Developing the Proper Sunday School Organization

Written by Wayne Poling

Max Caldwell in the now out of print book, A Guide to Standard Sunday School Work, defined organization this way, “Organization is placing ourselves in the best possible position to be used by the Holy Spirit.” Ken Hemphill in Revitalizing the Sunday Morning Dinosaur states, “An effective organizational plan simply places the resources of the church at the full disposal of the Lord, that they might be used in the most efficient manner for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.”  We organize our Sunday School in order that persons might accomplish the very most for the Kingdom of God. With this in mind take a look at your Sunday School and see if its organization is helping you reach people for Christ.

Apply these questions to your Sunday School.

• Do each of our classes and departments have a clearly defined target? Do we avoid overlapping the assignments groups? Are the assignments clear? Are the classes and departments made up of their assigned age groups?
• Are the teaching units in our Sunday School the most effective size for ministry? Do we have the appropriate number of leaders based on the enrollment and age of the members of the group?

• Do we maintain effective records regarding the members of our Sunday School?  Do the records reflect each individual’s birth date enabling us to study our organization and assign them to the proper unit?
• Do we provide at least two leaders in every preschool, children, and youth class?
• Do we make provision in our organization for person with special needs?  Some of these needs might include:  mental retardation, visual impairment, learning disability, gifted, physical disability, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, behavior disorders, speech impairments, autism, and brain injuries.
• Do we provide an organization for teaching and ministering to homebound adults?
• Do we provide First Contact to reach and minister to the families of unreached preschoolers less than one year old and expectant parents?
• Do we continually review our Sunday School organization in order to discover opportunities to enhance growth, ministry, and teaching by creating new units? Do you have any units with the following?
  • Too wide an age-span?
  • Exceed recommended enrollment?
  • Have prospects but no class?
  • Large number of unenrolled church members?
  • Less than 50 percent of attendance in enrollment?

A proper Sunday School organization is not only biblical, it is essential. An effective Sunday School organization should help the church fulfill its purpose and enhance the total church ministry.

Wayne Poling is Sunday School/FAITH ministry specialist at LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville, Tennessee.