Sunday School

Five Strategic Principles

Sunday School encourages unsaved people to come to faith in Christ, assimilates new believers into the life of the church and calls believers to lead others to Christ. Because Sunday School provides ongoing, open Bible study groups that reproduce new groups, Sunday School is the best long-term approach for building a ministry environment for all age groups and the family.

In addition, Sunday School ministry provides a means for reaching people with special needs and other specialty people groups, such as homebound persons, homebound caregivers and people who are away from home, temporarily in college or on work assignments.

The Principle of Discipleship
Knowing God through Jesus is the first step of discipleship. Sunday School is a strategy that impacts people seven days a week. Through its small groups - both classes and departments - Sunday School organizes people in such a way that both individuals and families can strengthen their Christian faith and walk. Sunday School helps learners to:

• Know and live out God's plan for their lives

• Understand biblical doctrines

• Apply ethics in everyday life

• Know how to make right choices

The Principle of Family Responsibility
Sunday School operates as a supportive partner with parents, affirming the home as the center of biblical guidance. Through its resources, Sunday School is committed to help equip Christian parents, including single parents, to fulfill their responsibility as the primary Bible teachers and disciplers of their children. In addition, Sunday School will seek to nurture sound and healthy families and seek to lead non-Christian family members to Christ.

The Principle of Spiritual Transformation
Sunday School engages learners in the biblical process of instruction that leads to spiritual transformation. Spiritual transformation is God's work of changing a believer into the likeness of Jesus by creating a new identify in Christ and by empowering a lifelong relationship of love, trust and obedience to glorify God.

By providing systematic Bible study, Sunday School calls upon believers to integrate the Bible's absolute truth into every area of life, thereby developing a biblical worldview. Sunday School also recognizes that Bible study is most effective when it occurs in the context of the learner's total life, especially family relationships, and when it considers the special needs, generational perspective, age and life-stage characteristics and learning styles of the individual.

The Principle of Biblical Leadership
Sunday School calls leaders to follow the biblical standard of leadership. Sunday School affirms the pastor as the primary leader in its ministry of building Great Commission Christians. Sunday School recognizes that every leader is accountable for being an authentic example of Christianity in personal living and producing new leaders for the ministries of the church. The main function of Sunday School leaders is to listen to God's voice through the Scriptures, discern God's message, integrate it into their lives and faithfully teach it to the people.