“Pastor, what does our church think about ________________?”
For the life of me, I cannot remember the actual point of the question. It may have been a particular ministry, or maybe a question of doctrine. We had been talking about all of those and more during an eight-week membership class I offer before the Sunday morning church service.
The reason I can’t recall the point of the question is because I got distracted by two words that are music to a pastor’s ears: our church. It is a bright spot in a pastor’s week when a newcomer shifts from using language like “your church,” “this church,” or even the local vernacular “y’all’s church,” and instead, says, “our church.”
Granted, Psalm 24:1 is correct. “The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” The Lord owns it all. And Paul wrote it even more to the point in his beautiful hymn recorded in Colossians 1:18. “And he [Christ] is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
Truly, it is the Lord’s Church. Nevertheless, He has called us to minister within His local congregations, and it is a beautiful thing when each of us takes positive ownership of that responsibility. When someone calls it “our church,” I don’t hear an ounce of control in that possessive pronoun, but, rather, cooperation.
Recently, during a marathon staff meeting (Monday morning, no less), I sat down with our church clerk to try to get my head around two important aspects of church health: first-time guests and membership. Specifically, I wanted to know if visitors were making the transition to “our church.”
Frankly, I do not think any church leader could be satisfied if large numbers of people visited but never connected. Studies show only one in nine first-time guests to the average church will, in fact, eventually become a member. That statistic has not changed much over the decades, and that can be disheartening.
However, one positive point of connection kept resurfacing throughout that Monday meeting, and it verified something I have witnessed consistently in my own local church ministry. Church visitors who quickly find their place in a Sunday School class stayed. As a matter of fact, I can say unequivocally Sunday School remains the program or ministry most responsible for leading guests toward an “our church” mentality than any other.
Thankfully, I am the beneficiary of a church with an incredibly strong Sunday School ministry. On any given Sunday over the last decade, four of five people in the pews attended a small group Bible study an hour before. (Lest that come across like a self-important boast, the percentages were actually higher before I became pastor.) I am truly eating fruit from trees others planted, and their efforts were not in vain. I certainly see the immense value a strong Sunday School ministry brings
to a church.
Call it whatever you want: small group, Bible study, life group, etc. More important than the name is the role these regular small group Bible studies play in the life of a local church. These groups help guests feel part of something tangible. They take students deeper into their relationships with Jesus through studying His Word together. They join the entire congregation in real-life ministry rather than delegating ministry to a paid staff member. For those reasons, we have adopted a slogan (not original to us) that perfectly encapsulates what Sunday School helps accomplish in our local church. Sunday School allows us to better reach, teach, and minister to people within our congregation…together.
Church size does not matter. A pastor simply cannot accomplish all three of those endeavors on his own. Reaching, teaching, and ministering to people is essentially the Great Commission, and that command was rendered to all Jesus’ disciples. The work of the ministry was never intended to be done by a single individual but, instead, by the whole.
In fact, taking into account Jethro’s advice to Moses in Exodus 18 and Paul’s direction for pastors to equip the saints in Ephesians 4, trying to do it all by yourself is unhealthy. “The thing that thou doest is not good,” Jethro told Moses (Exodus 18:17), and I am sure the same could be said of many pastors who never enable capable leaders to reach, teach, and minister. Involving everyone in a Sunday School program for all ages assists the pastor by spreading ministry responsibility throughout the congregation.
Shelves of books have been written and revised over the last century regarding how to reach people with the gospel through our local churches. That is because it is so important. With Lifeway Research reporting a first rise in church attendance since the pandemic, we now grapple with assimilating first-time guests, grafting them into the life of the church. They visited your church for a reason, and I am convinced the majority are seeking truth found in God’s Word. What better way to introduce them to that truth than through a Bible study where they can ask questions.
We make it our goal to put a Sunday School teacher in contact within a week with every guest who enters our doors and fills out a visitor’s card. As the pastor, I make first contact and ask permission to pass along their details to one of our Bible study leaders. Often, the visitor is thrilled to be welcomed by someone beyond the pastor. Take advantage of that and make it normal for Sunday School teachers (or an outreach leader within the class) to make the second contact.
Once the introduction has been made, and the guest knows he or she has a place in the Bible study, begin praying John 14:26, that the Holy Spirit will teach them all things through God’s Word because teaching the Bible ought to be the central purpose of any small group.
With a myriad of solid Bible resources at our fingertips, the modern church has no reason to lament like the prophet Amos about a famine of hearing the Word in the land (Amos 8:11). Now, more than ever before, free and inexpensive resources make it possible for every single Christian to dive deeply into God’s Word. As church leaders, we should celebrate that from the pulpit by referencing what our classes are studying, by handing out helpful books on similar topics in the Sunday evening service, and by regularly mentioning opportunities for Bible study throughout the week.
People are starving for answers to life’s questions, and more than one person has found Christ through the taught Word within the community of a Sunday School class. Community is the exact right word, too, because while it is easy for a guest to slip in and out of the sanctuary, it is nearly impossible to go unnoticed in a small group. Within that group, not only will the Bible be taught as the ultimate authority for life, but also true fellowship — the sharing of spiritual resources — will be experienced as each member ministers to one another (1 Peter 4:10).
As members of the church begin to experience the value of reaching and teaching people for Christ through their individual Sunday School classes, a healthy spirit of ownership begins to grow within the congregation. Meal trains, hospital visits, prayer needs, community events, and even financial help are offered within the context of small groups. People once on the fringes and in the shadows are welcomed into the Body of Christ as valuable and needed members in ministry.
This church, that church, your church…OUR church. An “our church” mentality grows best when every member becomes actively involved in reaching, teaching, and ministering to one another, spreading the responsibility across the congregation and collectively bearing one another’s burdens, which Paul indicated fulfills the very law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).
About the Writer: Corey Minter, graduate of Gateway Christian College, pastors New Hope FWB Church in Joelton, Tennessee.
He and his wife Rachel have three beautiful children: Claire, Naomi, and Theo.
