|
"I can't believe the number of people who are here!" exclaimed Janet, a longtime member of Trinity Wesleyan Church. Then she asked, "Do they all belong to our church?"
The multipurpose room was bustling with children and parents, young adults and seniors for Trinity Wesleyan's "pitch in" dinner. Since the church had added a third worship service in September, there had been few occasions when the whole church family got together.
"They are our enlarged church family," Pastor Kline said excitedly.
"But where did they all come from? I mean, adding a single worship service couldn't account for all this growth." Janet couldn't help but wonder what had changed. She was used to the old days when she knew everyone at church suppers by name.
"But our church didn't just add one extra service," said Pastor Kline. "We added a lot of new doors in order that visitors might come into our church."
Janet knew the pastor was not talking about renovations to the church building. He meant additional opportunities for people to come to the church. So Janet asked her pastor to tell her about them.
"When we added the Saturday evening worship service," he began, "we also added three Sunday School classes. Now, we have additional Sunday School classes for kids; we have a class for divorce recovery, one for new converts and one on understanding Christianity and Islam. And besides those, we have a support group for single moms and a class for couples expecting their first child."
Janet was astonished. "You mean people have started attending the church because of new classes in Sunday School?"
"Why not?" Pastor Kline smiled. "Each of these new classes meets a need in people's lives. We're offering them something they need, socially, emotionally and spiritually-but each class touches people at a different level."
"Oh, I forgot one class," Pastor Kline said with a twinkle in his eye. The wise pastor knew that Janet had grown up in the church and liked the Bible basics. "We have an elective Bible class that teaches Bible survey. It seems a lot of new people want to learn the fundamentals of the Bible."
"This is wonderful," Janet sighed. "Maybe there are more new things in our church than just the praise choruses we sing in worship."
Elmer L. Towns;Stan Toler. What Every Pastor Should Know about Sunday School (Kindle Locations 125-134). Kindle Edition.
Elmer Towns will be speaking at several upcoming All Star Sunday School Training Events. To Schedule an event at your church, contact josh@joshhunt.com | 
