A Timeless Mandate for Sunday School
By Robert C.
Stewart
God’s purpose for His people of gathering themselves and others to learn and
apply His commandments is ageless! God’s mandate is at least as old as
Moses and the wandering Israelites, as applicable as Jesus’ “Great
Commission” to the early disciples, and as fresh as next Sunday morning!
Let’s
journey together and recall significant milestones in this “Reaching people
for life-changing Bible study” pilgrimage. We will examine admonitions from
Scripture and several ways these have been applied in recent years.
First,
recall God’s instructions to Moses about bringing the people together,
including the strangers, at least every seven years to review and apply His
law. I call this the Great Commission of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy
32:12.
12Gather
the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is
within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the
LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:”
Among
many lessons to be learned from the Great Commission of the Old Testament,
these stand out:
The
purpose, the mandate, the strategy is as fresh today as in Moses day. The
imperative, the commission, the promise is just as vital today as when Jesus
first spoke.
Notice
how recent strategies and processes have provided timely processes for each
new generation. The same
timeless imperative and purpose have propelled the modern Sunday School
movement. Even as God spoke through Moses and Jesus, He speaks to us through
strategies of leaders like B. W. Spillman, Arthur Flake, A. V. Washburn,
Harry Piland, and Bill Taylor. Consider these brief examples.
Sunday School as we know it
started in the latter 1700’s.
In 1780 a newspaper publisher,
Robert Raikes, started a “Ragamuffin School” for children that became a
propelling force for the modern Sunday School movement. Within four years
over 250,000 children were enrolled in Bible study.
“William
Elliott
is credited with starting the first Sunday School in the
New World.
In 1785, he set up a dual Bible study in his home, providing one hour of
instruction for white students followed by another hour of teaching for
black students.” (Taylor)
By 1891 Southern Baptists
recognized the need for teaching materials, and the Baptist Sunday School
Board was established to serve the churches. Some Baptists leaders,
fiercely independent and guarding the autonomy of local churches, fought
against establishing a publishing house. Finally, an agreement was reached
between the two key differing leaders, J. B. Gambrell and J. M. Frost.
In spite of different opinions, both were committed to find agreement for
the good of their beloved denomination.
Their report included this
powerful summary statement: “The fullest freedom of choice be accorded to
everyone as to what literature he will use or support … But we earnestly
urge all brethren to give this Board a fair consideration.” (For a
fuller account, visit web site www.bscnc.org)
In the
early 1900’s B. W. Spillman, the first field worker for Sunday School
in North Carolina, designed and set in motion a leadership development
strategy. Changed and adapted for each new generation, that
strategy resulted in a convention wide study course plan and the Christian
Growth Study Plan we use today. Spillman understood the Commission to “make
disciples” who could then make other disciples. (2 Timothy 2:2)
Arthur
Flake, a traveling salesman and department store businessman, became a
national Sunday School leader. Called to serve at the Baptist Sunday School
Board in the 1920’s, Flake advanced a simple but tremendously effective
formula for Sunday School growth. This “Flake Formula” and the “Standard of
Excellence” helped pastors and churches across the land make major progress
for decades. In fact, churches today would do well to implement these
steps:
q
Know Your
Possibilities
q
Enlarge the
Organization
q
Enlist and Train the
Workers
q
Provide Space
q
Go After the People
During A. V. Washburn’s
leadership as national Sunday School leader at the Sunday School Board in
the 60’s and 70’s, the Great Commission purpose of Sunday School was stated
in a few but powerfully descriptive words: Reach! Teach! Witness! Win!
Develop!
Harry Piland, Dr.
Washburn’s successor at BSSB, challenged churches to use nine Basics
of Sunday School Growth. (See Growing and Winning Through the
Sunday School.) Note how these are based on the Commissions of Old and
New Testaments, and then combine the Flake Formula and Washburn’s suggested
actions to form a powerful process for obeying and practicing the Great
Commission!
·
Make a Commitment to
Growth.
·
Identify and Enroll
Prospects.
·
Start New Classes and
Department.
·
Enlist Workers.
·
Train Workers.
·
Provide Space and
Equipment.
·
Conduct Weekly
Workers’ Meetings.
·
Conduct Weekly
Visitation.
·
Teach the Bible to Win
the Lost and Develop the Saved
Other resources include:
“Essentials for Excellence:
Connecting Sunday School to Life.”
However, all the strategies,
formulas, challenges or action plans in the world are not worth the paper
written on unless used! Building an effective Sunday School is not
complicated. As a little leaflet once stated: “How do you build a great
Sunday School? … WORK!”
I believe three strategic
actions are necessary as mandated in God’s Commissions:
1.
Find all the people
you can.
2.
Involve them in life
changing study of Scripture.
3.
Then, send those
people (hopefully now true disciples) out to find all the people they
can to involve in life-changing Bible study!
And
thus the cycle should continue! “Go thou and do likewise!”
