In Three Simple Actions to Increase Sunday School attendance, I shared this picture and question: Picture your home, whether a house, condo, or apartment. Let's assume you set a goal of getting ten people crammed into your living room. What do you need to do in order to achieve your goal? While there are many strategies, let me boil the possibilities down to three actions:

• get nine people besides yourself in the front door,
• make sure they don't go out the door,
• and make sure you get them all at the same time into the living room.

LIVING ROOM. While the Front Door is focused on connecting to prospects and guests and the Back Door is focused on preventing dropouts, the Living Room is focused on regular attendance. As was stated in Three Simple Actions to Increase Sunday School:

Disciples grow better when they consistently are part of a group. Irregular attendance results in irregular or poor growth as disciples. It produces weak leaders. It reduces relationships and service opportunities.

What are some Living Room strategies for Sunday School classes which can improve the regularity of members? I shared a good beginning list in Irregularity: Addressing Every-Other-Week Class Attenders:

• follow up every time persons are absent;
• when they miss, express your genuine care and let them know they were missed;
• ask key class members to invest in relationships with some whose attendance patterns are beginning to change;
• use care groups to make weekly contact with members and prospects--can lead to some additional relationships over time;
• contact, pray together, and remind them of the next class fellowship;
• plan regular class fellowships and make sure absentees get written and phone invitations/reminders;
• plan outreach and ministry projects where participants can get to know one another differently than they would in social times;
• give every member a class responsibility--this will often increase faithfulness;
• develop prayer partners who pray together before class begins and between classes;
• communicate how upcoming lessons will help them to live out their Christian lives in the world;
• explain the benefits of regular attendance for themselves and their children;
• have an attendance and/or contact competition with another class during a quarter;
• use icebreakers to help class members get to know one another in fresh ways (can lead to affinity discovery); and
• divide the group during the Bible study into small groups (3-6 persons) for discussion.

• set high expectations for attendance--explain why it is important;
• lead members to agree on/sign a class involvement covenant challenging members to have daily devotions, read lessons weekly, and be present;
• encourage them to bring their friends;
• give individuals assignments related to the lesson; and
• make sure to use fun, participatory teaching-learning activities to involve everyone in every lesson.

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

• Improve Sunday School Through Evaluation
• Enroll + Care + Invite = Attendance in Sunday School
• Four Stumbling Blocks for Sunday School Growth, Part 1
• 5 Goals for Sunday School Growth This Year, Part 1 and 5 Goals for Sunday School Growth This Year, Part 2
• Seven Steps Toward Growing as a Sunday School
• Next-Level Sunday School
• Sunday School Enrollment: Attendance List or Ministry List?
• Sunday School Growth Spiral
• The Big Four to Be a Sticky Sunday School Class, Part 1
• Sunday School’s Vision to Change the World
• Part 2: What Is the Ideal Balance of Age Groups in a Growing Sunday School?
• Identify and Invite Sunday School Prospects, Part 3
• Evaluate and Plan to Take Your Sunday School to the Next Level

Are you seeking improvement in the overall health of your church? Desiring to grow strategic ministries in your church?

Pastors, church staff, and leaders/workers in the areas of Stewardship, Discipleship, Assimilation, Sunday School, Youth Ministry and Preschool/Children Ministry are invited to come together to be challenged and better equipped for sharpening the effectiveness of these key ministries. Sessions include (Sunday School training is highlighted:

SESSION ONE:

• Meeting the Resource Challenge Through a Stewardship Strategy
• The Velcro Church
• Sunday School Momentum: Six Steps Forward This Year - Move attendance and attitude from stagnant to growing by addressing prayer, enrollment, prospects, contacts, workers, planning and training.
• Discipleship from the Inside Out
• Retaining 16-19 Year-Olds
• Transforming Preschoolers and Children

SESSION TWO:

• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Our Stewardship Ministry
• The Velcro Church
• Sunday School Multiplication: Three Critical Issues - Reach, care for, andmobilize more people as new teachers, leaders, and classes are launched.
• Discipleship from the Inside Out
• Retaining 16-19 Year-Olds
• Empowering Parents

The schedule for each location begins at 6:30 PM local time and concludes at 9:00 PM.  Participants will be able to choose one of the six conferences to attend for each session. The cost for the training is $10 per person or $50 maximum per church.

Click your prefered date/location below for more information and to register:

• April 12, 2010 in the Oldham-Trimble Association
  LaGrange Baptist Church
  1139 Commerce Pkwy, LaGrange
• April 13, 2010 in the Bracken Association
  Mayslick Baptist Church
  5105 Main St, Mayslick
• April 20, 2010 in the Wayne Association
  First Baptist Church, Monticello
  2124 E Highway 90, Monticello
• April 22, 2010 in the Blackford-Breckinridge Association
  Hawesville Baptist Church
  125 Jefferson St, Hawesville
• April 27, 2010 in the South District Association
  First Baptist Church, Danville
  1570 North Danville Bypass Danville, Kentucky
• May 10, 2010 in the Caldwell-Lyon Association
  First Baptist Church, Eddyville
  216 Jenkins Rd, Eddyville

Add this to your schedule. Plan to bring a group from your church. Bring a van load! See you there!

Three Simple Strategies to Increase Sunday School Attendance, Part 1, I began expanding on actions I shared in Three Simple Actions to Increase Sunday School Attendance: front door, back door, living room. Check it out. In Part 1 of this three-part series, I began by sharing strategies for focusing on front door Sunday School action strategies.

In Part 2, I will expand on back door strategies: When people join, care for them. When they are absent, contact them. Do it out of concern for them as persons rather than simply an attendance number. Organize the class to respond in care. What goals do you need to set? What plans and assignments need to be made? Consider the following back door strategy ideas:

• pray for/with each other, focus on real needs;
• enlist prayer partners;
• enlist and train care group leaders;
• give time on Sunday morning for care groups to meet/pray together;
• take roll in care groups;
• contact absentees every week;
• respond quickly to discovered needs;
• establish good communication channels for sharing prayer requests and for mobilizing the class to meet a ministry need that is bigger than the care group can handle;
• give as many attenders as possible a responsibility in class sessions and class ministry;
• use name tags;
• call people by name;
• seek to deal constructively with conflict;
• plan regular class fellowships/projects to develop relationships in new ways beyond Bible study session time;
• utilize small group activities and participatory teaching-learning activities to foster relationships and affinity-discovery; and
• ask class greeters to help the class notice when members are absent.

• Giving Attention to the Two Doors of the Sunday School
• It Takes More Than Sunday School and Worship to Close the Back Door
• Three Simple Actions to Increase Sunday School Attendance
• The Big Four to Be a Sticky Sunday School Class, Part 1 and The Big Four to Be a Sticky Sunday School Class, Part 2
• Balancing First Impression and Connection in Sunday School
• Sunday School’s Neglect of Care for One Another, Part 8
• Revolutionary Adult Sunday School Teachers Encourage Members to Leave to Serve
• Explosive Sunday School Growth
• Churches Cooperating to Make Sunday School Stronger
• Increasing Sunday School Class Attendance, Part 2
• The Accumulation of Sunday School Neglect, Part 1
• Nine Key Healthy Sunday School Issues, Part 2
• Does Your Sunday School Class Really Care?
• Key Actions for Sunday School Class Growth, Part 1

In Three Simple Actions to Increase Sunday School Attendance, I mentioned these actions which can lead to increased Sunday School attendance:

• FRONT DOOR. Personally invite and enroll new people. Invite them to class fellowships and projects. Get to know people in the community and in your home.
• BACK DOOR. When people join, care for them. When they are absent, contact them. Do it out of concern for them as persons rather than simply an attendance number. Organize the class to respond in care.
• LIVING ROOM. Make attendance and involvement meaningful. Set high expectations for attendance. Challenge members to have devotions, read lessons, and be present. Lead them to encounter God. Give assignments. Call when they miss. Encourage them to bring friends. Find them places of service.

In this three-part series, I want to expand on those actions by offering strategies for accomplishing each of those actions. In Part 1, we will focus on Front Door action strategies. What goals do you need to set? What plans and assignments need to be made? Consider the following twenty strategy ideas:

• pray for God's leadership, for those in the class, and those not yet reached;
• set, check on, and adjust annual and quarterly God-sized goals for attendance, enrollment, and invitations/contacts;
• prayerwalk your community;
• invite friends, relatives, and neighbors to class fellowships, projects, and homes (focus on a different group each month);
• challenge members to invite prospects when they are at work, at play, and in the marketplace;
• enlist greeters to welcome, register guests, and help with name tags;
• follow up with every guest in worship, Sunday School, and other church ministries;
• plan for, start, and announce new groups at and away from the church regularly;
• announce upcoming class or age group study topics monthly to members, absentees, and prospects as well as from the pulpit;
• assign class members to sanctuary sections to seek out and connect with guests who may be prospects for the class;
• develop an active prayer, ministry, and fellowship list of unenrolled/unconnected people;
• set up a system for assigning unenrolled people to class attenders to contact, care for, pray with, and invite each week;
• make contact with prospective members by visit, phone, card/letter, and/or email;
• enroll and contact every new church member;
• seek a list of all church members not enrolled in Sunday School; pray, care for, and invite them regularly;
• make a list of all unenrolled family members of Sunday School members; pray, care for, and invite them regularly;
• make class session exciting, participative, and guest-friendly; avoid embarrassing or using "churchy" words;
• invite worship guests every week to get connected in Sunday School;
• share regular Sunday School testimonies from the pulpit; and
• register guests for church-wide and community events and ministries; make class assignments to follow up.

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

• With One Year to Live, How Would You Do Sunday School Differently?
• Building Blocks for a Strong Sunday School Class, Part 2
• Sunday School Priorities: Choosing Where to Start
• The 3-5-10 Formula for Sunday School Growth
• What Happens When a Pastor Invests Time and Leadership in Sunday School?
• How LARGE Should We Make Our Sunday School Goals?
• What Is the Key to Unlock Sunday School Growth?
• Turnaround: Sunday School from Dying to Alive
• Steps Toward Sunday School Change, Part 3
• Sunday School Avoiding Deadman’s Turnabout
• Sunday School’s Neglect of Planning, Part 6
• Grow Your Sunday School: Set Goals This Year
• Plan for Your Sunday School to Grow This Year, Part 1
• Sunday School Health Checkup, Part 2

I want you to picture your home. It may be a house, condo, or apartment that you own or rent. It is the place you lay your head at night. Let's assume you set a goal of getting ten people crammed into your living room. What do you need to do in order to achieve your goal? While there are many strategies, let me boil the possibilities down to three actions:

• get nine people besides yourself in the front door,
• make sure they don't leave,
• and make sure you get them all at the same time into the living room.

Those simple actions can be translated into the context of the Sunday School to help us increase Sunday School attendance:

• FRONT DOOR. Invite and enroll new people. This is essential in order to have more people in Sunday School. Invite them in person, by card/letter, by phone, by email, by social media, etc. The more personal, the more effective will be the invitation. Invite them to your class fellowships and projects. Get to know people in the community and in your home. Invite them to class. Invite them to enroll--add them to the prayer and care list for your class. How can you address the front door in order to increase your attendance?
• BACK DOOR. When people join, care for them. When they are absent, contact them every time, every week. Do it out of concern for them as persons rather than simply an attendance number. Organize the class to respond in care. Keep good contact and attendance records. Provide regular fellowships to deepen and expand the network of relationships. Pray together. Use name tags, greeters, and care group leaders. The goal is to have none to drop out. Never allow someone to miss without knowing why they are away and responding out of care when needed. How can you address the back door in order to increase your attandance?
• LIVING ROOM. While the back door is focused on preventing dropouts, the living room is focused on regular attendance. Disciples grow better when they consistently are part of a group. Irregular attendance results in irregular or poor growth as disciples. It produces weak leaders. It reduces relationships and service opportunities. Set high expectations for attendance. Challenge members to have daily devotions, read lessons weekly, and be present. Encourage them to bring their friends. Call them when they miss. Give them assignments related to the lesson. Find them places of service in the class. In an article called, The Missing Metric, Thom Rainer of LifeWay Christian Resources said: "If the frequency of attendance changes, then attendance will respond accordingly. For example, if 200 members attend every week the average attendance is, obviously, 200. But if one-half of those members miss only one out of four weeks, the attendance drops to 175." How can you address the living room in order to increase your average attendance?

Give focus to these three actions in your Sunday School and watch your attendance increase. As you are faithful at caring for God's sheep, He will entrust you with more. Where do you need to start? Just don't forget all three of these actions or your attendance will not reach its potential. Be revolutionary!

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

• How LARGE Should We Make Our Sunday School Goals?
• Five Sunday School Challenges
• Increasing Sunday School Class Attendan ce, Part 1
• How BIG Is God’s Vision for Your Sunday School/Small Groups?
• Grow Your Sunday School: Part 2, Steps for Inviting New People
• Measures of Balanced Sunday School Progress
• Set God-Sized Goals for Sunday School Growth
• Grow Your Sunday School: Set Goals This Year
• Preparation for High Attendance Day in Sunday School
• 5 Goals for Sunday School Growth This Year
• Simple Steps for a Successful Sunday School High Attendance Day
• Building Blocks for a Strong Sunday School Class, Part 2
• Sunday School Growth Spiral
• Benefits of High Attendance Sunday
• Personal Invitation and Enrollment: Twin Key Metrics in Sunday School Progress, Part 2

The more I observe and write about Sunday School, the more I am convinced that an important key to the effective functioning of Sunday School is care. Care is essential for connecting and reaching new people. Care is vital in starting and growing friendships. Care is important during the teaching and learning environment.

Care enables reaching, teaching-learning, and caring. When each of these are infused with care, Sunday School becomes an effective tool in carrying out the Great Commission. Through care, Sunday School grows disciples, leaders, and classes.

Sunday School care is three dimensional: upward-directed, outward-directed, as well as self-directed (love God, other, and self). As a result, Sunday School care takes many forms in the lives of classes and small groups:

• prayer,
• relationship-building,
• ministry in time of need,
• presence during pain,
• encouraging words,
• listening,
• pointed challenging teaching,
• discipleship discussion,
• accountability,
• acts of service,
• fun and fellowships,
• invitations,
• conversation and interaction,
• covenants,
• and so many more.

Until there is attempt to connect, there is no context for agape (selfless) love. (Remember God made the first step to love us.) Loving connections result in reaching and enrolling new people. And these connections enable lives to be equipped and mobilized to make more loving connections which in turn reach new people. Teach your class to C.A.R.E. Teach your Sunday School to C.A.R.E. Be revolutionary!

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

• Transformational Sunday School Equation
• Grow Your Sunday School Class by Organizing to Respond in Times of Need
• REVOLUTIONARY Sunday School Anagram
• Reconnecting with Sunday School Absentees
• Sunday School’s Neglect of Care for the Lost, Part 7
• Use Your Sunday School Records to Reach and Care for More People, Part 1 and Use Your Sunday School Records to Reach and Care for More People, Part 2
• How Far Should Sunday School Go to Make Disciples of All Nations?
• Is It Time to Clean Up Your Sunday School Roll?
• Growing Sunday Schools Have More Visitors Who Stick Around
• Empty Seats in Sunday School
• Characteristics of Effective Sunday School Learning Experiences
• Internally-Focused, Externally-Focused, and Missional Sunday School
• Revolutionary Sunday School Does Care
• Ideal Behaviors of an Adult Sunday School Member, Part 2
• Personal Invitation and Enrollment: Twin Key Metrics in Sunday School Progress, Part 2

Today complicated is frowned upon. Simple is "in." For some, Yahoo is complicated. Google is simple. Apple has worked to become the king of simple: Ipods, Iphones, etc. Many simple products and books are selling well.

Rainer and Geiger wrote Simple Church which presents a simple but successful model for discipleship. Their research showed a simple design tended to produce more growth. Many churches are too complicated. The discipleship process has too many options. The ministry has too many competing programs. Staff and members are pulled into directions. This results in "fights" for calendar, budget, and volunteers. In the meantime, other research has shown little discipleship progress in many of these "complicated" churches.

So here are the questions of the day:

Is the average Sunday School class too complicated? Is the class trying to accomplish too much? Is the discipleship path in the class too complicated, too unclear? Are expectations unclear and/or uncommunicated? Is class organization too complicated? Or are class teachers and leaders simply untrained and not held accountable for carrying out the work?

Would a simpler discipleship process through the Sunday School be more likely to produce results (help attenders make spiritual progress)? If so, what would that discipleship process look like? Would a simpler class organization be more likely to enable better results? If so, how might that class organization look?

Chew on those questions. Leave your thoughts--even incomplete ones--by pressing Comments below. This issue needs serious conversation, thinking, and response. Let's give God our best efforts through the Sunday School. Let's strive for changed lives. Be revolutionary!

For more ideas about simple class organization, check out these blog posts:

• The Simple Church Meets Sunday School Care Groups
• Key Actions for Sunday School Class Growth, Part 1
• Are Home Bible Study Groups the Answer to the Simple Church?
• Simple Plan for Sunday School Discipleship, Leadership, and Numerical Growth
• Helping Sunday School to Focus on Prayer for Outreach
• Sunday School: Take the Love Dare
• A Simple Two-Part System for Getting Sunday School Class Ministry Done, Part 1 and A Simple Two-Part System for Getting Sunday School Class Ministry Done, Part 4

I like ambiguous statements: ones that could mean more than one thing. The title of this blog post is ambiguous. It could mean that a teacher/leader is thinking about Sunday School experiences. On the other hand, it could be more literal. It could be examining whether Sunday School and leaders look like their leader. For this blog post, both meanings are appropriate.

What started me thinking about this subject is an early statementin Tim Elmore's book, Habitudes: Images That Form Leadership Habits & Attitudes. On page 1, Dr. Elmore shares a leadership image called the Mirror Effect:

As a leader, your followers will be a reflection of you. Not only will you attract others like yourself, but over time, those who follow you will mirror both your negative and positive characteristics.

If you are a pastor, Sunday School director, teacher, or other leader, someone is following you. A leader will have followers. If no one is following, you are not leading. But Elmore's point is important. Leaders will tend to gather followers who look, think, and act like them. Unfortunately, that means followers will reflect good and bad habits, attitudes, and practices of their leader(s).

With that in mind, here are some questions to check on your reflection:

Pause. Pray. Reflect upon your leadership. Reflect good images. Lead with impact. Follow the Lord. Lead others to Him. Be revolutionary!

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

• Sunday School’s Neglect of Leadership, Part 4
• Training Leaders through Adult Sunday School Classes
• Revolutionary Sunday School Teacher Skills
• Revolutionary Classes Mobilize Attenders
• Sunday School Leadership Lessons
• What Does It Take for a Revolutionary Director to Lead the Sunday School?
• Take a Risk: Take Sunday School off Autopilot
• Measures of an Effective Sunday School Director
• Sunday School Reflection, Adjustment, and Anticipation at the Beginning of a New Year
• Simple Plan for Sunday School Discipleship, Leadership, and Numerical Growth
• Help for the New Sunday School Director
• Are They Following Your Leadership of the Sunday School?
• The Pastor Coaching a Winning Sunday School Team

During the month of June, I took a sabbatical to begin writing a book about Sunday School. (It now looks like it will be three books.) For my sabbatical, my wife and I travelled to England (including Gloucester, home of Robert Raikes, see picture above) where Sunday School had its start. While there we made a three-night jaunt to Wales and Scotland and even managed to stay in a castle.

During the month and specifically on that trip, I did some driving (on the other side of the road). Entering highways on the exit ramps (from an American's perspective) was the scariest part of driving. The second most scary was roundabouts. A roundabout is a junction in two or more roads (as many as a dozen exits), sometimes with lights or stop signs and sometimes without. Traffic always went clockwise around the roundabout. It was every man (or woman) for himself.

Some roundabouts had clear signs about which of the three or more exits led where. Other roundabouts had unclear or no signage. Locals would know which way to go, but foreigners would have to guess. More than once, I circled around a roundabout two, three, and even four times trying to decide which exit to take. In roundabouts with multiple lanes, there was an art to getting in the outside lane at the right time in the midst of the traffic.

Anyway, on our Scotland trip, we had spent the night at Crabwall Manor in Chester and were heading to Edinburgh. But before leading Chester, I stopped to ask for directions. The young man was very helpful. He showed me the fastest way on the map but quickly stated:

It seems that Deadman's Roundabout had poor signage, way too much traffic, and about a dozen exits. He said even locals had difficulty navigating it. So he plotted me a longer but safer set of directions which worked smoothly.

His comment got me thinking. I find many Sunday Schools and Sunday School leaders are stuck in Deadman's Roundabout. They continue to circle trying to decide which way to go. They are struggling to make the right decision resulting in failure to make any decision. Their Sunday Schools are running out of gas. Teachers and leaders are growing tired of having no leadership. They are tried of making no progress. They get comfortably stuck while being frustrated at the same time.

Avoiding Deadman's Roundabout takes wisdom whose source is time spent with God and wise counselors. It takes prayer and planning. Maintaining momentum is important but heading in the right direction is essential. Follow God's lead. With God you will never go in the wrong direction! Be revolutionary!

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

• Prepare for the New Sunday School Year
• Sunday School Reflection, Adjustment, and Anticipation at the Beginning of a New Year
• Evaluate the Past Year Before You Set New Sunday School Goals
• Aerobics and Weight Training for Sunday School
• What Happens When a Pastor Invests Time and Leadership in Sunday School?
• Giving Sunday School Direction Through a Planning Retreat
• Planning Steps Toward Sunday School Progress
• Calendaring Sunday School Growth
• Communication and Growth Spurts in Sunday School
• Sunday School Retreating to Move Forward
• Sunday School’s Neglect of Planning, Part 6
• 5 Goals for Sunday School Growth This Year, Part 1
• Sunday School Class Growth Is Spelled W-O-R-K, Part 6

In Part 1, I began sharing some thinking about the potential impact of the discipleship tool of the Sunday School. I suggested that thinking should focus on what Sunday School can do to impact one disciple. Then I shared several questions about Sunday School impacting a disciple named Ken or Kendra. Check out Part 1 for those questions.

In Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5, thinking continued about Sunday School's impact on discipleship in these eight ways: with God, God's Word, each other, questions, application, casual conversation, accountability, and intentionality. There are many more ways Sunday School can impact the discipleship of Ken/Kendra. Think about two more:

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES. Sunday School classes are great communities to experiment with and practice a variety of spiritual disciplines. While not every specific spiritual discipline fits every believer, classes can practice multiple disciplines in the course of the year in class and away from class. This can enable Ken/Kendra to find disciplines which are more comfortable and yet challenging. I know people who love journaling and others who hate it. One individual tried journaling and could only get it to work for him when his journaling was on his laptop. There are many spiritual disciplines. When Ken/Kendra grow in their relationship with God, the class benefits. See the blog posts listed below for more ideas.

GOALS. Why not use positive peer pressure to your advantage? Negotiate some goals. Challenge Ken/Kendra to stretch themselves as disciples. Challenge him/her to read the Bible through this year. Challenge him/her to pray ten minutes per day. Challenge Ken/Kendra to serve someone this week. Lead him/her to set goals about practicing one of the fruit of the Spirit. Lead him/her to do something for one of the least of these. Assess the discipleship Ken/Kendra and/or of the class and set corporate or personal goals to grow over the next quarter. Check up on Ken/Kendra's goals and discipleship progress.

What else would you add to these two ways? What else would you add beyond these two ways? There are so many ways that Sunday School can be a tool for discipleship in Ken/Kendra's life. Use it. Be revolutionary!

For additional thoughts about Sunday School's impact upon discipleship, check out these blog posts:

• Sunday School Supporting Spiritual Disciplines, Part 1, Sunday School Supporting Spiritual Disciplines, Part 2, Sunday School Supporting Spiritual Disciplines, Part 3, and Sunday School Supporting Spiritual Disciplines, Part 4
• Teaching Sunday School Members to Pray Through Scripture
• Sunday School Teaching Believers to Listen to the Voice of God, Part 1 and Sunday School Teaching Believers to Listen to the Voice of God, Part 2
• Teaching Your Sunday School Class the Spiritual Disciplines of Prayer, Bible Study, Meditation, and Solitude