From the Sunday School Team

Sunday School: Terry Beasley
Tuesday, January 1, 2008

As we turn the calendar to a new year in just a few days, there may be many questions in the scheduling of activities and ministries in the local Southern Baptist Church. However, one area which is seldom questioned is Sunday School. Some congregations may call it by other names but the time set aside by the church for the specific purpose of teaching the Bible in small group settings remains unquestioned...untouched...and often, unchanged. Perhaps this is good, perhaps not. One would need to look at the numbers and the benefits of the program to see if it is truly accomplishing its purpose within the church, or, if it is just one of the things we do because it is one of the things which we have always done!

Regardless of the size of congregation, teaching the Bible for the spiritual growth of the individual must be a priority. In the December 1st edition of "World" magazine, I was reminded of this simple premise as I read an article on Willow Creek Church. The article quotes Pastor Bill Hybels as saying, "We made a mistake...When people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become 'self feeders'. We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own." Hybels reminds us of a lesson from which we can all learn. As School School teachers and leaders, we must be teaching our students - regardless of their age - that the Bible is to be studied and applied daily. We don't study the Bible solely as an appreciation for what God has done historically. Instead, we meditate and memorize God's Word for what it is yet to do in us and through us!

The purpose of the Sunday School Team of the Heart of Kansas S.B.A. is to support the local congregations in the area of Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. To accomplish this purpose we need YOUR help. We need to know how we can best help, assist, and support you as you provide Sunday School and/or Vacation Bible School ministries through your church. In the past, this support has primarily come through the fall training event referred to as the "Flight School" and the associational Vacation Bible School worker training. However, we as a team and individual members within the team would also be receptive to assisting you and your church in other ways. Please, feel free to contact one of the team members and express to us the challenges you face in these ministry areas so that we can consider how to best support you. The members of the Sunday School team are: Terry Beasley, Minister of Education & Music at Sharon Baptist Church (684-5156); Jean Edwards from Metropolitan Baptist Church (264-2354); Peggy Welch, Children's Minister at Immanuel Baptist in Wichita (262-1452); and Ray Kempel, Pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Hutchinson (663-4425).

"Before Sunday school became the instructional hour for believers' children, it was an edgy, faith-based social-service movement in the slums of eighteenth-century England. And the public loved it." Elesha Coffman