State Sunday School Director’s Association

May 14-16, 2008

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mark Langley, President, opened the meeting in prayer and Bob Mayfield led the group in a time of worship.

Bob Mayfield, Oklahoma State Sunday School Director, shared the details of his Sunday School process, PowerUp.  This included the four principles:  Power of Prayer, Power of Community (enrollment/belonging), Power of Ten (starting new units) and the Power of One (leadership development).

Lunch provided by the State Sunday School Director’s Association.

 State to State Sharing

¨      John Adams  (West Virginia) – using host churches to help with multiplier training and work through the Association.  Including inspiration is key.

¨      Mark Miller (Tennessee) – Sunday school mentoring (fact sheets), Extreme Makeover – Sunday School edition, PowerUp your Sunday School, Associational training (one day per year)

¨      Myron Gruenich (Dakotas) – Regionalizing the work in the Dakotas.  Strategy:  ABC --- Authentic Biblical Community. 

¨      Mark Langley (Montana) – Lost your Way?? … Need a GPS – God’s Perfect Strategy

Issues

  1. Pastoral Apathy
    • Personal relationships are a key
    • Networking these pastors with successful pastors
    • Use these successful pastors as keynote speakers
    • Work to find what the root of the feeling that “Sunday School is dead.”
    • Find the pastor’s passion
    • Simplify Sunday School job descriptions

 

  1. Measurement Tools

§         Annual Church Profile does not demonstrate a process

§         Give churches something back for their efforts – something that is helpful:  comparison, ministry suggestions, strategies, etc

§         When collecting data (numbers), less is more

§         With 70% of our churches plateaued or declining, reporting equals discovering bad news.  Denial is easier if you do not report

§         Ethnic/cultural communities lack trust and often hesitant to report

§         Get pastors to start asking, “What should we be measuring?”

 

  1. Reaching and Keeping Young Adults

§         Build intentional relationship

§         Provide strong quality Bible teaching

§         Involve them in meeting discovered needs

§         Move them toward missional activities resulting in multiplying disciples

 

  1. How do we communicate more effectively?

§         Need to penetrate the “gatekeeper” – the Pastor

§         Need to be communicating a consistent message

§         Develop contract/agreements with other to share the communication

§         Use numerous strategies

§         Five top communication styles:  telephone, email, mail, websites that are current, personal visits

 

  1. Changing role of the Minister of Education – more questions than answers

§         Is culture changing

§         How can be bring Ministers of Education together

§         Stop the shift from Education to Administration

§         Need to be affirming the Minister of Education

§         We are losing the “generalist” role

 

Thursday, May 15, 2008

John Boone, Florida State Sunday School Director, shared the story of Benaiah found in 2 Samuel 23:20-23.  Some thoughts included:

  • Every lion chased does not result in a trophy on the wall
  • We are contaminated with fear files and we need “faith” files
  • We need courage for our children and their future

 

David Francis, our Lifeway representative, began the presentation of the update of Lifeway.  Discussions including:

 

  • Annual Church Profile transition
  • Converging Movements
  • Other names for Sunday School:  Bible fellowship, community group
  • Double Digit Sunday School – over half of churches are under 100 (60% of churches but only 27% of total attendance)
  • Churn:  80/20 rule – they need to continue to replace people – new units
  • Simple Church and Sunday School – Do church leaders understand where Sunday School fits
  • Small groups:  assimilation; open or closed group
  • Annual Training system has good feedback – Any age group books???
  • Discovering Stories
  • Modern Evangelism model:  conversation, conversion (salvation) and community (assimilation)  Sunday School model:  conversation (relationship), community (pre-assimilation), conversion (salvation, baptism, church membership)
  • FAITH update
  • 3:16
  • Kids Worship – it is catching on
  • Online Bible studies – need a new delivery system for adult
  • Known – narrowly graded goes away for youth and Life Focus remains
  • Urban Sunday School Curriculum – KNOWN outlines
  • David to oversee magazines and devotionals

 

Friday, May 16, 2008

Bob Mayfield, Oklahoma State Sunday School Director, shared four things we need to practice in our work.

  1. Be Bible based – Ezra 7:10 (purpose to study, study, practice and teach)
  2. Christ-centered – Philippians 2:5-11
  3. Carry our cross – 1 Corinthians 1:18 (there is power in the cross)
  4. We need to be people of Courage.  James 1:5-8; 12

 

State Sunday School Director’s Association Business meeting session

 

Officer Recommendations:

POSITION

Presently Serving

NOMINEE

 

President

 

Mark Langley (Montana)

 

Bob Mayfield (Oklahoma)

 

President-Elect

 

Bob Mayfield (Oklahoma)

 

Richard Nations (Iowa)

 

Eastern Vice President

 

Steve Sallis (New York)

Steve Sallis (New York) – 2 year term

Central Vice President

Clint Calvert (Minnesota/Wisconsin)

 

Keily Young (Mississippi) – 3 year term

 

Western Vice President

Terry Arnold (Nevada)

 

Terry Arnold (Nevada) – 1 year term

Secretary/Treasurer

 

Sandy Coelho (New England)

Sandy Coelho (New England)

 

Mark Miller, Tennessee, motioned to accept the recommendations.  Seconded by Marie Clark, Kansas-Nebraska.  Recommendation approved.

 

Steve Sallis shared opportunities for the 2009 May meeting.  The options included metro New York, Adironacks or Niagara Falls.  The consensus of the group was to continue look at New York City.  We will continue to look into New York and will communicate with email along the way.  Let’s see about communicating more plans ahead of time so that we can maximize time.  Steve also encouraged participants to make plans to stay over the weekend after the meeting and help with training.  More information about this will follow.

 

 

FYI  Dates and Location of UPCOMING May Meetings

 

YEAR

DATE

LOCATION

HOST/CONTACT

2009

May 13, 14, 15

New York

Steve Sallis

2010

May 12, 13, 14

Seattle, Washington

Jim Harvey

2011

May 11, 12, 13

Texas

Phil Miller

 

Meeting Evaluation suggestions:

¨      Issues group for all, but still have workgroups

¨      Conversation about training transition trend …what are others doing (future for equipping leaders) – customized training is the trend

¨      Professional development is a key

¨      Strategy and process – how to help pastors do this

¨      In 2009, bring someone to deal with conferencing/ consulting/ coaching/ collaborative learning – different training models and strategies – bring someone in who understands what we do – one suggestions would be to hear from each other about how we are going beyond the conference model.  Do we think strategically???  One suggestion:  Steve Macchia, Ted Knapp (Crescent Bay Association, LA) perhaps John Boone – finish doctorate in strategic thinking.  Perhaps pick a theme for next year:  Training! – intentional by asking Florida, California and Florida.  By January – have format of 2009 May meeting and recruit people to share.

 

Lifeway update – Just right amount of time

Questions:  should we invite NAMB to the table?  We may need look into this possibility.

We need to be careful who we would invite.  There needs to be some caution.  Remember this is Sunday school and if it gets

Treasurer Report

Sandy Coelho shared an update of the finances. 

Website

Sandy Coelho reported that the sundayschooldirector.com website is up on the web and Sandy needs any feedback and any content you want to add. 

 Meeting adjourned at 10:20 a.m.

 

                                                                        Respectfully Submitted,

 

 

                                                                        Sandra Coelho

                                                                        Secretary/Treasurer