1-5-4 Planning Ideas for Sunday School

Written by Barry Campbell

As a Sunday School leader, one of your responsibilities is planning for the best way to teach the Bible to your people. Since the Sunday School is designed to fulfill every function of the church, whether evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship or worship, planning should be done with all those functions in mind. In Kingdom Principles for Church Growth, Gene Mims developed the 1•5•4 Principle.

The 1•5•4 Principle
There is one Great Commission. It is the driving force for church growth and should be the driving force of Sunday School ministry.

There are five functions of the church. ContaineAs a Sunday School leader, one of your responsibilities is planning for the best way to teach the Bible to your people. Since the Sunday School is designed to fulfill every function of the church, whether evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship or worship, planning should be done with all those functions in mind. In Kingdom Principles for Church Growth, Gene Mims developed the 1•5•4 Principle.d in the New Testament, these functions must be a part of every church to be obedient to the Lord. They are:

• Evangelism
• Discipleship
• Ministry
• Fellowship
• Worship

When the five functions are carried out in a healthy manner and applied to fulfilling the Great Commission, growth can be expected in four dimensions.

• Numerical Growth
• Spiritual Growth
• Ministries Expansion
• Missions Advance

Your Sunday School can and should be an essential part of the way your church does evangelism, discipleship, ministry, fellowship, and worship. In fact, if your church is to be healthy and balanced, it must practice these five functions. Why not use the five functions as a framework for planning the work of your Sunday School? Here are some ideas to get you started...

Evangelism
Evangelism should be done through the Sunday School. Regardless of the size of your church, a few simple actions will help your church reach people for Christ. Plan to find some prospects for your Sunday School. The best prospect discovery plan is one which results in a flow of new prospects. Here are a few ideas.

• Send welcome-to-the-community cards. Secure a list of families who have recently moved to the community. Church Prospect Service is a good source. Call 1-800-443-8032 ext. 3972 for more information. Mail a welcome card to each new family. Include a list of needed phone numbers. Include police, fire, utilities, schools, hospitals, and the number of your church. Some churches are putting this information on a refrigerator magnet.
• Enlist a team of newspaper detectives. Ask them to search every issue of your community newspaper for the names of people who need a letter from your pastor. Send letters of congratulations to athletes, business people who are promoted, couples who have recently married, parents of new babies, and children who make the honor roll. Write letters of concern to those who are bereaved.
• Honor special groups. What special group in your community would allow you to honor them? What about the junior-high basketball team, the volunteer fire department, schoolteachers, or elected officials?
• Include as prospects those who visit your church for special events. People who come to a Sunday service, a musical presentation, a children's activity, or an adult seminar are some of your best prospects.
• Reach families through children. VBS and Backyard Bible Clubs are great prospect discovery tools. Don't forget VBS for adults and youth.

Always be on the lookout for good ideas. Read a good book on the subject. Talk to other Sunday School leaders at state or associational training events, and see what is working in their church. Attend one of the Bible Teaching-Reaching weeks at Glorieta or Ridgecrest. Think and pray about the people in your community, and find a way to reach them.

Discipleship
Discipleship should be done through the Sunday School. Teaching the Bible is clearly one of the primary ways for discipleship to occur. Here are a few ways to plan for discipleship to take place in your Sunday School.

• Enrollment is still the key. It's true. There are people in your community who would be part of your Bible study if someone invited them. Plan to emphasize the importance of enrollment. Lead your teachers and members to think of enrollment as a ministry list. Equip and train your people to enroll anyone, anywhere, anytime. Provide members with enrollment cards, and encourage them to enroll friends and neighbors.
• Start at least one new Bible study unit this year. No other single action will be more productive in fulfilling the discipleship function of your church. Groups of any kind have a tendency to become closed groups. A Sunday School class which has been together as a group for several years may have become a rather closed group. For this reason, we sometimes need to start new Sunday School classes even if existing classes are not filled to capacity. Consider starting a new class for any of the following reasons.
  • Start a new class when your existing groups have become closed to newcomers.
  • Start a new class of a Bible study group when you discover a group in the community that needs Bible study and ministry.
  • Start a new class when the room in which a class meets is nearing capacity.

In part two of this series we'll examine ideas you can use to implement the last three functions of the church in your Sunday School: Ministry, Fellowship & Worship.

Barry Campbell is eastern region director, church relations and consulting, LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville, Tennessee.

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