Sunday School = Christian Formation

A friend and colleague of mine in the Arkansas Conference was recently featured in the United Methodist Reporter for the creative ways his church is building its Sunday school program.

Blake Bradford, pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Russellville, Arkansas, has seen his church's worship attendance grow from 70 to 124 since 2005. Since the church started getting serious about finding ways to nurture Christian formation through a dynamic Sunday school ministry, the Sunday school attendance has climbed from 55 to 80.

The percentage increases for both worship and Sunday school are impressive, by anyone's calculation. How have Blake and his congregation done it?

As the story explains, it has involved getting around the idea that there is a single, sacrosanct "Sunday school hour" on Sunday morning. To accomodate the difficulties in people's schedules, Wesley UMC's Sunday schools now meet at different times on Sunday and throughout the week. One even meets in a tire shop owned by one of the church members.

I think this kind of creative, dynamic approach to Christian formation shows evangelism at its best. It shows that Blake's church is doing some real "out of the box" thinking and discerning the movement of the Holy Spirit in its midst. Thanks be to God for their witness!