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High Attendance Event to Strengthen ‘Find it Here’ Follow-up
10/26/2009
LOUISVILLE - Churches taking part in the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Find it Here statewide evangelism emphasis next spring should plan now for a key project to improve results, said KBC Sunday School Department Director Darryl Wilson.
A pilot project this past spring demonstrated that high attendance Sunday school promotions attract church visitors while uniting members in outreach, said Wilson.
“The key word is ‘care.’ What are we doing in Sunday school to care for people inside and outside the church?” Wilson said. “If people aren’t cared for, they’re not going to come.”
By planning now to host a High Attendance Sunday School event, he said, churches can boost their Sunday school attendance while providing strong follow-up for the statewide effort to blanket the commonwealth with the message of God’s love.
The emphasis is intended to assist follow-up efforts to “Find it Here,” a statewide project next spring to share the message of Jesus with every Kentucky household.
The KBC is partnering with the North American Mission Board and Baptist associations to conduct the campaign. Kentucky Baptist congregations are encouraged to hand deliver a printed Gospel presentation to every Kentucky household between March 6 and March 21. The brochure has a Gospel message that directs readers to the FinditHere.com website and a return card for ordering a free book.
Churches are asked to host the High Attendance Sunday School emphasis April 18, two weeks after Easter. The effort, Wilson said, can help churches in many ways, including:
- Increasing prayer for unchurched people.
- Involving members in the success of their Sunday school classes.
- Breaking classes from their routines to try new outreach strategies.
- Focusing members on inviting friends, family and neighbors to Sunday school.
- Expanding opportunities for people to be changed by God’s Word.
“It will help any church that follows the suggestions, big or little,” Wilson said. “They’re going to have a good time doing it, and prayerfully, they’re going to see some results.”
Last spring, churches in Bardstown and Bowling Green participated in the pilot project. The KBC provided an array of resources, as churches were urged to plan, pray and promote for four weeks before the High Attendance Sunday School.
“It gives you a new burst of, ‘Oh yeah, this is what we’re about,’” said Stan Lowery, director of missions for the Nelson Baptist Association in Bardstown, noting that church members were challenged to re-evaluate the purpose of their Sunday schools and how they might better reach others.
Lowery said the KBC resource materials made the emphasis easier to plan and manage. “There were a lot of ideas, and you didn’t have to do it all,” he said. “You could say, ‘OK, this piece will really work in my situation.’”
Wilson said churches can prepare now by placing the High Attendance Sunday School on their church calendars, reviewing the resources and planning options, and beginning praying and talking about it.
One strategy involves hosting a fellowship that welcomes members’ friends and family. Such events better connect class members and acquaint visitors with other members, making it less daunting to visit on Sunday morning.
“We Baptists are good at fellowship,” Wilson said. “So why don’t we fellowship some unchurched folks into Sunday school, and more important, into a relationship with Jesus Christ?”
In Bowling Green, 14 participating congregations saw their cumulative Sunday school attendance grow by more than 30 percent, according to Jeff Crabtree, director of missions for the Warren Baptist Association. Those churches had a total Sunday school attendance of 2,255 that day, up 543 from their combined average of 1,712.
“It’s benefited them longer than that one day. That’s the neat perspective,” Crabtree said. “It helped us to move churches to the place where they understood that Sunday school was something that took work. But once they got there, they discovered it was well worth the investment of their time.”
At White Stone Quarry Baptist Church in Bowling Green, members didn’t reach their goal, but the event is having a lasting effect on the congregation, according to Pastor Alan Brumback.
“The emphasis enabled our church to be more intentional about plugging new members into Sunday school, more intentional about getting people engaged,” he said. “As a matter of fact, we’re out of room for Sunday school.”
As the former minister of education at Central Baptist Church in Corbin, Crabtree had no trouble promoting a Sunday school project.
“If a church would just focus on Sunday school for four weeks, they’ll reap the benefit,” he noted. “And if they take how they did that over those four weeks over the next 48, they’ll have a great year of Sunday school.”
More information about Find it Here and the high-attendance promotion at www.kybaptist.org/reach.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
