How to Sell Your Sunday School Class When You Can’t Give it Away^©

Table Of Contents

Selling the Sunday School Class (I am not a salesperson. Yes you are.)

Responding to Visitors (It is just a stranger. It is not like they work for the IRS.)

Prepare Yourself to Greet Visitors (Sometimes I don’t want to talk to anyone.)

Selling the Sunday School Class to a Guest (I have to be a truthful salesperson.)

List of Things to do after a Guest leaves the Church (After the guest leaves, you better not forget him.)

Evaluate How the Class Members Related to a Guest (How did you do? Is the guest coming back?)

Perform this Secret Christian Behavioral Trait (Keep this a secret. You do not want the church down the street to know the secret.)

Go To Sunday School and Visitors Page

Were you able to sell your Sunday School class without offering a discount to last Sunday’s visitor? Did you convince the visitor that the Sunday School class would meet his Bible study and fellowship needs? Is the visitor ready to sign a Sunday School membership contract? What can you personally do to help the visitor know the Sunday School class’ members and you want him to join the class? Does the visitor know what the Sunday School class offers him as a member of the class?

Class members are sales staff for the class when a visitor walks into the Sunday School class’ room. Think of a visitor as a Sunday School class customer. The Sunday School class’ product is its self, its members, Bible teaching, fellowship, etc. The way the class members treat the visitor has an impact on the visitor’s decision to return or not return to the class and use or not use the class’ product. Think about your reaction when you visited a store and the sales staff showed little interest in waiting on you and helping you. How quick did you leave the store? How excited are you about returning to the store?

Selling the Sunday School class to a visitor is part of being a good class member. If you are not familiar with being a Sunday School sales person, look for a description on this responsibility on the last page of your Sunday School membership contract. People often do not read the fine print in contracts. Think of the concept of class members earning “stars in their crown” according to how many people joins the Sunday School class as a heavenly commission payment concept.

Poor selling efforts; no new members; no payment; no new stars in your crown.

Some people have trouble talking to a person they do not know. If talking to strangers makes you feel uncomfortable, read the “It is Easy to Talk to a Stranger^©” article to find out how easy it is to talk to a stranger. If you do not talk to a visitor, how will he realize how much you want him to join the Sunday School class?

Treating a visitor as a guest will help you become a better salesperson for the Sunday School class. Approaching a visitor as if he is a guest is more of an attitude than what is done. Your attitude will show through what you do. The guest will pick up on your attitude. You will have a desire to impress the person so he will want to return to the class.

Reaching out to a guest is a collaboration of the efforts of each class member and the Holy Spirit. It is recommended that a personal prayer be offered to God asking for Him to guide you as you greet a guest. You can’t make a person think or feel a certain way, but you and fellow class members can help establish an atmosphere that will help create a positive relationship between the class members and guests.

The Golden Rule is a very good guide for determining how a Christian is to act in many situations including the Sunday School class. Treat the visitor like you want to be treated except when you are in a bad mood. There is an assumption that you like yourself so you know what needs to be done to make you feel important. Do the same things to make the visitor feel like he is a special guest.

When a visitor enters the classroom, introduce yourself and start a conversation with him. Find out the basic facts about him and why he is visiting your class. The first visit of a guest will probably not reveal very much information about him and his family. When you have the opportunity, write down what you learned about the guest. You can add the notes to the collection of things you keep in your Bible. The next time you meet the guest, review your notes so you can use in your conversation the things you learned about the visitor. You may feel a little weird looking at your notes in your Bible. If the visitor sees you looking in your Bible, you will impress him by him thinking you are reading your Bible. If the guest enjoys the first visit, there probably be more visits during which the class members will get to learn more about the guest.

It is good to have a planned approach to responding to a guest with whom you are comfortable. Think of the planned approach as a mental check off list you can use to determine what you are to do next.

Greeting a guest and striving to make him want to visit again is a subjective activity. What will appeal to one guest may not appeal to another guest. Having several things planned that you can do in greeting a guest will provide you with Plan B and Plan C if Plan A is not working. Guests will respond differently to different class members so it is a good idea to have several class members to greet the guest. If you are not getting a good feeling from the guest, introduce him to another Sunday School class member and get out of the way.

Some people get hung up on how to talk to a person of the opposite sex. Do not be concerned about this issue. Keeping the topic of the conversation oriented to the Sunday School class and it will not be an issue. Talking to a guest is not a time to flirt.

If there is a planned class social activity or mission activity, be sure to invite the person to attend and participate. Add the guest to the Sunday School class e-mail distribution list so he will start feeling like he is a part of the class. Even if there is an assigned person to secure information about the visitor such as his name, address, phone number, e-mail address, etc., you can be on guard to make sure the data is obtain from the visitor.

One thing that must be remembered is that some people are not interested in receiving attention. This probably applies more to people that are visiting a church worship service than a Sunday School class. If a person visits a Sunday School class, the small group setting lends its self to people getting to know each other. It is good to follow the lead of the guest and let them guide you in deciding how aggressive you are in reaching out to him. Do not let a shy or quite guest stop you from talking to them. You may have to work harder to get them to talk.

There may be times after you get to the Sunday School class that you just want to sit in the chair and escape from some of the hassles of life. When you are feeling like this, talking to a stranger and maybe any person may not be what you want to do. A way to over come this type of feeling is to decide that you are going to be a good actor and make people think you are on top of everything. Activating the attitude can change your perspective and snap you out of being down in the dumps. Talking to another person even if they are a stranger can become a pep me up tonic for you. It may not work all the time, but it will often work.

If possible, gather several class members at your house and talk about what can be done to make your Sunday School class more guest friendly. How your class will reach out to a guest may be different from what another class does. What you and your class members feel comfortable doing will enable your class members to be perceived as genuine.

●          Ask the guest his name and about his family.

●          Ask the guest what generated his visit.

●          Introduce the guest to other class members.

●          Thank the guest for attending the class.

●          Invite the guest to visit the class next Sunday.

●          Ask him if he has any questions about the class or church.

●          Invite him to sit with you during the worship service.

●          Ask him if he knows how to get to the sanctuary or locate where his children.

●          Be sure to give data about the guest and his family and contact data to the appropriate people.

●          Ask the guest to be your guest at church activities you will be attending during the following week.

●          Make plans to meet the guest next Sunday morning before the Sunday School class starts.

●          Inform the guest that on his next visit, two or three class members would like to take the guest and his family to a fast food restaurant for a meal after the worship service.

●          If a Sunday School class has developed a guest information packet, give it to each first time visitor. Not all Sunday School class visitors may attend the Sunday morning worship service. The content of the guest information packet should be coordinated with the

            content of the church visitor’s packet.

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Two or three class members will contact the guest by phone, card, or e-mail and thanking him for visiting the class.

Contact the guest and make arrangements for the class members to take him and his family out

            to eat lunch the next time he visits the class.

One or two class members will make plans for the guest and his family to visit one of their

            homes for a sandwich based meal after the second visit.

Place the guest’s name on Sunday School class’ e-mail distribution list.

Develop a RGreet Guest” plan the class members will follow to greet and conduct follow-up contacts after the guest’s first class visit.

Publish the “Greet Guest” plan and provide any needed training.

Things to consider when developing the “Greet Guest” plan and how to evaluate the class member’s greet guests.

●          What to do to treat the visitor as a guest?

●          Does treating the visitor as a guest extend only to the time he is in the Sunday School class room?

●          How is each class member relating to the visitor?

●          What will cause the visitor to make the decision to return next week or go somewhere else?

●          What is the planned message the class members are to convey to the visitor.

●          Are the members acting as an unit in relating to the visitor or as individuals doing what they feel like doing?

●          What is to be done to develop and present a unified message to the visitor?

●          What is to be done by the members in follow up activities after the guest’s first visit?

●          What is the value of follow-up activities?

●          Who decides if the class is friendly to visitors?

●          Do the class members work as a team/unit in reaching out to visitors or as individual class members?

●          What is the guest related goals of the class members?

●          What needs do the guest have that can be added to the prayer list?