Discovering Sunday School Leaders

I had a wonderful deacon at Liberty Baptist Church, Toomsuba, Mississippi.  His name was Rob Hall Culpepper.  He was an avid hunter and fisherman.  He asked me to go fishing with him one Saturday.  I knew he had a reputation of catching fish.  So I asked him his secret.  He said, “Oh, there’s nothing to catching fish.  You just have to fish in the right place.”  I sort of laughed, but at the end of the day, he had caught more than twice than any one fishing that day.

The same thing applies to finding the right Sunday School workers.  Far too often we “fish in the same place”, the twenty per cent of the church who seem to do all the work.  But we neglect the eighty percent who have the greatest potential.   I thought about this as well, and began to change the approach in the way we encourage churches to find new workers.

1. Make a list of potential new classes and the workers needed for each class. Teacher, Evangelism leader, Administrative leader, Ministry leader, Service leader, Fellowship leader, Prayer leader, etc.
2. Develop a job description for each position if you do not presently have them.
3. Provide a membership role to your team selecting new workers.
4. Eliminate everyone on the list who is presently serving in ANY capacity in the church. That’s the twenty per cent we mentioned.
5. Prayerfully look through the remainder on the list and circle those whom the Lord might bring to mind for any of the workers needed.  It will be easy to find two or three for each position. Trust me this works.
6. From the list of potential workers, spend time in prayer prioritizing 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd choices.
7. Provide the list of names and make appointments with the 1^st choices to visit with them in their homes and discuss the possibilities with them. Share how you got there, expectations, training opportunities and ask them to prayer for a few days.  Set a follow-up visit to come back for an answer.  Promise to rejoice with them in God’s answer.
8. God will provide ALL the workers you need.  He always does as we seek Him for His chosen workers.

We have done this with over 100 churches in consultation.  God has NEVER failed.

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Kiely Young is the Director of the Sunday School Department for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.