Six Ways to Equip Leaders

How is your commitment to staring new groups doing?  Still making progress I pray!  Don’t give up.  Stay faithful and God will bless you and those that reached through the new groups you start.

You’ve made the commitment to start new groups, you’ve got your friends praying about stating new groups, you’ve talked up starting new groups in your church, and you’ve even got some folks interesting in leading new groups.  So what’s next?  EQUIPPING/TRAINING!

There are several options in providing training today and lots of resources.

1. Online articles and resources.  This blog and others like it provide wonderful resources and ideas for Sunday School leaders.  Another good resource is each state convention website.  Most of the articles are free and can be printed and shared with the leaders of the new groups.
2. Online training.  Each month our team provides a free online Sunday School/Small Groups training experience for the churches in our state convention and you can check it out by visiting www.gabaptistsundayschool.org/training-videos.  One pastor gave every Sunday School leader a bottled coke and a bag of microwave popcorn with the above website with instruction to watch the training at home.  They followed up with their leaders by asking them to complete a quick 5 question card that they returned to the pastor.
3. Printed materials.  In every LifeWay Sunday School leader guide there are some helpful insights and ideas for leaders.  Use the content from those articles to train your leaders.  Another printed resource is books that address issues related to Sunday School.  The most recent resource I’ve contributed to is Sunday School that Really Excels from Kergel Publishers.  Visit our website and click on e-store to order a copy for $10.
4. Associational Training Events.  I’m sure that your association has a training planned for Sunday School leaders.  If your association has not planned training why don’t you plan one for your association and invite other churches in your association to participate.
5. State Convention Training Events.  These events are high quality and low cost!  Contact your state convention’s Sunday School office to get a calendar of these training opportunities and the host locations.
6. RIDGECREST.  I love Ridgecrest!  I met my wife at Ridgecrest!  I’ve gained so many ideas and resources from the Sunday School training events at Ridgecrest.  My family and I have many wonderful memories of the times we’ve been to Ridgecrest for Sunday School training events.  If you’ve never been to a Sunday School training event at Ridgecrest, you’ve got to go!  If you’ve been before then you need to go back.  The Sunday School training at Ridgecrest this summer was great and I’m already looking forward to next year.  Go ahead and put July 18-21, 2014 on your calendar.