By Polly House, LifeWay Communications
RIDGECREST, N.C. – Davis Francis and Bruce Raley had high hopes for “Great Expectations.”
It turned out a bigger success than they even imagined.
“Great Expectations,” LifeWay’s online Sunday school training event broadcast during Sunday School Week at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center, had an online viewership of perhaps 12,000 people from around the world, according to Raley, LifeWay’s director of leadership and evangelism training and events and co-host of the event.
“We think it’s the largest group ever gathered for Sunday school training,” he said.
The training is now archived and available, along with speaker PowerPoints, at LifeWay.com/GreatExpectations. There is no charge for downloading or viewing.
Francis, LifeWay’s director of Sunday school, discipleship, church and network partnerships, served as co-host with Raley. Using an agricultural metaphor, he told viewers and live audience participants that to get a “Great Expectations” Sunday school class, seeds have to be planted. Healthy things, whether plants or classes, will grow.
Three characteristics of a “Great Expectations” Sunday school are: They expect new people and a great Bible study experience each week, expect people to say “yes” to the total ministry of the class, and expect to plant new classes.
Raley and Francis were joined by Sunday school practitioners Allan Taylor, minister of education, First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga.; Jeff Young, minister of spiritual development, Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas; and P.K. Spratt, minister of education, Jersey Baptist Church, Columbus, Ohio.
Taylor talked about the importance of continually starting new classes while recognizing that people often are opposed to the process of multiplying. Regardless, he said, it is in new classes where growth takes place and that is always in the church’s best interest.
“It’s always God’s will for the church to move forward,” he said.
Young discussed the importance of making sure the church is ready to welcome newcomers. “Make sure everything is ready every week,” he said. “The gospel may be offensive [as mentioned in 1 Cor. 1:18] but the parking lot and nursery don’t have to be!”
He said to ask: Is everything clean? Is the website up to date? Are brochures updated?
“First impressions are lasting impressions,” he said.
Saying that Sunday school must also be about evangelism and effective training, Spratt offered three “Yes principles” for disciples:
Disciples say yes when they embrace all of the Great Commission and leaders expect them to fulfill it.
Disciples say yes to serving when classes are organized, and members exhibit care for each other in authentic relationships.
Disciple leaders say yes when meetings and training have purpose and leaders are willing to invest in workers.
After the event, viewers responded with emails thanking LifeWay for the online training.
Connie Wright, director of education at Pump Springs Baptist Church in Harrogate, Tenn., said: “Our Sunday school had pre-‘Great Expectations’ departmental training and then the live webcast was an awesome day in the Lord! All speakers were motivational and spoke to the themes with biblical clarity while enriching our understanding of the topics. Pump Springs had a light, boxed dinner during the webcast so it was sort of a dinner, five guys and a training! One of our SS leadership team members suggested Pump Springs’ follow-up to be ‘“Great Expectations” calls for “Great Preparations.”’ We’ll be sitting down within the next week with the SS team to design the ‘roll out’ of this plan.”
LifeWay regional consultant Richard Edfeldt encouraged some of his constituents to watch the webcast.
James “Eke” Brown, minister of education at Northside Baptist Church in Columbus, Ga., after the event e-mailed Edfeldt: “Had you not alerted me to the webcast of ‘Great Expectations,’ I would have probably missed it. We showed it to our Sunday school leaders. We had nearly all of our adult leaders there and some of our youth, children and preschool leaders. Our folks loved it! They wanted to know when we would do it again. Thank you again for making me aware of this training opportunity.”
Three past LifeWay online training events are available as free downloads: “The Summit: A Convergence of Small Group Experts” with Rick Howerton; “Sunday School vs. Small Groups” with Rick Howerton and David Francis; and “Worship: Reverence vs. Relevance” with Ed Stetzer and Mike Harland.