12 Best Practices for FPC Sunday School Classes 1. Divide and conquer.
Leading SS classes is not easy. It takes time, preparation, emails, arranging schedules, and sorting through lessons. The best strategy is to divide the workload and conquer together. One way to do this do this by divvying up responsibilities between 2 or 3 leaders, each with a different focus area. In a previous leader’s training lunch, I suggested each class have a facilitator of learning (in charge of content), a facilitator of hospitality (in charge of helping the group reach out to new members), and a facilitator of connections (in charge of nurturing relationships and fellowship within the group). If you haven’t done so already, try out this three-‐part leadership structure! This is also a great way to involve more members of your class in leadership. Also, you might think about “term limits” for SS leaders— perhaps 3 years or so? Again, this will help involve more members in leadership and will prevent Sunday School burn out.
2. Boost your hospitality.
One of the central goals of our SS ministries is to nurture a culture of hospitality in our classes. One of the best ways of doing this is to imagine that you were a first-‐time visitor in your class. What would it take for you to feel comfortable and welcomed? Some simple ways you can boost the hospitality of your class include: • Have members introduce themselves briefly each week by saying their name and something about themselves (Ryan, married with a toddler) • Have the facilitator mention the name of the class each week followed by a very brief description of who you are and what you’ll be studying that week • Make a point to introduce yourself to a visitor – and bring them a cup of coffee • Send a brief email to the visitor sometime the following week simply to thank them for coming and to invite them back • Indicate visitors and new SS attendees on your attendance sheet by circling their names. If at all possible, please provide an email address.
3. Study your attendance sheets.
Attendance sheets are used to track the total number of Adult SS attendees in a given week. However, they can also be powerful diagnostic tools. Before turning in your sheet each week, take a quick glance. Are there certain people who always come but who were absent that week? Are there certain names on the list whom you haven’t seen for a while? Keep track of these trends. At least once a month, send a quick email to or call those have stopped attending recently. The point isn’t to make them feel bad about not coming. Much to the contrary, it is simply to express your care and to say that you would love to see them again in class. Sometimes it just takes a personal note to help nudge someone back into church involvement. If you want a more comprehensive analysis of who’s attending and
who’s not attending your class, contact the Administrative Coordinator for Discipleship and Emerging Generations, Anne Carpenter, who can generate a report from ACS.
4. Invite a friend.
In FPC’s new long range strategic plan, one of the goals under “Theological Formation” is to see Sunday School participation double over the next few years. At this point, only about 1/3 of worshipers on any given Sunday participate in a SS class and only about 1/8 of our membership as a whole. While Sunday School might not be for everyone, there is certainly room for growth! One of the best ways to facilitate such growth is through personal invitations. The staff (namely, Ryan, Allison, and Stephanie) routinely encourage new members to join SS classes; but the most effective form of invitation is from one member to another member. As a modest goal, I would encourage each SS leader to invite at least 3 new people a year to join their classes. These personal invites could go to new members (we’ve had over 125 in 2016 alone!) or to committed members who simply aren’t plugged into an SS class already. We sometimes worry that such invitations are too “pushy” or will “overwhelm” people. While we do want to be sensitive about how we ask, the reality is that the vast majority of SS attendees are there because someone, at sometime, personally invited them to come.
5. Gather outside the box The vitality of each SS class not only depends on quality lessons and thoughtful discussions but also – and perhaps even more so – on rich and meaning connections between its members. This type of fellowship can take a quantum leap forward when class members have the occasion to gather together outside of a normal SS class. Make it your goal to invite your class to do so once at least once a year. This could involve hosting a Christmas party, meeting together in a member’s home for dinner, having a summer BBQ, gathering together for a Musica Sacra concert at FPC, or having an end of the year brunch together. While it’s typically best to have members chip in a few dollars to cover the cost of these gatherings, in certain special occasions the church might have funds available to subvent the costs. Having these gatherings would be a great way to foster fellowship within your group but it also could be an effective way to encourage less-‐active members to re-‐engage with the class.
6. Beware of time drift.
With the new 9:00am worship service, the window for SS is tight. Folks come a few minutes late, there’s coffee and fellowship, announcements, etc. Before we know it, the Sunday School “hour” can start feeling more like the Sunday School “half-‐hour.” While longer isn’t necessarily better, it is important to be intentional about your time. Decide on a start time for your lesson and stick to it—consistency will help shape expectations. If it’s 10:00am, then you’ll want to start gathering folks for announcements and prayer by 9:55am at the
latest. If you are having a guest teacher – whether an FPC pastor or someone from outside the church – you should aim to introduce them by no later than 10:00am. On the back end, be sure you allow some time at the end (at least 5 minutes) for questions and interaction. This will help make the SS experience more personal and engaging. In either case, end by 10:45. At least some folks will be transitioning to the 11:00am service or going to pick up kids and we want to honor their time.
7. Think small. When planning a study or a curriculum, one of the biggest – but well meaning – mistakes SS leaders make is being too broad in their plans. For instance: “Over the next three weeks, we’ll be talking about the history of Christian thought from the time of Jesus through the 21st Century.” Or “Today we will be studying the first 15 chapters of the book of Matthew.” These would be great topics, but each would require considerably more time to sufficiently unpack. Rather than rushing through expansive topics, think small. Pedagogically speaking, forty minutes (the time of an average SS class at First Pres) is sufficient to cover 2, maybe 3, main ideas. Thinking small not only enables you to dig deeper into a given topic, but it is also crucial for cultivating discussion and interaction.
8. Go online.
Are you feeling stuck with what to do next in your SS class? Have you already used a number of the curricula in FPC’s library? Not to worry! The Discipleship ministry maintains subscriptions to two wonderful online resources that would work well for a number of SS classes. The first is called the Wired Word. Each week, the Wired Word website takes up a topic from the news headlines and develops a brief curriculum that relates that topic to Scripture and Christian life. Each study comes complete with discussion questions, scriptures to reflect on, and notes – very little preparation is required by the leader. To access, go to https://www.thewiredword.com/. Username: FPCATL Password: Peachtree The second source is called The Thoughtful Christian. This website has a wealth of short but engaging studies on a wide variety of issues, ranging from topical studies to Bible studies. Our church has an account, which gives you free access to almost 600 downloadable studies. Each features a participant’s handout and a leader’s guide. Designed for about 45min. To access, go to http://www.thethoughtfulchristian.com/ Username: FPCATL Password: Peachtree
9. Try out Theology Matters. Theology Matters is FPC’s “masters” program in Christian Education. It consists of short courses that offer seminar-‐level education in a format that is accessible and engaging to a lay audience. Each course is offered live on Wednesday nights. But with the help of our Communications Team, the Discipleship ministries have developed standalone digital
versions of these courses, complete with video lectures, podcast, lesson outlines, and discussion questions. These digital courses offer easy-‐to-‐use curriculum for SS classes and small groups. We have 4 courses available for FREE on our FPC website. https://firstpresatl.org/theologymatters/ Each course is 8 sessions long. Each of the 8 sessions within a given course can stand on its own (i.e. a SS attendee need not be present for every session of a Theology Matters digital course to feel like they are part of the conversation). These materials can be a great way to structure your SS classes. Try it out!
10. Encourage in-‐class teachers. It is often said that the best way to learn something is to teach it. This is especially true of SS classes. Typically, the most effective model of SS leadership is to invite class members to facilitate weekly discussions. Doing so not only is more sustainable from a logistical perspective (you don’t need 25 outside speakers a year per class), but more importantly, it gives those members an opportunity to share in the leadership of the class and to grow in their own faith. In addition, it can have the added benefit of opening up the class to a more diverse range of perspectives. So, try it out. Encourage fellow class members to teach regularly, using outside speakers only for rare and special occasions. An easy way to start moving toward class-‐led discussions is the First in Focus series. Each of the individual weeks of the series comes complete with a participant’s guide as well as a leader’s guide. The latter offers tips and background information that makes it much easier to facilitate the lesson.
11. Honor your speakers.
While the individual members of a given Sunday School class are encouraged to be the primary teachers of their groups, it is possible, from time-‐to-‐time, to call upon a guest teacher. These guest teachers may include professors (at GSU, Georgia Tech, Columbia Theological Seminary, the Candler School of Theology, Emory, Agnes Scott, etc.), seminary students, graduate students at Emory, various figures from the local community (non-‐profit leaders, business people, other professionals), or members of other churches. The procedures for inviting in guest speakers are as follows: • Please contact the Director of Biblical and Theological Studies (rbonfiglio@firstpresatl.org) with a list of potential guest speakers at least 4 weeks prior to the event in question. In the vast majority of cases, speaker requests will be approved. On rare occasions, extenuating circumstances may require further discussion and/or modifications to the request. • We generally offer $200 for seminary/university professors and anywhere between $100-‐$150 for other professionals. We offer $110 for seminary-‐ or PhD-‐ level students. • Requests for honoraria should be made 2 weeks prior to the SS session. These requests should be sent to Anne Carpenter (acarpenter@firstpresatl.org).
12. Send your schedules
Each month, we like to post a complete schedule for all adult SS classes on the FPC website. We also make this schedule available throughout the month at the visitor’s desk so that greeters can inform non-‐regular SS attendees about what is being offered that morning. Anne Carpenter will send a request for this information. Having a monthly schedule prepared not only helps you keep on top of SS plans, but it also helps us keep FPC members informed about all of the great classes we have to offer.