Ten Influential Sunday School Teachers By Elmer Towns

Everyone knows I am the Sunday school ambassador.  In 1969, I wrote The Ten Largest Sunday Schools, that made the bestseller list and stayed there for 16 months.  Robert Walker, editor of Christian Life Magazine, said, “It was a thunder clap out of the night” telling us about the coming mega church revolution. 

Who would be the influential Sunday school teachers that God is using greatly?  I have put together my list.  Write to me the name of your Sunday school teacher(s) who made the greatest impact in your life.

I have put this list in chronological order:

1. John Wesley – 1703-1791, became a missionary to Savannah, Georgia, my hometown. The Chamber of Commerce claims that Wesley began the first Sunday school in America in Savannah (probably not true).  But I visited a city square in downtown Savannah across the street from the Christ Episcopal Church where he pastored.  It was there that he perhaps taught a class of boys preparing them for church membership.  On a field trip in the 7^th grade I was told he taught “under this very oak tree.”  I looked at the roots above the ground of the old oak and thought, The boys must have sat on the left side of the tree and the girls sat on the right side.  I was wrong, he only taught boys. But that idea of Sunday school left an indelible impression on my mind.

2. Francis Scott Key – 1780-1843, was the author of our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. He argued cases before the United States Supreme Court and did diplomatic missions for the U. S. government.  But he returned home each weekend to teach the men’s Bible class of 400 members.  He was also the president of the American Sunday School Union.  In 1829 he challenged the group with the Mississippi Valley Enterprise to plant a Sunday school in every town between Pittsburgh and Denver.  Many of the members of Congress were present. In 50 years the project planted Sunday schools with 407,242 teachers, 2,650,784 students and a million volumes were placed in Sunday school libraries.  Perhaps one of the most successful Sunday school outreaches in history.  I learned vast vision is needed for vast outreach.
3. John Wanamaker – 1838-1922, owner of Wanamaker Stores in Philadelphia, was appointed Post Master General of the United States in 1829 by President Benjamin Harrison.  He told the President that he would take the job in Washington, DC, only if he could travel home each weekend to teach his adult men’s Bible class in his home church. 

Wanamaker got his passion for Sunday school by attending an all-night prayer meeting in Springfield, Illinois, led by Dwight L. Moody.  It was a meeting of Sunday school leaders in the states from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean.  Moody said, “This meeting is dead,” so they prayed all night.  I learned that rich influential people can give Sunday school a passion and priority in their lives.

4. Dwight L. Moody – 1838-1899, was saved when Edward Kimball walked into his shoe store where he was a clerk and led him to Jesus Christ.  Later in Chicago, Moody had a great burden for the lost children of the streets and began what might be the first bus ministry.  He used a large wagon to haul water during the week, but on Sunday it was pulled through the Northside of Chicago picking up children to bring them to his Sunday school on Lakefront Drive.  He rented an abandoned saloon with rotten floors so that occasionally the children sank to the ground below them.  Moody writes that when Abraham Lincoln was running for president he visited Moody’s Sunday school and at the opening assembly addressed the children on character and morality. Later Moody said, “He is a wonderful man and brought a wonderful message, but I doubt if he has the spirit of God.”  I learned to use every available method to reach all types of children for Christ. 
5. H. J. Heinz – 1844-1919, was born in Pittsburgh of German immigrants and raised in a Lutheran background.  In 1859 he visited Springfield, Illinois, where D. L. Moody was president of the Illinois Sunday School Association.  Moody announced, “This meeting is dead, and we will not open the meeting until the Spirit of God is here.”  They held an all-night prayer meeting and H. J. Heinz  (along with John Wanamaker and others) attended that prayer meeting and later is quoted as saying, “I would rather be known as a Sunday school man, than a ketchup man.”  Later in life he worshipped as a member of a Methodist church, but also worked closely with both Baptist and Presbyterian churches and was known as a Sunday school teacher. 
6. Henrietta Mears taught at First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California (she had a class of over 400 young adults, both men and women). Out of that class came Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Dawson Trottman, Bill Bright and many others. Also she was not satisfied with the literature of the Northern Presbyterian Church; therefore she wrote her own. It became Gospel Light Sunday school material.
7. Jimmy Carter – 1924 to present, was the 39^th President of the United States, inaugurated in 1977 and is perhaps the most famous Sunday school teacher in American politics.  Carter taught at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, before running for the office of President, and even during his presidency and afterwards he continues to teach an adult Sunday school class in the auditorium in that church.  Carter began when he was 18 years old and he is known because of his commitment to praying each day, openly confessing Jesus Christ as the driving force of his life, and faithful to his local church and Sunday school class. 

8. Truett Cathy – 1921-2014, is famous for founding one of the largest fast food chains in America, Chick-fil-A.  Cathy began his first restaurant in South Atlanta, and has been faithful to the Lord in closing all of his restaurants on the Lord’s day.  Truitt taught Sunday school for over 50 years at his church and told everyone that the Bible was his guide for his life and business.  He says, “This business exists to glorify God and trying to be a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us.”  This statement of faith is included in the official corporate purpose statement of Chick-fil-A.

I taught in two Sunday school conventions in Woodstock, Georgia, and both times Truitt Cathy sat in the front row; the first time I did not know who he was.  The second time I introduced him and he gave a word of testimony on the power and importance of Sunday school in his life and in the life of those he taught. 

9. Jerry Falwell – 1933-2007, was converted as an 18-year-old college student majoring in journalism at secular college in his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia.  Then Jerry went to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, and volunteered to teach a junior class of boys at High Street Baptist Church.  The superintendent gave him a roll book and one boy – Daryl – to teach in the back of the assembly hall. After a few weeks nothing happened and Jerry resigned.  The superintendent said, “I didn’t think you’d make it.”  That hurt!  So Jerry began praying every afternoon after lunch till dinner time.  On Saturdays he and Daryl visited every 5^th grade boy they could find until the class averaged 56 in attendance; a few times with crowds over 100. I learned spiritual dynamics are the foundation of Sunday school. 
10. Jimmy Breland – 1904-1970, was a door to door Jewel Tea Coffee salesman in Savanah, Georgia, and he took me to Sunday school in his coffee truck.  My father was an alcoholic and my mother didn’t attend, but insisted I get gold pins and bars for not missing Sunday school.  Jimmy picked me up and mother made me go; I never missed for 14 years. In his class he said, “I’m going to teach you the whole Bible.”  Wow!  I wanted to learn all the Bible!!! Weekly he quizzed us with what we learned previously. I memorized a verse a week, the catechism, and all the Sunday school songs.  Out of a class of 19, around 13 of us went into fulltime ministry.  A few years after I left his class, a minister of education told me that he also attended Breland’s class, and they had the same ratio of his class members that went into ministry.  I learned the power of duplication leads to multiplication.  How many are in heaven because of Jimmy Breland?