Like lots of folks, I dropped out of church in college. My wife and I married right out of high school, went off to college, and didn’t connect to a church. It didn’t help that we came from different church traditions.
After a couple of years, we tried a church of Sharon’s denomination, but that didn’t work well for us. Then I started attending worship at another church by myself. Once or twice I went to a young adult Sunday School class. Even though I attended erratically, they kept in touch with me. I know it was frustrating for them; I wasn’t very responsive and it took time for them to see results.
The turning point was in my senior year when they invited us to a class party at one of the other couples’ home. Sharon was skeptical. Her experience with Baptists was with legalistic fundamentalists. Seems silly now, but she even worried about wearing pants to the party.
It turned out to be a great experience. We both felt loved and accepted. We made new friends. We found the Christian fellowship that we knew we needed. As a result, we both started attending the Sunday School class regularly.
The rest of the story is this. We soon left for grad school. Now we knew that we needed Christian friends and quickly found a new Sunday School class. God used the class teacher and the members of that class to help me begin to grow in my faith. My first place of ministry in a church was as a class care group leader. During this time, I was able to hear God’s call into vocational ministry.
I believe Sharon and I are in ministry now because a young adult Sunday School class cared about us when we needed to come back to the Lord. How has a Sunday School class cared for and reached out to you? Who do you know for whom your class needs to care and reach out?
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Bob Wood serves the Baptist State Convention of Michigan in the areas of church strengthening and leadership development.
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