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The Hyles Church Manual
(Part Two - chapters 10-19) Church Program

by Dr. Jack Hyles
 

10. The Sunday School

The greatest business in all of the world is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teaching of the Word of God. One of the most effective methods and means of propagating this Gospel and teaching God’s blessed Word is the Sunday school. In this chapter we are going to discuss methods and promotional material in the building of a great Sunday school.

Let us first be plainly understood by saying that nothing will take the place of the Word of God and consistent teaching of the Bible in the Sunday school. No amount of promotion, no amount of organization, of God. A consistent Bible-teaching program is necessary in the building of a great Sunday school.

Our discussion will be under three main topics: (1) the planning of the Sunday school program, (2) the preparing of this program, and (3) the promoting of the program of a great Sunday school.

Planning Of The Program

Choosing the Worker

Let us look in the first place to the planning of the program. We could not begin such a discussion without first discussing the choosing of the worker. There are many qualifications that we present here at First Baptist Church of Hammond to our prospective Sunday school teachers, workers, and superintendents. These are as follows:

(1.) Every worker in our Sunday school must be a converted, born-again person.

(2.) Every person who teaches in our Sunday school must be an active member of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana.

(3.) We require faithfulness on the part of all of our Sunday school teachers and workers. By this we mean: faithfulness to the Sunday school hour, faithfulness to the morning preaching service on the Lord’s Day, faithfulness to the Sunday evening service, faithfulness to the Wednesday evening service, as well as faithful attendance to the Sunday school teachers’ and officers’ meeting preceding the regular midweek service on Wednesday evening.

(4.) We expect loyalty from our Sunday school workers. certainly no Sunday school, or any other organization for that matter, can be built successfully without loyal workers, loyal teachers and a loyal staff of helpers. The Sunday school teacher should be loyal to the church program, loyal to the ministry of the pastor, loyal to the Gospel and to the Word of God.

(5.) Every Sunday school worker is required to be doctrinally sound. by this we mean they should adhere to the doctrines of the church. They should certainly believe the Articles of Faith adopted by the church and be loyal to the teachings and doctrines of the Word of God.

(6.) We require that each of our Sunday school teachers and officers live a separated life. No one should open the Word of God to teach it to boys or girls or men or women in the Sunday school unless he is separate from the world. no teacher should participate in such questionable amusements as drinking any kind of alcoholic beverages, dancing, gambling, or other habits that would be detrimental to the testimony of Jesus Christ and the work of building a great Sunday school.

(7.) Last, but not least, is the important qualification of having a love for souls of men. Every Sunday school teacher should be burdened for souls and should be actively participating in reaching people for Jesus Christ.


Enlisting the Worker

Now that we have chosen the worker, let us enlist the worker. We turn to the enlistment of a Sunday school teacher. Probably one of the outstanding failures in Sunday schools today across America is the slipshod way in which we enlist our workers. Here at the First Baptist Church of Hammond we require that each worker be enlisted either in the privacy of his own home or the privacy of the office of the staff member. No one is enlisted casually; no one is enlisted walking down the hall of the church; no one is enlisted after the service at the altar or around the pulpit, but rather the person is enlisted privately. The work is laid upon his heart. The challenge of the work is presented to him, and he realizes the tremendous challenge and opportunity that is beaten presented to him as he assumes the responsibility of teaching the Word of God in a great Sunday school.


We give to the worker at this conference the qualifications. We alert him to what we expect him to do and what God expects him to do. We assure him that this job will occupy much of his time. We assure him that we expect faithfulness, and present to him the aforementioned qualifications for being a Sunday School teacher in the First Baptist Church. Then, we offer him time to pray about it-maybe a week or less. He then calls or stops by the church to give us his answer and to inform us as to his decision. Nothing could be said to magnify too much the importance of enlisting the worker properly.

Choosing the Material

Now that we have chosen and enlisted the worker, as we plan the program let us notice the choosing of the material. In the First Baptist Church of Hammond we use only the Bible as our literature. Children eight an over receive no quarterlies but only the Word of God. Though I am aware of the fact that there are many wonderful companies writing literature in our generation (I certainly admire good literature; and I am not opposed to Sunday school literature), we simply make a practice, however, in the First Baptist Church of using the Word of God and teaching only from the Bible in our Sunday school.

How, then, are our lessons chosen? Approximately in the month of September, our teachers and officers meet to discuss and pray about the lessons for the following year. Suggestions are presented, a discussion is conducted, and finally we vote upon what we think we should teach for the following year. Maybe we are in a building program, and we should have special lessons geared to our building program. Perhaps we plan to have a great enlargement campaign, and we plan our lessons around the program of the year. After we have discussed and prayed concerning the material for the new year, then we vote and decide concerning what subjects, Bible lessons, etc., we shall teach in our Bible Sunday school for the new year.

We have taught in our Sunday school the book of Romans verse by verse. We have taught the book of Acts chapter by chapter. We have taught famous people in the Bible person by person. We have taught the little books of the Bible and the insignificant characters of the Bible. We have taught Bible separation, Bible stewardship, and other important doctrines, subjects and books from the Word of God. This is how we choose our material.

Finding Space

One we have chosen the workers, enlisted the workers, and chosen the material, we turn our attention toward finding space for the class and the department. O course all of us would love to have adequate space. Each of us would love to have a beautiful educational building with Sunday school facilities that are first class. Most of us, however, simply dream about this kind of a Utopian situation, and have to do the best we can with what we have.

The first thing I would like to say about the finding of the space is this: a Sunday school does not have to have adequate space to grow. The church at Jerusalem had, it is said, over twenty thousand members and no church building. To be sure, it is an asset and an advantage to have proper space for our classes and departments. Once again may I emphasize, though it is an advantage, it is not a necessity. A great Sunday school can be built under adverse conditions and with limited space and improper lighting and building facilities. The only thing stops the work of God is the lack of faith in the people of God. When people have a mind to work, have faith in God and stay busy at the main task of reaching people for Jesus Christ, I believe that Sunday schools can be built even without proper space.

Here in the city of Hammond we had a tragic fire in 1964. Six hundred nineteen thousand dollars of our property was swept away overnight. In spite of this fact (minus $629,000.00 of our Sunday school facilities) we continued to grow. And today we are averaging one thousand more in Sunday school than we were at the time of the fire. At the time of this discussion we are utilizing a furniture store, a Knights of Columbus Hall, an apartment house and other inadequate facilities; and, through it all, the work is going forward. God is blessing and the Sunday School is growing by leaps and bounds.


Dividing the Classes


As we consider the planning of the program, we turn our attention to the division of the classes. I have read many books about class divisions. Some say that the beginners should have five per class, the primaries should have seven, the juniors between ten and fifteen, and the older young people no more than twenty per class. Much discussion has been presented concerning the decision of classes. I advance to you that I think the size of the class should be determined by the number of qualified workers. I had rather have a consecrated, dedicated worker teaching fifty than divide into small classes or small units and have inferior teachers teaching the Word of God to boys and girls. I do, however, advocate departmentalizing the Sunday school. I think it is certainly advantageous to have the beginners together. The breakdown in our Sunday school is as follows:


The Nursery Department-age three and under

Beginners-ages four and five

Primaries-first and second grade

Juniors-third grade through sixth grade

Junior High-seventh and eighth grade

High School-ninth grade through twelfth grade


The Junior High Department and High School Department are followed by the adult classes. Certainly departmentalization is important in the building of a great Sunday school.

As we think about the division of classes and departments, our attention is turned toward the adults’ division of classes. We have found it necessary to have many types of adult classes. I teach a large auditorium Bible class. Last Sunday we had 583. We have had as high as 1,100 in this class on a special Sunday. This class is the largest in our Sunday school. However, we have many other large adult classes. We have a young couples’ class, a couples’ class for middle-aged friends. We have a class for unmarried adults, a class for college-age adults, a men’s Bible class, and several ladies’ classes. These classes each perform an unusual and unique purpose in the building of our Sunday school. We have it helpful also to have classes for the deaf, the retarded children and many, many other groups that oftentimes are overlooked in the building of a Sunday school.


Preparing of the Program

We turn our attention now to the preparing of the program. We have been discussing the planning of the program. Certainly the first and foremost thing should be the planning of the proper program-the right kind of teachers, the right kind of lesson, the right kind of facilities, the right kind of division. These are certainly important things in the building of a great Sunday school; but we turn now to a discussion of the preparing of the program.

The Annual Training Course

In the First Baptist Church of Hammond we have two great preparation meetings. The first one is an annual course for our teachers and officers. Once each year we conduct this course. It may be for five nights the same week, or it may be for five consecutive Wednesday evenings prior to our midweek service. It may be for three of these Wednesday evenings prior to the midweek service. We have found it advantageous for the pastor to teach such a class and have such a course annually. At this course we teach forty things. I list them one at a time for you:

1. Have a separated life.

2. Have a daily private devotion.

3. Have a daily, clean and pure thought life.

4. Start studying the lesson on Monday.

5. Have proper motives in the teaching of the Word of God.

6. Prepare yourself physically to teach.

7. Prepare yourself mentally to teach.

8. Prepare yourself spiritually to teach.

9. Pray daily for each pupil of your class.

10. Visit in the home of each pupil every quarter or very three months.

11. Visit all of the absentees.

12. Be a pastor to your pupils.

13. Attend the teachers’ meeting on Wednesday evening.

14. Support the entire church program.

15. Be faithful to every public service of the church.

16. When absent, contact the superintendent at least three days before the Sunday on which you are to be absent.

17. Have a monthly class meeting.

18. Organize the class properly.

19. Get up early enough on Sunday morning not to be rushed before teaching the Word of God.

20. Brush over the lesson again on Sunday morning.

21. Make the classroom attractive.

22. Greet the class members as they come in.

23. Meet all visitors before the starting of the class.

24. Properly introduce the visitors, making them feel at home in the class.

25. Enlist every new member possible.

26. Spend the maximum time of five minutes on announcements and business so you can get down quickly to the teaching of the Word of God.

27. Ask all visitors to fill out visitors’ slips.

28. Each teacher should tithe.

29. Leave the quarterly at home. I could not say enough about this. The cardinal sin in a Sunday school class would be for a person not to teach from an open Bible.

30. Teach only from the Bible.

31. Do not make any pupil read or talk.

32. Have an interest getter or a point of contact for the lesson.

33. Have a written aim for the lesson.

34. Stay on the subject of the lesson.. Do not allow anyone to get you off of the subject at hand.

35. Be the age of the pupils as you teach.

36. Teach until the bell rings or until it is time to dismiss the class and prepare for the morning service.

37. Take your class directly to the auditorium.

38. If you have lost people in your class, sit with them in the morning service.

39. Keep the Lord’s Day holy.

40. Make the work of the Lord the most important thing in your life.

These forty things are presented to our teachers and officers at the opening of each Sunday school year. This is one way in which we prepare the program. We dwell on separation at these meetings. For example, we teach our teachers how to prepare the lesson. We teach them to prepare themselves, to prepare the pupils, to prepare the classroom, and to prepare the lesson. In the preparing of the lesson we teach them to start studying the lesson on Monday afternoon. We suggest that every teacher read the lesson material from the Bible at least seven times before he begins to prepare his outline. We suggest they read it one time for content, one time looking for types of Jesus Christ, another time looking for thoughts, another time with helps, anther time with a classbook beside the Bible (so as to be able to apply the lesson to each pupil in the class), another time to outline the lesson and prepare it for the Sunday school class on the Lord’s Day.

Then we discuss at this annual course how to present a lesson. We teach our teachers to present the lesson only from the Bible. We teach them to seek limited participation from the pupil. For example, we never say, “What do you think about verse 2?” Why, they may think ten minutes about verse 2. Consequently, we seek limited participation. Ask questions that demand only a one-word answer or a very brief answer-a fill in the blank, a multiple choice, or some other question, or some other type presentation that will require participation, yet on a limited scale.

There are many other things that we offer in this annual course. Time Would not permit us to discuss each of these.

Weekly Teachers’ and Officers’ Meeting

As we discuss the preparing of the program, we come to a very important subject probably most important single subject that we will discuss on the subject of building a great Sunday school. This is the Teachers’ and Officers’ meeting. Here, at the First Baptist Church, we have found it helpful to have a meeting prior to our Wednesday evening midweek service. Our meeting starts at 6:00 and ends at 7:30. The teachers and officers are required to attend this meeting. We have the following schedule: From 6:00 to 6:30 we have a meal. From 6:30 to 6:50 we have a twenty-minute time or promotion. At this time we have a pep rally. We present the plan. We challenge the teachers. We compliment, rebuke, scold, and promote the work of the Sunday school. We compliment classes doing a good job and exhort the classes doing a poor job to accelerate their work in the building of the class and department. It is somewhat a pep rally-a time of enthusiasm, zeal and pledging God to do better in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. At this meeting we present what we call the Echoes. The Echoes is a little paper (one sheet, mimeographed, but neatly done) given to each of our teacher at the midweek Teachers’ and officers’ meeting.

This is passed out as they come in for the meal at 6:00. This will discuss such things as the program for the future, activities for next Sunday, announcements to make in the departments, introduction of workers and other important facts concerning the growth and work of the Sunday school.

At this Teachers’ and Officers’ Meeting, during this time from 6:30 until 6:50, we also introduce new workers. We do it like this: “It is a real joy to have Mrs. Jones teaching with us in the Primary Department. Mrs. Jones, would you stand, please. Mrs.. Jones, would you please stand, please. Mrs. Jones, on behalf of the many workers, teachers, superintendents and officers of the Sunday School of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, we welcome you to our facility. We trust that God will bless you in your new class and make your stay with us a happy and profitable one as we serve the Lord together. Let us all give Mrs. Jones a hand.” (All of the workers join in giving an applause to Mrs. Jones, welcoming her to the faculty and staff of the Sunday school of the First Baptist Church.)

From 6:50 until 7:10 we teach the Sunday school lesson to our teachers. The pastor has made a three-page outline prior to the meeting. This outline consists of an aim, a point of contact, an introduction, a body and a conclusion to the lesson. An example would be a follows: the aim: to teach my pupils the truth concerning the keeping of the inside clean as well as the outside; the point of contact: Teacher, bring a cup or a platter to the class on the Lord’s Day. Shine to a high gloss the outside of the cup but leave the inside dirty. Ask your pupils if they would like to have a drink of water from the cup. Of course the answer would be negative. Ask them why. They will reply that the cup is dirty. Immediately, you have their attention. You are about to teach them the story of Jesus’ rebuking the scribes and Pharisees for having external cleanliness but internal filth. Do you see the point of contact? The interest getter has gotten their attention directed toward the lesson. This outline also consists of a memory verse and questions and answers concerning the lesson. Some of these may be true and false questions; some, multiple choice; others, underline the right answer; others, fill in the blanks; but theses questions are the close of the lesson outline as presented each Wednesday evening.


From 7:10 until 7:30 a different staff member takes each department and applies the lesson to this particular age level. For example, one of our staff members will take the Junior teachers. With the information that I have given in teaching the lesson from 6:50 to 7:10, the worker takes the lesson and shows the teacher how to break it down and apply it to the Junior level or the level of each departmental age group. This is certainly an important time.

Let us review. From 6:30 until 6:50 we promote. From 6:50 until 7:10 we teach the lesson and present the outline. From 7:10 until 7:30 we present methods, plans, and ways to apply the lesson to the particular age level involved. I could not emphasize too strongly the importance of the weekly Teachers’ and Officers’ Meeting.


Promoting of the Program

We have discussed the planning of the program; we have discussed the preparing of the program, and now we come to discuss the promoting of the program. Let us remind you once again that the program itself is the most important part of the Sunday school. Consistent week-by-week teaching of the Word of God and the preparation of the teacher, the pupil and the worker is tremendously important. However, it matters not how much we teach the Bible and how well we teach the Bible if no one is there to hear us teach the Bible. Then we have become as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. Consequently, we must spend much time, energy and effort in the promoting of the program.

Visitation

Of course the first and most important phase in the promoting of the program would have to be the visitation. Every Sunday school and church should have, and must have to be a great Sunday school and church, an active visitation program. We call our visitation program here at First Baptist “trotline fishing.”

When I was a little boy I fished in the creek near our house. I fished for crappie. I would get one hook, one line, one pole and fish. One day I noticed a fellow beside me who had two hooks and two minnows on one line. I thought that was a tremendous idea. Perhaps that would even double the amount of fish that I would catch. So I put another hook on my line. Later, I added the third hook to the same line. It wasn’t long that the tremendous idea dawned upon me that I had two hands; consequently, I made two poles. When I say I made two poles, I mean I made two poles. We used a limb of a tree and I put three hooks and three minnows on each pole. Finally, I decided to make a third pole. Consequently, I had three hooks on three different poles, giving me mine chances to catch the fish instead of the previous one chance.

One day I saw some men coming out on the creek in a boat. They went down the creek a bit and pulled up a big line, and there was big twelve-pound catfish on one hook and another big catfish on another. I said, “Fellows, what kind of fishing do you call that?”

They said, “It is trotline fishing.”

“That is for me,” I said. “Never again will I fish with one hook and one minnow and one pole. I want to put many hooks in the water.”

Now the average church fishes with one hook, one minnow, one line and one pole. This is the preaching of the Gospel from the pulpit. We at First Baptist Church have many hooks in the water. We throw our trotline in the water after the Sunday evening service ends. Then all week long we keep the hooks out in the water. On Sunday morning during the invitation we simply pull the hooks out of the water and se how many fish we find on each hook.

The First six months of 1966 my secretary gave me the report that 1,400 people had walked the aisle-either receiving Christ as Saviour or joining the First Baptist Church. That is in six months. In the first six months of the year, 721 of these had followed Christ in believers’ baptism and had been baptized in the baptistery in the First Baptist Church of Hammond. These people were not preached down the aisle. Oh, maybe a few came in response to the preaching, but 85% of these people had been dealt with or won to Christ in the home prior to their walking the aisle. This is what we call trotline fishing.

Jesus said to go into the streets, the lanes, the highways and hedges, and bring the halt, poor, sick, the blind to Himself. And so, we go where they are.

Let us notice for a few moments the hooks that we keep in the water in our visitation program: The first hook is the pastor’s personal soul winning. No one can build a great soul-winning church unless the pastor is a soul winner. The pastor himself should lead in soul winning. Every Sunday he should have someone prepared to walk the aisle professing publicly his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second hook we throw in the water it the staff. Each member of our staff is required to witness for Jesus Christ. My assistant pastors, yes, even the secretaries are required to spend at least four hours a week witnessing to unsaved people. Our staff last year brought over six hundred people down the aisles of the First Baptist Church professing Faith in Jesus Christ.

The third hook that we put in the water is the hook of our Sunday school teachers. Last year our Sunday school teachers led 411 people to Jesus Christ. We constantly put before our teachers and officers the importance of soul winning. Every Sunday of the year some teacher or officer brings someone down the aisle professing faith in Jesus Christ.

The fourth hook we put in the water is the deacon hook. We have sixty-six deacons here at First Baptist (one for each 100 members of the church). These are dedicated men, not chosen because of their financial position or social standing or emince in the community, but rather chosen because of their love for Jesus Christ and their love for the souls of men. These deacons bring souls to Jesus Christ and their love for the souls of men. These deacons bring souls to Jesus Christ. Every Sunday of the world some deacon brings someone down the aisle receiving Christ as Saviour.

A little girl who moved away with her family from our city and visited another church said she didn’t like the church. someone asked her why. “Well,” she said, “at the First Baptist Church at Hammond, the pastor stands behind the pulpit and the demons sit on the front. At this church the demons don’t sit on the front.” I am sure she was a little mixed up. She meant deacons, but she said demons. I am afraid that in far to many cases the word demons is more descriptive that the word deacons, for God did not intend for the deacons to be somewhat of a Wall street financier, but rather God intended for deacons to be men of compassion and burdened for souls. And so our deacons lead people to Jesus Christ.

The fifth hook we have in the water is the work with the handicapped. Our church has one person who uses several others to help in work with the handicapped constantly. The shut-ins receive periodical visits with a tape recording of the services and personal take format he pastor. It is nothing unusual for someone to roll down the aisle in a wheelchair. It has happened that some have been rolled down the aisle in hospital beds. We have a constant agreement that any handicapped person who is won to Christ can have a wheelchair, a hospital bed and ambulance service to come to our service.

A few weeks ago, in fact in the last four weeks, we had two people roll down the aisle in wheelchairs the same Sunday professing faith in Christ or being added to the church.

Our sixth hook in the water is the work with the deaf. On a recent Sunday we had fifty-one deaf people in our deaf section. Our deaf and hard-of-hearing work brings about fifty people to Jesus Christ every year. Last year sixty-one people came down these aisles professing Jesus Christ who were deaf and hard-of-hearing. This is a tremendous ministry of our church.

Another hook we have in the water is the rescue mission hook. Our church owns and operates a full-time rescue mission. We will average about two men per Sunday walking the aisles in our church for believers’ baptism who were saved in our rescue mission. Hundreds of others are saved each year in our rescue mission who do not actually stay for the Sunday services and come forward in our church.

Another hook we have in the water is our visitation committee. We have divided our city into fifteen different sections. Two fine, well-trained people are chosen to visit in each section of the city. For example, lets suppose that you and I are chosen to visit in section one. It would be our job to visit every new person who moves into section one. It will be our job to visit every person who visits our services from section one. These two people are chosen like Sunday school teachers and officers, and they are responsible for making a good visit in section one or their particular section of the city. We call this our visitation committee. Week by week people are brought down the aisles professing faith in Christ by these people.

Another hook we have in the water is our bus ministry. The First Baptist Church operates forty-five bur routes. We bring as many as 1,500 people to Sunday school and to preaching service every Sunday. Yes, I said to preaching service! These people stay for the preaching of the Word of God. We have, I suspect, sixty or seventy people in our church who do nothing but go from house to house in certain neighborhoods and communities inviting people to come to church and Sunday school on our buses. We will secure a bus, enlist two or three workers, give them a certain section of our area, and they will simply work their section filling up their bus. Our buses will average through the year, I suspect, eleven hundred to twelve hundred people per Sunday, and many are saved who ride the buses to Sunday school and to the preaching service.

Another hook we have in the water is the hook with the Spanish-speaking people. In the Calumet region we have many Spanish-speaking people; consequently, we provide for them a Sunday school lesson in Spanish. Many Sundays we have Spanish-speaking people who come down the aisle professing faith publicly in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Another hook we have in the water is our work with the retarded-children. There are literally hundreds of thousands of children in our great metropolitan area who are retarded. We provide for them a Sunday school class with trained workers. Many of the parents, unable ever to attend Sunday school hour and stay for the preaching service because we have a work for their children. Numbers of these have professed faith in Christ and have been saved in our services.

Another hook we have in the water is the hook we call the obituary column. A committee of people in our church reads the obituary column every day in the local newspaper. The family of every witness from the First Baptist Church. Still another group is the hospital group. We have a group of people who visit hospitals and win people to Christ in the hospitals.

Then, we have another hook in the water. We call it our honors team. Someone checks the newspaper daily and sends a letter of congratulation to every person who wins an honor. Let’s suppose that you have been selected citizen of the month. You will receive a letter of congratulations from the First Baptist Church along with a gospel tract and a card to fill out if you are interested in a visit from our church or one of our soul winners. Let’s suppose that your hog won a contest in the Country Fair, the Future Farmers’ Association, etc. You would receive a letter from our church congratulating you. Of course we may even send one to the hog, but we want the people in our area who receive some mark of distinction to know the First Baptist Church congratulates them and thereby they receive a gospel witness from our church.

Another committee chicks tragedies that take place. For example, if a person has a fire, he receives a letter of sympathy from the First Baptist Church and a gospel witness and a card to fill out. If someone has a car accident, a letter from the First Baptist Church, a gospel tract and a card to fill out.

Every person who marries in our area receives a letter of congratulation from the First Baptist Church, a tract and a card to fill out.

Every couple who has a new baby receives a letter of congratulation from our church, a gospel tract and a card to fill out.

So you see these hooks are thrown into the water after the services on Sunday. The visitation team, the pastor’s visitation, the staff’s visitation, the Sunday school teacher, the rescue mission, the bus ministry, the retarded children’s class, the Spanish-speaking class all of these hooks are in the water all week long. On Sunday we simply pull up the trotline and find the hooks that have fish on them, and they come forward professing faith publicly in the services of our church.

There are other hooks we have in the water-our youth visitation. Just last evening one of our young men stood in the service and said, “We had fourteen saved last week.” These were led to Christ by the teen-agers and young people of our church in youth visitation. We have a youth visitation night when the teen-agers go forth and win other teen-agers to Jesus Christ.

Another hook we have in the water is our ladies’ visitation. Each Friday morning our ladies, several of them, go out to visit and witness to those who need Jesus Christ.

There are many, many other hooks we have in the water-enough for now. I trust you get the idea. The preaching of the Gospel from the pulpit is not enough. If one is going to build a great Sunday school and a great soul-winning church, he must have many, many different facets of this program, reaching every area and every type of person imaginable. This is what we call our trotline fishing.


Publicity and Promotion


Now, we turn from the visitation program as we discuss the promoting of the program to the promotion itself. I am a great believer in promotion. Our Lord has said that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. What a sad commentary on the work of the Gospel! Far too many churches have shut themselves away in a corner of their city, not making the city realize that they even exist. I believe that every person in town ought to realize the work of the Sunday school marches on. We ought to keep everybody in town conscious of the growing of the great Sunday school.

We do this by newspaper advertising. Every week of the world a big advertisement, advertising the Sunday school of the church and the services of the church, is placed in our local newspaper.

We also do this by the radio ministry. We have a “Radio Bible Class” taught by the pastor on Sunday morning from the auditorium. We have a daily ministry. This daily ministry, called “The Pastor’s Study,” is used greatly to promote the work on the Sunday school. This, added to our nationwide radio ministry and other forms of publicity locally, adds to the promotion of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sunday school.

Now, as we think of promoting the program of the Sunday school, let me suggest a few things of planning a year’s program for the Sunday school. In the first place, I would suggest that you plan the natural high days for the year. As the year begins, or sometime before the beginning of the year, the pastor and those interested in planning the program for the year should get down a calendar, look at the calendar, and plan the activities for the year.

The first thing we do is plan the natural high days. These days will include Easter, Promotion Day, revival Sundays, etc. We do not plan special activities on these days, for these days take care of themselves. People come to Sunday school on Easter and other natural high days will take care of themselves.

The second thing we do is plan the natural low days. Now there are natural low days in the year. One is Memorial Day weekend. Another is Labor Day weekend, the Fourth is July weekend, etc. Especially when I was pastoring smaller churches would I plan something extra special for these natural low days.

Then we plan for the natural low season. The natural low season, of course, is the summertime. We have heard about the “summer slump.” We have heard about the attendance going down in the summertime, and, certainly, in our area especially is it true. Many of our people have four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and some even thirteen weeks’ vacations, making the summertime a very difficult time of growing the Sunday school. Consequently, we plan something for the summer.

It has been our policy now for a number of years to have what we call the “Carry-the-Load Sunday.” Each department is requested to “carry the load” one Sunday of the summer. Each department has a given Sunday when they promote a big, super colossal Sunday. The first day, for example, is the Beginners’ day. The Beginners promote a big Sunday. Now, when they have a big crowd, the adults have a larger crowd. We do not have a single beginner child (age four or five) in our Sunday school who knows how to drive; consequently, the parents have to drive them to Sunday school.

The next Sunday the Primaries have a big Sunday; and the next Sunday, Junior I; and the next Sunday, Junior II; and the next Sunday, Junior High. Each department has a big Sunday. Because of the bigness of one department’s attendance, the entire Sunday school is helped because of the family coming with the person who has the big Sunday. So we plan for the summer season. In this time the pastor, or one of the pastors, goes to each department on their big day, preaches a gospel sermon and gives a n invitation trying to get people saved in each department-an annual tour of the department. These people who are saved come forward in the public services.

The fourth thing we do in the planning of a year’s program is plan for a special holiday. By this, we mean we plan something special for regular holidays. We plan something special for Mother’s Day. Just this last year we gave a little ball-point pen with a flower on top of it (you have seen these artificial flowers on top of ball-point pens with the words “Happy Mother’s Day-1966) to each mother who attended. We made of all these flowers a beautiful, Hugh corsage (I guess six feet high), and each mother received one of these ball-point pens with lovely flowers on the end. Mother’s Day is planned.

Something is planned for Father’s Day, for Thanksgiving Day, for Christmas and other special holidays. Some little something that will bring the people on these holidays certainly is advisable.

The fifth thing we do in planning the annual program is plan special seasonal days. Such things as “Back-to-school Day” when school starts, “Old-Fashioned Day” in the summertime, the fall “Kickoff Sunday” or “Round-up Day,” the church’s anniversary, perhaps the pastor’s anniversary and other anniversary occasions or special seasonal days are good to promote. These promote easily, by the way.

The sixth thing we do is to plan days for special activities. If you are going to have a vacation Bible school, why not have a “Vacation-Bible-School Sunday” and let it help your Sunday school attendance. If you are going to have a big youth camp, maybe you could plan a “Youth-Camp Sunday,” and the activities should be integrated into the Sunday school program and increase the attendance in the Sunday school.

Number seven, plan a ten-week spring program and a ten-week fall program. Beginning on the last Sunday of March and going through April and May and into the first Sunday of June, we have a tremendous spring program. Beginning with the last Sunday of September or the early Sundays of October, we have a fall program lasting through the early Sundays of December. These programs are the programs that become the life’s blood of our church. These programs are built maybe around contests, special drives, awards for those who bring so many visitors, etc. During one program we had New testaments engraved in gold given to every visitor or every person who brought as many as ten visitors during the ten weeks program. On the front of this Testament engraved in gold was a picture of the First Baptist Church.

We have church contests and departmental contests. We give prizes. For example, we have an annual Bible conference near here at Cedar Lake, Indiana. We have a contest each spring. The top ten people in the contest bringing visitors receive some help in attending this Bible conference. The first prize, for example, would be motel rooms and meals for the family who brings the most visitors during the contest. The second prize would be the same thing. The third prize perhaps would be just a cabin with meals, and the fourth prize would be the same thing. The fifth prize would be maybe just the cabin for the week, and the sixth prize would be the same thing. This creates a tremendous interest in our spring program.

Let me make one suggestion. Never have a contest with only one prize. If someone gets far ahead, others will give up and only one person is working. I would suggest that several prizes be given in every contest making it possible for the ones who are behind not to give up.

I would also suggest that the prizes be of a spiritual nature. We never give a prize unless it has a spiritual connotation. For example, we give Bibles, Christian books, commentaries, or maybe a trip to a Bible conference. These prizes add to spiritual growth. Also we give prizes the publicize the church. We would give ball-point pens with the church’s name on it, the pastor’s name and a Scripture verse. Only things that advertise the church or give spiritual benefit are used as prizes in our promotional program. We also plan a similar program in the fall.

The eighth thing we do is plan four big, super colossal days each year. We have one big day each quarter-the kind of a day that will double the attendance. I am of the conviction that a church that runs a hundred in Sunday school can come nearer having 300 on a big day than she can having 150. A big goal challenges people. A big goal instills in people a tremendous desire to do something big for God. Oh, we have played church long enough. We have played “little” long enough. It is time that we decided to do something big and launch out in the deep and build a great, growing Sunday school for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me share with you some of the big days and special occasions that we have used here at the First Baptist Church.

(1.) One is “Old-Fashioned Day.” This is an annual occasion and is one of the most enjoyable days in our church. We do not set a specific attendance goal on this day but we do try to have it on a weekend that would normally have allowed attendance than usual. A good time that would normally have a lower attendance than usual. A good time for “Old-fashioned Day” is the 4th of July weekend or the Labor Day weekend. We have on this day a collection of antiques that we should. Such items as old-fashioned churns, wash pots, spinning wheels, clocks, Bibles, curling irons and smoothing irons are brought and displayed for this special day. Many people bring antiques that others are interested to see. We use on this day an old-fashioned organ. We pass hats instead of plates. We use a mourners’ bench at the altar convert with old, worn-out quilts. We have a creek baptizing in the afternoon if weather permits or maybe in a pond nearby. In the evening service we have coal oil or kerosene lamps and lanterns lighting the building. The electric lights are all turned off. Our people wear old-fashioned costumes for this day, and so many wonderful things highlight “Old-Fashioned Day.” We preach old-fashioned messages, and old-fashioned songs are sung. We may sing fifteen stanzas of the “Old-Time Religion.” What a blessed day it is. It is not a novelty day, but rather normally the power of God comes and many are saved and people are brought back to the old-time religion of faith in Jesus Christ and remember the worship of yesteryear. This is “Old-Fashioned Day.”

(2.) Then we have the church’s birthday. On this day we could have a big birthday cake. We have had birthday cakes weighing as much as seven hundred pounds. We send out candles to each person in the Sunday school; he brings his candle for the birthday cake. A large candle is lighted for the department that reaches its goal on this particular Sunday. It is the “Church’s Birthday Sunday.”

(3.) Another day we have is “Back-to-school Day.” Personal letters are sent to the school students. A lovely gift is given to every person going back to school. A corsage oftentimes is given to each of our lady schoolteachers, a boutonniere to each of our men schoolteacher to come to “Back-to-School Day.” We have a special prayer of dedication for the schoolteachers and for the school students as we promote “Back-to-School Day.”

(4.) Another day is “Baby Day.” On “Baby Day” we have a special letter sent to the parents of the babies. We give a little gift to each child-perhaps a blue Testament to the boy babies and a pink Testament to girl babies. Maybe a little corsage is given to each mother or baby.

(5.) We have AHD an annual “Homecoming Day” in some of our churches.

(6.) “Picture-Taking Day” is a good day to have. Each class has its picture made. There are other days. On “Record-Breaking Day” a record is broken over the Sunday school superintendent’s head if the department’s record is broken. On “B One Sunday” we sent some vitamin B-1 pills out one time and asked everyone to “B One”: “Absentee Sunday,” “Good-Neighbor Sunday,” “Christmas Sunday,” “Ladies’ Rally,” “Mens’ Rally,” Round-up Day,” “Pack-the-Pew Day’ and other days are used in promoting the Sunday School of the First Baptist Church.

The biggest business in all the world is the Sunday school and the reaching of people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Perhaps no other facet of our church organization reaches more people than the Sunday school. Would God that every church across America that believes the Bible would launch out into a great Sunday school drive reaching more people and more people and more people. Let us challenge our own people to reach more and more for Jesus Christ. Let us build our Sunday school to the glory of God and the salvation of those without Christ.

 

11. A Teachers’ and Officers’ Meeting

(Following is a transcription of an actual teachers’ meeting as conducted by the First Baptist Church of Hammond on Wednesday, February 15, 1966)

The teachers and officers of the Sunday school of the First Baptist Church meet each Wednesday evening from 6:00 to 7:30. From 6:00 to 6:30 we enjoy a meal together. The meat is provided by the church, and each teacher is requested to bring a covered dish. At the close of the meal an offering is taken to defray the cost of the meat.

From 6:30 until 6:50 I lead the entire teaching staff in promotion and inspiration to do a better job. During this twenty-minute period we recognize new workers, and we compliment classes and departments that have done good jobs. Oftentimes we scolded, rebuke, inspire, congratulate, etc. Here we set our goals, make our plans, and vow to do a better job.

From 6:50 to 7:10 I teach the Sunday school lesson to all of the teachers who teach from the junior age and up. (The primaries, Beginners, and Nursery Departments go to their own rooms to plan their work.) A three-page outline with an aim, point of contact, introduction, body, conclusion, questions and answers, and memory verse is given to each teacher. This outline is prepared by the pastor each week. We also give each worker a little paper called the Echoes. This is simply a little promotional sheet to inspire the workers to do a better job and to inform them concerning plans for the Sunday school.

Then from 7:10 until 7:30 the teachers go to their individual departmental levels where the teachers of the various age groups are taught how to apply the lesson to their particular age level.


Promotion: 6:30-6:50

PASTOR: Look at your Echoes, please. It night be wise to notice the interesting statistics just a little below the middle of the page in the left column, comparing last Sunday’s attendance with that of the same Sunday for the past few years. Last Sunday it was 2,830. It would have been over 3,000 had it not been for six buses that froze because of sub-zero weather. One year ago-2,250. You can notice a 580 gain over last year. Two years ago-1,970; three years ago-

1,510. The corresponding Sundays give us a growth of 1,320 for three years, which is 440 for an average growth per year. I think that is wonderful. You may notice that the last year has been the best year. It has been this way all of the time. This past year has been the best in every case, and many Sundays we are funning 600 or 700 more than we did a year ago.

Now, notice the balcony duty listing in the upper right-hand column. The Junior High School Departments will have it this coming Sunday. I think that last week we had twenty-five workers. Once again, be sure to instruct your workers that it is not their job to create more problems than they solve in the balcony. I often look up in the balcony and see four adults sitting together. That is not the purpose. The idea is for them to scatter so they can be in reach of every child that is misbehaving, rather than getting up and misbehaving to correct a child.

Now a few words about the attendance last Sunday. Some of the departments did very well and some did not do so well. The Nursery had 105. Beginners, you were way down last Sunday. Maybe it was because of the weather, but you had only 135, which is about eighty down. Primaries had 224, which is some down. Junior I, 256, which is some down. Junior II, 226. Down just a little bit? Junior High I, 77 down a little bit. Junior High II, 61; High School, 178. It looks like everyone was down about 15% except the adults. We can thank the Lord that the adults had 1,380. This gave us a grand total of 2,830. Now let me say this: Since everybody was down, I would suggest you do some thinking about contacting the absentees.

I know you are tired. I know you have worked hard, but now look! I also know that Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Let’s not slack up.

How many of you work on buses? Will you raise your hands, please. Let me suggest that you give some time Saturday working on the bus routes and doing the best you can to get the bus crowds up. Whose bus broke down Sunday? I would suggest very definitely that you contact the people and tell them that you are going to be by this Sunday. Tell them what happened, etc. I understand that it will be warmer next Sunday.

I am going to suggest that we make three visits per teacher between now and Saturday. If every class (we have about two hundred classes) increases by three we will have six hundred more people. We will not have 1,380 adults besides all of the other classes this coming Sunday. We were up this last Sunday because of the building program Rally. We normally have about 1,000 adults besides the teachers. We are not going to have 2,800 in Sunday school Sunday if you do not do better than you did last Sunday. I am asking every teacher the Sunday School to visit three absentees that would have been here last Sunday had it not been for the weather. I would ask you to do more except for the fact that you have been busy this week. You have been teaching. You have been cooking. You have been entertaining preachers. You have been busy, and I know it. I also know why this is true. I know that most of the work in an endeavor like this falls on your shoulders because you are the church. You are the inner circle, and you are the finest folks we have or you wouldn’t be teaching.

If the Sunday school has a “normal Sunday” this coming Sunday, we are going to have to get these absentees back. For example, we will not even have 2,500 Sunday if Beginners have only 135. Where are the beginner workers? Lift your hands. Now you understand, if you have 135 Sunday, we won’t have a normal 2,600 Sunday, which is our average during the winter months. Primary workers, lift your hands. If you have 224 and everybody else has corresponding attendance’s, we will not have 2,500 in Sunday school Sunday. Junior I, I hate to say this because you are usually up, but you were down Sunday too, and so were Junior II, Junior High, and High School. If everybody has what you had last Sunday, and the adults have a normal crowd, we are going to have about 2,300 in Sunday school, and that would be a catastrophe!

Remember, I am asking every teacher to contact three absentees this week. I do not want you to contact those who have not been here since 1932. I am not concerned this week, basically, about the fellow who has not been here in a year of six months. What I am concerned about mainly this week is the fellow who is normally here but was not here last Sunday.

Three Sundays ago we had the bad snow-27 inches! The next Sunday we had another bad snow-11 more inches! Then the attendance was 1,584, which was the smallest attendance we have had in years. Then last Sunday the adults were up and carried the load. That means the children who were absent last Sunday in your department haven’t been here for three Sundays. You hear me! Three Sundays can make a habitual absentee. You can wreck your class in a couple of snows.

You say, “Well, they will come back.”

Some of them won’t. There are at least three in your class that if you will get them back Sunday, you will save them. What is our motto? Absentees are...what?

TEACHERS: People.

PASTOR: Say it again.

TEACHERS: Absentees are people.

PASTOR: Again.

Teachers: Absentees are people.

PASTOR: One more time.

TEACHERS: Absentees are people.

PASTOR: All right, that means these 600 that we need to get back are people who have problems. They are burdens. They have needs.

Somebody said the other day, “Where do you lose them?” We have five hundred Juniors but only a couple hundred Junior Highers and High Schoolers. You lose them when some teacher does not visit them when they are absent.

“Well,” you say, “High Schoolers will be High Schoolers.”

No, teachers will be teachers.

You say, “It is juvenile delinquency.”

No, it is teacher delinquency. That is the problem.

You start a child when he is a Beginner or in the nursery, and if you will visit him every time he is absent, you will never lose him! Everyone who becomes a backslider missed one Sunday for the first time.

All right, let us visit three absentees this week. Now that is not too much. Ordinarily we ought to visit more than that. How many teachers will say, “I will pledge to the Lord that I will visit at least three absentees between now and the Lord’s Day.” I am very serious about this. Would you raise your hand up high, way up high. Keep them up. If you will do it, we will have 2,600 in Sunday school.

Look, this is not my work. This is God’s work and it ought to be done right. We ought to do it in season and out of season. In know you will.

Now I want to say a few words about one or two other things. You will notice in the upper left-hand column of the Echoes that the dates of the spring program have been set. The dates will be April 2 through June 11. That is eleven Sundays. Plans for the spring will be presented to the teachers and officers in the March 8 meeting.

This is the lull before the storm. This is the inner period between the fall program and the spring program. Until the weather hit us we were having a wonderful winter. Last winter we tried so hard to top 2,000. If we had 2,000 or 2,100, we were very pleased. Until the big snow came we were averaging over 2,600 for this winter.

Let me give you some interesting statistics. Do you recall a year ago when we decided to be “number six in sixty-six” and everyone got a pennant? We had 2,400 and something, and we thought we were off to a tremendous start. That was a big-drive day. I mean, that was one of the biggest days that we had ever had. Do you recall that? We gave everybody a pennant. We had, I think, 2,442. We thought we were off to a big start-2,400! Now then, the next winter, without any push at all, we have averaged over 2,600. We can have 3,000 a Sunday this spring if we don’t drop too far in the wintertime.
 

Introduction of New Teachers

This evening we have some teachers who have joined us recently and have not been officially welcomed. These are the new teachers, and we would like to have you stand. Mrs. John Vaperzsan in Junior II. Mrs. Maxine Clark, would you stand, please? Mr. Lyle Kerr, would you stand, please. Mrs. Earl Reeves, will you stand, please. We welcome you. We congratulate you because of your new challenge. We welcome you and we are glad you are with us. Let’s give them a hand, shall we? (Applause) Thank you, you may be seated.

Please notice that the lessons for the new quarter are listed in the lower left-hand corner. A new series of lessons will begin the first Sunday of April. For twelve weeks we will study the twelve apostles.

Next, notice the calendar of coming events. May 21st. is promotion Day. By the way, we have changed Promotion Day from the last of September to the last of May. May 28 will be the first day in the new classes.

March 13-15 will be the Canada trip for Primary and Junior I teachers.

All right, that concludes the first part of this meeting.

TEACHING OF THE LESSON BY PASTOR: 6:50-7:10

Now we come to the teaching of the lesson and we will open our Bibles to I Thessalonians, please, and prepare our minds for the lesson on the Lord’s Day. This quarter we are studying Paul’s epistles. Let us go through them. The first we studied was...?

TEACHERS: Romans.

PASTOR: Why did Paul write the book of Romans? He was...?

TEACHERS: Going to visit Rome.

PASTOR: He was soon going to visit Rome, and he was writing them telling them of his coming visit. He was also telling them what he would preach, what doctrines he believed, and what would be taught while he was in Rome.

TEACHERS: First Corinthians

PASTOR: Okay, First Corinthians was written to the church at Corinth. They had one big problem and the book of I Corinthians was written to solve that problem. They were what kind of Christians?
 

TEACHERS: Baby Christians.

PASTOR: Some said, “I am of...” whom?

TEACHERS: Paul.

PASTOR: Some said, “I am of...” whom?

TEACHERS: Appolos.

PASTOR: Some said, “I am of...” whom?

TEACHERS: Peter.

PASTOR: Yes, they were divided. Paul was writing and telling them not to be babies in the Lord.

The third epistle was the epistle to the church at Corinth. As soon as Paul left Corinth (now think hard) somebody came in and spread something. They spread the fact that Paul really did not have the right to be a what?

TEACHERS: An apostle.

PASTOR: So the book of II Corinthians is written to the church at Corinth. Paul is vindicating his apostleship. There are also three wonderful chapters here about the Christian grace of what?

TEACHERS: Giving.

PASTOR: That is right, giving.

All right, we come to the fourth epistle, Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. Now the Galatian people were guilty of doing some sewing. What was it that they sewed?

TEACHERS: The veil.

PASTOR: Yes, they sewed the veil that had been rent in twain from the top to the bottom. This meant now that the days of what were over?

TEACHERS: Legalism.

PASTOR: Yes, the law, ritualism, ceremony, etc. The Galatian people had some legalizers to come to lead them back to Judaism. Paul said, “You observe days and seasons, and I am afraid lest I have bestowed labour upon you in vain.”

Then we come to what letter?

TEACHERS: Ephesians.

PASTOR: What do you know about the church at Ephesus?

TEACHERS: It was big.

PASTOR: It was probably the largest church in the group and it was also a very influential church. Ephesians is a beautiful doctrinal book telling about the heavenly life in Jesus Christ. Now think hard. Who carried the book of Ephesians from Paul to Ephesus?

TEACHERS: Tychicus.

PASTOR: Right. Tychicus carried it. he also carried another one. What was it?

TEACHERS: Colossians.

PASTOR: Right. Now that leads us to the book of Philippians. The book of Philippians is a what?

TEACHERS: A thank-you note.

PASTOR: Yes, someone had come to Paul and brought him a gift. Who was it?

TEACHERS: Epaphroditus.

PASTOR: Yes, Epaphroditus brought Paul a gift from the church of Philippi. Epaphroditus also visited Paul when he was in jail in Rome. Epaphroditus got sick and almost died, but he got well. He was the messenger that Paul used.

Now, Romans is a reminder of Paul’s coming. First Corinthians is a letter to baby Christians. Second Corinthians is a letter vindicating Paul’s apostleship. In Galatians, Paul is rending the veil again. Ephesians is the heavenly letter to the great church, and Philippians is a thank-you note from Paul to the church at Philippi.

Now let us review Colossians. the book of Colossians was written because somebody came to Paul and told him about an error in the church at Colosse. What was the fellow’s name?

TEACHERS: Epaphras.

PASTOR: Epaphras came. What kind of false doctrine did he say had crept in?

TEACHERS: Angel worship.

PASTOR: Right. Paul is writing telling about the preeminence of Christ and the danger of angel worship.

That leads us to the book of I Thessalonians. Get your outlines, please, and look at I Thessalonians.

The first thing I would like for you to do is to get something that is made of metal like a fountain pen, spoon or knife and hold it in your hands, please. All right, if you have it, raise it up. Now I want you to beat it on the table very loudly. Keep doing it. Everybody keep doing it. Okay, you may stop. I will tell you in a minute why I had everybody beat on the table. This is the point of contact for Sunday. Have all of the kids make noise.

Now I want to show you why I gave you that for a point of contact. Look in I Thessalonians 1:8. “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord.” Those two words, “sounded out,” come from the same Greek root word that Paul used in I Corinthians 13:1 where he said, “I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” With a noise like that of sounding brass and tinkling cymbals the church at Thessalonica sounded out the Word of God.

Now beat on the table again. With that much racket you are supposed to get out the gospel.

Take your Bibles and place a marker at I Thessalonians 1. then turn to Acts 17. To me the church at Thessalonica was a very unusual church and a striking one in one respect. Look at verse 1 of Acts 17. “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews.” Hold it! “A synagogue of the Jews”-what do we already know? When Paul was in Philippi, did he go to the synagogue?

TEACHERS: No.

PASTOR: Notice that here he went to the synagogue. Because of the fact that he went to the synagogue here we know one thing about the city of Thessalonica. What is that?

TEACHERS: They had at least ten responsible Jewish men in the city.

PASTOR: Yes, if they had not had ten responsible Jewish men in the city, somebody raise your hand and tell me what they would not have had.

TEACHER: A synagogue.

PASTOR: Right. What would they have had instead?

TEACHERS: A place of prayer.

PASTOR: Yes.

“And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” Paul was not here long. He was in Ephesus three years, but he was here only three Sabbaths. Look at verses 5-10 of Acts 17 and see why: “But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy [that is usually why folks oppose any work of God], took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when and they found them not, they drew Jason certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying [Note this is a great statement], These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also; Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrite to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.”

So Paul was not at Thessalonica long. He reasoned at least how many Sabbaths in the synagogue?

TEACHERS: Three.

PASTOR: It is absolutely amazing what he did. Notice if you would, please, in I Thessalonians 4:2 what he did in three Sabbath days. “For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.” We know on those three Sabbaths he gave them the commandments. Now look in chapter 5 and verse 2: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Hold it! How long was he here?

TEACHERS: Three Sabbaths.

PASTOR: Yes, he said they knew perfectly about the Day of the Lord. You have probably heard some folks say, “We do not know much about the coming of the Lord. We haven’t been saved but about five years. You see, we are just baby Christians.” Paul said that they knew perfectly about it, yet had been saved only three weeks.

Turn, if you would please, to verse 4 chapter 5: “But ye, brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” He also taught more about that, for in II Thissalonians 2:5 he reminds them, “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”

Wait a minute. What “things” does he mean? Look back up to verse 3: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”

Perhaps you have said, “I am just like Paul. I am just going to preach Christ and Him crucified.”

No, you are not like Paul. Paul was here three Sabbath days and told them about the Antichrist, the day of the Lord, the rapture, the falling away, the son of perdition, the Man of Sin, and the Lord’s coming as a thief in the night.

Look to verse 15, please, of chapter 2 II Thessalonians: “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.” He taught them how to serve God. He taught them the doctrine. He taught them the traditions of serving Christ, etc., and he was there just three weeks.

Now please notice your outlines. I think it might be wise if you would give your class the proper order of these epistles. We have the chronological order here for you, and on the other side we have the example of scrambled order. I would suggest that you give your class the scrambled order and ask them to unscramble it, you see. You could write them all on the board scrambled up and ask someone to come up to the front of the class to the blackboard and put a “1” by the first one that was written and a “2” by the second and so on. See how close to the proper order they can get.

I want you to look at I Thessalonians again and notice the opening of it. I want you to notice Paul’s relationship to his people. “Paul and Silvanus....” Whom do you think Silvanus is?

TEACHERS: Silas.

PASTOR: Right. “...unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now notice Paul’s tender expression in verse2: “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.” It is amazing how quickly Paul could fall in love with God’s people. In this area he spent only about three weeks. Yet he said that he thanked God for them and that he prayed for them. “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the sight of God and our Father.” Notice he said, “I thank God for you. I pray for you, and I remember you.” Although he was there but a little while he fell in love with them.

“For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord.” I like that. A preacher ought to be able to say that if you are following me, you are following the Lord. “...having received the work in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: So that ye were examples to all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia.”

Now notice what kind of church it was. “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak anything.” Again we find the words, “sounded out.” He said they were sounding out the Gospel. Like sounding brass and tinkling cymbal they were noisy in getting out the Gospel.

“For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven.” Now I want to give you the real reason why Paul wrote the book of I Thessalonians. This is what I want you to remember about the book when we review in the coming weeks. Paul had talked to them very much about the coming of the Lord. You cannot read I Thessalonians without reading a lot about this great truth. The people in Thessalonica fell in love with the coming of the Lord, but after Paul left they got worried. They said, “We know that we are going to be raptured. The Lord is going to come, but Paul didn’t tell us much about the dead people. What is going to happen to the dead?” So they sent word to Paul that they were concerned about the dead folks (those that had died in Christ). What would happen to them? The book of I Thessalonians was written to explain this matter to them. The key verse is in chapter 4, verse 13: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.”

Perhaps somebody who was saved had just died and they couldn’t understand what would happen. They knew that the Lord was going to come back, but they did not understand what would happen to the brother who had died. Paul wrote the entire book to explain to them about the dead in Christ, and the events accompanying the rapture.

I think if I were you I would go over the future events with my class this Sunday. I would go through the rapture, judgment seat, marriage of the Lamb, tribulation, revelation (coming of Christ back to the earth), the millennium, the great white throne, and Heaven and Hell. Every child in our Sunday school ought to know what the rapture is. The word “rapture” ought to be a household word. “Millennium” and “great white throne” ought to be household words also.

Because the Lord is going to come, Paul speaks about what the Christians ought to be. The last few verses of I Thessalonians 5:10-22: “Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore....”

Anytime you see the word “wherefore,” that means something has gone what?

TEACHERS: Before.

PASTOR: “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” Because He is coming, comfort yourselves together. “Edify one another” means build up each other. Why? The Lord is coming! He may come any minute. Hence, comfort and edify each other.

“And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.” He said you ought to respect your pastors. Pray for them and esteem them very highly.

Not very long ago a little lad ran to me and said, “Hello, Jack.”

I picked him up and held his face in front of mine and said, “What did you call me?”

He said, “B-B-B-Brother Hyles.”

We don’t allow that “Jack” business at our church. The children ought to be taught to respect the pastor, not because he is a man but because he holds an office. Paul said that the leader should be respected because the Lord is coming.

“Now we exhort you, brethren [all of this is because the Lord is coming any minute], warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.”

Now see verse 16: “Rejoice evermore.” Why? The Lord is coming! “Pray without ceasing.” Why? The Lord is coming! “In everything give thinks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Why? The Lord is coming! “Quench not the Spirit.” Why? The Lord is coming! “Despise not prophesying.” Why? The Lord is coming! All of these things we are supposed to do because the Lord could come at any minute.

Now look at the questions at the close of your outlines. Close your Bibles and let’s see how well you do.

First we have scrambled words.

(1) Mitoyht-This man joined Paul as a youth to accompany him on many of his journeys, and he was with Paul at the time of his writing this book.

TEACHERS: Timothy.

PASTOR: That’s amazing. That word doesn’t look like Timothy, does it?

(2) Another one of Paul’s fellow travelers was-lassi. (laughter) This could only happen at First Baptist Church. Well, who is it?

TEACHERS: Silas.


PASTOR: (3) Strif Salasostnhien-the first epistle Paul wrote.

TEACHERS: First Thessalonians.

PASTOR: (4) Radpey-What did Paul do daily?

TEACHERS: Prayed.

PASTOR: (5) Gogmuesya-Where did Paul preach first in Thessalonica?

TEACHERS: Synagogue.

PASTOR: (6) Tingdasn-The position of the person who read the Scripture.

TEACHERS: Standing.

PASTOR: Now we have the true or false questions.

(1) Paul’s earliest and main opposition in Thessalonica came from the Greeks.

TEACHERS: False.

PASTOR: (2) Paul was in Thessalonica for a long time.

TEACHERS: False

PASTOR: Now fill in the blanks.

The Christian in Thessalonica were not only believers but they sounded out the Word of God. They were looking for the return of the Lord. They were concerned, however, about the Christians who had died. Paul told them that the dead in Christ would rise first. Then he said that those which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall rise. He said, “They shall be caught up in the air.

Now the general questions: How long will the Christians be in the air?

TEACHERS: Seven years.

PASTOR: Where do we go from there?

TEACHERS: To the earth.

PASTOR: How long will we be on the earth?

TEACHERS: One thousand years.

PASTOR: What great judgment takes place at the end of this thousand-year period?

TEACHERS: Great white throne.

PASTOR: Where do we go then?

TEACHERS: New Jerusalem.

PASTOR: How long will we be there?

TEACHER: Forever.

PASTOR: Right. Forever and forever.

Now note the memory verse:

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.”

That is the lesson for Sunday.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: After I have taught the lesson, the teachers then go to their own departmental level meeting where a member of the staff takes the lesson that I have taught and shows the teacher how to apply it to his own particular age level. The one below is for junior teachers and deals with the lesson taught above.

MRS. SANDRA PLOPPER: First of all, get your lesson and a pencil just as you do every week. Make this little outline.

(1) Review. Here is our review board that we have been using every week. You will notice today’s letter is here with a dart on it as it is every week, To review this, what do we do? Take these off, mix them up, and ask the class which identification belongs with which book of the Bible, or we can do it by turning the identifications up, etc. Then we can ask the class, “What did we learn in the book of Romans?” The Gospel is the word we chose to use. “First Corinthians was about what?” Baby Christians. Review the class about each one. We also take down the names of the books, mix these up, and ask the class to place them back in order.

All right, this is the first point-review.

(2) Give your introduction to the book as you have in the lesson, and open today’s “letter.” February 19 we are going to study I Thessalonians. Inside of our envelope we have a letter. Now, of course, we want our class to learn that the epistles were letters, so that is why we have a letter here. It is from Paul. Do you see his return address in the corner? It is written to the Christians at Thessalonica. Let’s see what Paul said. We suggest to our teachers that they read the letter briefly and make the reading of the letter the main part of the lesson, stopping to illustrate the different points. We rewrite the letter very simply to fit fifth grade boys and girls. We might say:

Dear Loved Ones:

I thank God for you and I pray for you. I remember that even though I was there for only a little while, you were so nice to me. You have been a good example to everyone around you. You have really sounded out the Gospel in a wonderful way.

In this way you rewrite the letter very simply and have it printed here in the envelope.

(3) After you introduce the book of I Thessalonians tell your class that you are going to teach them something about the Thessalonian Christians. Here are the points. I have them all written out to show you. Here are the things about the Thessalonian Christians. I have covered up the key word, you see. The reason we do this is to make the class curious. When you uncover each word as you make each point, you will have their attention. If you should happen to lose their attention between points, you will surely have it when you uncover the next card because fifth and sixth graders will want to know what is underneath. We reveal just enough to make them curious. We also use different colors. That creates interest, doesn’t it?

So we sill teach: The Thessalonian Christians suffered PERSECUTION. We will teach about this. They returned from their IDOLS. They were good EXAMPLES. We will teach about the fact that they were good examples. They had a wonderful TESTIMONY. They looked for.... For Whom did they look? JESUS. They served God.

Now I can cover these words again and review my class by asking them to tell me what was under each one.

All right, that will be the next point on your outline. The first point was review. The second was the introduction. The third was to teach the general things about the church of Thessalonica.

(4) Teach about the rapture. After teaching about the church at Thessalonica go back to the reading of your “letter” and read:

I know that you are very concerned because some Christian have died already, and you are very concerned about what is going to happen to them. Let me explain to you what will happen.

Now I will explain by using another illustration. I have some very pretty colored balls. They are wooden. I am going to put them in this dish to represent unsaved people who are living. Now I have some other wooden objects that are going to represent unsaved people who have died. I have some paper clips which will represent saved people who are living. Last of all, I have some little nuts. (Are these nuts or bolts? I always get mixed up. Nuts? Okay.) These will represent saved people who have died and gone to the grave. Now all four articles are here in my plate, which represents the earth. The Lord is represented by this magnet.

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven.”

I see that the paper clips and the nuts have come up, but the wooden objects, which represented the lost people, both alive and dead, did not come up. The paper clips and the nuts, which represented the living and dead saved people did come up. The saved not only shall go up, but they shall be with the Lord. When the Lord goes, they go. Now the reason the wooden objects did not go up is that they had nothing in them to take them up. The metal objects did. They were attracted to the magnet because they had that one thing in them that made them go up. The Christians have the Holy Spirit that makes them go whether they are alive or dead. you can teach your class about the rapture with this.

At the end of your lesson where you have the scrambled words you could play a game and have the class participate in this manner. I am going to show you in scrambled letters the name of the young man who went with Paul on many of his missionary trips. Now if you know the answer, don’t say it aloud. Raise your hand, and I will let you come up and arrange the letters in the proper order. Are you ready? Raise your hand if you know. All right, Mrs. Hand, come up and see if you can show us the proper way this name should be. This is a heavy piece of paper with one edge folded over and stapled to make a little pocket, and the letters are written on cards. We use this quite a bit at the junior age. She says it is T-I-M-O-T-H-Y. Is she right? Right. Very good.

This is the name of another young man who was with Paul. Who knows the answer to this one? Meredith, would you come up, please, and see if you can show us the right name here. Is that right? S-I-L-A-S. Very good.

Okay, this is something that Paul did for the Thessalonian people every day. What did he do for them every day? Will you come and fix this for us, Verlie.

You can do this with the fill-in-the-blank words as well as the scrambled words on the outline.

With all of these different illustrations, of course, you could not fail on your lesson. We have used class participation. We have aroused their curiosity by covering up the words. We have used review. We have used printed things and, Junior II teachers, why do we use printed things? It is because you learn better when you see and hear than when you just hear. Right? We reinforce learning by seeing and hearing, and we also have something to use for our review from week to week.

Thank you.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Once again I will give you the outline. The first twenty-minutes is promotion and discussion about Sunday-bring three visitors, make three visits before Sunday, get back up, and get your departments on the ball! The next twenty minutes is the teaching of the facts of the lesson. The third twenty minutes is how to apply the facts to the particular age level so that they will remember and understand the lesson and the truth concerning the lesson.

 

12. The Bus Ministry

One of the fastest and surest ways to increase Sunday school attendance is through the operation of buses. At this writing, the author’s church has an attendance is Sunday school of approximately 3,500. Nearly 1,500 of these ride on buses. They, of course, stay for the preaching hour an deprived for a large percentage of the attendance in both Sunday school and preaching. Of these 1,500 approximately 200 are bus workers and their families, and about 300 others would attend Sunday school if there were no bus routes but simply ride the buses for convenience or financial savings. this means that approximately 1,000 people attend Sunday school because of the bus ministry. These people, of course, would not attend our Sunday school were it not for are finding the bus ministry a very profitable way to reach people for the Lord Jesus Christ. Following is a list of suggestions and pointers concerning this vital phase of the Lord’s work:


Choosing an Area

This is the first and most important please of the bus ministry.

1. A housing project. All over America there are government housing projects where thousands of people live. Many such projects form a little town located in just one building or perhaps a few buildings. In such a case the bus would have to make only one stop or, at most, a few stops. Then, too, most of the children in such a project know each other and would consider it a privilege and a delight to have a weekly trip their friends. Such a project makes it easy for the worker to contact his absentees and saves time that normally would be spent in the driving of a lengthy route. A church should comb the area for such projects in the beginning of a bus ministry.

2. An apartment house area. This is very similar to the above and offers the same advantages.

3. A trailer court. Once again we have a concentration of population which makes it easy to work the area and easy to pick up the passengers. This also means just a few stops at the beginning of the route followed by a trip straight to the church.

4. An area cut off from the community. It is unbelievable what an expressway can do to a church’s area. The same is true concerning a busy railroad, or an industrial area. Psychologically people may feel they are much farther from a certain church than they really are. In our area there are two states involved. Though the state line is only five blocks from our church, it is considered by some as a geographical barrier which meant we have to work harder across the state line even though it is less than half a mile away. When there is a community isolated for any purpose, it becomes a good area for a bus route, and it certainly needs concentrated attention from the church.

5. A poor area. There are still people in this world, believe it or not, who cannot afford the luxuries of life and to whom a bus trip to the church would seem a big thing. It could well be the highlight of their week. Slum areas, poor areas, and housing developments should be seriously considered in the starting of bus routes.

6. Schools or homes. These are exceptionally good places to start routes. A church may be located within ten or fifteen miles of a college where many of the students, no doubt, would appreciate a free homes for juvenile delinquents, or any other institution which provides dormitories and living quarters for its constituents. These are excellent places to send buses and, once again, we find a concentrated population.

7. Another town. There are churches located within ten or fifteen miles of small towns who have no evangelistic, Bible-preaching work. In many instances these churches send workers to the nearby towns informing the citizens of a bus ministry. In thirty minutes a bus could informing the citizens of a bus ministry. In thirty minutes a bus could cover the little town and bring the interested people to the services.

8. Country roads. Many years ago in a rural pastorate we found this a very beneficial way to reach people. Since people who live in rural areas have no street addresses they are oftentimes overlooked in the church’s evangelistic program. A route beginning approximately fifteen miles from town and covering every rural home into the town can reach many people for Jesus Christ. As I dictate this chapter, I think of scores of people whom we have reached through this method. Many of them are now in the ministry or in full-time service for the Lord.


LOCATING BUSES

Once the area has been chosen, we must turn our attention to the securing of buses. Of courses the best way is to purchase them. Presently, an adequate bus would cost approximately $6,500. If a church can afford such an investment, she should begin with new buses. Most churches, however, will find it impossible to purchase new buses. If care is taken in selecting a usable bus, one can be purchased for $1,000 to $1,500. It is always a good idea for a church to purchase at least a few buses. These can be used for youth trips, trips to camp, etc., as well as the regular Sunday morning bus routes.

Perhaps an even better way is to locate a private leaser of buses. Such a company can make a profit by leasing buses at $10 to $15 a trip. The company who owns the buses takes care of all of the upkeep, insurance, etc. The total church outlay is the rental buses.

It is our conviction that when the church really gets into the bus business and reaches hundreds of People for Christ, God intervenes and supplies their needs. We have had many miraculous answers to prayer in our bus ministry. It is unbelievable how God has provided. When God looks down and sees a church interested in reaching sinners. He desires to help them do so.


Recruiting the Workers

In the operation of a successful bus ministry many workers are needed.

1. The director. Someone should oversee the entire bus program. This can be the pastor, another staff member, or an energetic, creative layman. This person should be a real “live wire.”

2. Bus captains. These are the key people. They are responsible for house-to-house visitation to obtain new riders and to reclaim absentees. Normally such a captain would spend from two to four hours a week just going from house to house lining up people to come to Sunday school on buses.

3. The bus driver. In some cases the bus captain drives his own bus, but usually there is a driver in addition to the captain. The driver, of course, drives the bus, is properly licensed, and sees that the route begins on time. He must be faithful to his work. The captain rides the bus but oftentimes must go to the door to get the riders, etc.

4. The parkers. As a bus ministry grows so does the need for space to park the buses. Each bus should have a designated place to be parked on or near the church property. It should be met by a person specifically chosen to park the buses. This person should have a clipboard with a list of the buses. He should write down the number of people on the bus, the number of the bus, and the arrival time of the bus. Below is such a form:

Then as the buses depart after the services he should see that everything is done decently and in order so as to avoid chaos and danger as the buses depart.

How then are these workers recruited? The pastor and the director of the bus ministry should be on the lookout for those in the church who make many trips with their cars to bring people. These people should be contacted and offered a bus.

Many fine bus captains develop from people who live a great distance from the church. These people could save money by starting a bus route in their neighborhood. Such people oftentimes find it difficult to visit for the church since they are strangers to the community. Using a bus, however, provides them with the opportunity to visit in their own neighborhood, to provide transportation for their own family, and to help tremendously in the evangelistic ministry of the church.

Doubtless, the best way to enlist workers is through the preaching from the pulpit. Periodically the pastor should preach on the importance of the evangelistic outreach of the church. He should stress very strongly the bus ministry and ask for people who want to dedicate themselves to this ministry to come to the altar. Immediately their names and addresses should be secured and a meeting should be held to organize them into bus workers.

Just recently I was asked to go to a distant state to preach one night on the bus ministry. At the conclusion of the service I gave an invitation for those willing to work with the buses. Over forty people volunteered to do so. We asked them to meet with us in a departmental assembly room after the service, where we explained the bus ministry thoroughly and organized a new bus ministry. The first Sunday 332 people rode their buses to Sunday school. We should never forget that the inspiration of the pulpit is the important thing about building any phase of a church program.

It should be made clear that any person in the church who desires a bus route may be provided with a bus.

Financing the Work

A bus ministry may or may not become self-supporting. Usually if forty or fifty people ride a bus their offering will amount to at least $15 or $20, which will finance the bus. We have found that $900 per bus per year is a fair estimate. In fact, we allocate this amount in our budget. Presently we operate forty-five bus routes and soon we plan to have fifty. This means out bus budget for the year is $45,000. This, of course, does not include the purchasing of buses. This is only the expense of maintenance and operation.

This money may be put in the church budget or it may be raised over and above the church budget. Many churches have found it helpful to use the Wednesday offering for the bus ministry. This is an exceptionally good idea. Other churches allocate one Sunday evening offering a month for the bus ministry. This is also a wise suggestion.

Training the Workers

It is a good idea for the director to train the first few workers. A series of classes could be taught and then the director could go with each worker to his area and help him get started. After the first group of workers get the idea and become well trained, it is not difficult for them to reproduce themselves. Then the director may recruit untrained but usable personnel to work with the trained captains and thereby provide a steady flow of trained people. This is simply a revision of the buddy system. After the new worker is adequately trained the team should divide and choose other untrained people to work with each of them.

Upon starting a bus ministry, or anything else in the church for that matter, a weekly meeting of the workers should be held. Our meeting is conducted for about fifteen minutes immediately following the Wednesday evening service. This is a period of training and promotion for the bus ministry.

Promoting the Attendance

1. The pulpit should be promoting the bus ministry constantly.

There is no way to have a hot bus ministry and a cold pulpit. Inspiration must come constantly from the pulpit if there is to be a successful bus program.

2. The pastor should share the blessings of the bus ministry with the church family regularly. To be sure, there will be opponents to the bus ministry. Some people will say it is too expensive. Others will not like the class of people brought in. Others will not like the irreverence it causes in the public services. Then there are those who just do not like anything different. The pastor should constantly refute this opposition by sharing the blessings of the bus ministry with the church family.

3. Contests among the buses can be a tremendous thing. Since seventy-five percent of our bus riders are children, we find it very easy to excite them over contests with the other buses. Prizes can be awarded to the top one-third or one-fourth of the bus fleet. In some cases, where fewer buses are operated, the winning bus can receive a prize. At this writing we re in a bus contest. The top ten buses and the workers of these ten buses receive a special prize. Sometimes the prizes may go to the bus workers, and at other times they may go to the entire bus. On one occasion the winning buses were taken to a small airport where each child was taken for a five-minute plane ride. This was not as expensive as it may seem. The children who were waiting on the ground were served refreshments and played games.

4. Gifts may be given periodically to all who ride buses. For example, if the Sunday school lesson is on “The Loaves and Fishes” each child may be given a goldfish in a sealed plastic container filled with water. There are any number of little novel ideas that could be applied to God’s Word or a specific Sunday school lesson which would delight the average child.

5. Each captain should also plan his own promotional ideas. If the director is working to promote the bus attendance, and if the pastor is joining him in such an endeavor, then each captain should also be seeking ways of promoting attendance on his bus. The more people seeking ways of promoting attendance on his bus. The more people thinking up ideas and working at attendance campaigns, the better it is.

6. The captains should keep a roll and contact all absentees. Each captain should consider his bus much like a Sunday school class. Not only should he seek new riders but he should be contacting those who are absent so as to have a minimum turnover on the buses.

Using the Buses for Publicity

The buses should be attractively painted and properly lettered as pictured below:

When the buses are attractive they may be tremendous instruments of publicity for the church. When not in use they can be parked on main thoroughfares. Each bus becomes a signboard or a billboard advertising the church. The bus should be driven around town periodically. Everywhere the bus goes it is either good publicity or bad publicity for the church. If the driver is courteous and obeys the law, and if the bus is attractive, it becomes a traveling billboard.

A Typical Day on a Bus Route

The driver should start the route in time to pick up the riders and unload them on the church property at least ten minutes before Sunday school begins. The captains then take their riders to their classes directly from the buses. This is very important. The children should not be allowed to go to their classes alone. They should be taken by the captains or an adult appointed by the captain for this specific duty.

After the service is over the captain reclaims his riders at the door of the church or department where the rider is located. The children should never be left to shift for themselves. They should be taken tot he door and then, at the door, taken in orderly form back to the bus.

Each child is returned to the front of his home, which is exactly where he was picked up. The captain should then see that the child goes immediately to the door and into the house. He should not leave until the child is safely inside the door.

Starting a Route

After an area is chosen, buses are secured, workers are enlisted and trained, and necessary preparations are made, we come to the actual starting of the route. Many times it has been my privilege to start a bus route. Oftentimes I have gone to the assigned area, found a group of children playing, gathered them around, and asked them how they would like a thirty-mile bus trip with all expenses paid on which Bozo the clown or some other famous character would entertain them. After I got them excited about it, then I went to their home and inquired if their parents would mind the child participating in such an endeavor. The parents are told about the careful planning of the bus ministry. Many of the things already mentioned in this chapter are mentioned in this initial conversation. They should be set at ease concerning the safety of the bus, licensing of the driver, choosing of the workers and captains, etc.

Usually the parents will make some excuse like, “We just don’t want to get up that early and prepare breakfast for the children.” The answer to this is a very simple one. Explain to them that in the starting of the route you are providing hot chocolate and doughnuts for the children so they can have breakfast on the bus. Much care should be taken to be friendly, courteous and understanding. Remember, you must sell them on yourself first. The only representative of the church is you and they must be sold on you, the worker. Once two or three families have been enlisted, they can help in enlisting other friends. On the initial bus route a planned activity should be presented. Fun, recreation, breakfast, and other activities are provided to insure a good time for all.

Considering the Liabilities

1. Lack of finances. It should be stressed over and over again that the bus ministry is a missionary project. In many churches it is the largest single evangelistic arm, and in some cases, the bus ministry of the church reaches more people for Christ than all of the missionaries supported by the church. This is not to discredit a foreign mission program but simply to place the bus ministry on a par with other missionary activities of the church, and it should be looked upon as such. If it is a financial liability, the church should accept it as such as she considers the blessings derived and the souls reached through he bus ministry.

2. Delinquent children. This can be a problem but it need not be. In some cases children ride the buses to church, get off the buses, run around the neighborhood until time to reload and never enter into the Sunday school class or the church service. This can be eliminated by the proper use of stamps and stamp pads. Each Sunday school class or department can be equipped with a stamp pad and a stamp with the initials of the church. This stamp should be about the size of a nickel as shown below:

Each teacher or superintendent stamps the back of each child’s hand. When the child boards the bus he shows his hand to the driver with the proof that he was in Sunday school. A child who skips Sunday school will not have the stamp on his hand and can be disciplined accordingly.

3. Lost children. As a bus ministry grows it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid children becoming lost. This problem can also be solved with the use of a stamp. Each bus captain stamps the hand of each child with the number of the bus as he boards the bus. For example, the captain of bus #1 places a stamp on the back of each passenger’s hand as shown below:

Then each department is provided with a list of buses, bus number, and bus captain. If a child loses his bus, any adult can check the back of his hand for the bus number. The adult can then go to any department and check this list. He then learns the names of the captains and drivers associated with this particular bus number.

4. Misbehavior in the services. Oftentimes people complain about a bus ministry because of the children’s misbehavior in the public services. This problem can be solved in several different ways.

A portion of the church can be reserved for the bus children and volunteer workers can sit with them during the preaching service. One worker for each five to ten children can help discipline them and keep them quiet during the service.

In some churches the bus ministry has grown to such proportions that the church must provide a special preaching service or services for the bus children. In such a case an assistant pastor should preach to them. If the church has no assistant pastor, some God-called preacher or preacher boy could go and preach to these bus children. Of course this would not occupy all of the time during the preaching service. hence, well-trained workers can be provided to care for them during the church service time. This should not be just a time of coloring and having amusements and entertainment. It should not even be a time limited to a Sunday school type service. There should definitely be preaching. We find it wise to have a choir, special music, offering, sermon, etc. In addition to this church type service, a well-trained worker may have some time of entertainment and inspiration for them. This has proven very helpful in many churches in the reaching of bus children.

5. Criticism by members. Probably in every church there are people who will rise in opposition against a bus ministry. These, thank the Lord, are usually in a minority and because they are, they should not be allowed to dictate the policies of the church. They should be dealt with very kindly and yet firmly.

I recall when I first came to the First Baptist Church and started our bus ministry, a well-to-do member came to me and said, “Pastor, what are we going to do with all of these little bus kids?”

I said, “I don’t know what you are going to do with them but I am going to love them.”

Then the member said, “If they stay, I leave.”

Thank the Lord, that is exactly what happened. The bus children stayed and he left. We felt we got the best of the deal. No minority born in the “objective case” and the “kickative mood” should be allowed to stop the progress of God’s work and the reaching of hundreds of people for Jesus Christ.

Used properly and organized effectively, a bus ministry can be a tremendous asset to a church, and more important, a church can be a tremendous blessing to thousands of people by the proper use of a bus ministry.

 

13. The Sick and Shut-ins

“Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”-Jas. 5:13-15.

One of the most important ministries of the New Testament church was ministering to the sick. Jesus spent much of His life ministering to the sick. The book of Acts is filled with examples of ministering to those who were sick and shut-in. Since this is such a vital part of the church program, let us examine carefully to the sick and shut-ins.

1. The people of the church should be trained to call the pastor or the staff when they are ill. It is amazing that people call the doctor and call their friends but simply expect word to get back to the pastor about their illnesses. Constant stress should be upon informing the pastor there is illness. It should also be emphasized that friends of sick people should alert the pastor as to their condition so that no one will be overlooked.

Once a lady came out to the public services and said to her pastor.

“Well, I was sick and you didn’t come to see me.”

The pastor replied, “Did the doctor come?”

“Oh yes, many times.” said the Lady.

“How did the doctor know you were sick?” the pastor asked.

“Well, I called him, of course.”

Then the pastor said, “Maybe I could have seen you many times, too, if you had called me.”

It is very important that contact be made with the pastor or the office concerning the sick and shut-ins.

2. A card file should be kept of all visits to the sick and shut-ins. When a person enters the hospital or becomes sick enough to need prayer, the church office should be called. Immediately, a card should be made in the church office for this person. On the card should be the name of the patient, the hospital, and the room number. Then the pastor or staff member should list each visit made to the parties. This file should