August 6, 2001
TOGETHER:
Build up Bible study to reach people who need Jesus
___My son, Mark, recently heard a Methodist pastor on the radio. "We must be intentional about reaching out to people who need Christ and the church," the pastor told his congregation.
___"We need to revive the idea of the Sunday School. Would you believe that the Baptistscount the people in Sunday School more carefully than they count the people in the worship service? Their Sunday School classes are like a small church in the big church. The class takes responsibility to take the gospel of Christ out to the community and then to include those who come in their fellowship."
CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
___God bless our Methodist brother! And God bless his church as they put into practice his admonition to be evangelists.
___Bernie Spooner is one of the truly great Sunday School leaders in Baptist life. He first attracted national attention as minister of education at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, where he led the church to launch a citywide bus ministry. For the past 20 years, he has directed Baptist General Convention of Texas Bible study and discipleship ministries. During that time, Sunday School enrollment in Texas Baptist churches increased 28 percent, and Sunday School average attendance grew about 24 percent.
___We gathered last week to honor Bernie at his retirement as leader of the BGCT Bible Study/Discipleship Center and to thank God that he will continue to work with us in developing Bible study materials for all ages. Demand for these resources continues to grow, with seven quarters of undated adult curriculum already available. To date, 108,963 units have been purchased by more than 900 churches--not counting the seven language versions available for downloading from the Internet at no cost and the lessons available monthly in the Baptist Standard.
___Bernie Spooner has been a friend to every minister of education and church leader who wanted to build a great church by building a great Sunday School. In my experience with ministers, the successful ones are those who have a calling and a cause, not a job. People in churches follow leaders whose hearts beat with a passion to reach people for Christ and to develop them into strong disciples of Christ.
___I don't know if my Methodist brother has ever heard of Bernie Spooner. But maybe, now that Bernie has retired, he could get him to visit his church and teach his people how to reach, teach and care for people through Sunday School. It really is the way you build churches that thrive and grow across the years.
___Our Baptist churches have the opportunity to use Bernie's services as well. But we also have the resources of the great team of Bible study/discipleship leaders he put into place. They are now led by Dennis Parrott, who developed an incredible Sunday School at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler that grew from 800 to 3,000 in attendance.
___Many growing, vibrant churches now use "cell ministries" to gather people, teach the Bible, develop relationships and provide accountability in the church family. Where they are successful, they have caught the original vision of Sunday School--gather people into small groups, teach them the Bible, help them to get to know and care for one another, encourage them to bring others and keep in touch with everyone.
___For the sake of those who still need Jesus--and in obedience to our Lord's calling--build up your Bible study ministries.
___We are loved.
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