Effective Sunday School
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47. Effective Sunday School
Video 1

Video Introducing Evangelism

This first training video introduces the teaching method and encourages evangelism in the Church School. The set of twenty-four training videos for churches and individual Christians begins here to teach Church school basics. These videos will appeal to all denominations and contain sound Biblical teaching based upon God's Word and our faith in Christ. This video is 1 minute and 39 seconds long. You can view a complete overview of all of the Tellout Online training videos on YouTube. Video 2 of this series is on building an effective Sunday school.

Sunday School Basics
Video 2

This video introduces Sunday school teaching to the church taken from the "Kingdom Kids" training course. These materials will rejuvenate your ministry and encourage your teachers in their relationships with the children. This course is broken into six units purposely so that you will be able to use them after a morning service or the Church school for a series of six weeks. You can also utilize them in a full-day study for your teachers. Apart from providing a video that will give a short introductory segment, there is much information on the pages on Tellout in the "Evangelism Handbook" section.

Bible Based Lesson

This video is the second of twenty-four videos designed to promote a more dynamic Sunday School. A growing Church School can have a remarkable impact on a church to become a vehicle for evangelism in many positive ways. It promotes the Sunday School teachers' spiritual life and maturity as they prepare a Bible-based lesson each week to teach to the children. Both the preparation and presentations are positive aspects. The course is called "Kingdom Kids." This video, called "Effective Sunday School," is 3 minutes and 2 seconds long. See video 3 of this series on effective Sunday school below.✞

Sunday School Overview
Video 3

The first of the sections is an introduction. We look together at the foundations of effective Sunday school ministry and at the founder of the traditional Sunday school Robert Raikes, the man who brought Sunday school ministry into being. In that first session, we will examine some of the teaching methods that Jesus used to learn from and apply in our ministry with the children. The second section is one that deals with basic principles beginning with a questionnaire below. I hope that together you will work through some of those fundamental questions about why we teach Sunday school. The third section looks at teacher and child relationships and how each affects the other. We can begin to see how we can build solid relationships with our children and influence them in the best and most positive way.

Lesson Analysis

The fourth section looks at the lesson. We will analyze the lesson materials, and at some of the steps we need to go through to ensure they are interested and encouraged and learn. The fifth section has to do with the organization of the effective Sunday school. We hope you will look at your Sunday school's existing structures and alter or amend them to utilize more parent-teachers. We aim to bolster, strengthen, and support your Sunday school system. The final section examines your curriculum to analyze the material you are using and hopefully improve it. This Sunday school for children overview video by Tellout introduces the various parts of this series of twenty-four instructional videos for teachers and clergy. This video is 3 minutes and 26 seconds long. You can find Video 4 of this series on effective Sunday school in Video 4 below.✞

Sunday School Movement
Video 4

This video gives us some background about where our present Sunday school system came from and some of the historical events that brought that into being. When we look back, we forget that it was born at a very different age than we have today. The Church School or Sunday School or Sabbath School Movement in England was founded and developed by Robert Raikes (1736-1811), the Gloucester Journal Editor. A friend of Mr. Raikes, William King, also held a class about the same time in Dursley Tabernacle Church in Gloucestershire and may have discussed the idea with Robert Raikes who publicized it in his Journal. Sunday schools aimed to provide education for working children, including reading, writing, lettering, and learning by repeating the alphabet, various Bible verses, hymns, and poems. Raikes used multiple passages from William Shakespeare and other morality books for readings. This event was the precursor of religious education on Sundays by many denominations.

Sunday School Growth
Video 5

The Church School method and system that we use today originate from very different times from the 1780s. Though society and culture have changed today, the children's needs and basic Sunday School methods are essentially the same. First, let us look at the basic teaching methods that Jesus used. Jesus himself was an innovator in how he taught the people who came to listen to him. There are at least seven different ways that Jesus used to teach spiritual truth. Jesus applied much of his teaching in parables.✞

Church School Method
Video 6

Luke's Gospel contains the largest total number of twenty-four parables, eighteen of which are unique. Matthew's Gospel includes twenty-three parables, of which eleven are unique, and Mark's Gospel contains eight parables, of which two are unique. Jesus took everyday stories and gave them a spiritual message. For example, he looked out, and he saw the sower sowing his seed in the field. He applied that sight to explain how to plant the Christian message in people's hearts. We can use the same kind of good news in our teaching in Sunday school. Another good example explains persistence in prayer and is found in Luke 18.1-5, "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: 'In a certain town, a judge neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' For some time, he refused. But finally, he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!'" Jesus here was teaching us not to give up in pleading our case to him.

Sunday School Miracles
Video 7

This teaching video on miracles shows how Bible miracles or real-life ones can teach the children in Sunday school about Jesus Christ. Jesus used miracles to bring people to faith in him. God is still working in his church. We need to assure the children that God still works in this generation to draw people to himself. Jesus also taught by repetition as the Rabbis did in Old Testament times. We should not be afraid to do the same today. Teach the Lord's Prayer by repetition. Do the same with the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. By learning them off by heart, the children will then apply them in their own lives. The Word of God, the Bible, gives us not just the stories of Jesus but the teachings of Saint Paul and the other great men and women in the Bible. These show how God does work and minister in people's lives.

Jesus Teaching Ways

The second part of this session looks at the ways and teaching methods Jesus used in his ministry. This video is 3 minutes and 17 seconds long.

"Effective Sunday School"
by Ron Meacock © 1982-2021

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