Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday .

 NOTE: . this letter was written in 1990 and refers to the decade of the 1980's calling for a turnaround in the Sunday School in 1990. Such a turnaround did not occur, though there were spots (particularly larger churches) where it did. Basically in the time since this open letter was written to one denomination the trend has continued with the exception of a short two-year temporary "excitement bump" after which the Sunday School continued to drift downward along with the collapse of small groups.

It's no secret the Sunday School is in trouble. In the last decade the Sunday Schools of The Wesleyan Church in the United States and Canada have lost more than 30,000 people. More than 30,000 people have become "one-hour-a-week Christians" in the last decade. Sunday School attendance continues to plummet as pastors ignore the Sunday School, superintendents' fret, and the laymen simply walk out.

The situation is not unique to my own denomination. All across the Evangelical world, churches are experiencing declining Sunday School attendance patterns even while worship attendance continues to climb.

The truth is the Evangelical Churches -- Wesleyans included--are experiencing what the "mainline churches" experienced several decades ago. Sunday School is considered juvenile and childish; "real" grown-ups don't go to Sunday School. The term "Sunday School" itself has become a term of derision and a synonym for -- "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E." Pastors embarrassed by the quality of teaching or trivial contests and gimmicks have, by and large, abandoned the Sunday School to leave it to its own destiny.

Should it concern us that over the last decade 30,000 Wesleyans have become "one-hour-a-week Christians?" So what if they don't come to Sunday School? Maybe they're getting their Discipleship at some other time in the week. Maybe Sunday School is an old-fashioned tradition that needs to be laid aside for the modern world.

Not true. In fact, during the last decade when Sunday School lost thousands of its attendees, the mid-week service grew only a tiny bit, and most of that was among CYC and Youth. And, during the same decade, the Sunday evening service dropped by 5,000 in average attendance. The truth is 30,000 Wesleyans became "one-hour-a-week Christians" in the last decade. That should concern us.

None of us would give our life for the Sunday School--it's just a program that someday will pass away. It is merely a tool to accomplish God's purpose, and as soon as something better comes along we should grab it and run with it. But the evidence shows that, so far, not much else has come along to replace the Sunday School in accomplishing its vital mission.

And what is the mission of the Sunday School? It is DISCIPLESHIP. It's the second half of the Great Commission... "teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you." It is the command to not only make converts of all nations but also to teach obedience. It is to help them experience the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit so that they come to obey Him in all areas taught in the Bible. Discipleship is not complete until the disciple is obeying all that He commanded us. It is not teaching knowledge, teaching beliefs, or teaching facts. But it is teaching obedience -- it is discipling people in Holy living. This is the mission of the Sunday School.

There are at least three kinds of Discipleship.

1. The first is one-to-one Discipleship. This is a very intense one-to-one relationship with high accountability and has a massive spiritual impact on the lives of the individuals involved. One-to-one Discipleship occurs when two Christians purposefully meet in order to help each other become more like Christ. It is a powerful means of helping others become Christ-like even though it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to accomplish. The Sunday School, by and large, can not do one-to-one Discipleship.

2. The second kind of Discipleship is cell group Discipleship. This is the kind of Discipleship where people meet in small groups of three or four or five, or seldom more than six or seven. They are tiny groups where Christians experience serious accountability, high levels of intimacy and a commitment to help each other become more like Christ. These groups, which usually meet during the midweek hour, have a very powerful impact on the participants and are one of the secrets of spiritual renewal in the Church today. The Sunday School is probably not a primary means of accomplishing cell group Discipleship, though in a few cases it does. Midweek groups that meet all across town in houses are probably the best plan for cell group Discipleship.

3. But there is a third kind of Discipleship -- large group Discipleship. This is a group of 15, 25, or 30 people -- a large enough gathering of people to be a "group" yet small enough for everybody to know each other. Group Discipleship might be called "entry level Discipleship." The group is large enough that the accountability, sharing, and intimacy does not scare people away, yet it is small enough that individuals can know each other, know each other's needs, and express caring and sharing to one another. Group Discipleship is the most time efficient of all kinds of Discipleship; a large number of people can be discipled to a moderate level in a relatively reasonable period of time.

Group Discipleship is a great first step to take in a total church-wide Discipleship program. "One-hour-a-week Christians" can be challenged to take their "next step" in commitment to the Lord by getting in group Discipleship -- a gathering of 15 to 25 to 30 people who are committed to help each other become more like Christ. As great as cell group and one-to-one Discipleship are, it is highly unusual to find a church that has as much as half its Sunday morning attendance in cell and one-to-one Discipleship. It's simply a fearful kind of thing to join a small cell group or commit yourself to one-on-one Discipleship. But group Discipleship is another matter. It is "entry level" in the sense that the threshold of fear is lowered enough for almost any Christian to sign up.

Yet another advantage of group Discipleship is its great potential to spread a spiritual revival. There is no doubt that revival is already occurring in most churches. It is occurring through one-to-one Discipleship or in cell groups. But the potential of this kind of revival spilling over into the entire congregation is limited. A cell group of five men meeting at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday mornings might be experiencing spiritual revival. However, the potential for that revival spreading from the lives of these men to the entire church is sometimes limited. However, group Discipleship is another story. If having a group of 20 or 30 people in your church who begin hearing God's conviction, responding in obedience, experiencing spiritual life change, testifying to that life change results in conviction on the lives of other people, that kind of spiritual revival among 20 or 30 people in your church is guaranteed to spread to the whole congregation.

So here is the critical question: Why not consider your Sunday School hour as your "group Discipleship" time?

The average Wesleyan Church has 77% of its morning worship attendance already attending an hour before (or after) during the Sunday School hour. No other gathering of the Church rivals the numbers already attending during the Sunday School hour. So why not utilize the high saturation attendance during the Sunday School hour in order to accomplish group Discipleship.

Sure, we've got to have one-to-one Discipleship. I believe in that and am personally in several relationships now of one-to-one Discipleship. And sure, cell group Discipleship has a fabulous potential to have permanent influence on helping people go deeper with Christ. But why not give the Sunday School the "right of first refusal" as your church's primary time for "group Discipleship." If it doesn't work or doesn't suit you, then pick another time and bury the Sunday School. None of us will die for the Sunday School hour. However, Discipleship is an essential part of the Great Commission. Why not target the mission of the Sunday School as Discipleship... especially group Discipleship?

Group Discipleship is an efficient use of time in the Church. Face it, if we can't get people to come an hour earlier than worship, or stay an hour later, how will we get them to add a completely new time slot to their weekly schedule? There's no doubt about it, the morning worship hour has become the "port of entry" into the Church. Why not make the Sunday School hour the LOGICAL NEXT STEP for people to make following attending the morning worship hour? It's far easier for people to come an hour earlier or stay an hour later than to come back Sunday evening or squeeze in another time slot on their schedule after a busy day's work. (And the truth of the matter is, if people won't come an hour earlier, they won't bother to come back Sunday night or midweek either.) And if people won't come an hour earlier than worship for a group Discipleship time, you'll never get them to sign up for the choir, or tithing, or to go out soul winning. This is why the Sunday School hour -- the hour of time contiguous to morning worship -- will experience a great revitalization in the 1990s.

Pastors and Sunday School superintendents are going to realize the essential, biblical, mandated mission of the Sunday School -- Discipleship. Pastors will re-involve themselves in the discipling work, the Sunday School hour. Many churches will rename their Sunday School hour, calling it "Discipleship groups," "Care groups," "Christian training classes," and "Adult fellowships." Laymen who have gotten out of the habit of attending the Sunday School hour will lay aside their Sunday paper and come an hour earlier to experience the spiritual dynamic which occurs in a class using the "revival model" of teaching. Sunday School teachers will abandon the idea of "teaching for knowledge" and will adopt the "shepherd-teacher" model, recognizing that their primary responsibility is to lead a group -- not "teach the material."

As a result, in the next ten years we will see a great increase in involvement during the Sunday School hour as people's deep hunger for God is fed and their commitment level begins to rise. As that commitment level rises, these attendees will be back Sunday night, and midweek, and in the choir; they will be going soul winning; they will provide a stream of committed, dedicated people for leadership in the Church. This is the kind of renewal the Sunday School hour will experience in the '90s that will spill over on the entire church.

Now what about you, my friend?

What response can you make to all this? Do you agree with the desperate need for spiritual revival to sweep across your own church? Do you accept the idea that the Sunday School hour is the logical "next step" after worship for people to take in their growing spiritual lives? Do you agree that "Discipleship" is the essential goal of the Sunday School -- fulfilling the second half of the Great Commission?

If so, what should you do? What action should you take? What am I asking you to do?

I'm not asking you to send for some new gimmick or materials or suggesting a contest that will revitalize your Sunday School. I'm not challenging you to buy a $500.00 video series that promises to bring spiritual revival to your church. I don't even have an 800-number for you to call to send your money away and get "the answer" to your Sunday School.

So what am I asking you to do? I'm asking that you take the first step toward the revitalization of your Sunday School: adopt Discipleship as the mission of the Sunday School. I'm asking pastors and Sunday School superintendents and maybe even the Sunday School staff to sit down together and prayerfully adopt Discipleship (Christians helping each other become like Jesus Christ) as the mission of the Sunday School. Discipleship must be confessed as the mission of the Sunday School to one another. Discipleship must be emphasized as the mission of the Sunday School over and over again by the pastor and the Sunday School superintendent. In a dozen different ways, at a dozen different times, leaders must hammer away at establishing Discipleship as the mission of the Sunday School until every single shepherd-teacher has a burning desire to see spiritual life change occur in the lives of his or her flock-students. People won't give hundreds of hours a year to simply "teach Sunday School class." That cause isn't worth the effort. But the cause of Discipleship -- helping people become Christ-like -- now, that's a cause worth giving yourself to.

So all this letter is asking you to do at this stage is to get with some other leader in your church and talk about the mission of the Sunday School. The Church exists by mission as fire exists by oxygen. When the church, or any ministry of the church loses sight of its God-given mission, it flounders and coasts. The first step toward the revitalization of the Sunday School, leading to a church-wide spiritual revival, is the adoption of Discipleship as the mission of the Sunday School.

And how can you "adopt" a mission? The people in charge adopt it -- the pastor, the Sunday School superintendent, the staff. These people get together and look at their own Sunday School hour. They analyze their own "Discipleship product" in the church -- how well people are walking in Christ-likeness. They pray together, asking God to give them a burden to call people to Holy living and commitment. They read parts of this letter and talk about it until the Holy Spirit lays on these leaders' hearts the vision to Disciple people in Holy living. Then they agree, in "one accord," that from this point onward the Sunday School hour will wholeheartedly give itself to the task of discipling people -- helping Christians become more like Jesus Christ.

And when you've done this as a group of leaders then you are ready for step two: establishing the "revival model of teaching." But we'll hold that for next time. For now, the task is establishing Discipleship as the mission of the Sunday School hour.

Keep in touch. I sense a great spiritual awakening is afoot!

Keep on keeping on,

 Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday .

So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu