Having a Growing and Vibrant Sunday School

We all envision and desire a great Sunday School in our church.  We want to see people saved, lives changed, and our Lord to be given His rightful due in our lives.  But desire and realization don’t always meet up when it comes to our dreams.  So how do we ‘make it happen’ as we say in today’s lingo?  We tend to analyze and complicate the process when in fact Jesus made it very simple for His Church.  The first Sunday School wasn’t started until the 1700’s in England, but the principles are dominate in God’s Word.  Let me give you four basics for having a growing and vibrant Sunday School in the 21^st century.

1.     We understand that the Mission is to Make Disciples.

Do we remember the Great Commission of Christ to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8)?  Do we remember that He called us to go and compel them to come in that His house would be full (Luke 14:23)?  When we get a mindset of ‘us four and no more’ we miss His calling on our lives.  More than that, others are deprived of an opportunity to know Christ.  To use a quote from the Lorax movie, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better. It's not.”

2.     We need to develop a Ministry Mindset

In the wording of today it’s called building community.  Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “a three fold cord is not easily broken”.  Sometimes we say it as “there’s strength in numbers”.  However we phrase it, we all know that we need each other in this world.  Let’s make sure our classes are open and inviting to each and every guest we have.  Let’s keep our eyes open for opportunities to minister to those within the class and those without.

3.     We share the Message of Christ

I remember a survey done a couple of years ago in preparation for the GPS emphasis of the North American Mission Board.  People were questioned as to what they were looking for in life and the top four answers were these:  Hope, Purpose, Peace, and Life.  Our Bible Study should always seek to uplift Christ and His message, because His message is one of Hope, Purpose, Peace, and Life.

4.     We understand we are to Multiply Ourselves

We are not just to teach His truth, but to teach and train others to teach His truth (2 Timothy 2:2).  Our classes should always be striving to apprentice new teachers, to create new classes, and to multiply ourselves by mentoring and discipling others.  If our Classes don’t have a kingdom vision they will become inward focused and self-centered.

Jesus took twelve men and changed the world.  What can He do with us if we let Him? 

Prayers That Get Answered

Reading this morning in His Word I came across something that caught my eye.  2 Samuel 7:27 says “For you, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, I will build you a house: therefore has your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto you.”  Did  you notice that what David said how he had found it in his heart to pray this prayer to you, that is God?  What led David to pray in the manner that he did?  Looking back he uses the term ‘therefore’.  So what was it there for?  Continuing to look back he mentions how God has ‘revealed’ to His servant what He is going to do, therefore David wanted to prayer according to what God had revealed to him.  That is that God, instead of answering David’s desire to build a house for God, would establish David’s kingdom forever.  2 Samuel 7:25 says, “And now, O LORD God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, establish it forever, and do as you have said.”  David heart became one with God and desired to pray not according the David’s desire (a house for God), but that God’s desire be accomplished.  Maybe that is why he’s called ‘a man after God’s own heart’.

All this made me really stop and think.  It caused to me chew on my prayers a bit, if you will.  Was I praying according to what He has revealed to me?  What has He revealed to me in His Word and through His Spirit that I should be praying for?

With those thoughts in mind, I sat down this morning and wrote down six things that I need to remember to pray for.  And the joyful thing is, that I know they will be answered because He has revealed them to me in His Word!  I am sharing them so that you too might see His/Your prayers answered.  So here they are:

1. I pray not that I should be wealthy, but that I should have His riches.
2. I pray not that I should have perfect health, but that I should be one with Him.
3. I pray not that I should be delivered from trouble and tribulation, but that I should trust Him in my trials.
4. I pray not that I should know every step of my future, but that I should follow Him daily.
5. I pray not that I should seek to be successful, but that I should honor Him with my life.
6. I pray not that I should work to better myself, but that I should work to build His kingdom.

That’s my list.  Maybe you can use these, or make your own list.  Just remember 1 John 5:14-15 says “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us: ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we desired of him.”

I love knowing that my prayers are going to be answered, don’t you?