Leading a Class to Start a New Unit

Written by John McClendon

The following tips can be helpful when seeking to start a new Sunday School unit:

Planning and Preparation

Essentials for Excellence - Adult Leader Downloadable Book

The teacher must create a positive mindset. Lead the class to understand that a new unit is a great opportunity. Don’t use terms like split, bust up, divide, or separate. Don’t blame the staff! Make starting a new unit a celebration and a part of the mission for your learners! Keep the vision alive. The class needs to see the new start as the ultimate in success. Keep the goal before the class during prayer times.

Communicate to your Sunday School leadership team your desire to start a new unit. Follow their direction regarding the target age or life-stage of the intended new unit and meeting location and schedule.

Enlist an apprentice teacher intended for the new unit. Placing an unprepared teacher in a new unit is one way to prepare for failure! The new unit deserves a teacher who has benefited from proper training. The best place for this to take place is in the class that is going to "birth" the new unit. The current teacher should mentor the apprentice. Give the apprentice opportunities to teach and help him or her to learn how to organize and shepherd the class. Take the apprentice to training events and leadership meetings. When it is time to start the new unit, work with Sunday School leaders to determine whether it would be best for the apprentice or the current teacher to move to the new class.

As the apprentice learns, prayerfully consider when to start the new unit. Work with your Sunday School leaders to determine the best time. Confirm that there will be a dedicated meeting location and schedule.

Enlist a core group of four to six learners to help start the new class. This core group should be comprised of some of the most mature learners in the established class. Begin working with the core group about the plans for the new class. Help them determine the best way to enlist others to become involved in the group.

Work with Sunday School leaders to establish membership and prospect rolls, including promotion of the new unit and visitation schedules. If some classes are not contacting their inactive members, consider moving some them into the new unit's membership roll and begin contacting them. Ensure that the core leaders of the new unit have received adequate training in your church's visitation methods and evangelism strategies, if any.

Set a growth limit for the new unit based on the following considerations:

1. Room size - Provide 12 to 15 square feet per person. Consider your unit full when attendance reaches 80 percent capacity. If every member understands this goal, you will help condition them to expect that new units will continue to appear.
2. Number of members enrolled and attending - The ideal Sunday School class has 12 people attending and out of 24 enrolled. This number is the maximum a unit can maintain while fostering strong and healthy relationships. If your class has moved beyond 12 in attendance, begin moving toward birthing a new unit. By the time a class has 15 in attendance, the apprentice should be teaching at least once a month. A class with 20 in attendance should enlist a core group to begin a new unit immediately.

Visit and contact members and prospects about one to three months prior to the new unit's launch. Set up special visitation times in which the sponsoring class will help. Ensure that those you visit know when and where the new class is meeting. Consider holding a time of fellowship to allow your new unit members to become familiar with each other and celebrate. This helps relieve some of the stress the transition may cause.

Transition

1. Birth the class! Conduct the first session. Celebrate and affirm.
2. Evaluate and provide reports to the sponsoring class regarding attendance, decisions to receive Christ as Savior, and testimonies of spiritual growth.
3. Above all else, pray before, during, and after the entire process. Regularly ask members to pray about starting a new class. Even if the class is small and the possibility seems remote, don’t limit the growth potential. God may be waiting for the group to pray. Pray for new units that have already begun.

Supporting resources that will help:
Consider using the following resources.  The resources are all on the CD-ROM contained in the book, Essentials for Excellence: Connecting Sunday School to Life by Louis Hanks and Alan Raughton.

• The e-book, Connecting Adult Sunday School to Life.
• The Adult Sunday School Organization Guide.  This guide provides helps and leadership ideas for organizing adult classes to function as an open group.
• The following helps are available on the CD-ROM: Steps To Creating A New Unit; New Class Birth Certificate; The Miracle of the Oil Presentation for Starting New Units; Is Your Class Ready to Start a New Unit?; Conditioning a Class to Start a New Unit.

John McClendon is Lead Adult Ministry Specialist in LifeWay Church Resources, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville, Tennessee.