SUNDAY SCHOOL FOR UNCHURCHED ADULTS

Can you start a Sunday school class for adults who are not church attenders? If so, can it survive? Here's what happened when Steve Heaster, pastor of Immanuel Bible Church in Three Springs, Pennsylvania, tried such a radical effort.

I asked members for names of young married couples they knew who were not attending Sunday school or church anywhere. This led to a prospect list of twenty couples.

I then selected material I thought would be of interest, a Navigators study entitled Husbands and Wives. I drafted a letter to each couple, simple and non-threatening, inviting them to become members of the new Sunday school class starting in about eight weeks. I told them that all who came would be new, and I shared with them the curriculum we would be using. I informed them of the other services of the church and what we had to offer their children. I included my phone number and told them I would like to stop by sometime for a visit.

During the next eight weeks ...