Do You Have a School of Theology?
I spent the back half of last week at Rethink, a conference aimed at exploring what areas of church life we need to be overhauling to reach a new generation for Christ. I was interested to learn that Dan Kimball’s church plant, Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Calif., has Sunday School for its members.
That’s right—the archaic, out-of-date concept called Sunday School.
OK, I am being a bit sarcastic, but it was interesting to hear Kimball, who has written several thought-provoking books such as They Like Jesus, But Not the Church, talk about Sunday School.
All of this was prompted when he was asked a question about how his church goes about discipling its new believers in Christ.
“Well, we have community groups where we focus on building relationships and learning from one another,” Kimball said. “And then we basically have Sunday School because we know people really need to study the Bible in a very deep way on a regular basis. We just don’t call it Sunday School because no one would come. So, we call it our “School of Theology” and we have people standing in line to come because it sounds cool to study theology and understand better what you believe.”
I have heard the same thing from Jon Tyson, the dynamic pastor of Origins Church in New York City, who also holds a regular Bible study immediately before and after his Sunday morning worship service.
No matter what you do to build up a body of believers, group Bible study that is open to all comers is the cornerstone, no matter what you label it. That’s why a resource like LifeMatters, is such an important tool in your ministry.
About the Author
Jim Johnston has worked in a variety of roles, ranging from marketing to publishing to Internet development. Prior to coming to LifeWay, he worked as a reporter and editor for the Montgomery Advertiser and also as an adult-in-missions editor at the Brotherhood Commission in Memphis. Jim and his wife Tammy have been married for 23 years and have two sons, Spenser, 17, and Ethan, 10.
There have been 3 replies so far
Thanks for the thoughts. We are struggling with what to do at my church currently in regards to “Sunday School”. We are a conservative church with a lot of traditional views, and some have a difficult time with not using the term “Sunday School”. You are so right that we need to study the bible in a deep way on a regular basis. We are looking for ideas to help get people into our bible study time, and if using a new name for it keeps someone from shutting down immediately, then I think it is a great idea.
1 | romans812
Friday, January 25, 2008, at 3:14pm
The elements of Sunday are much more important than the official title. Here are a few questions to ask yourself? Is the study ongoing so that anyone could walk and follow what’s going on? (as opposed to coming into a six-week study on week five and feeling like you had missed something) Is it an “open” group? Do you have a method of collecting information so you can follow-up with a guest to your study? Do people feel welcome when they attend your study?
One other thing I did not mention. When you mention Sunday School, most people think “lecture-driven” or a person behind a lectern basically delivering a second sermon?
If you’re going to be successful in Sunday School or any open-group Bible study, you’re going to have make it interactive. You’re going to need to allow people to ask questions about the study and explore the Bible on something more than a surface level. You’re going to have to be able to answer the tough questions, for example:
Is there only way to God? Are Allah and God the same entity? Don’t all roads lead to heaven? Are Mormons Christians?
2 | Jim Johnston
Monday, January 28, 2008, at 1:52pm
Thanks for the insights.
3 | romans812
Monday, January 28, 2008, at 9:28pm
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