2010: The Year We Made Contact

Since the last post. . .

Instruct others to serve and create new classes through Bible-based teaching.

We met two more times in January to discuss the importance of creating new classes to help church and Sunday School growth. A great example of this is our new Discovery class that started back in January. This class has been a great source of growth for our Sunday School. Since the class began, we have enrolled 7 new members to the Sunday School, and two of them made the decision to be baptised. The class is also starting to become organized with a new fellowship coordinator and class secretary. We had our first fellowship in February and are planning our next one for March.

We also discussed the importance of teaching according to the Bible. The Lifeway literature that is provided is a trusted resource that we use. The series Explore the Bible helps keep us aligned with Biblical truths. It is also important that we have our Bibles available in class to show the importance of what we are teaching from.

Victory! Save souls and baptize.

On January 30, several members went to the School of Evangelism conference at Northside Baptist Church to learn more about evangelism. I learned two important things there:

1. The Sunday School needs an effective evangelism program.

2. The Sunday School needs an effective evangelism training program.

I want this year to be the year the Sunday School has a plan and a program to reach out to the unsaved and go beyond the walls of the church. We need a goal, a way of identifying prospects, praying for them, and organizing to reach them. We also need to train our members to be effective witnesses to the lost in a way that is specific to Sunday School evangelism. For these reasons, I am calling 2010 "The year we made contact." Yes, that is the title of the sequel to 2001: A Space Oddessy, but it works for what we need to do now. We must make contact outside the walls of the church and bring people to Christ.

Next Sunday is March 14, the day we turn our clocks ahead one hour. Don't forget! We need to keep our Sunday School attendance up. So far for 2010 we are over 30% above our overall attendance from 2009.

Also, please remember to contribute to the Annie Armstrong Missions. The church goal is $2,500 and the Sunday School usally contributes 20% of that offering. You can give during worship or Sunday School. If the Sunday School raises at least $500, then we will be on pace to meet or exceed the overall goal. So far the Sunday School has raised $125.

Have a great week and let me know of any questions you have or what you are thinking by making comments on this post.

My week:

Prayer Breakfast at Shoney's @ 6:30 am Tuesday March 9

Wednesday Night Meal and Service beginning at 5:30 pm

Sunday School and Service beginning at 9:45 am

Sunday Night Sing @ Eastern Heights Baptist Church at 6 pm