to the full range of your congregation’s diverse life experiences. Younger preachers in particular struggle to expand sermon application beyond what they themselves have experienced.

Sunday school can help improve your application in both of these areas.

1. Depth of Insight

Rather than thinking through a particular topic as one of many application points in your regular sermon preparation, try teaching on it exclusively for multiple weeks in a row as part of a Sunday school class. As you search out all that Scripture brings to bear on that particular topic, you will almost certainly see more than you have before. Then, when you are preaching, the experience of having worked through a topic comprehensively helps you to be more pointed and concise in your applications. In other words, Sunday school makes you a better systematic theologian, which in turn makes you a better applier of God’s word.

2. Breadth of Insight

One good way to grow in breadth of insight in sermon application is to allow other men to teach Sunday school classes. As you do, not only will you help these men grow into better teachers (a key qualification for being an elder), but they will bring to bear their own life experiences as well as those they have helped over the years.

Think about how much better your sermon applications on parenting could be if you spent thirteen weeks listening to a grandfather of seven teach on parenting—especially if your own children are still quite young. As different men in the church lean on their different perspectives in teaching Sunday school, you will grow in your ability to apply God’s Word to a wider range of people in your congregation.

About the author:

Jamie Dunlop is an associate pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

By Trevin Wax

Sunday School and Its Rivals

As Christians, we believe that the Scriptures play an essential role in the discipleship process. As much as we need accountability, close relationships, and a missional outlook, we must not overlook the foundation that makes these things possible: biblical truth.

But how does discipleship best take place? What role do smaller groups within a large congregation play? How essential is biblical education to the discipleship process?

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?

Church leaders who agree on the gospel and the importance of Bible study often embrace different methodologies related to adult education in smaller groups. There are a number of models available to us. The following is a generalized categorization of various models that encompass a wide spectrum of ministry practices.

Sunday School

Sunday school goes by a variety of names: connect groups, life groups, adult Bible fellowship, and so on. Whatever the name, Sunday school classes usually meet on the church campus and put priority on Bible study. Most groups meet before or after a worship service, although they will often connect for fellowship in homes outside of the Sunday school hour. One of the key features of the Sunday school class or on-campus small group is that the group remains open to new people.

Small Groups

In contrast to Sunday school classes on campus, the small group typically meets off-campus at other times during the week. A more casual setting creates a more interactive dynamic, with fellowship usually taking a higher priority than Bible study. In order to foster accountability, many small groups are closed. Newcomers to the church are expected to join new groups, not existing ones, at least in my experience. (Churches that lack education space will often incorporate a Sunday school open-group Bible study philosophy within a small group framework of meeting off-campus.)

Community Groups

Community groups also focus on fellowship and off-campus meetings, but tend to meet in homes within in a geographic region. Instead of dividing by age or life stage (like Sunday schools and small groups often do), these groups form around the neighborhood. Community groups prioritize outreach and mission by inviting newcomers and non-Christian neighbors into their fellowship to see the body of Christ in action. Many community groups choose to align their weekly discussion with each week’s sermon outline.

No doubt, many churches do something combining different elements of each of these.

WHAT’S THE PURPOSE?

How we weigh the strengths and weaknesses of these models depends on what their primary purpose is. The traditional Sunday school model seeks to use the hour before or after a worship service for adult education, which results in an interactive Bible study or topical teaching series. The small group model puts a priority on fellowship within the body, which results in accountability and an emphasis on Bible application. The community group model elevates missional engagement of one’s neighborhood, which results in an open and outward-focused atmosphere.

If the main goal of the group is to invite outsiders to meet the Christians in their neighborhood, then Sunday school and small groups are clearly deficient. Meanwhile, if the primary purpose is Bible study and application, then community groups are off-base. The way we analyze these models depends on what we think is most important to accomplish.

Clearly, the Lord can and does use each of these models to bring forth fruit. But for the purposes of this article, I believe we should focus on the primary change agent in a Christian’s life: the Word of God. It’s true that the elements of fellowship, accountability, and missional living all contribute to the shaping of a disciple. But what gives fellowship and mission their power is the Word. Without a strong emphasis on Bible study, the why of fellowship and mission eventually gets lost. For this reason, I choose to focus on biblical education as the lens through which we examine these three models.

COMMUNITY GROUPS: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Certainly the strength of a community group is its emphasis on reaching one’s neighborhood by inviting newcomers into the fellowship of the body. Spiritual maturity is not measured merely by the amount of biblical knowledge we acquire, but by our being about God’s mission to seek and save the lost. That said, community groups are not known for serious engagement with the Bible, and this lack of Bible study can actually short-circuit the motivation for mission in the long run.

For example, many churches have chosen to align the teaching/discussion time of a community group with the weekly sermon. This alignment can be helpful, especially if it gives the opportunity for participants to go deeper into the biblical text. Unfortunately, in practice, the model often leads to commentary on the pastor’s sermon rather than engagement with the biblical text itself. Further, if the pastor preaches slowly through books of the Bible, it is possible that participants in community groups will never get a grasp of the Bible as a whole.

Imagine this realistic scenario: A pastor preaches through Hebrews over the span of three years. A newcomer to the church hears the gospel, trusts Christ, joins the church, and is included in a community group. The new believer’s only guided Bible study during this time is the pastor’s preaching on Sunday and the discussion he has about that pastor’s sermon during the week. After a couple years, the new Christian moves off to another city and joins another church. From an educational standpoint, he will be a relative expert on his former pastor’s view of Hebrews, but he will have missed the opportunity to engage substantively with the rest of the Bible. The community group succeeds at what it attempts (fostering relationships), but it is deficient when it comes to the biblical educational side of discipleship.

SMALL GROUPS: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

The small group model emphasizes candid discussion regarding Scripture and the fostering of accountability in relationships. There are many benefits of belonging to a closed group. One can study the Scriptures with other believers who hold each other spiritually accountable.

Small groups do well at what they seek to accomplish, and yet I’ve had numerous people tell me, almost embarrassed, “I have never had a satisfying Bible study experience within a small group.”

SUNDAY SCHOOL: WEAKNESSES

The image that many church leaders have of traditional Sunday school is a group of older ladies reading straight out of a quarterly. Moving past the perception and toward the reality, we can point out some weaknesses that surface in many Sunday school classes. Sometimes, half the hour is taken up with fellowship and prayer requests. Unprepared leaders rush through the lesson. The discussion can be awkward, the curriculum can be shallow, or the leader might deliver a long and boring lecture without leaving any room for discussion and personal engagement of the truths being presented. Like any imperfect model, Sunday school certainly has its weaknesses.

SUNDAY SCHOOL: STRENGTHS

Still, I am convinced that, when it comes to the educational component of discipleship, the Sunday school model holds the most promise, for a number of reasons.

1. Making the Most of the Gathering

First, having a meeting on campus (when possible) and close to worship time takes advantage of the fact that believers are already gathered. The educational opportunities during the time surrounding the worship time are many.

A few years ago, a friend asked me to consider transitioning our church from traditional Sunday school to community groups. I’m always open to exploring new ideas, so I called some leaders in churches with community groups. The results surprised me. Whereas our church had 80 percent of the congregation attending a Sunday school class each week, many of these churches only had 50 percent of the congregation enrolled in a small group, and out of that 50 percent only 60 percent were attending in any given week. I quickly realized that the Sunday school model, with all its problems, was probably the strongest, at least in terms of its ability to equip the most people in our congregation. I could either blow it up and try something untested or I could make better use of the fact that 80 percent of our congregation was already meeting in smaller groups. I chose the latter option.

2. An opportunity to give concentrated biblical teaching to our children

The Sunday school model began as a missionary effort to teach children how to read the Bible. The beauty of the Sunday school model today is that children can learn the Bible at age-appropriate levels. In the other models, the children often get shuffled away into a room to watch a movie while the adults do Bible study and community. These churches still recognize the need for some level of age-appropriate teaching for children, so they compensate by doing a children’s worship service that can easily result in dividing the church body and failing to incorporate children into the life of the church as a whole. Sunday school makes it possible for children to get age-specific teaching and be a part of the church community in worship. (Adults and teenagers also benefit. Teaching a children’s class can be great training ground for church leadership. James K.A. Smith, when asked by a seminary student what one should be doing to become a theologian replied, “That’s easy: teach third-grade Sunday school.”)

3. Keeping the Model Flexible

Despite the perception that Sunday school is done in a one-size-fits-all manner, the model is actually quite adaptable and flexible. There is not one right way to do Sunday school. Churches must consider their ministry context in light of the Scriptures in order to determine how best to accomplish the educational aspect of discipleship. This adaptability is evident in the various practices associated with the Sunday school model.

For example, some churches choose to do both Sunday school (for Bible study) and small groups (for personal accountability). Others utilize the Sunday school hour for Bible study and then the group meets off campus for fellowship and accountability. Some do inductive-Bible studies, while others do topically-driven courses, almost like a mini-seminary. Some churches orient their groups by age group or life stage, while others pursue multi-generational Sunday school classes. Still others advocate separating men and women in pursuit of a Titus 2 type of relationship that will lead to growth and discipleship. Some classes are small and others quite large. Some rooms have chairs arranged in rows, while others have chairs arranged in circles. Even within the same church, you can often find multiple variations of Sunday school. The elasticity of the model makes it useful in a number of contexts.

CONCLUSION

I know of a pastor of a large church who for many years championed the use of off-campus small groups. Recently, he announced a new development in the church’s small group practice: “We’re going to move our small groups on campus, so that we can do a better job with the kids! Not only that, it’s going to be easier to go to a small group, since it will meet around the worship service time.” A friend chuckled and told him, “Brother, you’ve just gone back to Sunday school.”

In this article, I have examined how well three kinds of meetings accomplish the educational aspect of Christian discipleship. It is true that Bible study is not the only ingredient in discipleship. There is certainly a need for small group accountability as well as missional engagement. The problem is that often churches expect too much from one program. Instead, we ought to be adaptable and flexible regarding our methods, taking care not to champion something just because it’s new or to cling to something just because it is old. Let’s examine their strengths and weaknesses in light of the Scriptures and move forward with a model that is effective for our particular contexts.

About the author:

Trevin Wax is managing editor of The Gospel Project for LifeWay Resources and is the author, most recently, of Counterfeit Gospels (Moody, 2011).

By Garrett Kell

Not Your Grandma’s Sunday School

What if your church had a different way of doing adult Sunday school?

For some, this idea is unthinkable. According to grandma, Sunday school has been a standard in church life since the days of Adam and Eve. To exchange it for a new and flashy trend would, at the least, be considered a travesty. What would we do without fresh coffee and a place for us to share our opinion about what the Bible means? How could we ever have true fellowship if we traded in our discussion hour for something else? How would young adults meet other young adults or how would those gray-haired saints find encouragement to keep pressing on toward heaven?

These are all valid questions, and they reflect a deep love for a system that has and will continue to bless many people. But if the traditional form of Sunday school is indeed a beloved blessing, then why propose an alternative?

YOU’VE GOT 3 TO 5 YEARS

Imagine if a member of your church came to you and said, “You’ve got me for 3 to 5 years before my job will take me elsewhere. Teach me everything I need to know.” What would you do with that person? You know he or she will hear good expositional preaching from the pulpit weekly, but how would you use the “Sunday school hour” to equip, encourage, and exhort them toward Christian maturity?

That scenario is exactly what we face in our church. Due to the transience of our city, most people are part of our congregation for roughly 3 to 5 years. In light of this, we’ve developed an intentional curriculum we call Core Seminars.

HOW IT WORKS

This is how it works on any given Sunday morning: Everyone assembles together at 9:30 to hear a brief description of the classes that will be taught that morning. After this, people break and head to the class of their choosing to listen to a 45-minute lecture about a particular area of the Christian life. During the lecture there are usually a few opportunities to ask questions, but for the most part, people listen and take notes. When it’s all over, everyone gathers upstairs for the Sunday morning worship service.

That’s what Sunday morning feels like. But here’s the larger structure:

At present, we have 24 different courses, most of which are 13 weeks long.

• The lessons are grouped into 6 major tracks: Membership Matters, Christian Basics, Bible Overview, History and Theology, Christian Life, and Christian Growth.

• These tracks are designed to be taken in this order, but anyone can jump in at any time and still benefit.

• Each semester we offer 8 different classes. At least one class is offered from each track.

• The lessons for each class have been written in full manuscript form over the course of a decade by elders, staff, and laymen.

• The lessons are taught by some of those same men, but also by other laymen in our church. This format provides a good opportunity for emerging teachers and leaders to grow.

• We have an elder who oversees all the content in those manuscripts and the quality of the teaching.

• The classes are attended primarily by people 7th grade and up. We offer Bible-focused classes for children 6th grade and under.

• Download our Core Seminar brochure to learn more.

At first glance, this might sound like a pretty unattractive alternative to the traditional model. Who wants to sit and listen to a lecture about theology? Who wants to have one person yak for an hour in the place of the community contributing? Who wants to share a classroom with people who aren’t in their same stage of life? You’d be surprised. In fact, when the Lord calls someone away from our church, it’s not uncommon for them to point to Core Seminars as a major instrument God used to help them grow in maturity.

WHAT ABOUT FELLOWSHIP?

Having heard all of this, the question about fellowship may still be lingering for you. One of the strengths of the traditional model is that it often facilitates Christ-honoring relationships. While this may be true, I’d like to suggest that we shouldn’t rely too heavily on a one-hour meeting on Sunday morning to cultivate that kind of fellowship.

Instead, the life of the church throughout the week should be devoted to building deep, authentic, gospel-centered relationships. In our church, we call it a culture of discipling. This means that our members are committed to actively, intentionally, and prayerfully applying the gospel to each other’s lives on a daily basis. The Core Seminars only help to fuel this.

How? The theological training received in the Core Seminar flows over into the relationships within our church. Also, we encourage people to take younger Christians through the Core Seminar program with them, and then discuss the lessons together. The truths people learn characterize their conversations and the application of those truths becomes the focus of their service together.

While there is no system that is perfect, the Core Seminar model is certainly a worth consideration. And you never know, even Grandma might be blessed by it.

About the author:

Garrett Kell is an assistant pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

By Juan Sanchez

How to Reform a Sunday School Program

For many Christians, Sunday school is a staple of church life. But what do you do when that staple isn’t as healthy as it should be?

ADAPTING THE TRADITIONAL MODEL

By God’s grace, the Holy Spirit used a faithful Sunday school teacher to lead me to Christ at the end of my senior year in high school. As a new Baptist, I was taught that Sunday school was one of the marks of a healthy Baptist church. As a pastor, I’ve come to realize that one of the confusing aspects of Sunday school is its communicated purpose: is Sunday school “the outreach arm of the church” (see, for example, The Growth Spiral: The Proven Step by Step Method for Calculating and Predicting Growth Potential in Your Church); or is it the place for in-depth Bible study?

I experienced this outreach/discipleship tension in my first pastorate. The church had historically embraced the idea of using Sunday school as an outreach program. The problem was, new and growing Christians in the church wanted a venue for biblical growth in addition to the regular preaching ministry.

How did we address this problem at that church?

Since it was a context where each class was free to choose from any curriculum that Lifeway offered, we introduced different learning tracks: introductory, maturing, and leader. We strengthened the traditional Sunday school by recruiting excellent teachers to teach through the Bible systematically, still using Lifeway curriculum. This move encouraged our older members who preferred the traditional Sunday school program because it communicated to them that we cared for them. It also opened the door for others to participate in the new tracks and grow in their faith.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH

At the other end of the spectrum, High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas where I now serve, had adopted a small group discipleship model and had no Sunday school when I arrived. After a period of observation and assessment, I realized our small groups were all over the map in matters of content selection, depth of teaching, and even purpose. Though many small groups were healthy and provided a vital ministry to members, some needed strengthening. Additionally, a majority of our membership was not involved in a small group. Finally, there were certain practical areas that needed to be addressed immediately in our congregation.

So the elders concluded that, in addition to the regular preaching ministry and small group discipleship, we needed a venue for purposeful and consistent biblical teaching that was directed by the elders and that would allow us to teach our congregation to apply the gospel to all matters of faith and life. Thus, our “LIFE Institute” was born. Modeled after Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s “Core Seminars,” we developed classes that allowed the elders to address congregational deficiencies through biblical teaching. Initially we offered only one class on Sunday morning that addressed an immediate concern (marriage), along with a nursery for our preschoolers and classes for younger and older children.

I taught the first class in addition to my preaching responsibilities because I wanted to model what “this new idea” would look like. By God’s grace, we now have an associate pastor on staff who is responsible for discipleship and who oversees our LIFE Institute. Our associate pastor coordinates which elders will teach each class. He also coordinates the selection of potential teachers by partnering them with our main teachers. So, our LIFE Institute also provides a training ground for future teachers.

In addition to the nursery and the children’s classes, this semester we offered Old Testament Survey (Basics Track); God, Your Heart, and Your Money (Living Biblically Track); Personal Evangelism (Missions Track); and a classed based on D. A. Carson’s, The God Who is There (Youth Emphasis Track).

Unlike the traditional Sunday school, however, all our classes are multigenerational. So an entire family (including infants and children) may decide to attend “The God Who is There,” or they may wish to learn about biblical stewardship as a family. We have found that this model encourages families who are committed to being together on Sundays. Also, in addition to blessing our singles and youth, this model encourages parents who prefer that their children learn in a more traditional Sunday school context. (For more information about High Pointe’s LIFE Institute, click here.)

SOME PRACTICAL LESSONS FOR THE PASTOR

Here are a number of lessons distilled from my experience of adapting a traditional Sunday school program and starting a new one.

Building Blocks

• Preach faithfully from the Bible. The church will get to know you, and trust you, through your preaching.

• Get to know your congregation before you make changes. Find out why the church does what it does.

• Remind the church often of the good in its history and practices, and build on it.

• Restrain yourself from criticizing the way thing have been done.

• Don’t present yourself as the pastor who’s going to “save” this church.

• Teacher Development

• Recruit the best teachers for all your classes.

• Always be training new teachers.

• Partner weaker but much-loved teachers with strong but humble teachers

• Remove teachers who teach contrary to the church’s statement of faith.

Introducing Something New

• When it’s time to introduce something new, pray. Ask for the Spirit’s guidance.

• Discern your own heart: why do you want to do what you want to do?

• Study the Bible. Work out where you want to lead the church in your own study/prayer.

• Teach from the Bible about the changes you want to make. Teach your leaders about the direction you want to lead the church, and pray about it together. And lead the congregation in the new direction through lots of teaching and corporate prayer.

• Communicate, communicate, communicate! Use every opportunity to communicate changes. You can never over-communicate.

• Listen to the critics: they may be missing the bull’s eye, but they’re probably hitting the target somewhere.

• Patiently model what your new plan looks like. Some people need to “see” what you’re talking about. This may mean that you should teach the first class.

• Be patient. Lead the people to where you think they should be; don’t drive them there.

• Admit mistakes and ask forgiveness.

• Give God the glory for any fruit your Sunday school is bearing. Encourage your people by reflecting on how the Lord is blessing your church’s efforts.

About the author:

Juan Sanchez is the senior pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.

By Jonathan Leeman

Whatever the Model, Don’t Be Afraid to Teach

Let’s say there are two basic things you can accomplish with the adult Sunday school hour: create fellowship or teach content. And let’s say that, to some measure, the more you do of one, the less you do of the other.

CREATE FELLOWSHIP

Down at the “create fellowship” end of the spectrum you have a Sunday School class whose membership stays the same.

• It’s a class with a certain permanent teacher, maybe a class name, and you “join” the class.

• The first 5 to 15 minutes of the class are spent informally chatting. The next 10 to 15 are spent taking prayer requests and praying. The last 30 to 40 minutes are spent on a lesson, and a lot of this time is discussion.

• The goal here is to teach content, yes, but it’s also to create a sense of belonging, engagement, and fellowship.

• People talk of “doing things” with their “Sunday school class” outside of class, from watching the Super Bowl to service projects.

All in all, the term “Sunday school class” is used to refer to a group of people, the same we use the word “church.” Indeed, such classes are often a church within the church.

TEACH CONTENT

Down at the “teach content” end of the spectrum you have a lectern, a lecturer, maybe a manuscript, and rows of folding chairs—more if the teacher is good; less if he’s not.

• The class is not permanent, but only lasts for a set duration, like a quarter or a semester. When the time is up, people choose another class with another teacher, a different topic, a different set of attendees, and probably a different classroom. The whole thing works more like a college or seminary curriculum.

• For the most part, the teacher teaches. He may ask questions and take questions, but the majority of the time is spent downloading content.

• The goal of this class is to teach.

With this model, the term “Sunday school class” is not used to refer to the people, but to the teaching event.

I’ve described the far ends of the spectrum, and obviously there are many churches which do something in between, or both. For instance, I’ve attended a number of churches which have permanent classes, but which do their best to download good content during the hour. In seminary I attended a Sunday school that was structured in the first way (it was a permanent group), but the teacher did a fantastic job of presenting great content every week.

COUNSEL FOR BOTH MODELS

No matter how your Sunday School program is structured, I’d like to offer three words of counsel:

1. Be strategic.

Both of the above goals are fine and biblically allowable. But you need to recognize what you are doing, and consider how that fits into your larger discipleship goals. Be thoughtful and strategic whatever you are doing.

So take a look at what your church is corporately doing at other times of the week. Consider how much time is devoted to teaching and how much to fellowship. And then use the Sunday school hour to greatest effect.

My own church meets again on Sunday evenings, which plays a large role in creating fellowship. That leaves the Sunday school hour free to download content. Lots of content. Lots of really, really good content.

2. Supplement your weakness.

Furthermore, figure out a way to supplement the weakness of either approach.

If your Sunday school is one permanent group going through curriculum, move the bulk of the fellowship to outside the Sunday school hour. You can accomplish great teaching and good fellowship, but not in one hour. Let your group get to meaty Bible content during class and then focus on doing life together outside of class. That way, the hour of digging into the Scriptures when you’re together allows you to see the spiritual growth of your group members.

If your Sunday school is the seminary/semester model, then you want to make sure you’re finding other ways to cultivate fellowship in the church.

Both Sunday school as the event or Sunday school as the group can work. But you’ll need to recognize the shortcomings of either approach and work to supplement them.

3. Don’t be afraid to teach.

In the first two points, I have been neutral between the two models because the Bible is neutral. But here’s my prudential advice: use your adult Sunday school to teach! Teach has much as you can, and as systematically as you can. And I think you should do this no matter how your program is structured.

If the only teaching your congregation receives in the course of a week is a forty-five minute sermon, and maybe a little bit in their small groups, they’re not learning much. You could be teaching them so much more, and you just may be missing a big opportunity.

Focusing your class on instruction instead of fellowship might require you to change a culture, but if you’re a pastor, that’s okay, you’re in the culture-changing business! If more and more pastors put a little more confidence in their call to teach, and to equip others to teach, Christians would increasingly view that as normal.

About the author:

Jonathan Leeman is editorial director of 9Marks and is the author, most recently, of Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus (Crossway, forthcoming) and Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus (Crossway, forthcoming).

By Jamie Dunlop

Sunday School for Dummies: How to Use and Develop New Teachers

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.

Our solution? We have adapted our adult Sunday school program to accommodate less-qualified teachers. Aside from filling a class schedule, this enables us to train more men to teach, which carries additional benefits.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE FOR DEVELOPING NEW SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS

As our adult Sunday school program has matured, we have learned a number of tricks of the trade for developing inexperienced teachers. Here are a few of the more salient lessons:

1. Ask new teachers to teach from a manuscript.

We’ve found over the years that while teaching from a manuscript is unnatural for most new teachers, with some practice most can learn to do this in a way that is engaging and compelling. If we must choose, we would rather have material that is biblically sound but presented dryly than a compelling speaker teaching heresy or fluff. And, over time, with a manuscript our teachers can generally provide the best of both worlds.

This isn’t just our church’s experience. Prior to working as a full-time pastor, I ran a line of business at an executive education firm. There also, the dozens of new teachers who started with the company each year began by teaching from a manuscript, and for largely the same reasons. The integrity of the content was virtually guaranteed, and new teachers could quickly learn to be engaging with a manuscript.

Of course, this approach to teaching has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• Quality control. As a pastor, I can review any manuscript before it is taught. And if I hear concerns about a class that was taught, I can review the manuscript to figure out exactly what was said.

• Time management. One of a new teacher’s greatest pitfalls is that they try to squeeze too much material into too little time. Limiting the number of words in a manuscript (say 4000 words for a 45 minute class) is a substantial help.

• Continuous improvement. Each new teacher who picks up a manuscript has the opportunity to change it and improve it. By maintaining a word-for-word manuscript, these improvements are captured over time.

• Time investment. Having a manuscript by no means eliminates preparation time for teaching a class, but it certainly reduces it.

One potential disadvantage worth mentioning:

• Class engagement. Teaching from a manuscript has the potential to make a class very dull, so we do a few things to minimize this risk. First, we ask new teachers to read a manuscript out loud at least two or three times before they teach it at church. As teachers get used to teaching from a manuscript, this type of preparation becomes less necessary. Second, once each year we run a teaching clinic to help teachers teach from a manuscript in an engaging way. Third, we encourage teachers to break from the manuscript every now and then, especially when they are sharing a personal story as an illustration.

1. Adopt a master-teacher, rather than discussion-based, approach.

A discussion-based class is less predictable and thus much more difficult to manage than a class where the majority of the talking is from the teacher at the front of the class. As a result, most of the adult Sunday school classes at our church are based on a master-teacher approach, and the few that are more conversational in nature are taught by more experienced teachers.

The master-teacher approach has additional benefits as well. By relying primarily on what the teacher has to say rather than what the class has to say, we are able to communicate more material in the short time that we have. And this approach makes it clear that we are most interested in hearing what the teacher has to say rather than what the class has to say. After all, the teacher is the one selected by the elders based on his understanding of the content, and the teacher is the one who spent several hours preparing for the class.

But, you might say, people learn better in an interactive environment, don’t they? Maybe you’ve heard the statistics which say that people retain 10% of what they read, 30% of what they hear, and 70% of what they discuss. As it turns out, these figures are not grounded in any kind of research and have been disproved repeatedly.[4] People can refine their ability to learn from a monologue. After all, the primary teaching methods we see in the New Testament are sermons and letters designed to be read to churches—both monologues by their very nature.

Of course, a master-teacher approach does have its drawbacks. Here are some of the disadvantages of this style and some ways we’ve tried to compensate:

• Master-teacher style can be un-engaging. We strongly encourage our teachers to not only stop for questions, but to periodically ask the class a question or two. One best practice for starting a class is to ask a question of the class in which the answer gets to the main teaching point of the class. This helps the class to wake up, engages them in the content, and gives them a preview of what is about to be taught. Of course, the best questions rarely have a clear “right” answer but instead engender discussion by inviting multiple people to voice their perspectives.

• People often prefer talking to listening. A class billed as “discussion-oriented” will often garner more interest than one billed as a “lecture.” I suppose the only thing that will ultimately change this attitude is your people’s experience benefiting from lecture-based classes. To help, however, we equip our teachers at our annual teacher training session with an explanation of why we prefer the master-teacher format so they in turn can explain our reasoning when asked.

2. Adopt a team-teaching approach for each class.

A final strategy for helping inexperienced teachers to teach effectively is to ensure that at least two men are responsible for teaching each class. Ideally, one of them (the “lead” teacher) has more experience and one of them (the “supporting” teacher) is new to public teaching. In some of our classes, we actually have three different men teach so that we can train more men in the skill of teaching.

Below are some of the expectations for lead and supporting teachers that we’ve established over time.

3. Lead Teacher Expectations

• Attend every class, even when not teaching.

• Meet with the supporting teacher at least once every other week (can be by phone) to exchange feedback and discuss how the class is going.

• Provide ultimate ownership for the class manuscript, reviewing all substantive changes by the supporting teacher and ensuring that a copy of the manuscripts is sent to the church office once the class is complete.

• Commit to being the lead teacher for at least three years (barring unforeseen circumstances, of course).

Supporting Teacher Expectations

• Attend every class, even when not teaching.

• When teaching, provide a copy of the manuscript to the lead teacher so that the lead teacher can differentiate between extemporaneous comments and material in the manuscript.

• Meet with the lead teacher at least once every two weeks.

Sometimes the lead teacher is responsible for the majority of teaching. But many of our lead teachers, having embraced their role as coaches, prefer to do the minority of teaching so that more opportunities can be given to helping a new teacher learn how to teach.

About the author:

Jamie Dunlop is an associate pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

By Michael Kelley

Five Things Every Group Leader Should Do

Last Sunday I walked into a classroom in our church’s building. There were 75 empty chairs and a dry erase board at the front, and I had the same thought I do most every week: “Help me, Jesus.”

It’s intimidating to be a leader of a group, whether you are leading a home-based small group, a Sunday school class, or some other kind of church gathering. If you don’t feel this way, then maybe you should reconsider what you’ve been tasked to do: You are the leader for this group of people. If there is a question regarding a biblical text, you’re the de facto authority. It is largely in your hands whether that hour or so will be well spent or wasted. You are going to stand before a group of human beings and help move them forward in their Christian walk. And then one day you will stand before God and re-evaluate together how it all went (Heb. 13:17; James 3:1)

Feeling it yet? I hope so, because you should. It’s a weighty task, and one that deserves great care. That nervousness is healthy, because it’s really just a reflection of what you (and probably your group) know to be true—you aren’t smart enough, entertaining enough, or talented enough to bring about real spiritual change.

That’s actually good news, if you let it be. It can either move you to paralysis and endless second guessing, or it can move you to deeper dependence and faith.

FIVE TIPS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS

If you believe that God has put this group of people together for this purpose, then the best way to exercise that faith is to work hard. To get better. To make sure you are doing everything you can to embrace the Spirit of God who speaks through what God has spoken. In light of that, here are five things every group leader should put into practice.

1. Over-prepare, then limit yourself.

The resources are out there for the taking. Never before has so much information been available so easily. You can access commentaries, teaching plans, and sermons from hundreds of resources online. After you start doing your research, you’ll quickly find out which of these resources best serve your own preparation and you’ll return to those again and again. And when you do, you’ll find that it’s no longer a struggle to fill your class time. The bigger struggle you’ll have is limiting your scope.

That limitation is important or your class will simply become the means by which you show everybody how smart you are. That’s a fail. Instead, articulate to yourself in writing what your main point is, after deriving it from your personal study. Then use that main point as a gate for all the other information.

2. Foster an atmosphere of openness and discussion.

Instead of thinking about the most effective way you can teach, think instead about what question you might ask in order to help someone else in your group articulate the information. It’s okay if you stand at the front and simply give out the information, but it will be a more engaging and memorable experience if people come to the same conclusion seemingly on their own. After all, the goal is for truth to be expounded.

3. Let people tell their stories.

Often if I’m leading a group in which people seem to be shy or have trouble participating in discussion, I’ll ask the group for a personal example of something that relates to the larger point, then use that personal experience to springboard into a larger discussion:

• “What is one time on a vacation when your plans didn’t go exactly right?” (for moving into a discussion of patience)

• “Tell us about a time when your children did something that genuinely made you happy.” (for moving into a discussion about obedience and love)

Using these stories fosters the kind of open atmosphere you’re looking for and, at the same time, makes people more willing and confident in contributing.

4. Pray for your group. Specifically.

In a group where discussion is fostered, you’ll inevitably come to learn things about people’s lives. As those things come up, write them down. Pray for them throughout the week. Then, the next week, pull the person aside and ask them more about their situation. Not only is there incredible value in caring for people like this, it also links them emotionally to what’s going on in your group.

5. Think about the future.

To really think about the future of the people that God has entrusted to you, you goal must be bigger than seeing how big or popular your group could become. You have to recognize that your group will have people who will be able to lead their own groups in the future. If your focus is on that future, your work of equipping future leaders will become regular part of what you do. Give them opportunities to lead the discussions and teach the lessons. Help them by evaluating with them how things went. And then work with them to move them into greater leadership roles in the future. It’s about multiplication, not addition.

Leading a group is an immense responsibility. It’s one that should be crafted and honed; one in which you and I can both grow. But by seeking that growth actively, we demonstrate our faith not in our ability to lead or teach, but in the God who has given us this responsibility.

About the author:

Michael Kelley is a Bible study editor for Lifeway Christian Resources, an elder at Grace Community Church in Brentwood, Tennessee, and the author, most recently, of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal (B&H, forthcoming 2012).

By Bobby Jamieson

The Advantages of Curriculum

One of the perennial challenges a pastor faces regarding Sunday school is the question of what to teach. That question is relevant not just to the week-by-week routine, but also to the longer-term life of the church. But whatever the long-term strategy, the question of what to teach every week is an acute one.

My simple goal in this article is to point out the potential advantages of using curriculum in your church’s adult Sunday school.

By “curriculum” I don’t necessarily mean something published by a denomination or tied to a yearly schedule. Rather, I simply mean pre-prepared teaching materials that cover a topic or a portion of Scripture in a set number of studies.

A caveat: There’s a lot of bad curriculum out there. In fact, it seems safe say that bad curriculum is one of the reasons many churches have abandoned Sunday school altogether. Clearly my commendation of curriculum applies only to good curriculum, curriculum that is first of all faithful to Scripture. Further, curriculum should be clear, substantial, straightforward, and relatively easy to pick up and use.

Where can you find such curriculum? Here are a few suggestions: Matthias Media, The Good Book Company, Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s Core Seminars, 9Marks’ forthcoming Healthy Church Study Guides and Church Essentials (a resource based on What is a Healthy Church?), and the forthcoming LifeWay curriculum called “The Gospel Project.”

THE ADVANTAGES OF CURRICULUM

What are the advantages of curriculum? I’ll mention three.

1. It saves time.

First, it saves time. At Capitol Hill Baptist Church, for example, dozens of men have invested thousands of hours in writing a set of Core Seminars that takes about four years to teach through if you stand it end-to-end. All the manuscripts and handouts are free for the taking online, and other churches are welcome to use and adapt the material as they see fit.

Why reinvent the wheel? If you want to teach a class on Bible overview, or systematic theology, or church history, or evangelism, or biblical counseling, or discipleship, or parenting, why not reap the benefits of others’ labor? You can always improve the material and adapt it to your context as you like. That’s a whole lot easier, and quicker, than coming up with the outline for course and preparing every class from scratch.

Every pastor feels the pinch of time when it comes to teaching prep. Using theologically trustworthy curriculum is a great way to free up your and other church leaders’ time while still delivering solid supplemental teaching every week.

I should add that I wouldn’t apply the same logic—using somebody else’s manuscript to save time—to a sermon. First, Scripture seems to suggest that a pastor’s preaching should be the overflow of his own scriptural study (2 Tim. 2:15). Second, a good sermon applies the text in ways that are specific to the congregation. You can’t truly shepherd a church with an imported sermon. A Sunday school class, being more informationally driven, loses less when its contents were not tailored to a specific church. Finally, it seems that most people expect that a Sunday school class can make use of materials that weren’t developed by the teacher, just as teachers in various other contexts make use of curriculum. But people generally expect that a sermon is an original work, which means that preaching someone else’s sermon as if it were yours is plagiarism.

2. It’s helpful for new teachers.

Second, it’s helpful for new teachers. With trustworthy curriculum, you can be more confident in the content than if an inexperienced teacher prepared a lesson from scratch.

Further, teaching a ready-made lesson is a much less daunting task for a new teacher than coming up with forty-five minutes’ worth of content themselves. It’s a whole lot easier for most teachers to learn the contents of a manuscript or lesson than to create them.

Thus, curriculum can be a great tool for training new teachers. And teaching a ready-made class can be a useful stepping stone into more challenging territory. (For more on how to develop Sunday School teachers, see Jamie Dunlop’s article in this journal.)

3. It can generate more interest among the congregation.

Third, curriculum can generate more interest among the congregation. Some Sunday school classes feature long, meandering treks through books of the Bible. On the other hand, Sunday school can turn into a miscellaneous grab bag of whatever the pastor or other leader feels like teaching. I’m not at all saying that slow, in-depth Bible exposition is out of place in Sunday school—far from it. Done well, it can be a rich blessing to the church. Though, along with the far more egregious grab bag approach, it has its drawbacks. For example, if you’re not in the class from the beginning, it can seem a little daunting to jump in right at Exodus 18:4.

Curriculum, on the other hand, opens the door to well-defined, time-limited, fairly brief classes. And both the shorter time commitment and the (often) topical focus can generate more interest.

Rotating through topics and classes on a regular basis provides a consistent opportunity to invite new people to attend the classes. Whenever a new class comes up, you can introduce it to the congregation and invite people to attend, even and especially people who are not in the habit of coming to Sunday school. Many church members will be interested in a new class on biblical counseling who weren’t eager to parachute into the middle of Exodus with no end in sight.

TAKE UP AND TEACH

I’m sure there are other advantages of curriculum, though I think the first one is probably the most pressing for most pastors.

Of course I’m not suggesting that churches should only use outside curriculum. Material that’s specifically tailored to the present needs of your congregation can be a very important and even crucial resource, especially if you’re leading through a season of significant change.

But on a wide range of subjects, there’s a growing amount of solid, ready-to-use material out there, much of it free. So take up and teach!

About the author:

Bobby Jamieson is assistant editor for 9Marks and is the author of the 9Marks Healthy Church Study Guides (Crossway, forthcoming).

Reviewed by J. Mack Stiles

Bringing the Gospel Home

Randy Newman, Bringing the Gospel Home: Witnessing to Your Family Members, Close Friends, and Others Who Know You Well. Crossway, 2011. 224 pages. $14.99

As the title suggests, Randy Newman’s latest book hits close to the heart. Bringing the Gospel Home: Witnessing to Family Members Close Friends and Others Who Know You Well takes on that thorniest of issues in evangelism: sharing your faith with people who know you’re a sinner from firsthand experience.

A BOOK ON EVANGELISM THAT HITS CLOSE TO HOME

What Christian committed to evangelism isn’t concerned about family members who don’t know Christ? Who has shared the gospel with family members without a heightened sense of the cost of rejection? And who but the most hardhearted wonder how to respond to, say, Uncle Don at the next Thanksgiving meal (or, in Newman’s case, the next Passover Seder) after a testy conversation about “religion”?

A Warm, Winsome, Practical, Commendable Book

Newman has written a warm and winsome book with a deep understanding of all these issues and more.

The book has a helpful, albeit unexpected, layout. Rather than dealing with various family relationships as the topics of the chapters, each chapter takes a universal principle in evangelism for its title, such as family, grace, truth, love humility, time, and eternity.

Each chapter follows a similar pattern: a short discourse on biblical principles regarding the topic of the chapter, followed by relevant stories and examples, and then a thoughtful concluding section called “Steps to Take.”

The scope of the book is commendable. There are a wide variety of stories about non-believing spouses, wayward children, antagonistic aunts, and more. Examples of sharing with people from different faith backgrounds are dealt with sensitively. There are suggestions on pastoral counseling and prayer, helpful ideas about role playing, and listening exercises. Newman could not cover every topic, of course, but I was left wondering what light he might shed on sharing the faith with small children.

As I read the book I found myself wishing for another thing too: that Newman had written this book years ago when I was a brash new convert abrading my family with my new faith. I had much to learn about sharing my faith in love, and about how to ask questions and actually listen to the answers before doing a “theology dump” on loved ones. I certainly wish I could have developed a healthy “nonengagement” policy, as Newman says, to avoid succumbing to manipulations of family members who can push buttons.

Hope and Love

I also resonated with Newman’s reasons for hope in evangelism, knowing that our evangelistic efforts, regardless of our failings, have more to do with God and the power of his gospel than they do with us. I know this hope personally, as I led both of my sisters to Christ despite my failings and outright sin. It’s been a lifetime privilege that makes all the awkwardness and angst of family evangelism worthwhile—and it provides a hopeful reminder for me about those family members who do not yet believe.

Hope is not a chapter title in Newman’s book, but a theme woven throughout the book. The same could be said about love (though love is the subject of chapter 4). And so the book takes on a tone of love and hopefulness that is important in our cynical age of pragmatic evangelism. Newman calls for joy-based apologetics, too: he wants the goodness of God to find a place in our outreach efforts. Throughout the book Newman exhorts us to preach the gospel of grace rather than a gospel of venom.

Not Just Success Stories

This is no “every-time-I-share-my-faith-is-a-success” book on evangelism. In fact, Newman’s greatest and most humorous stories come from his own failures in evangelism.

One of my favorite stories is how Newman’s mother comes to faith through a book a friend had given her—a book Newman had given his mom years before that went unread and unappreciated. What was it Jesus said about the prophet’s honor at home? But the joy of his mother’s conversion overshadows the irony, for both Newman and the reader. Perhaps the best parts of the book are Newman’s willingness to be self-depreciating about his personal attempts in witnessing.

Biblical Understanding

But there is more in that than Newman’s humble heart. Newman has a solid grasp of biblical truth about evangelism: God is the focus above self, and the gospel above pragmatics. I especially appreciated Newman’s clear statements underscoring the exclusive claims of Jesus, as well as his calls for Christians to be wary of sacrificing truth on the altar of cultural relevance.

Because of Newman’s biblical understanding of evangelism he is able to deal with issues beyond family evangelism, such as applying grace to any believer who experiences guilt in evangelism.

A MINOR QUIBBLE

I have one minor quibble. For all the scriptural insights about the gospel and deeply touching stories of sharing the gospel, it would have been helpful to spend a bit more time in explaining the gospel. The author would not need to say much more than, “the gospel is the message from God that leads us into salvation and that message is crystallized, or distilled in this outline…” and then explain a brief summary about God’s character, our condition, Christ work, and our response.

Newman does refer to the gospel outline “creation, fall, redemption, and consummation,” which is fine. But in this age when the gospel is so assumed and evangelism so programmatic it’s good to have the gospel clearly spelled out, something the author calls for himself.

He says, “We learn from Paul that we cannot preach the gospel of Jesus without the doctrine of God, or the cross without the creation, or salvation without judgment” (83). To this I give a hearty amen. It’s just that I’m not sure that it would be clear to a non-Christian who read the book about how to become a Christian. Or, perhaps more in line with Newman’s audience, that after reading this book a new Christian would be able to clearly articulate the gospel in an evangelistic conversation. Perhaps there is more of a problem with our culture of evangelism than the book. I’m certainly not saying that the gospel isn’t contained throughout the book—it is. I’m making, after all, a minor quibble.

AN ENGAGING BOOK FILLED WITH WISDOM AND LIGHT

Newman has written an engaging book filled with wisdom and light. It’s a book that would be helpful for new Christians, for, as Newman points out, our first attempts at evangelism are often with those closest to us. It’s also a book for older Christians who might feel stymied in their attempts to share their faith with family. Then again, it’s a book for any believer who desires to speak of the love of God shown to repentant sinners who put their faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.

About the author:

Mack Stiles lives in Dubai with his wife Leeann, where he works as the CEO for Gulf Digital Solutions. They are the proud parents of three sons. Mack serves as an elder of Redeemer Church of Dubai and as the General Secretary of the IFES (parachurch) movement in the United Arab Emirates. Mack is the author of a number of books, including Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel (IVP, 2010).

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Being Conformed to Christ in Community

James G. Samra, Being Conformed to Christ in Community: A Study of Maturity, Maturation, and the Local Church in the Undisputed Pauline Epistles. T&T Clark, 2008. 280 pages. $49.95

There aren’t many doctoral dissertations which are directly relevant to the work of pastoral ministry. This review, however, is about one of them: Jim Samra’s book Being Conformed to Christ in Community, which is the published version of his 2004 Oxford DPhil thesis.

Actually, this isn’t really a book review; it’s more an exercise in theological mining. Down in the caves of academic New Testament study, a work of real value for pastors has been forged. Yet its gems lie buried under mountains of footnotes, discussions of Greek syntax, and extensive interaction with other scholars.

The point of this review, then, is simply to summarize, interact with, and apply the fruits of Samra’s study to pastoral ministry. To shift metaphors, I’m aiming to bring the cookies down a couple shelves. Samra, senior minister at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has already done some of that in his excellent, popular-level book The Gift of Church (click here for a review). But I think there are a few more good cookies left on the shelf.

BIG PICTURE

After an introductory chapter which surveys previous scholarship, Samra considers

• whether or not Paul’s apostolic commission included bringing believers to maturity in Christ (Ch. 2);

• what Paul sees as the marks, standard, and process of maturity (Ch. 3);

• the central motif of maturity for Paul: conformity to Christ (Ch. 4);

• five components of the maturation process (Ch. 5);

• and the role of the local church in the maturation process (Ch. 6).

Here’s Samra’s bottom line, from the book’s preface:

The study originated as an attempt to answer the question, “Why did Paul start churches?” The answer that this work proposes is that Paul worked diligently to begin and maintain churches because he felt he was responsible for delivering mature believers on the day of Christ and that church was the place where and the means through which believers would come to maturity. (xi)

FIVE THESES ON BEING CONFORMED TO CHRIST IN COMMUNITY

That’s the big picture; now for some specifics. Before we dig any deeper, I should note that Samra’s work is almost purely descriptive. So all the “therefore’s”—all the implications for church life in what follows—are mine. Though I hope Samra could say “Amen” to each of them. (And in fact he recently did so by email.)

1. Paul’s apostolic commission included delivering believers mature in Christ on the last day.

The burden of chapter two is the question of whether Paul’s commission as an apostle included only evangelistic preaching, or also the ongoing nurture of communities of believers. Samra rightly argues the latter. For example, he draws from Philippians 2:12-16, in which Paul exhorts the Philippian church to work out their salvation with fear and trembling (vv. 12-13) and, unlike the grumbling Israelites, to be blameless and hold fast the word of life in the midst of a dark world (vv. 14-16). This is all so that on the day of Christ, “Paul will be able to boast that he has not run or labored in vain. This must indicate that Paul sees himself as responsible for the delivery of ‘blameless’ people on the day of Christ” (40).

Samra’s clearly biblical point here may seem obvious. But how much do your church’s mission efforts reflect a commitment to present believers mature in Christ, not merely to produce “decisions”? Do you measure success in evangelism by the number of decisions made, regardless of whether those “decisions” get baptized, join the church, and bear genuine fruit over the long haul? Or would you, like Paul, consider your work as a pastor to have been in vain if these “decisions” do not end up growing to maturity?

2. In Paul’s absence, local churches are held responsible to grow believers to maturity.

Later in the study Samra makes a number of important points about how Paul envisioned this project of maturation being carried out. For instance, Samra argues from a number of passages that in Paul’s absence, “he expects the maturational aspect of his apostolic commission to be done by the local community” (52). Paul expected the churches, in his absence (Phil. 1:27, 2:12), to build each other up in Christ. Further, “Our contention is that the role of the apostolic ministry does not decrease, but transfers to the community as a community and not simply to the next generation of leaders” (52 n. 128).

Today, with Paul and the other apostles permanently absent, the local church is the means God has ordained for bringing Christians to maturity. Paul’s work of maturing believers is now the church’s work. The whole church is responsible to grow believers in conformity to Christ.

This leads to another important observation: “Paul expected believers’ participation in the local community to be beneficial for their maturation” (133). Paul’s metaphors of the church as a field or building (1 Cor. 3:1-15), for example, imply that the church itself is to be a place of growth

Again, it may seem obvious to say that Paul expected church participation to help Christians grow. But at least one influential church recently concluded that their church wasn’t, in fact, very good at helping Christians mature.

Therefore, obvious as it may seem, pastors should ask themselves: Does the church I pastor help Christians grow to maturity in Christ? Would the members of my church say that participation in this local church helps to conform them to the character of Christ?

Better still: Does each corporate worship service, each Sunday School class, each small group help believers grow to maturity in Christ? If not, what can I do about it?

3. Conformity to Christ is the central motif in Paul’s understanding of maturity.

In chapter four, Samra surveys five passages which are crucial for Paul’s understanding of Christian maturity: Philippians 3:7-21, Romans 8:29/12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 2:17-4:8, 1 Corinthians 15, and Galatians 3:26-4:20. Samra’s conclusion from these passages is that conformity to Christ is the central motif in Paul’s understanding of Christian maturity. In other words, “Christ is set forward as the standard to which believers are being and will be conformed” (107).

If conformity to Christ is central for Paul, it should be central in our churches. If you were to ask a member of your church to summarize what it means to live and grow as a Christian, what would he or she say? That growing as a Christian means caring for the poor or transforming culture? That it’s about having a good quiet time every morning? That it means keeping the right set of rules and making sure that you’ve got the right set of behaviors?

Love of neighbor, personal devotion, and godly actions are all important aspects of what it means to grow as a Christian. Yet conformity to Christ is the foundation, goal, and glue that holds all of these things together and puts them in their proper place.

And for Paul, being conformed to Christ is an outworking of the fact that we are already united to Christ. We seek to grow in conformity to his character because we have already been united to him by faith.

4. Five key means through which believers grow to maturity in Christ are identifying with Christ, enduring suffering, experiencing the presence of God, receiving and living out wisdom from God, and imitating a godly example.

In chapter five, Samra explores five key means through which, according to Paul, believers grow to maturity in Christ:

• identifying with Christ,

• enduring suffering,

• experiencing the presence of God,

• receiving and living out wisdom from God,

• and imitating a godly example.

I won’t unpack all of them here, but a few are particularly noteworthy, or neglected.

By “indentifying with Christ,” Samra means the deliberate mental action of reminding ourselves that we belong to Christ, that we are united with Christ, and that we have died and been raised with Christ (cf. Rom. 6:1-14). And he rightly points out that the Lord’s Supper and baptism are two means by which we do this (153). Baptism, whether or own or observing another’s, reminds us that we have died and been raised with Christ (Rom. 6:1-4). And whatever else we might say about the nature of the Lord’s Supper, it is not less than a tangible reminder that we are united to Christ and are one body in him (1 Cor. 10:16-17). Pastors would do well to teach their people these things, and to urge them to use the celebration of these two ordinances as means of more closely identifying with Christ.

Look back over Samra’s list of means of growth. Do all of them feature regularly in your own teaching on Christian growth? When was the last time you preached about how suffering conforms us to the image of Christ? Do you disciple others through modeling godliness yourself? Do you teach others to do the same?

Samra points out that in Philippians 3:17 Paul coins a new word in order to urge the church to become “imitators together” of him. By this Paul indicates that “imitating a more mature example is something that ought to be done collectively within the community” (165). One-on-one discipling is not merely something that happens between individual believers, but is something that is to take place in the context of a local congregation.

If Paul wanted the Philippian believers to imitate him and other godly examples together, as a community, then it should be normal in our churches for Christians to serve as and seek godly examples. Not only that, but we should encourage the members of our churches to seek those examples primarily within their own local church. After all, those are the people who have covenanted to care for them and to hold them accountable to grow in Christ.

5. For Paul, individual and corporate maturity are strikingly interconnected.

In his study of 1 Corinthians, Samra argues that there is a “reciprocal relationship between the failure of the community and the immaturity of believers. Clearly the community is failing because the individuals are immature, but…it is also true that the believers are immature because the community is failing” (136, n. 13). Consider 1 Corinthians 5. This sinning man was confirmed and even encouraged to continue in his sin because the church as a whole approved it and gloried in their “tolerance.”

Further, Samra points out that in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, Paul alternates freely between viewing the church and individual Christians as the object of our efforts at “building up.” Therefore, “to build up the church is to build up the individuals in the church, and vice versa” (32; cf. 149-151).

To sum up both of these points, we can say that if a church as a whole is immature, it will tend to hinder the growth of its members. And if a church as a whole is mature, that will spur on its members to maturity.

Surely most pastors are concerned to help believers grow to maturity in Christ. But fewer, it seems, understand that a key factor in growing individual Christians is the maturity of the whole church.

What’s normal in your church? Is it normal for members to share the gospel with non-Christians, to engage each other in discipling relationships, to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others, to study Scripture and apply it to their own and others’ lives? Or is it normal for people to show up on Sunday and then pay little attention to Christ throughout the rest of the week?

In order to help every church member mature, pastors should be concerned to cultivate a godly culture in the church. They should be concerned to establish normal habits, expectations, and patterns for people to follow which all lead to godliness. They should apply their sermons not merely to individual Christians, but to how the church lives together as a whole. They should aim to strengthen not merely individual Christians, but the church as a whole, so that the entire church becomes a greenhouse of growth in godliness.

A REMINDER OF SCRIPTURE’S PRIORITIES FOR MINISTRY

For the pastor who’s kept up his Greek and is up for a workout, Conformed to Christ in Community could be worth a read, especially if you skim strategically. All of us need to be reminded of Scripture’s priorities for ministry, and that’s just what Samra’s book does.

About the author:

Bobby Jamieson is assistant editor for 9Marks and is the author of the 9Marks Healthy Church Study Guides (Crossway, forthcoming).

Reviewed by Trevin Wax

Preachers of a Different Gospel: A Pilgrim’s Reflections on Contemporary Trends in Christianity

Femi Adeleye. Preachers of a Different Gospel: A Pilgrim’s Reflections on Contemporary Trends in Christianity. Hippo Books, 2011. 148 pages. $14.99

The explosive growth of Christianity in Africa and South America has led many observers to speak of this demographic shift as creating a new Christendom. Unfortunately, the teaching that has fueled growth in these areas has been tainted by an American-style prosperity emphasis that focuses on health and wealth at the expense of sin, redemption, and repentance.

A PLEA TO REJECT THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL

Femi Adeleye is the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students Associate General Secretary for Partnership and Collaboration. A Nigerian based in Ghana, Adeleye argues against the prosperity gospel from a place of personal experience and from an up-close view of how his country (and continent) is developing theologically. His book Preachers of a Different Gospel is a heartfelt plea to reject the prosperity gospel and embrace the biblical message that saves.

Adeleye begins his book by describing a “strange gospel” that has created “strange Christians.” He laments the fact that many no longer adhere to the gospel as it was first presented in Africa. “The gospel that downplays human sinfulness and the eternal benefits of the gospel is not a gospel of Christ” (134).

Throughout the book, Adeleye contrasts the revivals of the 1970’s with contemporary gospel presentations in an effort to show how quickly the degeneration has taken place. Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A.W. Tozer and others, Adeleye seeks to show the disparity between the prosperity teaching in Africa today and historic Christian witness. He writes: “Whereas the gospel of the cross calls for repentance and denial of self and other things, the gospel of champagne calls for self-satisfaction in response to stimuli from diverse entertaining attractions” (19).

Adeleye sympathizes with the early aspects of the charismatic movement. He traces the history of recent African renewal movements and recounts his personal experiences during this time. At the same time, he laments the tendency of Africans to focus on the gifts of the Spirit more than the fruit.

A PROPHETIC SERMON AGAINST THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL

Preachers of a Different Gospel reads like an extended sermon in which Adeleye, like an African prophet, seeks to correct his brothers and sisters and bring them in line with the gospel that was once for all delivered to the saints. And, like a good preacher, Adeyele turns some striking phrases, such as the polarity between “the God man uses” rather than “the man God uses.”

But Adeleye is careful to not critique in such a way as to create a different sort of distortion. When speaking of God’s immanence, for example, Adeleye seeks balance and makes sure to not rule out a believer’s experiential piety and relationship with God.

Toward the end of the book, Adeleye points out ways that the prosperity gospel is responsible for some of Africa’s ongoing cultural problems. He sees the witness of the church as tightly tied to the content of the gospel it preaches. “The primary purpose of the gospel is to save us and bring us into a living relationship with God and with one another. The goal is to produce transformed people who bear witness to the righteousness of God” (134).

It quickly becomes clear that Adeleye believes that the prosperity gospel has left the church in a state of impotence, totally unable to address many of the societal and structural issues in Africa today. He writes: “When there is a fire in the church, society should feel the heat” (121). And again: “True renewal is not just personal; it must also have an impact on society.”

Some may not agree with Adeleye’s description of Christians as “transforming agents” in society, but it is clear that Adeleye views societal transformation as intricately connected to personal evangelism and the church being the people of God. Preachers of a Different Gospel is a clarion call to the contemporary church to return to authentic Christianity, not only for the sake of the church, but also for the good of the world.

About the author:

Trevin Wax is managing editor of The Gospel Project for LifeWay Resources and is the author, most recently, of Counterfeit Gospels (Moody, 2011).

Reviewed by Trevin Wax

Health, Wealth and Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ?

David W. Jones and Russell S. Woodbridge. Health, Wealth and Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ? Kregel, 2011. 201 pages. $13.99

I recall a class discussion in seminary about the prosperity gospel and its popularity in North American churches today. The conversation jumped from Benny Hinn to TBN to Joyce Meyer in just a couple of minutes. The class consensus was that hardcore prosperity teachings were so “out there” that they would easily be dismissed by the church members we would be serving. Our professor pushed back: “You’d be surprised at how much prosperity-tainted teaching is in conservative churches.” He was right.

EQUIPPING PASTORS TO RESPOND TO THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL

David Jones and Russell Woodbridge teach at Southeastern Seminary and are the authors of Health, Wealth and Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ? They admit their surprise at the pervasiveness of prosperity theology, even among conservative Southern Baptists. They write in the preface, “The prosperity gospel has tremendous appeal, and it is growing both in the United States and internationally. Millions of people follow famous prosperity teachers, and their souls are at stake” (10).

It would be easy for young, theologically minded pastors to think of prosperity teaching as so obviously misguided that we don’t consider it worthy of attention. This would be a terrible mistake. As pastors and church leaders, we have an obligation to preach the biblical gospel in a way that takes into consideration our current context, a setting that unfortunately is heavily influenced by the idea that God’s blessing is financial and deserved.

Prosperity teaching is the antithesis of grace. Preachers and teachers of the gospel should be able and willing to point out the flaws in the prosperity gospel and equip others to do the same. Health, Wealth and Happiness is designed to aid pastors in that pursuit. “We want to inform you about the prosperity gospel movement and equip you to help those who have let the prosperity gospel replace the gospel of Christ” (20).

A SURVEY, CRITIQUE, AND RESPONSE TO THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL

The book begins with a survey of the historical foundations and growth of the movement. Following this, the authors point out the doctrinal errors of prosperity teaching. And the final third of the book lays out a biblical theology of some of the key themes that are denied or neglected in prosperity teaching.

Along the way, the authors take care to show how prosperity teaching is essentially gospel-less. They write: “This new gospel is perplexing—it omits Jesus and neglects the cross. Instead of promising Christ…this new gospel claims that God desires and even promises that believers will live a healthy and financially prosperous life” (14-15). Then, after laying out the biblical gospel, they show how woefully deficient is the preaching that takes place in prosperity churches:

Advocates of the prosperity gospel marginalize key components of the biblical gospel, such as Jesus, the cross, God’s judgment, and the sinful estate of humanity. If Jesus is left out of the gospel, then there is no gospel. If the cross is left out of the gospel, then there is no gospel. If God’s judgment against sin is left out of the gospel, then there is no gospel. If humanity’s sin is left out of the gospel, then there is no gospel. (86)

TWO ESPECIALLY BENEFICIAL SECTIONS

Two sections of this book are especially beneficial for pastors.

Historical Survey

The first is the historical survey that traces the roots of prosperity teaching back to “New Thought philosophy” and its advocates Emanuel Swedenborg, Phineas Quimby, and Ralph Waldo Trine. Though the authors are unable to establish a firm line of descent from “New Thought” to the origins of prosperity teaching in the mid-20th century, they show striking similarities between these two movements.

Biblical Theology of Suffering, Possessions, and Giving

The second particularly helpful section is the constructive turn the book takes in the final chapters. Instead of merely exposing and condemning prosperity teaching, the authors offer a robust biblical theology of suffering, possessions, and giving, three themes that are especially mangled by prosperity teaching.

A SUCCESSFUL CRITIQUE OF AND COUNTER TO PROSPERITY TEACHING

Overall, pastors will find Health, Wealth and Happiness to be a worthy addition to their library. It succeeds at exposing the foundational errors of prosperity teaching as well as offering insight into how prosperity teaching can be countered by having a firm grasp on the only gospel that saves. Pastors will want to have not merely one copy on their bookshelf, but multiple copies to hand out to church members.

About the author:

Trevin Wax is managing editor of The Gospel Project for LifeWay Resources and is the author, most recently, of Counterfeit Gospels (Moody, 2011).

January/February 2012

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[1] However, to be fair to Hemphill, he also gave a thorough treatment of Sunday school history and concluded that it must be undergirded by the Great Commission to have the right outcomes. Ken Hemphill, Revitalizing the Sunday Morning Dinosaur: A Sunday school Growth Strategy for the 21st Century (Nashville: B&H, 1996), 1, 6.

[2] David Francis, Missionary Sunday school: One Mission, His Story, Every Person (LifeWay, 2011), 15.

[3] Francis, Missionary Sunday School, 10.

[4] Lalley, J., & R. Miller (2007). The learning pyramid: Does it point in teachers in the right direction? Education128 (1), 64-79.Available here.