The Sunday school is the church organized to fulfill the purpose of the church. Here at Lancaster Baptist Church, we state our purpose in three phrases: loving God, growing together, serving others.
About a week ago, I recorded a video for the Sunday school teachers of our church, encouraging them to serve those in their classes by faithful visitation.
Hebrews 10:24–25 instructs, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Sunday school visitation is a tremendous way to provoke—or stimulate—class members to love, good works, and faithful church attendance.
Consider the value of just one visit. A Sunday school visit can accomplish one or more of the following:
- Enroll a recent visitor into the class
- Encourage a student
- Encourage a student’s parents or family
- Help you better understand your student (When it comes to really understanding a student’s special needs or prayer requests, there is no substitute for making home visits.)
- Allow you to deliver a gift to your student
- Seek any unsaved family members and witness to them
Of course, class teachers are not the only ones who can make Sunday school visits. Care group leaders or other class leaders as well as other members in general may wish to visit one another to encourage faithful growth.
I don’t know of any Sunday school teacher with a heart for his or her class who doesn’t want to make visits. But the key in making it happen is four simple steps of planning:
- Determine a time. What gets scheduled gets done.
- Determine a partner. This may be your class assistant, or it may be another member of the class (allowing for a time of mentoring).
- Plan your calls. Prayerfully read through your roster, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you on which visits to make each week. Then, plan out those visits in order of their proximity to one another.
- Set goals. I ask our teachers to visit every class visitor within one week, absentees who have missed three weeks, as well as visiting each enrolled student at least once a year.
Visitation requires discipline and love, but it truly makes the difference in building and encouraging your class.
Remember, you can impress people from a distance, but you can only impact them with a personal touch.
