Small Groups vs. Sunday School
Hi All,
I just had a conversation with a church chairman about the impact of Sunday School on small group involvement. Sunday School, or Adult Bible Fellowships (ABF's) are a good tool and so are small groups, but you need to know what you are trying to accomplish with each. In many churches the two are used interchangeably, but are they?
This discussion is impacted by my thoughts about "Simple Church" the book by Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer. We are taking a good look at everything that we are doing as a church and trying to decide how it SPECIFICALLY fits in with our discipleship process. We are no longer going to do 'discipleship by accident'; that is, just hoping that because we have a small group, or a SS or ABF that people will automatically develop into disciples of Jesus Christ.
We have developed our Product description (something I teach about when I do the 'Growing a Healthy Church' seminars - see the "Seminars" page on HighPowerResources.com), and we have developed a 27 point Christian growth list, based on intellectual, emotional, and behavioral goals (head, heart, hands). About one-third of those goals are Christian character traits, fruit of the Spirit, mercy, compassion, humility, etc. What we discovered as we talked about in our strategic staff meetings (4 hours a month), is that it is very hard to develop these qualities in people intentionally. (By the way, let it just be said here that we believe totally in the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit and the power of God to change lives, not us. But we want to COOPERATE WITH GOD, in the best way possible, that is why we are developing these Christian growth goals.). So we realized that if we are serious about developing Christian's who display the very character of Christ, through these personal attributes, related to what we call 'heart' traits, then the very best place to make that happen is in our SMALL GROUPS, NOT SUNDAY SCHOOL.
We no longer have Sunday School, or ABF's; it's all small groups all the time. We are even trying to avoid using the word 'class' about anything we do (except for maybe membership class, which we now call 'On Ramp'). And this brings me to my main point of this blog, the issue of small groups vs. Sunday School (ABF's): Sunday school in its classic incarnation was not going to do what we wanted it to do, so we are now totally focused on small groups.
You have to realize that in most churches, Sunday School, by its definition ("school") is aimed at intellectual education of the Christian mind with more Biblical teaching. The focus is primarily intellectual teaching of the Bible. Now anybody you talk to will say that they are also focused on fellowship, prayer, sharing, etc. just as any good church would want to be. But the problem is that this is done in a 'classroom' in the church building. Big difference when you go into a small group in somebody's home. It has a totally different feel, not only in size, but in atmosphere. This provides the opportunity for deep sharing and care and prayer of real life issues. This is where you really have a hope of helping people to address the deeper character issues of the Christian life. And that is where our church wants to be - focused on character growth.
So we have made the switch; out with Sunday School and Adult Bible Fellowships, and totally in with Small Groups.
And we are trusting that God the Holy Spirit will use these more intimate settings to conform us all more to the image of Christ.
At work in His Kingdom,
Dr. Bill
I just had a conversation with a church chairman about the impact of Sunday School on small group involvement. Sunday School, or Adult Bible Fellowships (ABF's) are a good tool and so are small groups, but you need to know what you are trying to accomplish with each. In many churches the two are used interchangeably, but are they?
This discussion is impacted by my thoughts about "Simple Church" the book by Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer. We are taking a good look at everything that we are doing as a church and trying to decide how it SPECIFICALLY fits in with our discipleship process. We are no longer going to do 'discipleship by accident'; that is, just hoping that because we have a small group, or a SS or ABF that people will automatically develop into disciples of Jesus Christ.
We have developed our Product description (something I teach about when I do the 'Growing a Healthy Church' seminars - see the "Seminars" page on HighPowerResources.com), and we have developed a 27 point Christian growth list, based on intellectual, emotional, and behavioral goals (head, heart, hands). About one-third of those goals are Christian character traits, fruit of the Spirit, mercy, compassion, humility, etc. What we discovered as we talked about in our strategic staff meetings (4 hours a month), is that it is very hard to develop these qualities in people intentionally. (By the way, let it just be said here that we believe totally in the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit and the power of God to change lives, not us. But we want to COOPERATE WITH GOD, in the best way possible, that is why we are developing these Christian growth goals.). So we realized that if we are serious about developing Christian's who display the very character of Christ, through these personal attributes, related to what we call 'heart' traits, then the very best place to make that happen is in our SMALL GROUPS, NOT SUNDAY SCHOOL.
We no longer have Sunday School, or ABF's; it's all small groups all the time. We are even trying to avoid using the word 'class' about anything we do (except for maybe membership class, which we now call 'On Ramp'). And this brings me to my main point of this blog, the issue of small groups vs. Sunday School (ABF's): Sunday school in its classic incarnation was not going to do what we wanted it to do, so we are now totally focused on small groups.
You have to realize that in most churches, Sunday School, by its definition ("school") is aimed at intellectual education of the Christian mind with more Biblical teaching. The focus is primarily intellectual teaching of the Bible. Now anybody you talk to will say that they are also focused on fellowship, prayer, sharing, etc. just as any good church would want to be. But the problem is that this is done in a 'classroom' in the church building. Big difference when you go into a small group in somebody's home. It has a totally different feel, not only in size, but in atmosphere. This provides the opportunity for deep sharing and care and prayer of real life issues. This is where you really have a hope of helping people to address the deeper character issues of the Christian life. And that is where our church wants to be - focused on character growth.
So we have made the switch; out with Sunday School and Adult Bible Fellowships, and totally in with Small Groups.
And we are trusting that God the Holy Spirit will use these more intimate settings to conform us all more to the image of Christ.
At work in His Kingdom,
Dr. Bill
Labels: ABF's, Growing a Healthy Church, HighPowerResources.com, Simple Church, Small Groups, Sunday School
posted by Dr. Bill at
10:13 AM
4 Comments:
I have been reading and praying about all these items, Small groups vs. SS, etc. Your blog was quite interesting to read. It s
Seems you have "ditched" education in search of experiences. Not sure how that will play out with things like community service, giving, etc. Seems to me that if you have an intimate setting at a home and a boring leader then you leave the direction up to the type A's in the group. Same with a SS class. If however you have a dynamic leader, you get great conversation and interaction. I can get both when I lead in really any kind of setting.
How do you determine what is studied or discussed in outside small groups? Do you care? Are you worried that incorrect teaching or inappropriate discussion may occur? Do you train your small group leaders? Did you give your SS teachers the same training before you "outed" them?
I would love to hear your insights.
Gary Layne
glayne@outloudministry.org
Thanks for your comments Gary.
I would not define it as 'ditching education in search of experience'. The focus is on character development; becoming more like Christ. We certainly continue to teach the Bible in our small groups; in fact, most of them are based on the pastor's weekly teaching; the small groups director prepares a study guide each week based on the Scriptural teaching of the pastor.
But the fact is that most churches over-emphasize education, and under-emphasize character development; thus you can have people who can quote the Bible really well, but are not living godly, or loving, lives. Biblical balance is the name of the game.
I agree, it is all about leadership; the better the leader, the better the experience, whether small group or Sunday School/ABF.
Accountability is of course more of an issue with small groups than SundaySchool/ABF's. But our small groups director holds a weekly meeting for all small group leaders and is well aware of what is being taught in all groups, especially since he is preparing the study guides. And of course conversations with members of various groups helps him to stay in touch with what is happening.
Blessings in Christ,
b
I would be curious as to how the numbers and percentages have played out. Do you have the same number of people invovled in Small groups in homes as you had in Sunday School. And of course the big question... how are your preschoolers and children being discipled?
Good question.
We track our Weekend Service totals, and compare them to our Small Group totals, and right now, we are at 74% of weekend services, are in some aspect of community life. We feel good about these numbers, but are trying to get a handle on what it will take to move other non-involved adults into community experiences.
The way that we disciple our children and youth is a little more traditional, than with the adults.
We have a 'sunday school' experience for all teens on Sunday mornings (they have other small group experiences too; the youth pastor is operating by a different set of goals and methods with youth.)
As for our children, we have two means to give them the relational connections they need: one is a mid-week experience called "Kid U" for straight Bible teaching.
The other are small group "Dig It" groups on Sunday as a break-out portion of our children's programming, which we call Fusion.
We believe that we are continuing to be faithful to teach God's Word in an effective fashion, and giving adults, and kids, a relational connection too.
Thanks for your comments!
God bless,
b
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