TEACHING BIBLE AT NIGHT SCHOOL
Robert A. Swanson, pastor of Long Hill Baptist Church, Trumbull, Connecticut
If you’re like me, you’ve long been told (and have believed) that most outreach functions are best left to lay Christians because they don’t have a hired-gun image. It’s true: Lay people with the gifts of hospitality and evangelism can be tremendously effective.
But recently I discovered an opportunity tailor made for pastors.
Every six months, the 12,000 households in my community receive the Community Calendar, which lists various continuing education courses for adults. Courses are offered in both academic and nonacademic subjects-upholstery, dog obedience, cake decorating, parapsychology, meditation, and human potential. For years I thought, Somebody should offer a Christian course. The administration seems open to courses on religious topics, but only the New Age enthusiasts are taking advantage of it.
Finally, I decided, Why not try it? The town’s director of continuing education was always looking for new courses, and I’d be willing to offer the course for free, while most courses involved a charge. I proposed the idea to the deacons, and they enthusiastically agreed I should go ahead.
I prepared a one-page summary (course objective, outline, and recommended texts) for a course entitled “Bible Prophecy” and took it to the office of continuing education three or four months before the semester began. There I completed a few standard forms. Since information from these would be printed in the catalogue, I tried to make the course sound inviting. I could teach up to four nights a week for twelve weeks. I decided to teach each Tuesday night from 7:00 to 8:30 for ten weeks.
I wasn’t sure if my course would be disallowed because of the religious content, but I encountered no resistance.
Who came
Before my first session, I began to have doubts. Would anyone want to learn the Bible? Aren’t church people already too busy for an extra night out? Do unchurched folks care?
Yes, Christians from evangelical churches were too busy. But the course attracted a variety of others: Bible-hungry Roman Catholics, backslidden Jehovah’s Witnesses, inquiring senior citizens, people seeking the “higher power” they heard about at Alcoholics Anonymous, people who believe God led them to read that semi-annual catalogue they had always thrown away before, as well as a couple of supporters from my own congregation. Since they had no financial investment, some people came for a few weeks and then stopped. But I maintained an average of nine people each week.
Burning questions
As I began that first night in a room in Trumbull High, I felt awkward. Students were checking me out and were also somewhat self-conscious, so they remained quiet. I didn’t know if they were lost, bored, or simply polite. Fortunately, I had determined not to devote the entire 90 minutes to lecture. I took the final 30 to 40 minutes to field questions and talk about application.
When I did, was I surprised! I had expected a roomful of “experts” who had devoured the latest paperbacks on end-times events. But the burning questions were “Can I trust the Bible?” “Can I be sure I’m saved?” and “Is church really necessary?” One night, after I explained the prophecy in Daniel 9, the first question was, “Isn’t the Catholic baptism a crock of bull?” Since both the Catholics and non-Catholics in the class seemed interested, we took a 20-minute diversion to discuss New Testament verses on baptism and salvation.
The students also asked about the different approaches to divorce, salvation, church government, and Bible interpretation, They wanted my opinion but also the alternative positions. I tried hard to maintain objectivity and academic integrity. When I was asked for a list of “the good churches in the area,” I forced myself to refuse comment. Often the discussions would continue in the parking lot or at a nearby restaurant.
Fine tuning
Each Thursday morning I take two hours to gather material (I’ve chosen topics that don’t require extensive fresh research for me), and then I review it on Tuesday before class. For this modest investment of time, Tuesday evenings have become exhilarating for me. Since the course on “Bible Prophecy,” I have taught “Great Bible Questions” and “The Life and Teachings of Jesus.” In the fall I will offer “New Testament Survey,” and I’m considering future courses such as “Old Testament Survey,” “Paul and His Letters,” “The Book of Revelation,” and “The Bible and Counseling.”
Along the way, I’ve made some adjustments. I moved the starting time from 7:00 to 7:30 so more people could come. I’m starting to give a more expansive course description in the catalogue so potential students get a better idea of the course. I have dropped the idea of extensive writing assignments or tests; in nonacademic courses students want exposure to new ideas and time to discuss them without a heavy workload. And I’ve discovered the greatest difficulty is breaking the ice on the first class of the semester. I plan to use more stories, jokes, illustrations, and nonthreatening questions to help both them and me.
Payoff
After getting to know me through the courses, five students have come for counsel. Elaine and Jerry, a new Christian and her Jehovah’s Witness fianc who attended one course together, made several appointments to talk about salvation and the deity of Christ. Jerry never made concessions, so they broke up. Elaine is now engaged to a Christian.
Suzanne was expressionless all one evening and was slow to get her books together when it was time to leave. As we walked to her car, she told me her father was not approving of her marrying Eric. She felt trapped. “I want to know God’s will,” she said. I advised her to pray and give her father time to adjust to the news. Fortunately, within a few weeks her dad was looking forward to the wedding.
Dick was suspended and almost fired from his job. He said he appreciated a letter I sent that arrived right when he was most despondent.
My church does not attract many visitors because we’re ingrown to a degree and because we’re located off the main roads. Yet five students from various courses have attended our morning worship service
Perhaps the greatest fruit has come in the life of a man I’ll call Ed, who asked the question about baptism’s being a crock of bull. Ed and I had many conversations after class, and during those I learned he traced some emotional scars to his days in parochial school. During the summer, after a course had concluded, I stopped by his home and left a brief encouraging note. Later he came to my home because, he said, he had become more hungry for God. After learning Christianity with me on Tuesday nights, he was now ready to “go for broke” with Jesus. We talked for a couple of hours about repentance and faith, and then he committed himself to Christ.
Ed and I met throughout the summer. Through the power of God, he has kicked a heavy cocaine habit. He has not yet attended a worship service, but that’s not his style: He doesn’t like large groups and doesn’t wear shirts with a collar. But he is looking forward to our next class.
Meanwhile, each semester biblical truth is getting out to those who would not consider attending a new church. I don’t know why Mike travels 20 miles each week to tape every word I say. I don’t know if he would attend my church if he lived across the street, but I do know he can handle the high school setting as a place to learn the Bible.
Meanwhile, the continuing education department handles all the promotion. Twice a year they invite 12,000 community households to learn the Bible on neutral turf.
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DISCOVERING VISITORS’ FIRST IMPRESSIONS
After people have visited your church, how can you discover what they liked and didn’t like, or whether they’ll return?
First Baptist Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, asks them.
“We wanted to see, through the visitors’ eyes, what kind of welcome we were giving and how we could improve it,” says Pastor Charles Updike. “Maybe more important, we wanted to bond quickly with visitors, to let them know we valued their input from the first time they came.”
So now, along with the standard welcome letter to first-time visitors, Updike includes a post card (business-reply mail, so postage is paid) that asks people to “Share Your FIRST Impression!” The card asks the following questions:
1. How did you find out about First Baptist Church?
_Yellow Pages
_newspaper
_personal invitation
_drove by
_other
2. When you arrived, what did you notice first?
3. Did you feel welcome?
_yes
_no
4. Please share the three most important factors for you in choosing a church home:
5. Do you plan to attend again? Thanks for helping!
An earlier version of the card required people only to check off answers rather than write some. When FBC switched to a few open-ended questions to get more information, the response rate went down. But Updike increased the response rate by highlighting in yellow the portion of the welcome letter that asks people to complete the card. In a typical week, First Baptist sends fifteen to twenty cards and gets back three or four.
In the three years the church has been sending cards, it has received over 500 “report cards” on its welcome. One card, for example, mentioned that the lobby appeared messy. The trustees then improved the appearance of the area. But many cards are encouraging: “I felt a friendly welcome, and I want to attend again.”
Periodically, Updike reads positive cards to the congregation to thank them for their friendly response to visitors.
* * *
VIDEO ORIENTATION FOR NEWCOMERS
How can we effectively describe our church’s ministry and message to new or prospective members? This question faces many churches, including Second Baptist Church in Conway, Arkansas. Pastor Larry Pillow wanted to communicate the emphasis of their ministry and the scope and schedule of activities, but faced problems:
 It’s helpful for prospective members to meet the pastor(s) and key lay leaders, but getting everyone together on a given day can be difficult.
 If there are frequent visitors or new members, orientation can become a big job for the people coordinating it.
That’s when Second Baptist’s youth pastor, Darrell Bridges, came up with the idea of putting an orientation session on video.
The church gathered its staff and key ministry leaders for a taping session. Each person was given three minutes to describe the vision and function of his or her area of ministry-college ministry, finance committee, senior adult ministry, and so on. The cost for one hour of studio time, use of a video camera, and tape was $75.
Letters are sent to recent visitors inviting them to view the “Tell-A-Vision” video. On the first Sunday of the month, during Sunday school, a staff member (or now, the lay leader of the new membership ministry group) shows the video; at Second Baptist, from two to twelve people usually come. Coffee and doughnuts are served, and after every three video speakers the tape is stopped to allow for questions and discussion. Typical questions include, “When and where does such-and-such ministry meet?” or “What’s the Navigators 2:7 program like?” The leader passes out facility maps, ministry schedules, a list of church workers, and other helpful information.
In the year that Second Baptist has used the tape, 90 percent of the people who’ve viewed it have joined the church. “The tape says, ‘We’re interested in you and we want to inform you,’ ” Pillow points out.
The church plans to make a second tape, capitalizing on the lessons it has learned from the first. “Thirty-five minutes proved to be too long,” says Pillow, “so we’ll keep this tape to about twenty. And we’ll build in the breaks where people can ask questions.” In addition, the new tape may use one narrator who reads from a script while pictures of the various ministries and their leaders are shown. Another idea in the wings: taking the tape during home visitation of selected people and showing it to them there.
* * *
TEACHERS’ SUNDAY OFF
Anyone who’s coordinated a Sunday school recognizes two pressing problems: recruiting teachers, and keeping the ones you have. Christ’s Church in Ventura, California, has developed a simple idea that goes a long way toward solving both.
Patti Clewett, children’s director, recognized that four times a year there are five Sundays in a month. She designates these days “Teachers’ Sunday Off,” and on them the regular teachers get a break.
To replace them, Clewett recruits parents and other members who are not involved in Sunday school. “It’s not hard to get people to say yes,” she says, “because they know it’s for only one time. We explain that all they have to do is take the roll and offering and lead the prepared activity for the day. Since most are parents who have at least one child in the particular class, that doesn’t seem too threatening.”
In the process, many of the substitutes have gone on to become full-time teachers. “They overcome their cold feet,” Clewett says. “They find the kids are well-behaved and there aren’t a lot of discipline problems. They finish with a new appreciation for the children of the congregation.” Some have said, “If you ever need me to do this again, let me know,” or “Do you need any help on a more regular basis?”
This summer, ten Sunday school teachers will be involved in overseas ministries, but Clewett has already found replacements. “When people are familiar with the kids and with what it’s like to lead a class, they are quicker to volunteer.”
A bonus to the idea is that Clewett has designed these Sundays as days for special activities. Some of the ones they’ve used:
 Parents playing Christian board games (created by a member) with the kids;
 Visiting a convalescent home and delivering invitations to a Sunday school-led evening service;
 Presenting a puppet show with a Christian message in a nearby park;
 Watching Christian videos for kids.
On one fifth Sunday, the regular teachers visited the Sunday schools of neighboring churches (permission was gained ahead of time) and came back with many fresh ideas. And on a future Teachers’ Sunday Off, the children will deliver gifts to a local VA hospital.
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