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Flake’s Formula for the 21^st Century

In 1922, Arthur Flake wrote Building a Standard Sunday School and introduced his five-step strategy for growing a Sunday School. More than 80 years later, his ideas stand as key components of a healthy Sunday School.

#1 Find the People

The ministry of the church is peoplePine Dalereaching the unchurched and nurturing believers. It is to evangelize and disciple people so more people can go out to evangelize so more can be discipled, and the church will continue to grow.

Through the years, terminology related to finding people has varied.Flake called it "finding your constituency." Others have called it, "Open Enrollment" or "Enrollment Plus." Whatever the terminology, the truth of this principle remains: the Sunday School that finds its people and works to reach them will grow. How to Enroll New People.

Flake’s formula suggests three sources for finding the people:

The present Sunday School enrollment
The church membership/ adherents
A religious census of the community

In today’s high-tech society, we might call Flake’s first principle as "targeting the market," which includes defining territory. Your potential constituency is no longer just the few blocks surrounding the church property. Our mobile society can commute across the city or across the county. The Sunday School and Its Community.

A community canvass today usually includes promoting the local Sunday School/church and its ministries to the entire community. Survey data should include identifying church affiliation of residents and the frequency of their church attendance. Some churches have used this principle effectively by obtaining a list of newcomers to the community and inviting them to Sunday School and church. Participating in the community’s Welcome Wagon or using the city utilities’ customer list can provide an up-to-date listing of newcomers.

#2 Provide Space

At Sunday School conferences the facilities workshops always attract large crowds. Workshop titles as "Space Invasion" or "Space, the Final Frontier" reflect the relevance of this topic to Sunday School leaders and teachers.

Flake addressed this issue as an essential ingredient of effective Sunday School outreach: "A large Sunday School cannot be built and maintained in small, cramped quarters; and sane, sensible arrangements should be made for the expansion of the Sunday School. The building fixes the pattern for the Sunday School, sometimes for years to come." As a rule of thumb, a church or Sunday School will retain an average attendance equal to 80 percent maximum capacity of its facilities.

You cannot grow beyond your facilities, but there are innovative ways to grow before you build. When the cost of building additional facilities is prohibitive, Sunday Schools have addressed this vital issue with innovative approaches.

Scheduling multiple services and Sunday Schools has permitted some congregations to maintain their growing status while planning additional facilities as the membership and financial base of the church expand.
Branch Sunday Schools have become an option for churches, especially in multi-ethnic communities.
Extension classes in facilities away from the church property have provided the church with the opportunity to reach specific segments of the community. For example, some singles classes meet in hotel conference rooms or restaurants and then commute to church for worship. Churches even shuttle classes to and from the off-campus class facilities. One church has the use of a nearby school building on Sunday in exchange for the school’s using the church parking lot during the week for its teacher/staff parking.
Long-range planning for adding space is necessary for most churches. This allows for the purchasing of additional property or the location of sufficient acreage before beginning the building program of the church.
The use of a temporary building is now standard procedure in many churches. This provides low-cost facilities that often have good resale potential.
Movable partitions easily convert large multipurpose rooms to classrooms.

#3 Enlarge the Organization

"The organization should be enlarged" is the third principle in Flake’s five-step approach to Sunday School growth.

David Womack paraphrased this principle in his book, The Pyramid Principle, by comparing the church to a pyramid. He described a "dynamic relationship between the base of church efficiency and the mass of congregational size. A church cannot grow beyond its own ability to care for a determined number of people. Therefore, for a church to grow, it must first expand its base of operation."

A trend in growing Sunday Schools is to increase the number of adult Sunday School classes. The challenge to reach adults who are nonattenders or who attend only worship services has prompted these Sunday Schools to offer elective classes that deal with current issues or needs. The greatest potential for "enlarging the organization" is in the addition of adult classes but trying to carry out this principle in a Sunday School raises several implications:

A systematic approach must be taken when adding new classes. Classes must be created to attract nonattenders, not merely to divide the existing class into smaller groups. Surveys of needs and demographic studies can reveal potential attendees who will be reached through the new classes.
The elective classes must provide a balanced diet in topics for study. Just as the physical body needs a balanced diet, the spiritual man is nurtured through studies that contain the essential elements. Among these are doctrine, Bible survey, discipleship, and practical living courses. Ensure that the course texts are doctrinally sound. Confusion may result from studying the writing of evangelicals who do not embrace the Pentecostal distinctives.
New classes will mean recruiting new workers or overworking present staff to the point of burnout. Flake wrote, "There can be no large permanent growth unless there is an organization strong enough to reach, hold, and teach the people who should be in the Sunday School." This principle can help the Sunday School break through attendance plateaus. Advancing the Plateaued Sunday School

#4 Enlist and Train Workers

The challenge of outreach, growth, or harvest is biblical. It is the Great Commission. To fulfill this mandate, however, requires workers.

Jesus said, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:37, 38). Sunday School leaders often describe recruiting new workers as their "most urgent most difficult" need. Flake summarized the recruitment process in three clearly defined steps:

Find the teachers
Enlist them
Train them

In light of our noncommittal society, Flake’s principle seems oversimplified, but the steps are still credible. Let us consider each:

Find the teachers. Recruiting workers is not doing a hard sell or laying a guilt trip on unsuspecting churchgoers. It is spiritual work that must be handled prayerfully (Matthew 9:38).

Promoting the need for additional workers must begin in teaching from the pulpit and in the Sunday School classroom. True discipleship, after all, challenges the believer toward personal spiritual development that includes participation in ministry. A philosophy of "saved to serve" must permeate the church program. Recruitment cannot be synonymous with arm-twisting. It must appeal to one’s personal commitment to God and to the local church ministry.

Present newcomers and new converts with opportunities for involvement in church ministry. Highlight the activities of teachers, greeters, or other Sunday School workers in the church newsletter, from the pulpit, and on bulletin boards. Focus on the variety of opportunities for involvement.
Enlist the workers. Enlisting workers should be an ongoing process, not a desperate, last-minute search to fill a vacancy. The present Sunday School staff can help by providing names of prospective workers. The use of a gifts/experience survey, with an application form, tells a prospective worker that Sunday School is important. An interview with the prospect helps administrators to make the proper assignment.
Train the workers. An effective training program is vital to the success of a local Sunday School ministry. The certification program, consisting of three core curriculum courses and two Sunday School specialization courses, provides an ideal training program. The annual staff training book provide the required elements to maintain national certification.

Developing lay leadership gives the local church an expanding base of workers to achieve growth. See "Recruiting/Retention" on the Administration page.

#5 Visit

Visitation does make the difference. "A program of visitation should be maintained" is the fifth principle in Flake’s strategy for Sunday School growth. His commitment to this principle is evident in his proposal of developing a specific, regular visitation day for Sunday School workers. He wrote: "A regular visitation day prayerfully and intelligently observed is almost a sure method of getting in touch with newcomers and will result in the return of absent pupils to the Sunday School."

Visitation is related to the teaching ministry. It contributes to teaching in many ways:

Visitation helps the teacher understand the student. It reveals the student’s home environment, religious background, and personal needs.
Visitation helps the student understand the teacher. It encourages the student to develop confidence in the teacher as a caring friend. It provides opportunities for shared experiences outside the classroom setting.
Visitation develops the church -home relationship. The church and the home are God-ordained institutions to influence children’s lives with the power of the Word. As a teacher visits in his students’ homes, he or she contributes to the strengthening of this relationship.
Visitation helps lesson planning. Visitation lets the teacher know the students interests/needs. This gives the teacher a unique perspective that can guide him in the selection of teaching methodology that will more effectively minister to the students.
Visitation is effective follow-up. It expresses personal interest in the regular students. It conveys concern for the absentee students and urges them to come back. Following up visitors/newcomers can make them feel welcome to the class.

Back in 1922 Arthur Flake wrote, "The one unfailing method of reaching new students for the Sunday School and bringing back the absentees is the personal visit." Today, surveys reveal that newcomers join churches where they feel welcome. Visitation still brings a personal touch to the ministry of Sunday School. It conveys a message of caring. Visitation is the church’s response to the biblical mandate of going into the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in.

Sunday School

Flake’s Formula for the 21st Century