Get Ready for a New Sunday School Year

Written by Wayne Poling

Involve your Sunday School Planning Team in planning the following for each new year, which typically begins in September. Each of the following areas is very important and deserves sufficient time for your very best planning.

Ten Best Practices To Make Your Sunday School Work – Resource Book

1. Organization - What organization does our Sunday School need beginning in September in order to facilitate growth and in order to teach effectively. Pages 76-77 in the book Ten Best Practices to Make Your Sunday School Work will provide suggestions in size and groupings of classes and departments.As you plan for the new year do not let your Sunday School be limited by simply perpetuating the organization you had this year. Are your classes of the correct size to effectively reach, teach, and minister? Do your classes understand the target ages for reaching, teaching, and ministry?

2. Staffing - Examine the staffing needs of your Sunday School organization. Many Sunday Schools have the proper structure (number of units), but are starved for leaders. Using pages 69-71 in Ten Best Practices toMake Your Sunday School Work, evaluate the leader learner ratio for your Sunday School. Remember that every class/department for preschoolers and children should have a minimum of at least two leaders. As you apply the ratios of leaders to learners in your Sunday School you will likely discover that you are understaffed in many areas. Properly staffing your Sunday School will encourage better teaching, ministry, and reaching. As you plan for the new year begin with planning to fully staff your Sunday School. Do not limit yourself.

3. Space - Consider how your church can make the best use of its space for Sunday School. This consideration will mean that no area has the permanent ownership of any of the space, that you will adjust space as needed in order to make the most effective use of your space. Lack of space or ineffective space can limit the ability of a group to reach people and to teach them effectively. As a Sunday School Planning Team walk through your space. On the door to each room list the name of the group that meets in the room, the enrollment and average attendance of the group, and the square footage of the room. Using the "Meeting Space Specifications Chart," on page204 of Ten Best Practices toMake Your Sunday School Work todetermine the appropriateness of the space for the group meeting there. After all of the space has been examined discuss ways you can make better use of your space.

4. Plan for these other items as you prepare for a new Sunday School year:

Updating Sunday School records
Planning to kickoffthe new year - organizational Advancement Day (Promotion Day), and otherkickoff activities
Planning and communication with all of your leadership
Sunday School leader commissioning service
Equipment needed for Sunday School classes and departments
Cleaning up and preparing facilities for the beginning of a new year
Training your leaders

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

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