Allan Taylor: Sunday School leadership's most important task

The most important thing we do to build a strong Sunday School is enlist teachers.  Teachers are the Most Valuable Players of your Sunday School.  To have a good Sunday School is to have good teachers.  Conversely, to have bad teachers is to have a bad Sunday School.  You cannot build a great organization without great people.  Therefore, the importance of proper enlistment of teachers cannot be overstated.  As we mentioned in chapter one, teachers are to the class what the pastor is to the church.  The teacher is, in fact, a “miniature pastor”; and his class is his “miniature congregation.”  The teacher must feed them and lead them in the way they are to go.

The owner of a car dealership will do all he can to put good salesmen on his car lot.  Good salesmen make for good sales.  The owner knows his success, or lack thereof, lies in the men or women on the lot making contact with customers.  So it is in Sunday School.  The success, or lack thereof, will be the result of our teachers.

The proper enlistment of teachers then becomes a vital link in placing our Sunday School in a successful environment.  I want to walk you through an eight-step process of “Sunday School Enlistment Principles.”  These simple steps will aid you in enlisting teachers and, with a few adjustments, also can be used to enlist other workers as well.

Explore the Possibilities

It is apparent you cannot enlist those who you know nothing about.  You must have a way to get information on prospective teachers.  There are many ways to do this, but I like to get a recommendation from their current Sunday School teacher.  Their teacher has been able to observe them over a period of time.  The teacher can see the spiritual growth in this person’s life.  The teacher is aware of their faithfulness to attend class, church services, outreach opportunities, service to others, etc.  The teacher is in a position to know more about this person than most anyone else.  It could be a Care Group Leader also would have some insight into this person’s walk with God and dedication to the local church.

Unless there are some unusual circumstances, I would not recommend enlisting those who have been unfaithful to attend Sunday School.  A person devoid of class attendance is usually a person devoid of personal spiritual growth.  It has been my observation through the years that the people who love the Word and want to learn more of it are in Sunday School.  There is a leadership question at stake as well: How can a person be a good leader if he has not first been a good follower?  It is easy to be persuaded to make exceptions for those who are well liked and charismatic.  Again, my experience tells me there is a trouble spot waiting in the road ahead if you make this your practice.

Engage the Process

After receiving the recommendation from the prospect’s current class leadership, I like to meet with the person one on one.  I will set up an appointment and meet with the prospect face to face.  I do not want to talk about this important issue of teaching Sunday School over the phone or as I can grab a person between Sunday School and church service.  I want a dedicated time to sit down with the prospect and dialogue with him.  I want to get to know him as a person and as a Christian.  I want him to tell me his life story and his testimony.  At this time, I want to join the person in prayer and commit to pray for him as he continues to seek God’s will in this matter.  I will offer no formal invitation at this time.

Expectations Presented

During this one-on-one meeting, I will share the expectations we have for our Sunday School teachers.  It may be your Sunday School Council, pastor, and/or other entities in your church establish what expectations will be required of your teachers.  It is essential that the proper authorities are involved because there will be challenges to this process at some point and the church needs to be unified in her approach.

We share our expectations by handing the prospect several documents and discussing them at this face-to-face meeting.  The first document is our Sunday School Philosophy.  Chapter one of this book represents this document.  We want the prospect to know what we are about and why we do it.  We want them to understand the concept of our ministry and how we structure our ministry to accomplish the three tasks of Sunday School.  Therefore, we spend time discussing this document with the prospect.

Secondly, we explain our Sunday School Covenant (see Appendix 1).  We expect commitment from our teachers; and this is the tool we use to define it and then have them sign it, indicating their commitment to these items.  This document has weeded many out of teaching Sunday School.  It is gut wrenching to lose a potential teacher but less painful than putting up with a bad one.  Our approach is to establish commitment up front so that we avoid the unpleasant situation of confronting indifference later on.  We really do enlist about ninety-five percent of our problems.  If we will enlist workers properly, it will save many headaches in the future.

I take the Sunday School Covenant and talk the prospect through each of the twelve issues.  Here they are--along with some of my commentary to the prospect.

Allan Taylor is the author of Sunday School in HD and The Six Key Values of Sunday School. He will will be doing an All Star Sunday School Training event July 26 - 27 in Oxford Mississippi. He also scheduled to do an All Star Training in Ohio April 11, 12, 2014

To schedule an All Star Sunday School Training event, see http://allstarsundayschool.com/ or contact Josh Hunt at josh@joshhunt.com 575.650.4564