Tuesday, December 23, 2008

What Every Pastor Should Know About Sunday School

What Every Pastor Should Know About Sunday School

By Elmer L. Towns and Stan Toler

This book recently caught my eye. While I don’t think it’s spectacular enough to run out and buy it, I did find the Table of Contents provocative. The Table of Contents lends itself to an exercise between the Minister, Director/Coordinator of Religious Education, and/or the Religious Education Committee. Get together over tea and for each of the 19 chapters, come up with three ways your congregation’s religious exploration program takes advantage of this aspect. What part does the minister play? The DRE? The REC? The teachers? Others? If you have trouble coming up with examples, perhaps it’s time to look at that aspect and use its gifts more fully. Which aspects are your strengths? Celebrate those!



Enjoy.



Table of Contents:

Sunday School will…

  1. Help you reach the lost.
  2. Will give you extra doors into the church.
  3. Will boost (Unitarian Universalist) knowledge.
  4. Will help you minister to all ages.
  5. Will help you meet needs. (If you solve peoples’ problems, they return.)
  6. Will produce leaders in your church.
  7. Will provide role models.
  8. Will turn spectators into workers.
  9. Will provide prayer intercessors (bind community together.)
  10. Will provide teaching evangelism. (deepen Unitarian Universalist identity and commitment)
  11. Will provide instant follow-up for new converts.
  12. Will provide a friendship network.
  13. Will provide life coaching.
  14. Will teach churchmanship.
  15. Will make use of all spiritual gifts.
  16. Will provide spiritual care.
  17. Will teach faithfulness.
  18. Will build character.
  19. Activates friendship evangelism.

3 comments:

Lyndit said...

You know I totally miss the Christian youth group I went to as a young kid and then a teen. What a blast it was.

Get in have some social time, then we would always play a game, then we would have worship, singing songs from our hymnal that we picked up the beat added an electric guitar and a keyboard and we rocked out, those are the times I remember feeling most spiritual, it was the music, it was the dancing and it was being in a room of my own kind, totally comfortable to let myself relate the music, and just have fun. Then we would go and have snack, snack and some more social time, catch up and build friendships after that study time, we would have have the most awesome discussions ask questions and have adult mentors, then we would head home, sad to leave and yet so excited for that next Wednesday.

Kent said...

Have you seen the new collection of Stan Toler books from Logos Bible Software? I thought you might be interested:

Stan Toler Collection (6 Vols.)

Tandi Rogers, Program Specialist, UUA Pacific NW said...

Lyndi, did we go to the same Christian youth group? :-) I also miss that passionate energy. Someday.

Kent, thanks for the book recommendations. I just ordered them!