LOUISVILLE—Darryl Wilson, Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Sunday School and discipleship consultant, will release his book “Disciple-Making Encounters: Revolutionary Sunday School” May 1.

“Disciple-Making Encounters,” published by Aneko Press, encourages Sunday School teachers to first have an encounter with God in their own personal Bible study so that their “life as a teacher will be radically changed,” Wilson states on the back cover. Its objective is to take the class from a “predictable lesson to a facilitator-led, revolutionary, classroom encounter with God” through the teacher’s “encounter with God beforehand.”

“The time on Sunday morning frequently is a history lesson on a book called the Bible. That’s not life change. Atheists can do that,” Wilson explains. “The life change comes when we open it and listen to God for ourselves.

“Life change comes from meeting the God who is life-changing,” he continues. “So, we (teachers) have got to open the Word in such a way that we lead them (the class) to listen to Him, not just to us, but to Him for themselves, so they can have an encounter.”

An encounter with God is not something that can be contained in an hour on Sunday morning, Wilson notes. “It’s got to continue through the rest of the week,” he urges. “That encounter needs to be daily.”

The inspiration for his book came from his many years of teaching Sunday School as well as his 20 years working for the KBC’s Sunday School department, Wilson said. For the last 11 years, he has been blogging about Sunday School at www.sundayschoolrevolutionary.com.

“As a friend and colleague, I’m really excited to see Dr. Wilson’s book become available to churches,” Steve Rice, KBC’s church consulting and revitalization team leader, said.

Rice continued, “He has long been regarded as a leading expert in the Sunday School and discipleship areas and we’re fortunate to have him as one of our KBC consultants. His blog, ‘The Sunday School Revolutionary,’ has provided tremendous content for many years, and now he has produced an excellent book as an additional resource.”

Though the first eight chapters can be applicable to preschool and children’s teachers, “Disciple-Making Encounters” is especially written for youth and adult Sunday School teachers.

Wilson’s hope is that adult teachers, pastors and Sunday School directors would understand the “paradigm shift” that’s needed in Sunday School: “We’ve got to stop just going through the motions, stop just showing up and going through a history lesson, but try to lead them toward an encounter.” (WR)