Thom
drew three circles that all intersected. State Sunday School Directors May Meeting
May 14-16, 2003
Louisville, Kentucky
Wednesday – May 14
8:30 – 11:30 am Professional Development – Thom Rainer
Clyde opened the meeting and made announcements.
Darryl welcomed the group to Kentucky.
Bob Hylton introduced Dr. Thom Rainer.
“Lessons Learned from the Unchurched.”
Dr. Rainer released a new book in 2003 entitled "The Unchurched Next Door". This is a sequel to "Surprising Insights from the Unchurched". In 2004 there will be a new book - "Good to Great Churches".
The first set of data was "Introducing the Formerly Unchurched". 101 unchurched people were followed for five years. They were picked because they said there was a church in their area that they felt met all of their perceived needs. After five years less than five percent were in a church. If a church builds a strategy based on the perceived needs of the unchurched you will have a less than successful end result. They changed the research group to a group that had joined a church within one year and came out of the unchurched pool. A group of 353 men and women in all 50 states and Canada were surveyed. They were asked what really happened to them. The control group was 350 that had come into the church via "transfer growth". That gives a database of over 700. An average of 10 hours per person was spent with the formerly unchurched. This study did have a diversified representation across race, local, denomination, and size. There were 37 states represented. These denominations have assisted in all three studies: assemblies of God; Evangelical free Church; Independent Baptist; Nazarene; Presbyterian Church of American; Southern Baptist; United Methodist; Wesleyan; Non-denominational group (largest is Independent Christian). The unchurched answered that the largest denomination is the “Community Denomination” (30%).
Look at four generations: Builders <1946 – 65% saved; Boomers 1946-1964 – 35% saved; Busters 1965-1976 – 15% saved; Bridgers 1977-1994 – 4% saved. Less than half of Bridgers that are active in youth programs or any church program can articulate any salvation experience in Christ.
Churches that are doing a good job at reaching the unchurched are moving to a simpler structure rather than a more complex structure. Younger churches grow faster than older churches but they grow through transfer growth rather than conversation growth. 12% of atheists and agnostics attended church once last year. 85% of Americans call themselves Christians. 57% that came into the church said relationships were important. The most important reason they came was because of a crisis. The number one factor that brought them back was doctrine (91%). They said the church knew what they believe and were clear about what they believed.
How important was the church name - 84% not important. 11% it was important - positive; 5% it was important - negative. The second most important factor is the pastor. The personality of the pastor being humorous, warm, loving. Leadership style is forceful but servant like. 75% said a layperson from that church shared Christ with them one on one. 68% got involved in Sunday School immediately verses 58% from transfer growth. It has to be a quality SS. They have to be invited. They have to be brought.
Research project two is called "The Unchurched Next Door". The formerly unchurched said they didn't want to stop the research. They took the research team back into the world of the unchurched. They said the reason previous studies did not wok was because you didn't ask the correct questions. On a day-by-day living scale, the unchurched are not that much different from the churched. This represents about 95% of the unchurched. This will be some of the highlights from this research. Unchurched people are at different distances from the cross. Five classifications of the unchurched: U1 - highly receptive to the gospel: those who are ready to receive the gospel. U2 – receptive: it will take a modest amount of contact for them to receive; U3 - neutral. They had no negative or positive response. U4 – resistant: when you talked with them they indicated they were not interested but were not ugly about it. U5 – antagonistic: angry towards the gospel and to the one presenting the gospel. This is the group most people perceive the unchurched to be. U5 is 5% of the unchurched population. Unchurched is defined as a person who attends church four or less times per year. There are 160 million unchurched. U1 is 11%. Most U1 people accepted Christ during the interviews. The interviewer was going to truck stops and staying all night to interview unchurched. U2 is 27% of the unchurched population. Over 60 million are U1 or U2. How many church members does it take to reach one person: SBC is 41 to 1. In all churches it is 85 to 1. When you take out baptism from other denominations and rebaptisms, the SBC ration is 86 to 1. 9 out of 10 unchurched said they would come to church if asked, IF someone who is a church member walks in with them. That means we must bring them or meet them in the parking lot. How many unchurched people have been invited to church in their entire life. 2 out of 10. The unchurched will as soon go to a Sunday School as to a Worship. It is not that Sunday School has quit working, it is that we have quit working Sunday School.
The third research project is called "Good to Great Churches". There are 400,000 churches in America. In George Barna's book "Turn Around Churches" he made the conclusion that turn around churches were because of new leadership. Rainer wanted to find out what happened to churches that turned around with existing pastors. After starting with 6,000 churches they have found only 17 that have met all the criteria. An Acts 1 leader is one that is called. An Acts 6 leader is one that has reached the highest level of leadership. There are levels between Acts 1 and Acts 6.
Thom
drew three circles that all intersected.
The intersection is where vision is located. The three circles are dynamic and changing. The first circle is the passion of the leader. The next circle is the talent and gift mix of the church members. The third circle is community needs. The church is embracing the community. Every church that has gone from good to great could not have accomplished that unless all three areas were active.
Thom is beginning to see an intersection of the three research projects.
Session 1 – Clyde Kakiuchi, Facilitator
1:00 – 1:30 Aloha welcome, Introductions
Clyde introduced Keily Young & Ted Johnson, Phil Stone, and Belinda Jolley as new comers to the May meeting.
Devotion & Prayer was given by Bob Hylton. The subject was "He Knows My Name". He used Mark 1:9-11 as the basic scripture. God is not interested in our doing but in our being.
Schedule Overview - Clyde
1:30 – 2:30 Workgroups – Bob Mayfield
Workgroup 1 - The future:
Workgroup 2 - Curriculum
Workgroup 3 - Denomination and Convention relationships
Workgoup 4 - Sunday School "Strategy" Issues
Workgroup 5 - Professional
2:30 – 3:00 Break
3:30 – 4:30 LifeWay Issues and Updates – Alan Raughton
Alan reviewed The Kingdom-Focused church model and Process and the individual Needs Map. Questions for churches seeking to be more effective in their Kingdom (Boxes need to be lined up with the three boxes on the MAP. The column labeled question 2 will line up with Biblical Principles, etc. Roger.crew@lifeway.com for answers for the church assessment material. The rest material in the packet is self-explanatory. This product has been done once in Florida. SSSDA members are asked to use it and see if it needs to be tweaked. Contact Roger Crew for an electronic version. Provide Roger with any feedback.
Alan handed out the material catalogues. If an office needs more catalogues, refer to the bin number on the back. The CD is being sent to all churches. It is an electronic version of the catalogues. If more CD's are needed, place the order through the regional reps.
Question: what about the broadly graded preschool material? It has been discontinued because the churches were not ordering it.
What is G-force children's material? It is designed as a children's worship material. G-force is in response to a request from churches to have SS material as creative and fun as VBS material. G-force is modeled after material developed by Fellowship Church in San Antonio.
Student material is still being discussed as to design.
Adults will have four curriculum lines. Life Connections is the Serendipity material that is updated. It is material for non-traditional SS classes and cell group churches. Serendipity training information comes from Rick Howerton. On lifeway extra will have sermons that reference SS lesson.
Masterwork is an open group curriculum. It was developed in response to churches that were requesting deeper, deeper Bible study.
Essentials for Excellence books can be purchased at $5.95 and you will get the entire book. The CD can be purchased for $2.95 but you will only receive the book copy and not the other material that is in the hard copy book.
Evening Darryl Wilson – confirm activity
7:00 a.m. Breakfast for new SSSDA members with current officers
Session 2 - Dayton King, Facilitator
8:30 – 8:45 a.m. Housekeeping Announcements
Devotion and Prayer was led by Jim Harvey. His topic was “Choices in life.” In the Old Testament Joseph was a good example. A passage of scripture that would relate is Psalm 98. In the New Testament John was a good example. A passage of scripture that would relate is Luke 5 - partnership.
8:45 – 10:00 Workgroups (continued from Wednesday) – Bob Mayfield
10:00 – 10:15 Break
10:15 – 10:45 Workgroup Presentations – Bob Mayfield
Future Issues: Kiely Young - Focus on single staff churches. Establish a connection with seminaries. Learn to communicate with postmodern people. Promote SS is a process and not a program. Sonny Tucker gave the outline of a strategy being used in Arkansas.
Curriculum - Sandy - Dealt with the lack of communication from LifeWay to state conventions prior to changes being made. The children/preschool choice for church plants is a good example. Information should have been in the hands of state leaders earlier. Smaller churches are using non-SBC curriculum because it is more user friendly.
Denomination - Sam - relationships need improvement. People at the highest levels are not hearing program needs. Also needs are not being heard by church planters. SSSDA needs to address the hurt that has taken place in the past and get beyond.
SS Strategy - Ted Johnson - Partnering with church planters. Networking is very important. Initiate cross-functional communications. Need to lead our churches to a Kingdom focus strategy.
Professional - Steve Hopkins - Consultant training was discussed in depth. Learning communities within SSSDA were also discussed. The need to have a path of development created for new state directors. Etc. was placed on the table. Create an environment to go outside the box. Develop a new vision statement. Dayton will appoint workgroups for the recommendations
10:45 – 11:30 Business Meeting –
Recognitions – New and Retiring members: Robert Stewart – retiring & Bob Hylton reorganization.
Nominating Report and Election – Sandra Coelho
President - Dayton King
President Elect - Sandy Coelho
Eastern Vice President - Steve Hopkins
Central Vice President - Daniel Edmonds
Western Vice president - Jimmy Stewart
Secretary/treasurer – Randy Tompkins
Field Service – Lynn Nikkel (Chairman), June Holland, Belinda Jolley
Issues – Keith Wilkinson (Chairman), Steve Sallis, Jim Gifford
Technology – Randy Tompkins (Chairman), Jim Harvey
Ted Johnson moved to accept the Nominating Committee recommendation. Kiely Young seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Treasurer’s Report – Randy Tompkins: It appears that we will have about $11,000 in the bank after all expenses for the 2003 May Meeting are paid and assuming everyone turns in money for the meals. Randy also reported that Alan Raughton has asked for an increased amount in the 2003-2004 LifeWay budget for director travel to May Meeting. In the past LifeWay has provided $5,000 to cover the expenses of flying state directors from smaller state conventions to May Meeting. The travel arrangements were to be made through World Travel. If the total amount that was budgeted were not used for a specific year the balance would be given to SSSDA. If the cost of the travel exceeded $5,000 SSSDA was to pay the difference. LifeWay has never given any excess money from this line item to SSSDA. However, LifeWay has never asked to be reimbursed for any overage on travel expense. It seems the system is working. Alan has asked for $16,000 for 2004. Randy reported that between an increased amount from LifeWay and the SSSDA bank account all small state convention directors should have their travel to Hawaii paid in 2004. Directors will have to provide travel expense for their spouse .
Randy recommended that the SSSDA incorporate as a non-profit organization. Currently the only person liable for financial or legal problems is the secretary/treasurer. Incorporating will also provide a smoother path for paying for things like the meals at May Meeting. The recommendation to incorporate was made by Bob Mayfield and seconded by Bob Hylton. Motion passed.
Technology Report – Randy Tompkins:
Randy reported that the web site will under go some changes in the near future. A member’s only section will be added. Due payments and other items that should not be open to the entire world will be placed in the members only area. A user name and password will be required to enter the member’s only section.
Field Service Report – Rob Lee
Several field service requests were placed on the web site and picked up by SSSDA members. Tim Holcomb will be the new chairman.
Miscellaneous Business
Keith Wilkinson presented the Associational SS Work material that has been developed out of a workgroup from last year's meeting. Printed copies are available from Keith and a PDF file will be placed on the web site. Jim Gifford has a power point that will be on the web.
Clyde presented the new SSD orientation packet. Kiely Young moved and John Adam seconded that the orientation packet be used to welcome new members into the association. Motion passed.
Clyde also presented a president’s kit. Ted moved and Marie seconded that the incoming president utilize the kit. Motion passed.
Clyde presented some material concerning next year's meeting location. May 12 - 14. Meeting will be on Oahu, Hawaii.
Bob Mayfield detailed the contents of the Team West CD that was distributed.
John Miller asked if there are any materials available on Potential Leader Training. Several sources were suggested.
An announcement was made that Geno Robinson and Scott Williamson (both in the California Convention) had their jobs terminated.
The Friday session was dismissed to allow those who wanted to attend Darryl’s graduation the time to do so.
Meeting was adjourned with prayer.
Afternoon was open for free time activities.
6:30 – 8:30 pm Dinner on the Louisville Star