I mentioned in the previous blog entry that I never grow tired of stories about new class births. New classes are started to reach different age groups: preschoolers, children, youth, young adults, median adults, and senior adults. Some are seeking to reach adults in different stages of life. Some see a gap in the church in a specific age group that they try to target reaching with the new class.
GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH, LEXINGTON. Michael Welch (who recently has left Grace to serve Crestwood in Frankfort) said,
My first class start was a class that met in the sanctuary to catch folks who came to early worship and left without attending a Bible study class. I hoped to capture the success that Bethlehem in Louisville has in that many people attend their sanctuary class. Several attend Bethlehem’s class because of their shyness since it’s a lecture style class. Another point to my sanctuary class was to have a brief duration, 9:30—10, in order to catch folks who might only want “Sunday School Lite.” The sanctuary class became known as the “Microwave” class, since it was so short. The class’s attendance was usually 6. It’s still going.
My second class start was a new members’ class, “Foundations for Faith and Service”. We rarely had new members, so it was almost a once/year for 6 week class. It seldom meets.
My third class start was 3 attempts, at different times and days, for collegiates. It didn’t materialize until the new Youth Pastor became the teacher. It now runs around 5 on a good day.
My fourth class start is the one in which I’m most proud. I had a burden to offer a class that would focus on apologetics for skeptics. The class runs around ten, including one former agnostic who came to Jesus through the class!”
ZION BAPTIST CHURCH, HENDERSON. Doug Hamblin had a story for last post. Here is another one in which he said,
One thing that we have done is to look at areas of stages of life that we are not tapping into in Sunday School. An example is a class, specifically for Single moms. I found a Single mom who expressed interest in this along with 2 or 3 others ladies that are in the same boat and asked them if they wanted to start a class. To my surprise they said yes. The teacher actually came out of a “women’s class.” It wasn’t so much that the woman’s class was sending her out but that she herself is stepping out to lead this class. The other ladies are coming from various areas within the church. They are looking at and targeting women they work with and associate with. They are using LifeWay Bible Studies for Life and Josh Hunt’s good questions, but in the next few weeks, the Sunday School leadership team is allowing them to do a “Hot Topic” study to generate more interest and members to class. The “Hot topic” study is a Kevin Leman Study, Single Parenting That Works. It is a 6 week course, which semi closes the group for that amount of time, but they will go back to the LifeWay curriculum after that.
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