5 Ways to Empower Sunday School Teachers and Classes

Here are 5 simple ways that you can empower your Sunday school teachers and students in your church.

Being Thankful

On occasions I like to single out those who serve in the church and sometimes do so during the sermon so that our church knows that we’ve been so blessed in this church to have 3 rock-solid adult Sunday school teachers, but also our Children’s Sunday school teachers have no equal either. I think it is proper and fitting to thank them personally and publically. I thank them after they’ve worked on and delivered another biblical lesson that we all needed. I have learned so much from them and I am not hesitant to tell them that. Being a pastor certainly doesn’t mean I have all the answers or know more than anyone else there. Iron sharpens iron and that’s good, because rust never sleeps. I think we take so many of our teachers and those who serve in the church for granted. We expect them to be there every Sunday. We expect air conditioning or heating when we get there and working plumbing and so on, when often some church member has fixed what was needed before worship services.

Recognizing Their Service

One of our church elders is an outstanding example. This man is there well before anyone else and he’s busy getting things ready for worship services, and usually, he’s the last one out the door. We often don’t give them a second thought at church that during the week our teachers have been diligently studying the Word to be prepared for their lesson for the purpose of building up and teaching the Body of Christ, the church. Be thankful. Thank them privately and in public. They deserve it and I believe it pleases them, but also pleases God. We are given an imperative command to “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Heb 13:7).

Acknowledge Their Labor

I think it is human to want to feel appreciated. Sunday school teachers need to be recognized for their laboring in the Word for the Body of Christ. For the most part, it is one of the most thankless jobs in the church that there is. Few of them ever receive any kind of special recognition, so if you are a Sunday school teacher, let me thank you publically right now. I thank God for you. If you are a student or a pastor, remember to thank them publically and give them the recognition that they deserve. Acknowledge their labor of love before others because their job is not easy, even at the early grade levels of Sunday school. It’s just as hard as or even harder than teaching adult Sunday school classes in some cases. Importantly, children’s Sunday school may be the greatest window of opportunity to share Christ because most believers were saved before adulthood. Send them a thank you card just to let them know you appreciate all that they do and that you were thinking of them. Teachers are under a greater responsibility than most in the church which is why James wrote that “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:10). Pray for your Sunday school teacher and thank them for all of their hours spent preparing the lessons. This will truly empower them.

Include Classes in Services

I remember seeing a Sunday school youth group give a Christmas skit just before the sermon, which was also a message about Jesus’ birth, and I thought, how appropriate. Not only did the Christmas skit fit into the pastor’s sermon, it made the kids in the Sunday school class so happy. To occasionally involve your children’s (or adult…why not?) Sunday school class in services gives them the public recognition for being in that class that they need, but also gives encouragement to their teachers that everyone is part of this church.

Put Them on Mission

I remember once when I was a young Sunday school teacher of a young children’s class (3rd/4th grade combined) we went to the local city park and picked up trash. That’s all they talked about the rest of the day (to their parents, grandparents, and such). It was a lesson on “tending the Garden” or stewardship of the earth. Other parents and their children at the park saw what was happening and joined in. That was a powerful witness of how the church cares about the community; to the unsaved parents at the part, but also to their children that God cares for His creation. It acted as a drawing card for those who are un-churched and un-reached by the gospel more than almost anything we’ve ever done as a church. God used children to draw people to the gospel! It was amazing how the parents responded and even though their children who were not in any church, joined in with the other children. Some of those students in that class of mine still remember that day, even though they are now parents themselves. We once held a Sunday school adult class in the park, and it was worth it too, but that’s for another time. That park excursion really had a powerful evangelistic effect on the local community, on the children of the class, and on the teacher too. They were obeying the great commission, without even knowing it (Matt 28:18-20). Both children and adults can invite people to their class or church services. That’s one simple way to be on mission for Christ.

Summary

We do need Sunday school teachers and we should remind them of that fact. Their labor for the Lord will not go unrewarded someday by Christ, but we must reward them today by publically thanking them for their service to the church and the children and adults; we must recognize them on special days or on days of no occasion; we must include them in church activities and in Sunday services. They must be thanked privately and publically before others, and prayed over, because they are essential to the church to be able to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18). That sentence was the last sentence written before the Apostle Peter was crucified (upside down, likely). His last words were emphasizing the imperative we’ve all been given, and that is to “grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Sunday schools can do that!

Conclusion

I pray you have put your trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If that has not happened yet, my friend, you are in real danger of hell fire. And I mean, in immediate danger. You’re one breath, one heartbeat…one accident away from eternity when it will be too late to repent. Today is the best day to believe (2 Cor 6:2) since tomorrow is no guarantee. If Jesus Christ came today, here is your fate (Matt 7:21-23). This is why I plead with you as you read this, repent today…and I mean right now. Put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you do not, you will face God’s judgment after death guaranteed (Heb 9:27) or at Jesus Christ’s appearance (Rev 20:12-15), which could happen at any moment.

Here is some related reading for you: Why Every Adult and Child Needs Sundsay School and VBS

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: Children, Children's Church, Sunday School, teachers