Summer 1994

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Can you start a Sunday school class for adults who are not church attenders? If so, can it survive? Here's what happened when Steve Heaster, pastor of Immanuel Bible Church in Three Springs, Pennsylvania, tried such a radical effort.

I asked members for names of young married couples they knew who were not attending Sunday school or church anywhere. This led to a prospect list of twenty couples.

I then selected material I thought would be of interest, a Navigators study entitled Husbands and Wives. I drafted a letter to each couple, simple and non-threatening, inviting them to become members of the new Sunday school class starting in about eight weeks. I told them that all who came would be new, and I shared with them the curriculum we would be using. I informed them of the other services of the church and what we had to offer their children. I included my phone number and told them I would like to stop by sometime for a visit.

During the next eight weeks I visited each couple's home. I took along a copy of the study we would be using and left it with them. I told them it was theirs whether they decided to come or not. In addition, I informed them that I would be the teacher. I assured them I would never call on anyone for prayer unless I had checked with him or her first. They would never be put on the spot to answer a question or read Scripture. And they were free to speak as much or as little as they desired.

I shared the names of others we had invited and described how some of them had responded. Many folks asked if it was all right to come in blue jeans; I assured them this was fine. I even went so far as to tell them how they could get into their Sunday school classroom without having ...

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