Sunday School Class Teams

Many Sunday School classes are small groups with attendance ranging from 3 to 10. Others are larger groups with a dozen or more attenders. But whether small or large, your class can benefit from working together in teams.

I have previously written a couple of blog posts about Sunday School teams: Sunday School Class FISH Team Training and Sunday School Class TEAMS. A team should ideally have a minimum of 2-3 people serving together. In smaller classes, it is acceptable to have class members serving on more than one team.

The goal in larger classes is to have more people serving (ideally everyone). So the teams might need to be a little larger, and subgroups may be needed to approach that goal. When everyone is involved, the load is light, satisfaction is higher, and results are usually better.

So how would you move your class in that direction? Let me suggest the following steps:

• gather a planning team to pray and talk about the team model (like FISH or TEAMS) you will use or develop
• then divide your regular attendance by the number of teams (that will be the number of people needed on each team)
• then create team sign up sheets with only that number of blanks for people to sign up
• then share the team model with your class and ask them to choose one team on which to serve for 6 months (in smaller classes, you might need to ask them to sign up for two teams)
• then set a date for the teams to gather to plan their work for the coming 6 months (in smaller classes, if members signed up for two teams, you will need to have two meeting times)
• invite your absentees to join your teams
• stand back and watch the enjoyment, energy, and work
• in five months, gather your planning team to evaluate the process and suggest adjustments
• then have a new sign up for the teams and begin the process over again.

Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs. There is encouragement, support, help, accountability, and synergy from working together. This is a good practice for raising ownership of class planning and work. Try this out, and share your experiences by pressing Comments below.