During the 1990s I had the opportunity to serve two churches as the Christian Education pastor. One of my primary responsibilities at both of those churches was to lead them in the area of transitioning the medium-sized and large-sized adult Sunday school classes into small groups. One church responded with moderate success, while the other had phenomenal success and has become a teaching model for thousands of churches. I have definitely learned some things about what to do and what not to do when making this kind of transition. In this brief article I would like to share with you what some of those are in the hopes that it will be of help to those of you who are considering making this journey.
- Make sure you have the absolute support of the senior pastor and the rest of the pastoral team. Sunday schools are sacred ground in most churches. That senior pastor needs to be prepared to stand firm with you when change becomes visible and significant. If you have any doubt about this support, do not even think about making this journey without getting your resume ready.
- Go to school on churches like Flamingo Road Church (Baptist) in Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Ginghamsburg Church (UMC) in Dayton, Ohio; and Church of Joy (Lutheran) in Phoenix, AZ, who have made this journey. All of these have conferences where they share their transitioning journey.
- Establish a clear vision and an initial strategy for where you want to go.
- Experiment with one existing class that will test the process before transitioning other classes. Every church has a renegade leader who will take this on. Spend a lot of time with this class. Train them well. If this class is successful, they will serve as the trailblazer for others to make this journey. As Indiana Jones' father said, "Choose wisely."
- Do not transition all classes at once. Take only those whose leadership teams will follow you. Celebrate their successes, and in time look for other classes to follow.
- Give permission for traditional classes to keep functioning the way they always have. Let them know you are going to continue to bless their work. Ask them to likewise bless your endeavors with those classes who are making the transition. Be willing to allow multiple methods to exist together.
- * Turn some classes into on-campus incubators for small groups. This will require the use of a master facilitator organizing the class into sub-groups of 6-8. Each sub-group should have a trained facilitator. These on-campus classes are great for assimilating new people from worship into small groups. In time these sub-groups can become their own off-campus small group, or two or three sub-groups may integrate to create another on-campus midsize group incubator.
* I encourage churches to start here, and then gradually move groups off-campus. - Provide adequate training for your Sunday school teachers to make the transition from being a lecturer of content to becoming a facilitator of discipleship and building a team. Depending on the skills of the teachers and how long they have been leading a traditional class will determine the kind of training and time you will have to put into training them.
- After exhausting all means to redeem the situation, be willing to let some of your leaders resign, who are either causing trouble or just unwilling to follow your leadership. Do this with grace and absolute kindness. Never make them feel like a bad person because they do not get it. I have had teachers take two years to come around. Be patient. The success of the other classes is what eventually got to them along with the prodding of the Holy Spirit.
- If you have the space, provide for some groups to meet on-campus before or after worship. I have found this to be real advantageous for enlisting more adults with childcare challenges into small groups because of the quality on-campus childcare offered on the weekend. Be willing to have groups on-campus and off-campus. It is ok to do both.
- Go slow. Do not rush the process. The change should be constant but gradual. It took us four years for 90 percent of our existing classes to make the compete transition.
- Celebrate the journey with your leaders and keep casting the vision. Have fun with it and make it exciting. Enthusiasm is contagious.
