Editor's Note: Sunday school ranked third for evangelistic effectiveness in Dr. Thom Rainer's study of 600 churches. But to be effective, Sunday school programs must be healthy and growing. The final part in this series contains keys to developing and maintaining Sunday school programs that work.

The keys to an effective Sunday school

The mere existence of a Sunday school organization does not guarantee effective evangelism, effective assimilation, effective ministry, or effective teaching. Indeed, the leaders of these churches expressed concern about the ineffectiveness of many Sunday schools they had observed.

"Poor Sunday schools," one Alabama pastor said, "are certain obstacles to growth. But quality Sunday schools are the key to effective churches."

What are the keys to an effective Sunday school? We received more than 700 responses to this question (more than the total survey group), both solicited and unsolicited. The responses are classified into four basic keys.

Key #1: Quality leadership

The churches in this study took seriously the role of leadership for effective Sunday schools. Many indicated that they used spiritual gift inventories and assessments to place people in various positions.

One pastor said that their Sunday school organization "began to be transformed when they placed real leaders in leadership positions and quality teachers in teaching positions."

Some church leaders reported that the quantity of available persons was reduced initially when they began to focus on quality.

"We had so many of our best leaders in the wrong positions that we had to wait about two years before we could utilize them in Sunday school leadership," a Mississippi minister of education said. "But we actually let some positions go unfilled until the right person came along."

Training was a major factor for Sunday school leadership in these churches. A combination of one to three different elements of training was apparent in many of the churches.

One method was teacher training, where a "master teacher" communicated key essentials to others. Some churches used a short-term cycle of teacher-training classes during the Sunday school time.

A second method provided means for teachers and leaders to attend conferences and seminars, watch videos, and read books. Many times these resources were not specifically focused on direct Bible learning but on concepts such as leadership, pastoral care and witness training.

A third method of training was the apprentice method. A prospective teacher or leader would spend time observing and questioning a quality teacher or leader within the organization. After this prospective teacher was ready and qualified to lead his or her own class, new apprentices were assigned to each of the two teachers.

Maintaining quality teachers and leaders in Sunday school is a struggle. Quality teachers are difficult to recruit and train, and poor teachers are often difficult to "retire."

A few of the church leaders to whom we spoke would actually ask a teacher to step down if he or she was deemed unqualified by the pastor, staff, or Sunday school leadership. But "firings" were the exception.

Church leaders usually tried to work around a less-than-competent teacher. For example, one situation involved a teacher who taught older baby boomers, but his class was dry and dull. Only six people remained in the class, but those six were intensely loyal to their incompetent teacher.

When it became apparent that "firing" the teacher would be divisive in the church, the leaders opted to create new classes led by new teachers, without disturbing the class in question. Within two years the class still had six members while the two newer classes averaged 12 people each in attendance.

One cannot be around these pastors and other church leaders long without hearing the high priority they place on quality for all the people who are in positions of responsibility in the Sunday school. This focus on quality requires commitment of time and other resources well beyond the norm in other churches I have observed. Yet these leaders told us that the hours of work and the tremendous energy expended was well worth the effort.

Key #2: Accountability

Another recurring theme in the responses was accountability. Many churches are extensively organized.

The Sunday school class members are accountable to their small group leaders. The small group leaders are then accountable to the Sunday school teachers. The teachers report the developments of their classes to a division or department director, who in turn is accountable to the director of the Sunday school program. This director gives account for all Sunday school ministry to a staff member or committee.

Although many churches have organizational charts that reflect the above scenario, few see the process to fruition.

"Accountability is the major reason for our Sunday school's success," said a Louisiana associate pastor. "But we have to work constantly to keep the lines of communication open, and we have to motivate constantly to keep the people accountable to one another."

Accountability is engendered by high expectations. A church in West Virginia asks all of its Sunday school workers to sign a covenant each year. This covenant involves all aspects of the Sunday school: witnessing and outreach to others; ministry through small groups; regular attendance; preparation of lessons; and a lengthy list of other expectations.

We found a significant correlation between the level of expectations placed upon Sunday school workers and the ability of the church to keep ongoing accountability among its volunteer workers.

"When we first started asking Sunday school workers to sign a covenant," the West Virginia pastor told us, "we met a pretty high level of resistance. Some told us that we had no right to tell volunteers what to do."

But the leaders persisted, though a few of the workers quit in protest. "Today," he said, "we see our accountability system as one of the best things that happened to our church. It was painful but it was worth it."

Key #3: Organization quality

Without exception the church leaders who told us their Sunday schools were instrumental in their evangelistic growth also had one or more key individuals involved in the program who had organizational or administrative gifts. In larger churches this person was often a staff person, but laypersons were also utilized in churches of all sizes.

In order to have a regular source of good leadership and to keep an accountability system in place, a well-designed and well-maintained organization is a must. Our research team spoke to many church leaders whose organizational skills were obvious. Rarely did we hear of an evangelistic Sunday school which was not well organized.

Key #4: Evangelistic intentionality

Mountain View Church in Tucson, Ariz., was less than 10 years old at the time of our study. Its second pastor, Barry Jude, is leading the church to exciting levels of evangelistic growth. Though its attendance was in the 500 to 600 range, the church has reached a level where it is baptizing around 200 people per year.

One does not have to be around Barry Jude long to understand a major reason behind Mountain View's growth. In virtually every program and ministry of the church, the pastor asks how that aspect of the church is evangelistic. This evangelistic intentionality permeates everything the church does, including the Sunday school. The Sunday school program at Mountain View is evangelistic by design, not by accident.

It is amazing what this intentionality can do for the conversion growth of a church. Many of the Sunday schools in these 576 churches are evangelistic because they try to be evangelistic. Intentionality is the key, and intentionality leads to accountability.

Many leaders of these churches indicated that the Sunday school had been written off as an evangelistic tool by others because more and more seekers and visitors come to worship as their initial entry point into the church. The leaders agree that Sunday school is not the entry point it once was but believe it can still be evangelistic.

The pastors and other interviewees said that the small group accountability function of the Sunday school engendered evangelistic responsibility as effectively as other approaches.

"We realize that, as our members develop relationships with the unchurched, they are most likely to get them to visit a worship service first. But the Sunday school is where accountability for inviting and evangelism takes place," a minister of education told us.

"And if that unchurched person does come to a few worship services, he or she will probably visit a Sunday school class. That is where the relationships have developed in our church, and that is where many people have been saved."

Furthermore, the evangelistic efforts that take place in the Sunday school are more likely to have a lasting impact. Several church leaders told us that new members or new converts who did not become involved in the Sunday school were likely to drop out of the church within a year.