I'm very thankful for all of our Sunday School teachers. They are all gifted people and they sacrifice their time to disciple our children. However, I'm concerned about the long-term health of our Sunday School program. We are often short of teachers and our overall program is not unified. I think it's time to conduct an annual training and visioning session for Sunday School teachers. Does anyone have a program or outline that I could borrow?

How do we train Sunday School teachers for the long-term health of our Sunday School programs?
Posted On
February 9, 2013Updated On
September 6, 2018Let's Discuss…

Hi Leon, I think annual training and visioning sessions for Sunday school leaders is a great idea! Faith Alive used to have an excellent resource called Sunday School That Really Works. Check your bookshelves to see if you have a copy. If so, section 1 is all about developing a vision for ministry. I'll attached three sections of it--developing a vision, an assessment tool, and a visioning excercise under the all resources section on this network. You might find these helpful as you meet with your team.
We also offer many free workshops that you can use or draw from to develop enrichment times for your leaders. You'll find them here. But your question made me think about mentoring. I always find that the best way to grow a leadership team is to bring new potential teachers on as assistant. Give them a year to serve alongside an experienced teacher and get comfortable in the role before trying it on thier own. Team teaching is much more fun than solo teaching, so it's a win win situation. You'll develop new leaders and your current leaders will feel supported. Eventually new leaders will begin to share the responsibility so no one feels burnt out.
I hope lots of other people post here to offer idea. But please, give me a call if you'd like to brainstorm ways to do training in your church. Helping leaders develop a plan to support thier Sunday school team is part of my job at Faith Alive. You can reach me at 800-333-8300, ext. 2789 or 616-224-0789 or [email protected].
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Hi Leon, I'm glad I could be helpful. It sounds like you have you have a solid plan in mind with a timeline that will set you up nicely for next fall!
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That's wonderful, Leon! It's easy to just move right into summer, but so valuable to pause first and see how things went, thank God, and begin thinking of changes for next season. Praise God for a great season of ministry!
Blessings,
Jolanda
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I am curious if there are any churches that keep sunday school going all year round?
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