The Sunday School and Its Community
If we are to turn the world upside down for Christ, then we must first turn the church inside out. In other words, to fulfill its mission, the local church and the Sunday School must look beyond its walls and into its community. The responsibility for world outreach begins here, with an obligation to win the lost to Christ and to minister to each member of the community.
Meeting this obligation requires prayer, planning, and determined effort on the part of Sunday School leaders and workers. They should develop and maintain proper relationships to the community, defining needs in terms of religious, educational, social, economic, and numerical characteristics and implementing measures to help meet those needs.
What Is Your Community Like? How Do You Know?
The relationship of the Sunday School to its community is somewhat like that of a doctor to a patient. Before treatment can begin, the doctor must diagnose the ailment. To perform its task most effectively, the Sunday School must identify the needs of its surrounding area. Reaching and serving a community come through knowing it. The Sunday School can minister in many ways, but all efforts will be directly affected by the specific characteristics of the area.
For example, Sunday School potential will be partially determined and strategy guided by the size and demographics of the community and by present and projected growth trends. This information, along with residential patterns and other factors, will be important in determining the need for outreach ministries and the feasibility of neighborhood canvasses and other programs. The educational standard, unique or common feelings toward various issues, degree of affluence, particular social problems, and the spiritual temperament of the citizenry will also be important to the Sunday School.
Information for analysis of this nature can be gathered from many sources. Long-time residents, local officials, school and civic leaders, business and professional people, and others will be able to contribute much to a community study. These groups and individuals often have interests in common with the Sunday School, though for different purposes. Ministerial alliances, local news media, and religious censuses can also be helpful.
How Do You Minister?
Alert leaders will be aware of and promote Sunday School participation in community and school activities in keeping with the Christian testimony. Parades, fairs, festivals, and other community or area wide observances provide many opportunities for the Sunday School or individual classes to inject a gospel witness into public affairs.
Other possible projects include both spiritual and practical ministries. Extension classes for senior citizens and shut-ins are valuable efforts that meet the scriptural definition of "pure religion": "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress" (James 1:27, NIV).
This verse calls for various measures. These people often need transportation to shop and transact business. Having this provided on a regular basis would relieve them of much distress. Others among them need occasional assistance with house and yard work, which gives the Sunday School opportunity to demonstrate the gospel. Sunday School members can make friendly visits or even daily telephone calls that would mean much to people who sometimes feel life has passed them by.
Depending on local characteristics, other ministries provide both practical helps and spiritual guidance. In some areas and among some groups, literacy classes would offer an invaluable service.
Another ministry many Sunday Schools are finding effective is the day care program and Christian school, because they relate the church school facilities to the community daily.
Still other ministries include outreach classes in restaurants and public areas; sidewalk Sunday Schools in places ranging from backyards to city parks; and vacation Bible schools in housing projects, apartment complexes, trailer courts, military bases, inner cities, and unchurched areas.
Some schools are stretching their influence through the summer months with extended VBS, featuring one or two sessions each week for 4 to 8 weeks. This can help combat summer boredom and be very effective in areas where there are few activities for young people. Other VBS possibilities include family emphases with sessions for youth and adults and programs during Easter vacation, spring break, and Christmas break.
Among other means of ministering to the community are classes to meet specialized religious needs. For example, in many areas special sessions on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit would be well attended. Classes on other subjects such as "family life" could present the biblical perspective and address current issues such as abortion and divorce. In addition to such sessions, some churches are sponsoring family conferences, parent-teen seminars, family-at-home nights, and family retreats.
Community related functions of the Sunday School should include emphasis on good citizenship. This can be done through special assemblies and the curriculum. Elective classes on Christian citizenship can be offered, or regular class studies can be adapted to include this thrust. A community emphasis day with selected local officials invited to take part in special programs may also be beneficial.
The Sunday School should contribute to high standards of morality in the community by taking Bible stands on moral issues. Firmness should be tempered with genuine Christian love. Speaking the truth in love should be a continuing emphasis through all the Sunday School’s ministries.
The greatest Sunday Schools look for trouble and, when they find it in their communities, confront it with the gospel in word and deed.
