Sunday School or Small Groups

This discussion comes up quite a bit these days.  The deciding factor for Sunday School vs. Small Groups might just be dependent on what your church facilities are telling you.  Does your church already have a large amount of space where Sunday morning age group teaching can take place?  If so, the Sunday School vs Small Group discussion might be easily decided for you. It would be a shame to not use the space that has already been built.  If, on the other hand, your church would have to build another 15,000 square feet of education space at a cost of $150 per square foot, you may really need to think through the stewardship of that.  It is usually only one hour during the week.  The building may get plenty of use at other times during the week, and if so, maybe it's worth it to your congregation.  But if it will just be for the purpose of Sunday School on Sunday mornings at 9:30, you may really need to weigh your other options.

Small groups in homes are very different from Sunday School in several ways. First, they tend to be in a neighborhood where you might possibly have several un-churched or de-churched people who could be invited to attend.  They may be more likely to come to a home in their neighborhood and build new friendships than they are to show up in a Sunday School class at your church where there are a long list of unknowns for them. Small groups tend to be very relational while most Sunday School classes are built upon the teaching content and personality of the teacher. Small groups usually meet in spaces that do not belong to the church and, therefore, do not come with expenses related to construction, heating and cooling, and maintenance. Sunday School usually meets on Sunday morning before or after worship services. Small groups can be held any day of the week.

Churches that have space for Sunday School may still want to consider small groups due to what they offer as a means of outreach.  People like and even need options in their lives. By offering both Sunday School and Small Groups you can give people the option to study the Bible on Sunday morning at a facility designed for that purpose, or they can meet in a casual home atmosphere at a time that is most convenient for them.  Small group sessions usually meet a little longer than Sunday School classes because more time is given to building friendships and discussing the lesson.  Open sharing is encouraged and welcomed in a small group, but Sunday School classes may be too constrained by the clock to allow everyone to share thoughts openly. Therefore, small groups usually offer people the best opportunity to know one another more effectively.  

My church where I serve as Pastor of Discipleship and Church Administration has both Sunday School (called Bible Fellowship Groups) and Small Groups (called Connection Groups).  We're finding that it is increasing our overall Bible study attendance by about 75-100 people every week right now. Some people attend only Sunday School while others attend only Small Groups.  Some will attend both.  We have a third type of group called Life Classes which meet on Sundays and Wednesdays at the church and operate like short-term special topic studies. Many of the people attending the Life Classes have already attended either a Sunday School class, a Small Group, or both.  I review the list of attendance turned in by all of our groups through Church Community Builder each week and find those individuals who only attended one of the groups. That give us a unique bible study attendance total for the week.  I do this because I'm interested in knowing the number of people we are impacting with our discipleship opportunities.  I also get a total attendance of all groups and this number does count people each time they attended. That tells me the total number of people in all of our groups and is, of course, a considerably higher number. I just use numbers to tell me how we are doing at outreach.  I talk with people in the groups to discover if we are really impacting lives. I also keep track of how many of our groups are spinning off new groups in the year.  It's always a goal to start new groups and we desire for leaders to prepare people for doing so.  

If you are not sure if Sunday School or Small Groups are right for you and you have a nice education facility, I would say "Why not both?".  You may find that it is the most excitement you've had in your discipleship ministry in a long time.  If criticism comes your way for trying something new just remind people that the goal is better and better discipleship and you want to use every avenue available to get there.  In case you're interested in how to start small groups our model has been Real Life Ministries with Pastor, Jim Putman in Post Falls, Idaho.  It's a simple model that is very relational and very reproducible.  I would encourage you to look into it.  

You don't have to choose between Sunday School and Small Groups.  You can do both.  

Why Relationships Matter

Before leaving earth and going to prepare a place for us Jesus commissioned His followers to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). He had given us tremendous examples of how to do that.  He spent time with the 72 later in His ministry.  He spent a great deal of personal time with the 12 throughout His ministry teaching them the things that they needed to focus on as they would take His gospel message to the world.  He seemed to be especially close to 3 of them within that group. And then there was “the disciple whom Jesus loved”.  Jesus seemed to be a little closer to John than even Peter and James.  The point is, Jesus was not someone who just knew these men and showed up in their lives occasionally.  He had a close relationship with them and He taught them the importance of relationship when we disciple other people. 

Paul wrote his letters and we saw from his life how important making disciples was to him. He had a close relationship with Barnabas, Timothy, John Mark, Apollos, Priscilla and Aquilla, and many others.  When we really look closely at how making disciples was done in scripture, we see the importance of relationships. We see that discipleship requires a personal investment in another person or persons. 

God, the Father, is relational. The Father was, and continues to be, in relationship with the Son and the Holy Spirit. When He created man and woman He did so with the idea of having a relationship with each of them. He also intended for them to have a special relationship with one another and to help one another.  God gave man and woman to each other to be the relationship above all other human relationships.  He intends for us to be relational people.  All of God’s commandments can be summed up by relationships – love God and love people.

When it comes to discipleship, if we are going to do it like Jesus, we are going to need to invest ourselves in a relationship with the one we are discipling.  Jesus never intended for his Church to attempt real discipleship from a pulpit once a week.  Don’t get me wrong; there is definitely a place for expositional teaching and preaching. But real discipleship is done in the context of individual relationships.  This is why small groups are so important. 

Small groups usually consist of between 2-10 people.  They are led by a spiritually mature leader who has the goal of helping the disciples under his care grow to the point that they can go on to disciple others.  As the close relationships are developed, the leader begins to get a sense of where the disciple is in his level of spiritual growth.  He listens to the kinds of questions being asked, the attitudes being exhibited, the comments being made, and watches the involvement in service for the Lord. The leader teaches the disciples the things needed to mature so that he/she can go on to do the same for another young believer. The leader gauges when the disciple is ready, much like a parent watches for signs that their child has become a young adult and begins to give them more freedom and responsibility. 

This kind of discipleship takes time.  We must be willing to invest in another individual to be obedient to the Great Commission.  We can’t just show up to teach a class once a week and believe we are doing discipleship.  We never see that model in scripture. Jesus taught the masses but He did so to call people to Himself.  We should call people to Jesus but we need to go further and develop close personal relationships with people so that we can monitor and help them to grow into Christ-likeness.

Please don’t think that I’m against expositional teaching.  It has its place.  Its place is to impart information, share knowledge, explain the scriptures, and challenge thinking. We can even challenge people to make a new commitment through expositional teaching.  But how will you know if the commitment made has been followed through on.  You must have a close relationship with the disciple to know that. 

Who knows you best?  Your family does.  They live with you, play with you, eat with you, see you at your best and at your worst.  In order to really do discipleship the way Jesus intended, we need to know the people we are discipling and they need to know us almost as well as our own family.  You don’t get that from expositional teaching in a classroom setting. 

I hope you understand that I’m not concerned with doing away with exposition.  I believe it’s important and we have some very fine expository teachers in our churches. I am concerned about us fulfilling the Great Commission and carrying on effective discipleship for future generations.  Maybe your thinking has been challenged, and if you’re not currently in a discipleship relationship with at least 2-10 people, I hope you understand that you can and should make this a regular part of your life. If you need guidance in how to get started just comment and let me know you need some help and I'll be glad to offer some direction.  The future of the Church depends on it.