Connect Short-term Events to Ongoing Sunday School

Why does your church offer events like: a men’s fish fry; a ladies retreat; or Vacation Bible School? Is it because church members have nothing else to do with their time?

Of course not! Churches offer evangelistic events so that church members can bring their lost friends to hear the Gospel and connect with the church.

But what could your church and Sunday School group do to make the connection even stronger? That’s right… connect guests at church events to the church’s Sunday School. Make it an intentional connection, not a connection that might happen accidentally. Intentionally connecting guests to a Sunday School group multiplies the evangelistic opportunity; plus it connects the guest with the very place that the church wants them to land in order to minister, evangelize, and disciple the guest – a Sunday School class!

Here are a couple of ideas on how to do that:

1. Be sure to register everyone, including guests, at every church event. A name, address, email, and phone number provides a way for the Sunday School to follow up with a guest. You can not follow-up on people that you do not know.
2. Encourage the event organizer to include a 2-3 minute testimony about Sunday School. Provide some coaching so that the person giving the testimony shares how Sunday School has affected him or her personally.
3. Light the road from the event to the Sunday School. When does Sunday School start? Where do I go?
4. Follow-up! The best time to invite a guest from the Men’s Fish Fry to your group is immediately! Yes, if you meet a guest at the fish fry, go ahead and invite him to your Sunday School class right then. Calling a guest 3 months after the fish fry communicates that you are not really very interested in him. The sooner you call or visit, the more likely it is that you will receive a positive response.

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Bob Mayfield is the Sunday School/Small Group specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Bob also has his own blog, as well as coordinating the BGCO’s online training site for Sunday School leaders, reconnectss.com.