Over the few days, I will be completing the writing of a book about Sunday School. Over the last month, I have shared favorite blog posts--those which have received the most hits (pageviews). In counting down the top ten, here at last is the number one favorite! Enjoy!

The ten actions that I list below are intended for revolutionary Sunday Schools. If a Sunday School does not want to be revolutionary, the actions below will simply create stress, resistance, and division. But in a revolutionary Sunday School, the listed actions will release power and energy, create excitement and momentum, and lead to maturational and numerical growth. WARNING: Work is required!

Consider the following if you want to increase your Sunday School attendance:

• PRAY. Don't overlook this action! Power, direction, and blessing will be missed without prayer. Pray for the following actions. Pray for leaders, members, and guests.
• START NEW CLASSES. New classes add leaders, reachers, focus, energy, and excitement. On average, new classes grow faster than existing classes. A new class will often grow to 20 in enrollment and 10 in attendance in 12-18 months.
• MAKE MORE CONTACTS. Increasing contacts with members and guests by 7-10 contacts above your usual number of contacts will result in 1 additional person in attendance. Want 10 more persons in attendance? Make 70-100 more contacts.
• INVITE MEMBERS AND GUESTS TO YOUR MONTHLY FELLOWSHIPS. Fellowships are great tools for developing relationships with each other. Why not invite guests? As guests get to know the people in the class, they will be more likely to attend the class. Don't wait for them to attend. Invite guests to your fellowship now!
• ENLIST A CLASS LEADERSHIP TEAM. David Francis of LifeWay says in an article entitled, Sunday School is a Team Effort, if you are missing members of your team, you become that leader. If you want to increase attendance, you need everyone to do their job. It takes a team to invite, lead participants to discover God and His Word, and connect with each other and God (3D Sunday School).
• SET ENROLLMENT AND ATTENDANCE GOALS. Ask every class to set God-sized goals. Privately and publicly affirm classes who reach/exceed their goals. Make total Sunday School progress visual.
• ORGANIZE TO REACH OUT AND MEET NEEDS. Care groups in adult and youth classes increase assimilation of attenders and new members when care group leaders care for 3 members and 3 guests. Contact is made weekly to listen, pray together, invite to fellowship activities, and mobilize the class to meet discovered needs. (Many Sunday Schools would increase in attendance if they could keep people from dropping out. Care groups can help!)
• SEEK MORE PARTICIPATION IN THE LESSON. From the youngest to the oldest, people today want to involve more of their senses. They learn more when they do more than hear. When they say and do something, retention is at 90%. And when more people are involved in the lesson, they are more likely to invite someone to class.
• TEACH MEMBERS TO SHARE A SUNDAY SCHOOL TESTIMONY. Help members assess the benefits they have received from being in Sunday School and practice sharing those benefits with each other in two minutes or less. Then challenge them to share their Sunday School testimony this week. Call for reports next Sunday. We must mobilize the laborers in our classes to be in the harvest.
• START BIBLE STUDY GROUPS AWAY FROM THE CHURCH. Some will never come to the church building. Surveys have shown that many who live in apartments are unchurched. Why not take Bible study to them? Research has shown that as many as 40% cannot attend on Sunday. Why not offer Bible study on weekdays at times and places when people can attend. Bible study groups can be an effective part of your Sunday School ministry.

For additional information, check out these three blog entries:

• Increasing Sunday School Class Attendance, Part 1
• Increasing Sunday School Class Attendance, Part 2
• Increasing Sunday School Class Attendance, Part 3

Over the next week, I will be completing the writing of a book about Sunday School. During that time, I will be sharing favorite blog posts--those which have received the most hits (pageviews). We are counting down the top ten. Here is the number three favorite! Enjoy!

When is the right time to express our appreciation to Sunday School teachers and workers? Last April I wrote a blog post entitled Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Month: Is It May or October?. Those two months are the most typical times to recognize and appreciate those who invest so much time and effort in teaching and leading our classes. But the answer to my question is not May or October. The answer to the question is every month! These men and women deserve our praise and thanks more than one day or month each year (check out Sunday School Leader Appreciation Is a Must!).

On the other hand, it is appropriate to plan a churchwide emphasis for a day, week, or month in order to lead class attenders (and parents) to express their appreciation. In my blog post, Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Month: Is It May or October?, I list a dozen ways to do so (one per month): from thank you card Sunday to a teacher commissioning service and from mug a teacher Sunday to pray for your teacher week and more.

I ran across a great article this week that I just had to share. It is on a website entitled Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Day, and the article is entitled Ideas for Honoring Your Sunday School Teacher. The article mentions that Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Day is the third Sunday in October. But many want to say thanks to teachers before the Sunday School year ends, and May is often a natural time to do so.

The article mentions five major ways to honor and appreciate Sunday School teachers and leaders: awards, publicize the day, give special gifts, have a special service, and thank-you cards. Make sure you read all of the article for some great suggestions. Allow me to share a shortened version of the ideas from the article:

• AWARDS. Nominate your favorite Sunday School teachers for a Teacher of the Year Award. Encourage the church family to submit their nominations. Put together a nomination form that asks for the name and reasons why the teacher should be considered. Make the forms readily available to your congregation. You might share about last year's winner from the pulpit in order to inspire them to complete and return the forms. Give all your teachers an appreciation certificate. (The article mentioned above contains a sample certificate.)
• PUBLICIZE THIS SPECIAL DAY. Announce the day from the pulpit, in your bulletin or church newsletter, by letters, and/or by announcement in every class. Remind everyone of the vital role Sunday School and teachers play in the life of the church. For some quotes, an article called Reproducible Bulletin Sunday Inserts has several from which you may choose. Put together a PowerPoint slide show of teacher pictures, quotes, and music as a reminder.
• HAVE A SPECIAL SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY SERVICE. Tailor the music, scripture, prayers, testimonies, and sermon around the topic of servanthood, teachers, and the importance of Sunday School. The article suggested passages like Deuteronomy 6:5-7, Proverbs 22:6, Matthew 19:14, and Luke 2:52. Also consider presenting appreciation certificates, doing live or video teacher interviews (sample questions in t he article), using special teacher name tags and bulletin covers, and listing the teacher/worker names in the bulletin. Offer a special time of food and fellowship at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert with a short program, speaker, and music.
• GIVE SPECIAL GIFTS. Express your appreciation in a tangible way. As the article says, explain that the gift cannot adequately express appreciation but is "a symbol or token of gratitude for faithful, excellent service." Use your imagination to consider gifts. The article suggests items like flowers or plants, personalized mugs or other items, books, gift certificates, class pictures, and food items. Express your appreciation in a tangible way. As the article says, explain that the gift cannot adequately express appreciation but is "a symbol or token of gratitude for faithful, excellent service." Use your imagination to consider gifts. The article suggests items like flowers or plants, personalized mugs or other items, books, gift certificates, class pictures, and food items.
• THANK-YOU NOTES. Don't underestimate how much a handwritten note or card will be appreciated. Some will be read again and again! Pass out similar stationary and bind them into a book with a special cover. Allow children to write notes on a posterboard. Blow up a picture of the class and use a marker to write notes on the picture. Consider sending e-cards. The article offers many more suggestions.

For more ideas about expressing appreciation, check out these blog posts:

• Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Month: Is It May or October?
• Apply God’s Word Through a Sunday School Project This Thanksgiving
• Offer a Gift of Encouragement to Your Sunday School Teachers and Workers
• Plan Your Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Day
• 25 Ways to Recognize Sunday School Workers, Part 2 and 25 Ways to Recognize Sunday School Workers, Part 3
• Can Food Lead to Growth Through the Sunday School?
• Sunday School Leader Appreciation Is a Must!
• Five Actions to Make Sunday School More Valuable, Part 2
• Building Blocks for a Strong Sunday School Class, Part 1
• Sunday School Director: Moving from Fire Hydrant to Water Fountain

Over the next week, I will be completing the writing of a book about Sunday School. During that time, I will be sharing favorite blog posts--those which have received the most hits (pageviews). We are counting down the top ten. Here is the number four favorite! Enjoy!

Depending on who you ask, teacher appreciation month is either May or October. In some ways, October is too early for school teachers or for Sunday School and other church teachers. May sounds right in some other ways for school teachers except that May is such a busy month as school ends for the year. For Sunday School and other church teachers, only three months of most Sunday School years remain: June, July, and August.

So which is it: May or October? You won't like my answer, but it is both and the other ten months as well. Pastors, staff, and other church leaders should find regular ways to recognize and thank teachers throughout the year. Yes, I think it is especially appropriate to focus that appreciation in one or two months. But why not develop a monthly calendar of ways to express appreciation to those who shepherd God's flock in Sunday School?

Consider these twelve ways to express appreciation:
1.        Teacher Thank You Card Sunday
2.        Give an Apple to Your Teacher Sunday
3.        Teacher Commissioning Sunday
4.        Take a Teacher Out to Eat Week
5.        Mug a Teacher Sunday
6.        Take a class photo, enlarge it, and have class members sign and frame it
7.        Pray for Your Teacher Week
8.        Christmas Class Fellowship (with teacher appreciation)
9.        Teacher Appreciation Poetry Sunday
10.        Teacher Pounding (give pounds of various food, etc) Sunday
11.        Teacher Gift Certificate Sunday
12.        Teacher Appreciation Banquet.

Over the next week, I will be completing the writing of a book about Sunday School. During that time, I will be sharing favorite blog posts--those which have received the most hits (pageviews). We have reached the top ten. Here is the number five favorite! Enjoy!

How have you found Sunday School beneficial? Have you learned more about the Bible? Have you learned how to study your Bible and how to pray? Have you learned more about God, His will, His ways, and His purpose for your life? Have you learned how to be more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and under self-control?

Have you found Sunday School beneficial because of helpful relationships? Have friends come to your aid in time of need--a birth, a death, a job loss, or a crisis? Have you seen class prayers for you answered? Have you found friends in Sunday School with whom you socialize and just have fun? Has your class become family?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you have a Sunday School testimony. And that means you have a great tool to help you invite unchurched persons to Sunday School. Are you eating at a restaurant? When your waitress brings your appetizers or food, tell her you are going to pray for the food in just a minute and ask if there is any way you could pray for her. Listen well to her request, and then pray for her with your meal blessing. When she returns, you may be able to share how Sunday School helped you with a similar situation. Consider going door-to-door asking how you can pray for your neighbors. Some doors will close, but many relationships will begin because you cared enough to ask.

Personal, face-to-face invitations tend to have the most impact, but don't give up on handwritten cards and letters or phone calls. The formula for the number of times to invite someone is the number of times they say "no" plus one. Don't pester, but be lovingly persistent. Invite the individual to a class fellowship or ministry project. Invite the individual to come to a church activity. Invite the individual to have a meal in your home.

Your invitation to Sunday School will be even more meaningful to those with whom you have a longer, deeper relationship. When you share your Sunday School testimony and invite them to attend with you, they will be more likely to have confidence in you and your invitation. David Francis, Sunday School Director for LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, has several suggestions about your efforts to invite FRANs: friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors on pages 10-15 of his booklet (available for a free download), The 3D Sunday School: A Three Dimensional Strategy to Help Members and Leaders Fulfill the Great Commission (see the picture above).

Invite someone to Sunday School. Be revolutionary!

For more ideas about inviting people to Sunday School, check out these blog posts:

• Four Tools for Growing Your Sunday School Class, Part 1
• Identify and Invite Sunday School Prospects, Part 2 and Identify and Invite Sunday School Prospects, Part 4
• Favorite Post: Pulpit Sunday School Promotion
• Personal Invitation and Enrollment: Twin Key Metrics in Sunday School Progress, Part 1 and Personal Invitation and Enrollment: Twin Key Metrics in Sunday School Progress, Part 2
• Pulpit Sunday School Promotion
• Grow Your Sunday School: Part 2, Steps for Inviting New People
• Promotional Tools for Sunday School: Don’t Keep It to Yourself!
• Christmas Invitation to Sunday School
• Revolutionary Sunday School Invitations (Postcards)
• Personal Invitations Are Needed and Still Work!
• Sunday School Testimony: Powerful Revolutionary Tool
• Connecting 110% of Your Congregation in Life-Changing Sunday School Classes, Part 2

Over the next week, I will be completing the writing of a book about Sunday School. During that time, I will be sharing favorite blog posts--those which have received the most hits (pageviews). We have reached the top ten. Here is the number six favorite! Enjoy!

What are the ways you have seen high attendance days help your Sunday School?  Share your thoughts with those who will read this entry by pressing the comments button below.

I have seen lots of benefits from the efforts leading up to high attendance days. I'll never forget my first one at Eastwood in Bowling Green, KY.  I had been at the church only a few months. Sunday School leaders and I decided to set high attendance day on Easter Sunday (that is not always a day you will have great attendance, especially when it falls during one of the spring break weekends). We set up a prayer plan, including home prayer meetings. We challenged them to have a fun fellowship time during the week before the day. We planned out a strategy for challenging people to make contacts. We mapped out our communication and publicity plan. We met with Sunday School leaders.

We asked each class to pray and set a God-sized goal for the day. Wow, the goal blew me away. It was about 60% more than we had attending in Sunday School on an average Sunday. The classes did everything we asked them to do during that six-week period. They invited. They prayed. They made contacts with members and absentees. They believed. On high attendance Sunday with God's blessing, we exceeded the goal with an all-time record attendance (about 200 more than had ever attended on one Sunday before). Wow!

As we evaluated the day and our records, we noticed we had made over 2000 contacts above our usual weekly number. Now, I had read in Andy Anderson's Growth Spiral materials that 7-10 contacts above your usual average will result in one additional person in attendance. As I did the math, I found this to be true. We also noticed a significant increase in guests by a factor of about six times the normal number (we were not as prepared to follow up as I would have liked for us to be). In addition, we had class members attend that had not been in class in months. Several were enrolled that day and in the weeks that followed.

So what are some of the benefits you can expect from your efforts of working toward a high attendance Sunday?  Consider these revolutionary benefits:

• increased prayer and expectancy of God's blessing and help,
• increased understanding of the need for the whole class to be involved in the work of the Sunday School,
• increased opportunity to teach about the purpose and benefits of Sunday School,
• increased contacts and ministry with members and absentees (re-engages those relationships),
• increased vision for prospects to invite,
• increased excitement from pursuing a common goal together as a class and as a Sunday School,
• increased sharing of testimonies about the benefits of Sunday School with friends and family,
• increased understanding of the value of fellowship and relationships,
• increased ownership of the pursuit of people in their age group,
• increased value of good Sunday School records,
• increased Sunday School attendance and enrollment,
• increased worship attendance (and sometimes offerings),
• increased opportunity for lives to be changed through Bible study, and
• many more benefits.

For more ideas about high attendance days and making contacts, check out these blog posts:

• Preparation for High Attendance Day in Sunday School
• March Madness Sunday School Contest
• Simple Steps for a Successful Sunday School High Attendance Day
• Summer Sunday School Spectacular
• Sunday School: Take the Love Dare
• Steps in Response to Sunday School Decline, Part 2
• Sunday School Contacts Make a Difference!
• Sunday School Contacts Result in Increased Attendance
• Promotional Tools for Sunday School: Don’t Keep It to Yourself!
• Ways Sunday School Can Help Increase Baptisms
• Calendaring Sunday School Growth
• Increasing Interest and Attendance in Sunday School, Part 1
• Starting a New Sunday School Year with Momentum
• How to Make It Easy to Attend and Join Sunday School, Part 2
• Reach Up, Reach Out, Reach In High Attendance Sunday Pilot Project

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be completing the writing of a book about Sunday School. During that time, I will be sharing favorite blog posts--those which have received the most hits (pageviews). We have reached the top ten. Here is the number eight favorite! Enjoy!

In Genesis 19, we see God sending two angels to save Lot and his family. When judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah can no longer be postponed, the two angels took Lot, his wife, and his two daughters by the hands to lead them out.  In verse 19 (NIV),one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!" (1) Lot and family needed to flee from the evil influences. (2) They needed to avoid longing for the past and their possessions, or else like Lot's wife risk getting stuck there. (3) They needed to pursue a goal (the mountains) in order to be successful.

Revolutionary Sunday School needs to understand the angel's instructions. (1) We must look and avoid unproductive activities and practices. (2) The enemy of the best is the good. We need to not get satisfied or stuck in the old thinking. (3) We must pursue goals in order to accomplish everything God wants. Revolutionary Sunday School seeks God and His leadership. Revolutionary Sunday School evaluates what has been done and works toward even greater effectiveness. But revolutionary Sunday School also must be purposeful and balanced in pursuit of healthy Sunday School growth.

Following thirty years pastoring growing churches, Andy Anderson served for seventeen years as church growth consultant for the Baptist Sunday School Board (now called LifeWay Christian Resources). During that time, he put together a system that has helped pastors and church leaders to evaluate, predict, and prepare for church growth through effective, balanced, intentional Sunday School work. That proven step-by-step method is called The Growth Spiral. Consider the following elements of this system:

• Spiral.  What if you set goals for your Sunday School, and then you divided those goals into quarters for your whole Sunday School, for each age group, and for each class? The goals could then be bite-sized rather than elephant-sized.
• Enrollment.  Set a God-sized enrollment goal. What if your goal was an increase of 40. That would be 10 per quarter.  If you had 10 classes, that would be a goal for each class to increase by 1 person in enrollment.
• Prospects.  Through research, Andy realized that a growing Sunday School needs to work toward developing a list of prospects that is the same size as the enrollment list.
• Teaching Units.  Through research, Andy discovered that the best size class enrollment for growth was between 12 and 18. New units are needed in order to assimilate growth.
• Workers.  Again through research, Andy realized that the entire Sunday School needed a ratio of 1 worker for every 5 in attendance to be in a growing stance. Workers include teachers, outreach leaders, department/division directors, pastor, educational staff, Sunday School director and secretary, and adult care group leaders.
• Workers Meeting Attendance.  Andy believed in accountability through a weekly workers meeting at which 75% or higher attendance of workers was expected in order for growth.
• Training.  He believed every worker needed training every year, and each year there shoul d be an increase in numbers trained.
• Space.  New classes need to be started for every 20 enrolled. This means new space must be sought, prepared, and provided annually. We must plan ahead or risk slowing growth.
• Contacts.  For growth, contacts by visit, card/letter, or call need to equal or exceed half of total enrollment each week. These contacts should be with members and prospects.
• Outreachers.  For growth, at least one person from each class should make home visits to prospects each week.
• Attendance.  Attendance ranges between 40 and 60% of enrollment. Attendance below or above that range signifies the need to deal with problems. Enrolling 40 new people will most likely result in an attendance increase of around 20.
• Worship Attendance.  Numbers in excess of 10% more in worship than Sunday School meant that Sunday School needed to do a better job of caring for and reaching out to people, especially new people.
• Offerings.  Usually when attendance increases, so does giving. There is often a per capita increase that can be tracked.
• Baptisms.  He discovered that only 1 out of 342 lost persons accepted Jesus in 12 months if they were only in worship while 1 out of 3 did if they were in Sunday School.

For more ideas about Sunday School growth, check out these blog posts:

• What Is the Key to Unlock Sunday School Growth?
• Plan for Your Sunday School to Grow This Year, Part 1 and Plan for Your Sunday School to Grow This Year, Part 2
• Grow Your Sunday School: Set Goals This Year
• Characteristics of a Good Sunday School Teacher, Part 3
• Personal Invitation and Enrollment: Twin Key Metrics in Sunday School Progress, Part 2
• Four Tools for Growing Your Sunday School Class, Part 2
• Favorite Post: 5 Goals for Sunday School Growth This Year, Part 1
• Set God-Sized Goals for Sunday School Growth
• Key Actions for Sunday School Class Growth, Part 3
• It’s Time to Launch One: An Apprentice, an On-Campus Group, and an Off-Campus Group
• Are You Planning for Sunday School Failure?
• Four Stumbling Blocks for Sunday School Growth, Part 2
• Dimensions of Sunday School Growth

• frequently used as hooks, to launch the lesson, to capture interest/attention of individuals in the lesson/truth/passage
• fun, interesting, lighter direction
• break down any tension; help participants to relax
• make participants comfortable with each other
• help participants get to know and trust each other; build connections that last; affirm affinities
• get to know new people and allow them to get to know us
• make participants comfortable in talking/sharing
• designed to create conversation between individuals
• best when they are connected to the lesson rather than free-standing.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be completing the writing of a book about Sunday School. During that time, I will be sharing favorite blog posts--those which have received the most hits (pageviews). We have reached the top ten. Here is the number ten favorite! Enjoy!

I led a conference at Super Saturday in Owensboro today entitled Creative Ways to Train Your Teachers. We began by listing Sunday School workers who need training. The group identified teachers; substitute teachers; potential teachers; class leaders like secretary, outreach leader, fellowship leader, and others; Sunday School directors, pastors, and others.

Then we formed three groups to identify reasons why training is important and creative ways to provide training. The groups had great responses to both questions. At that point, I shared a wide variety of training ideas, some the class had never considered and some they had not thought about in years. Here are many that I shared:
1.        provide a book or article; ask them to read and complete questions you provide
2.        provide a book or article; get together to discuss one or more chapter each month (or week)
3.        provide a book or article; get together on a retreat to discuss it
4.        take leaders to a training event sponsored by associational, state, or national leadership; travel together; debrief while traveling and/or at a scheduled time after the event and/or in age groups
5.        take leaders to a training event; attend different conferences; set up a time to share the training everyone got upon return
6.        request an overall Sunday School training event from associational or state leadership
7.        request age group training from associational or state leadership
8.        request topical training (like outreach, or teaching methods, etc.) from associational or state leadership
9.        request training from associational or state leadership for your church and another church, for area churches, or for your association
10.        set up your own fun training events:

• assign a topic to different teachers and ask them to prepare a short presentation for the other teachers in their age group
• contact a neighboring church and plan two training events with one church hosting while the other provides training leadership; then switch
• offer small segments of training during every worker meeting, whether monthly or weekly or quarterly
• plan an annual overnight leadership retreat which includes training
• plan a Sunday School launch (promotion) week which includes cleaning/setting up classrooms and training the week before the new year begins
• provide substitutes and training for a small group of your teachers for a month during Sunday School; rotate the group
• invite the pastor to share his vision for the Sunday School this year
• gather teachers to develop an agreed upon teacher covenant (reinforces good work and is opportunity for small doses of training)
• gather teachers to evaluate Sunday School progress and set goals for the coming year (same as above)
• provide potential teacher training at least once every year
• provide a coach for every 3-5 teachers for regular training, encouragement, mentoring, and accountability
• walk through classroom space with teachers and talk about good space use
• invite a speaker for morning worship to preach on elements of effective Sunday School work; follow the service with a meal and a brief time of training
• set up a worker appreciation banquet combined with a training event and/or Sunday School speaker
• conduct a training li brary or space scavenger hunt with clues leading to topics or age group training facts for discussion
• develop your training around a fun theme; decorate, promote, and have fun training around the theme
• take workers on a field trip to another church or a business and debrief the experience
• watch a training event; provide popcorn an d a listening guide; debrief
• watch a sports event together; have them look for examples of teamwork; debrief; apply lessons to Sunday School
• have a progressive dinner training event, going from house to house for appetizer and training, main course and training, and dessert and training
• since 60% of people today are visual learners, put up lots of pictures and training facts in the training area
• present an object lesson for Sunday School training
• since they will remember 90% of what they say and do, don't just tell them how to do something; lead them to say and do it
• start your own blog; for ideas here is one example: http://www.sundayschoolcentral.blogspot.com

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be writing a book about Sunday School. During that time, I will be sharing favorite blog posts--those which have received the most hits (pageviews). Here is the number eleven favorite! Enjoy!

I have written about using icebreakers before in a blog entry entitled Using Icebreakers Purposefully in Sunday School/Small Groups. Icebreakers serve some of the same purposes that "hooks" do with Bible study groups. My blog entry entitled Hooks: Launching Powerful Sunday School Lessons lists three from Glenn Brooke:

• Get their attention and interest.
• Generate expectations.
• Set up the key elements of the lesson to be relevant to the individual.

• HELPING A NEW GROUP GET TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER. Until there are trusting relationships, there is very little indepth sharing. Icebreakers can help them talk about lighter, fun topics which make them more comfortable to begin getting to know one another. In fact, early in the group the icebreakers will likely be directed more toward fun, personal sharing.
• HELPING NEW MEMBERS TO INTEGRATE INTO A GROUP. The same applies when a guest or new member joins the group. Until they get to know the group and vice versa, discussion will tend to be more superficial. Icebreakers can help the guest/new member to know and trust those already attending and vice versa.
• HELPING PEOPLE FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE. In general, icebreakers help most people laugh, share, and feel at home with the group. When they feel more comfortable, they are more likely to ask questions and share concerns. They are more likely to learn and to change as a result of the experience.
• ENCOURAGING COOPERATION. Icebreakers are intended to be sharing experiences between individuals and the group or pairs, triads, or small groups. Some icebreakers lead participants to work together, to listen to one another, and/or report about the other(s) in the experience. This interaction, again, leads to greater relationships and trust.
• ENCOURAGING LISTENING TO OTHERS. Whether sharing something funny or personal, icebreakers pique interest and listening. Listening is a skill that can be learned and pays dividends in small groups and ensuing relationships.
• ENCOURAGING WORKING TOGETHER. Icebreakers require working together whether simply in listening, or listening to report about what the partner said, or working together to accomplish some simple task. This reinforces the cooperation, trust, and interaction.
• ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO BREAK OUT OF THEIR CLIQUES. Cliques form quickly. Icebreakers can help people to get to know new or other people in new ways. It can help people to branch out beyond those they know best. It can open up relationships in class and beyond.
• BUILDING RAPPORT WITH LEADERS. It is important that leaders participate in icebreakers as well. The group needs to trust the leader in order to follow the leader. In addition, the example of the leader in sharing and being transparent goes miles toward helping the group to be willing to do the same.
• CREATING A GOOD ATMOSPHERE FOR LEARNING AND PARTICIPATION. One of the great benefits of icebreakers is that everyone participates and shares. When everyone talks early in the group time, they are more likely to freely share later in the session, even on deeper subjects.

For more ideas about icebreakers, check out these blog posts:

• Nine Reasons to Use Icebreakers in Sunday School/Small Groups
• Five Suggestions for Using Icebreakers Well in Sunday School/Small Groups
• Using Icebreakers Purposefully in Sunday School/Small Groups
• Creating a Safe Zone for Discussion in Sunday School/Small Groups, Part 1
• Dealing with a Sunday School Dominator, Part 2
• The Big Four to Be a Sticky Sunday School Class, Part 2
• Keys to Increasing Verbal Participation in Sunday School
• Sunday School at Work During the Other 167 Hours, Part 1
• Sunday School/Small Groups: Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Part 1
• Sunday School Teacher, You Are in Charge of Keeping Your Learners’ Attention!
• Revolutionary Teachers Capture Attention and Refuse to Let It Go!
• Benchmarks for Excellence in Sunday School Teaching, Part 2
• Sunday School Class Growth Is Spelled W-O-R-K, Part 3
• Shifting from Boring to Exciting in Sunday School
• Generating Excitement about Learning in Sunday School, Part 1