Assisting Churches Today for Tomorrow

Turning things around!

Something I have observed in life and ministry is that nothing will turn things around like success.    I have a deep sense that a main reason churches are so quick to minimize their Bible Study ministry is that they have not seen the impact of that ministry in years.  We have let our Sunday Schools become so anemic and weak that they do not make a difference. 

However, when you work hard at training your leaders and members about the importance of this vital ministry and then help them to succeed you will find that people are quick to get on board.  Nothing trumps those who are critical or even indifferent like a successful ministry.  If you work at turning around your Sunday Bible Study ministry and people see new faces and some old ones return and lives changed you will find the support for your ministry.

Now I’ll admit there is a lot to “turning around your Sunday Bible Study”  and it is not always a quick fix but as sure as you are reading this article right now I tell you it can be done!  Contact me at bpritchett@churchassist.org and I will be glad to help you discover how you can see your ministry turn around.

A familiar trend?

Throughout the many years of my ministry I have never felt a need to justify or defend the need for a strong Sunday Bible study, that is until this past few years.  Increasingly we are seeing a significant reduction of the emphasis on Bible study.   For decades there was a deep understanding and commitment to the Bible study ministry but not as much today.  In fact for years and years, at least in Southern Baptist circles, if you asked how the church was doing the first mark discussed was the Sunday School.   The health and vitality of the Sunday School reflected the health and vitality of the church and vice versa, not so today. 

The troubling thing is that this is a familiar trend in church practice.  Have you stopped lately to think about all the changes that are taking place in our churches today?  Let me just mention a few that come to my mind and I am guessing you can add a few more.  There was a time which past several years ago when all churches which had a Sunday School at all had weekly workers meetings, then they became monthly meetings and now some meet quarterly or not at all.  I never thought I would witness the dropping of the Sunday night schedule in our churches but alas it is common now to find churches with no worship at all on Sunday night or if they meet it is for other type programming.   Can you remember when we had visitation ministries well they’ve gone as well for the most part.  And how about one that is really key to a church fulfilling the great commission—the evangelism ministry. 

Now don’t think I am not aware that there are still many churches that still conduct most all of these but I assert that those churches are definitely in the minority and are exceptions to the growing new norm.    We cannot let our Sunday Bible Study become another casualty to our drift away from such vital ministries.   One last observation is as you look at all these ministries they have something in common, they are essential to fulfilling the Great Commission and they are hard.  When I say they are hard doesn’t mean they aren’t fun and exciting too but they require more from us and there in may be part of the problem.