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Sunday School in HD – A Review
Posted by Guest Author in IMPACT Features
Sunday School in HD: Sharpening the Focus on What Makes Your Church Healthy. Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2009. 193 pp.
There are always a lot of “buzz” words to describe the latest fad among Christians. There’s been WWJD, purpose driven everything, EE, and on the list could go. One of the biggest discussions and buzz words of late has been about “church health” or “church growth.” Any Christian bookstore is guaranteed to have no less than ten books on church growth/health. This has come about because of the noticeable lack of growth in membership of churches across the United States. There seems to be study after study released that shows that churches are either not growing or are in decline. With all the information pointing out the fact that churches are losing their effectiveness, a public consensus seems to agree on one obvious reason—church health.
Just as a healthy baby will grow, healthy churches should naturally experience growth. The reason there are many books available about how to grow your church or make your church healthier is that there is no general consensus on what makes a church healthy. Church health is a complicated topic so the answer isn’t simple either—it too is complicated.
Sunday School in HD doesn’t intend to solve the entire church health dilemma, but to help put one piece of the church health puzzle in place. Alan Taylor does a masterful job of explaining why Sunday School is an important factor in the health of a church. He doesn’t put forth a Sunday School model that will solve every church’s problems. There is one thing he has in mind in this book—clarity. A lot of churches view there Sunday School programs in “standard definition.” They aren’t really sure what purpose Sunday School serves. Because they don’t see the purpose of Sunday School clearly, they think that it is outdated and no longer useful.
Alan begins bringing the purpose of Sunday School into HD by explaining that it can “afford every member a natural way to express the church’s mission” (pg. 9). A healthy church is a church that is doing its mission. Alan believes that all too often we tell people what the mission is, but never help them accomplish the mission. He believes “Sunday School puts a hoe in all believers’ hands for their work in the church garden” (pg. 10). In other words, Sunday School gives them the tools they need to do the work of the church.
What are those tools you might be wondering? They are “reach[ing] people, teach[ing] people, and minister[ing] to people” (pg. 3). Alan repeats these three things throughout the book. Why? It makes the purpose of Sunday School clear—it changes the way people view Sunday School from SD to HD. There are five areas that need clarity before a Sunday School can be viewed in HD. Those areas are: the role of Sunday School, the purpose of Sunday School, the growth of Sunday School, the leadership of Sunday School, and the passion of Sunday School.
Alan brings clarity to these areas in a way that is easy to follow and understand. He also uses quite a number of catch phrases that I think are going to become rather popular and might even become some of those infamous “buzz words” I mentioned at the beginning of this article.
All in all, Alan Taylor does a great job of bringing some much needed clarity to an area of ministry in the church that has become clouded causing it to be “overlooked” and “underworked.” Anyone who wants to breath some life into their Sunday School program and their church should read Sunday School in HD.
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The author of this review is Olon Hyde. He blogs at Mr. Hyde’s Blog.
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The Sunday School has been the building block of the SBC for as long as I can remember. I was raised in the Texas SBC and my father followed the SBC program faithfully. He is now 83 and wants to resurrect the old way because it worked. What you have identified above is similar to the original approach of the Sunday School from the 50′s and 60′s and I do not disagree one bit. I do believe we need to look close at our existing literature to see how it would fit in this program.
I have a concern about the health issue myself. Many factors seem to come into play that affect spiritual health. The problem with the Corinthian church is that they seemed to have a problem shaking off the old activities they were saved from. Today, it’s not just the ones who are coming into the church with their old ways, it’s the church who is also trying to shake off the influence of the world, too. Really, Sunday School should be simple. People that become born again Christians should have an environment to come into that encourages and provides good sound Bible teaching, study and application. The nourishment we receive from food (bread) and the response we have to the word of God are the same as it relates to health. Jesus quoted Deut. 8:3 to Satan when He was tempted to turn the stones into bread, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Our health is determined and based on God’s word and our response to it. Give us a Sunday School with the balance of soul winning and discipleship and we will see a healthy people.
That’s a neat little play on words using the SD and HD with the topic of Sunday School. No matter what you call it or what structure you use, the three activities of reaching, teaching, and ministering should be present. I like a book that gets us back into focus on the basics. Too often we get so focused on decking out our ministries with all technological and culturally-relevant stuff we can muster and then we lose the original intent. Thanks for the review.