Make People Want to be a Member of the Sunday School Class^©

Table Of Contents

A Sunday School Class Visitor (Do we have the space for seating several visitors?)

Value of Intentional Assimilating People into the Sunday School Class Fellowship (What a unique idea for a church, being nice to people on purpose.)

A Couple Is Two Unique Individuals ( Both wear shoes, but her shoes are larger than his. )

Name Tag Says Who I Am (With a name tag, a husband can’t forget his wife’s name like he did her birthday.)

Members Intentionally Investing Time to Assimilating New Members (Will the time be compounded like interest?)

The Assimilation of New Members into the Sunday School Class as a Church Ministry (Will this require a formal report at a church’s business meeting?)

Class Member’s Biographical Sheets ( Like a personal police report sheet.)

Class Member’s Photographs with Names (Kind of like the pictures at the post office.)

Communicating Using Phone Trees and E-mail Distribution Lists (Great way to save trees and become a paperless Sunday School class. )

Planning and Promoting Class Activities ( Telling people what to do and where to go.)

How Sunday School Class Member Can Help a Person Feel Welcome ( Make a person think he is important by giving he an exclusive free admission pass to the Sunday School class.)

Spend Time with People Outside the Sunday School Classroom ( This is not the same as a smoke break.)

Ways to Communicate with Visitors, New Members, Members, Etc. (Getting the message out.)

Appendix A (Terminology in this article.)

Go To Sunday School and Visitors Page

It is an honor for a Sunday School class to have a visitor. A better honor is achieved when a visitor decides to become a member of the Sunday School class. If the visitor does not feel welcome by the class members, it is doubtful the Sunday School class will gain a new member.

The visitor has taken the time and put forth the effort to attend the Sunday School class. It would be nice if the Sunday School class members would acknowledge the effort the visitor made so he could visit the Sunday School class. Treating the visitor as a “special guest” will be reflected in the ways the Sunday School class members relate to the visitor.

Over the years, I have visited a bunch of Sunday School classes. I have never gotten the feeling that a Sunday School class’s member had as a priority to make me want to become a member of the class. The feeling I often received was it was not important if I joined the class. Often a couple of people would tell me that they were glad that I attended the class and hoped I would come back. Of course one of the people would be the teacher. I have wondered what is wrong with class members having as a goal to make the visitor want to come back instead of hoping the visitor would come back.

How can a person be made to feel like he is an accepted member of a Sunday School class? A simple but effective approach toward a visitor is to be friendly and talk to the visitor. The attention given to the visitor will quickly help the visitor relax and start identifying with people in the class. “Being friendly” starts the first time the person enters the classroom and continues during each visit until he dies or leaves the class membership.

For each Sunday School class, several class members need to assume the responsibility of reaching out to visitors and new members. A better approach is for each class member to assume the responsibility. Can you imagine the atmosphere in a classroom that is full of “friendly” members? The class growth will be so quick that the church may have to assign a staff person to keep locating larger rooms to keep up with the growth of the Sunday School class. Maybe the class could become a new church.

For a Sunday School class to grow, it has to find ways to attract visitors and turn them into members. If this is to occur, another question has to be answered. How are class’ members going to be trained so they can effectively greet and meet visitors and turn them into members? As a class member, what do you think needs to be done to help you better relate to visitors?

There are people that will visit a class that is outgoing and will put forth the effort to become a part of the class’ fellowship. There are other people that are reserved and may not feel comfortable meeting new people. The “be friendly and talk to people” concept works with all types of people. People will talk when they feel comfortable. It is amazing how shy, quite, reserve, etc. people can become chatter boxes after they become comfortable.

Some class members may feel uncomfortable reaching out to people they do not know. If you are one of these people, ask God to provide you with the words to say. Do not worry about saying the right things, because you have turned that problem over to God. Smile, say Hi, and start talking.

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Intentional effort has to be made by class members if a Sunday School class is to be more than just a place people gather on Sunday morning to study the Bible. A small group such as a Sunday School class can be the organization unit through which a person is assimilated into a church. Class members can speed up the assimilation of a visitor or new member into the class by intentionally doing things to establish relationships. Assimilation of a visitor or new member will not occur until the new member learns people’s names and develops a good relationship with several of the class members.

Some churches’ have a perspective that the Sunday School class has as its purpose the study of the Bible. Other churches strive to combine the Sunday School class as a unit through which the Bible is studied and fellowship is cultivated between the class members. The focus of your church will determine how much time can be allocated each Sunday School class time to Bible study. If fellowship and Bible study is the focus of the Sunday School class, it may be a good idea to change the length of a Sunday School class to be 1.25 hours. The typical one hour time period may work if the Sunday School class starts “on time.”

A new class member can become relatively comfortable with the Sunday School class’s membership just by attending the Sunday School class over a period of several months. He may not learn much about the other class members or even their names, but he will have a sensation of “belonging.” The feeling that you “belong” is a feeling that is valued by many people. Class members that help create this feeling in a new member will be doing a good service to a visitor and new member.

The sensation of belonging does not mean he will socialize with the class member outside the classroom. For a new class member to truly become comfortable being in the presence of class members, he needs to be around class members in settings other than the Sunday School class. He can participate in other church activities, be with class members in a non church-based settings, visit class members at their homes, etc. Being around class members will enable him to start learning data about each class member and developing relationships that extends beyond being able to say “Hi” in the church hallways.

It can be difficult to learn people’s names when the member’s first and last names are seldom used during class room discussions. Name tags help people learn the name of the Sunday School class members,

Intentional effort to assimilate new members into the Sunday School class requires planning and the investment of time by church members to reach out to the members. A family of four or five members can be a challenge since the different ages of the family will mean that there are a variety of organizations that can provide activities and places for service for the individual family members.

To assimilate people into the life of the Sunday School class involves getting people to weekly participate in the activities and organizations of the class and church. Having a planned assimilation process for new members and visitors helps close the church’s “backdoor” that is blamed of allowing people to slip out of the church and its fellowship. It is possible the “backdoor” is used by people because they do not have a reason for staying.

Some members will not be interested in being very active in the church. This may be a temporary attitude so do not be overly concerned about people that are not interested in being active. Information shared about the church and the opportunities to be involved in the church life while working to assimilate people into the Sunday School class may be used by the members at a later date.

What is the correct personal relationship that a Sunday School class’ members’ are supposed to experience because they attend the Sunday School class? The relationships that may develop can vary from a casual acquaintance relationship to a close personal friendship.

Some class members may only see the class members at the Sunday School class or at church activities. Other class members may be very close friends and see or talk with each other several times a week. The length of time the class members have been together will have an influence on the closeness of their relationships.

Some class members can view the Sunday School class is a Bible study while other class members consider the Sunday School class and some of the class members as an important part of their social life. A Sunday School class that has class members that have developed close relationships can cause a person that wants a close relationship to feel excluded and left out if he is not able to develop the desired close relationships. A new class member that is not looking to develop a close relationship with a class member will not be affected by the relationships that long term class members have developed.

What type of a relationship can a new Sunday School class member realistically expect from other class members? The following are basic traits that would be good for a class member to apply to each class member.

1. Respond to each class member with the Golden Rule guiding your thoughts and actions.

2. Pray for each class member at least a couple of times a week even if you know nothing specific about him and his family for which to pray.

3. When you know something specific about the person for whom you are praying, be sure to follow up your prayer and ask him about the status of the situation.

4. Learn information about the person.

5. Learn by sight and name his family’ members.

6. Not everyone in the class’ membership will become close friends, but each class member can be concern about the status of each class members’ life and family.

7. Try to spend time outside the church with the class member and his family at least twice a year.

What determines when you care about another person to the point that you are sad when they are sad and you are happy when they are happy? Is it the attitude you have toward them? Is it a combination of the feelings you have for each other?

How does the Golden Rule influence what you think about another person? Does the person have to like you or at least act like he likes you for you to place value on him as a person? Is there a minimum level of caring and concern a Christian is to demonstrate to other people even if they have not earned it?

When a married couple visits a Sunday School class, there is a tendency to consider the couple as a unit and not as individuals. The couple is a unit and will at times function as a unit.

There is a need to approach the couple as individuals. Each one has different interests, skills, talents, and gifts through which they can use to serve God.

Sunday School class members wearing name tags will speed up the time required for new members to learn the names of the class’ members. Some class members may act like the name tags are childish. Name tags can be valuable tools in assimilating people into the class.

Permanent name tags will be made by each class member. For a visitor, he can use an adhesive backed stick-on name tag on which to write his name. Make sure the name is written with large enough letters to be seen at ten feet. Some people will write their names in tiny letters. This defeats the purpose of name tag.

It is a good idea to shy away from using plastic name tags that use a pin to affix the name tag to clothes. Some people will not want to make a hole in the material by inserting a pin into their blouse, shirt, jacket, coat, etc. Plastic name tags that use a clip instead of a pin will cost more but is nicer to clothes.

Each person will design their name tag with their first and last name large enough to be seen from ten feet. Several colors of Sharpie markers will enable class members to be creative in making colorful name tags.

A name tag board can be made by using a wood board covered by a heavy material. The name tags can be stored by affixing the name tags to the heavy material. If clip name tag are used, be sure to allow some extra material so a small quantity of the material can be pinched so the clip will have something on which to grab. The name tag board will remain in the classroom.

When class members arrive, they will remove their name tag from the Name Tag Board and affix it to their clothes. When the class members leave the class, each class member will place their name tag in a container when they leave. A class member will at the close of the class affix the name tags to the name tag board.

The desire to assimilate a person into the fellowship of the class carries responsibilities. It includes getting to know the person, helping the person gets to know you and other class members, and putting forth the effort to involve the person in the church’s activities and services. Poor assimilation of a person into the class’ fellowship can cause a person to withdraw from the class. The speed of assimilating a person into the class will be influenced by how quickly a new person learns class members’ names and data about each class member. The assimilation process should start while the person is a visitor and not wait until the visitor decides to join the class.

The more a Sunday School class member is involved in weekly and monthly church activities, the less time he has to invest in the Sunday School class activities. When several class members are working together to assimilate a new member, the time required from each member is reduced, but the combined efforts will impress the new member.

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The assimilation of new Sunday School members is important to the Sunday School class and the church. The value needs to be acknowledged as a major church ministry and supported by a team that has as its goal the assimilation of people into the church’s life. The team would support and encourage the assimilation efforts of each Sunday School class.

It is difficult to learn information about some Sunday School class members during a Sunday School class time. Except for the prayer request, often information about a class member is often not mentioned. A key to helping class members and visitors develop growing relationship hinges on learning each other’s names and things about each other.

Preparing biographical sheets for each class member and family members that are distributed to class members is a quick way for new members to learn about the other members. The biographical sheets will help speed up the assimilation of new members into the Sunday School class’ fellowship.

Caution needs to be exercised as to the data that is shared about each member. Care needs to be made to inform people that are given the data that the data is for learning about the class members and the data is to not be used in any way that is not related to the relationships developed through the Sunday School class.

Based on data provided by each family member by filling out a questionnaire, appropriate church leaders can be notified of the interests and talents of the new members. The data will enable the ministry leaders to contact the new members and give them information about their ministries.

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Putting names with faces can be a challenge for a guest and new class members. A simple approach to this problem is to create a Class Member Mug Shot Display on a wall. The photographs with names will help people learn class members’ names.

The object is to secure a photograph of each class member with spouse and place the photograph and names on the Mug Shot Display. Children may or may not be included in the photographs, but the inclusion of children will help people put family members together.

It is acceptable to include a photograph of a visitor before he becomes a member. The inclusion of his picture may help his assimilation into the class membership.

How people react to being put on a phone tree often arises after they see the data that is passed on through a phone call and if they have to call another person.

People that have children and are frequently away from the phone will not be a good person to use to contact other people. People complain that phone trees do not work often is the result of kids and youth handling voice mail, answering machines, and people being away from their phones.

If a phone tree is developed, be sure to check the phone tree after several messages are transmitted through the tree so you can find out what needs to be modified to improve the process.

Personally, I have been a member of phone trees that I was to contact at least one or more people after I was contacted. A problem developed when I was not able to contact my people when I first called them. The time to make the follow up phone calls sometimes would get into conflicts with other things I have to do. It is easy to contact people if they have voice mail or an answering machine.

If you want people to attend an activity, you need to notify people early enough so they can get it on their calendar. It is sad that long range planning for many Sunday School leaders revolves around one or two weeks. Do not wait till the last minute to distribute the facts people need to know the who, what, where, why, and when about the activity.

If the members of a family are very active in organizations, the family members may have to select between more than one activity when they are deciding if they will attend an activity.

●          Introduce yourself. Focus the conversation on the person.

●          Invite the person to sit with you in the worship service or church activity.

●          Make sure the visitor knows how to get to the church sanctuary and where to pick up their children.

●          Take the initiative to spend time with the class members outside the classroom.

●          Prepare biographical fact sheets about the Sunday School class members to help introduce the person to the class members.

●          Ask the person if they have any questions about the Sunday School class or the church.

●          Develop a plan for members to contact people using the phone, e-mail, letters, etc.

●          Invite the person and his family to eat with you at a fast food restaurant. You pay for the family’s meal the first time. This will be a surprise to the person and make him curious to know more about you. A couple of families in the Sunday School class can go together and pay for the visitors’ meal.

●          Invite guests and new class members to eat a meal with you at your home. The meal is to allow you to get to know them and them to get to know you. You can include another Sunday School class member family to participate in the meal. Limit the people attending the meal to three family units. Use your imagination to determine how you can get to spend enjoyable and relaxing time with the people. The focus is to be on the fellowship and not on the meal. A simple meal revolving around sandwiches and chips will be good.

●          Involve the guests and new members in Sunday School class-sponsored projects so they can get to know the class members outside the classroom. A project sponsored by several Sunday School classes can involve the people with more church members. People are inclined to say “yes” when they are asked to participate in a specific function when compared to them on their own deciding to participate. “Ask and you will receive” is a good motto to use.

Distributing Handouts and Making Announcements During the Sunday School Class

The Sunday School class is a good place to put printed material in the hands of class members. Keep in mind that if material is handed out during a Sunday School class meeting, effort needs to be made to put the material in the hands of class members that are not present.

U. S. Mail

Printed newsletter and F-Y-I data can be mailed. The postage cost, material, and printing cost can add up over a period of time. Be sure to mail the material in a timely manner so the material will arrive in a timely manner.

Depending on the number of the Sunday School class members that do not have an e-mail address, the U. S. Postal Service mail may be the best method to send data to people.

Phone Calls

Personal phone calls can be effective, but be sure you keep the phone calls short and to the point. You do not know what you are interrupting when your phone call is answered. If the person you are talking to called seems to be willing to talk and carry the conversation, you can talk longer.

When you make phone calls, you will have to deal with ways people screen their phone calls such as caller identification, answering machines, voice mail, etc. Children and youth usage of the family phone to contact their friends provide another obstacle to calling people. Children and youth have a tendency to lose messages given to them or left on an answering machine. If you have not been contacted within an acceptable time period, call the person again.

It is a good idea to make a list of what you want to say so you will not forget to say or ask something. Have a piece of paper available so you can write down anything that is shared with you.

The purpose of the phone call is for the person being called. Do not use the phone call to satisfy your social needs. Over extending a phone call can create a negative impression in the mind of the called. Do not put the called person in the position to start looking for a way to end the conversation.

E-mail Messages

So many people have an e-mail address that using e-mail is a very fast and efficient method of distributing information. Obtain the e-mail address of the visitor, the first time he visits the class. If possible, get the e-mail address of each member of a couple that visits. Content of an e-mail sent to a work e-mail address may not be passed on to the other person. The content of an e-mail message sent to a home address has a better chance of being passed on to the spouse.

There are different opinions as to how much text to put in an e-mail message. It will be best if you can keep the content of an e-mail message focused on one or two topics, and it takes no more than three minutes to read. If you want the reader to respond to the message, be sure to put the statement indicating the desired action at the beginning or the end of the message. Do not put the statement in the body of the message. Be concise and to the point.

A newsletter e-mail will by nature contain a variety of information. To help focus the reader’s attention, use sub-titles in the body of the message to separate the content.

When names are used in an e-mail message, use the first and last name. Just using the first name will create problems for people that do not know each person’s name. Do not publish information about an individual until you know it is acceptable to the individual. Some people are private about things that are happening to them and will not necessarily want the data made public.

Once an e-mail address is obtained, do not use the e-mail address to send chain letters, share the address with non church leaders, place the address on daily devotional mailing web sites, etc. The e-mail address is not yours to use to generate third party e-mails to the addressee.

When sending an e-mail message, keep in mind that not all addressees will read the message the day it is sent or even the next day. How often people check for e-mail messages can affect things if there is timely need for people to read the e-mail or respond in a timely manner.

Web Site Page

A web site page can be another way to easily distribute material to Sunday School class members. If the church has a web site, work with the webmaster to create a web site page for the Sunday School class. With proper planning and design, a web site page can be an effective medium for distributing information.

ASSIMILATE: A process that enables visitors and new members to get to know members and become weekly participants in the activities of the Sunday School class and church. This means the visitors and new members are to be informed of the available activities, encouraged to attend, made to feel welcome and wanted, asked by established church members to participate with them in specific activities, etc.

Assimilate in this article does not mean the visitor or a new member will become a part of the inter-social circle of the church. Becoming a part of the inter-social circle depends on the personal relationships established over a period of time between the new member and the established members. A new member can become an elected leader through recognition by members of his skills and abilities and not be a part of the inter-social circle.

GUEST: A person visiting the Sunday School class that is treated by the Sunday School class’ members in a manner that demonstrates to the person that he is special.

INTENTIONAL: The on purpose performance of a task in order to achieve a specific result.

MEMBER: A person that is a member by having completed an established process/procedure that enables the person to achieve the status of being a member. Each member needs to be treated as a guest even though he has achieved the status of being a member.

NEW MEMBER: In this document, “new member” will be used to identify a person that is visiting a Sunday School class or a person that is still a new member of the class. Visitors and new members should be treated the same way by members. No attempt will be made to identify when a person moves from the status of being a new class member to being a class member.

VISITOR: A person that is visiting and is not a member of the organization. The participation in the activity may be the first time for the person, or he may have participated several times. The reasons for the person to be visiting will vary from person to person. The goal of a church or Sunday School class is to relate to the visitor in such a way that the visitor will again participate and become a member.

 12-29-2004