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Sunday School Revolutionary

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Empty Seats in Sunday School

July 12, 2007 by Darryl Wilson Leave a Comment

My Team Leader, French Harmon, made a statement in Team meeting yesterday that continues to echo in my mind and heart. I had to write it down when he spoke it. And I knew I had to write about it here. Here’s the statement:

We argue more about curriculum than about the seat that is empty.

Is that really true? Could we be more concerned about what we are studying than about who is not there? Could we be more concerned about ourselves than about absentees and prospects? Could we spend more time deciding which curriculum to study than we spend planning about how to care and reach out?

Wow! I am still struggling with the statement. I have seen it to be true far too often. What would Jesus do? I believe he would focus on the people. You see, when we argue about curriculum, we are not talking about support of the Bible–we are simply talking about a pupil or teacher book (someone’s commentary on the Bible).

Bottom line:  I believe we should offer the best curriculum we can, but we must spend more time pursuing people for whom Jesus died. We must care about people. We must miss them when they are absent. We must put systems in place in our classes to contact and love on those who are out for a week. We must see people who are lost. We must care for them. We must act in caring ways for them. We must reach out, befriend them, and invite them to class and to Jesus. Our classes need reaching systems to follow up on guests and to reach out and minister to our communities and world.

How will you act in a more intentional way about the seat that is empty in your class this week? Lead your class to take a step in that direction. Lead them to pray. Lead them to contact. Lead them to befriend. Lead them to be revolutionaries! It is up to you!

Related posts:

Conduct an Adult & Student Sunday School Space Walk
What You Can Do to Make Sunday School Classes Feel (and Act) More Like Small Groups, Part 1
Sunday School Practices Survey Results by Growth, Part 1
Flake's Formula for Sunday School Growth: Enlarge the Organization

Filed Under: Assimilation Tagged With: absentees, care, empty seats, invitations, ministry, prospects, reaching systems

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