Pastors are looking with renewed interest to their Sunday school classes for budding evangelists and are using programs designed to empower those class members to share their faith.

And why not? Church health experts have long held that Sunday school classes are key elements in sustaining church growth.

New Christians who attend Sunday school are five times more likely to still be involved in church five years later than those who only attend worship services, according to research from church consultant Dr. Thom Rainer.

In his book, "Surprising Insights from the Unchurched," Rainer, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., points out that America's most effective churches emphasize Sunday school.

Relying on Sunday school classes to carry out evangelistic plans is nothing new. Historically, the Sunday school was the church's evangelistic arm. But, as John H. Ewart, associate vice president of distance education and innovative learning at Southern points out in a series of articles he wrote for ChurchCentral (see "The Intentional Sunday School,") an unfortunate paradigm shift in some churches and denominations reduced these classes to little more than a series of inwardly focused study groups. Worse yet, many were relegated to the children's ministry only.

"It is time to reclaim the Sunday school heritage and intentionally develop it into a coordinated strategy of outwardly focused ministry teams for all ages with the fulfillment of the church's biblical purposes as its primary reason for existence," Ewart wrote.

Others would agree.

LifeWay Christian Resources, the resource and publishing component of the Southern Baptist Convention, has produced a highly-successful program that focuses on helping Sunday school classes fulfill the Great Commission.

Developed by pastors Bobby Welch and Doug Williams at First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., the FAITH Sunday School Evangelism Strategy is a brief presentation using simple terminology and concepts that allow the unchurched to understand how to make a decision for Christ.

LifeWay reports that more than 29,000 Sunday school members have been trained in the strategy at more than 7,000 churches.

Sevier Heights Baptist Church, Knoxville, Tenn., is one such church. David Harkins, executive pastor, said the program meets two goals for the church.

"We go out to do two different things: to witness to people who don't know the Lord, and also to involve people in Sunday school," Harkins said. "The ultimate goal, though, is to see lost people get saved and integrated into the ministries of the church."

Harkins said FAITH teams go out specifically for evangelistic visits, but also to make ministry visits to people who have expressed some interest in the church through other outreach initiatives.

"People who are interested in the church (or) have attended the church, just to go and see them and check on them to let them know we care about them," he said.

Since most people are uncomfortable with sharing their faith - particularly to strangers - programs are successful because of the training aspects involved in implementing them."

A lot of people are just scared to do one-on-one evangelism," said the Rev. Charles B. Hardwick, associate pastor of evangelism and church growth at North Avenue Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. "I'm a minister and it's still kind of scary to me to think about my friends who aren't in the church and talking to them."

Hardwick said North Avenue uses a number of programs in its classes to equip people for evangelism.

One is the "Becoming a Contagious Christian" program from Willow Creek Association.

"That's been the class that's been best for training people to share their faith," said Hardwick. "There's another class that we started up, partnering with Campus Crusade for Christ, called the Discovery class. The class itself is evangelistic, so it is set up for non-Christian as well as Christians to come and explore the basic questions of faith."

North Avenue also subscribes to the Alpha Course, a 15-session curriculum being used by more than 3,300 churches in the United States. The Alpha Course was developed in 1996 at London's Holy Trinity Brompton church and has been used successfully in the United States since 1993.

Christianity Today magazine cited a study commissioned by Presbyterian Church (USA) that showed 58 percent of the denomination's churches using Alpha gained new members. More than a quarter, the study showed, reported their church as a whole experienced a spiritual awakening.

"For a long, long time there was kind of an assumption that if you were going to sink your roots in North Avenue Presbyterian Church you were already a pretty strong Christian," Hardwick said of the 105-year-old church. "There wasn't anything set up to help people that weren't in that position to strengthen their faith."

Hardwick said he the congregation decided they needed to have programs for new Christians and seekers.

"As a pastor, I don't often get to see adults come to Christ. All the ones that I've seen since I've come here to North Avenue have been through the Alpha Course," he said. "It's been really exciting. We've offered it about seven time in the last two and a half years and just about every time there has been at least one person come to faith through it."

Hardwick says that through spiritual multiplication if people are trained to share their Christian faith and train others to do the same, theoretically the world could become Christian. Alpha, he said, allows him to do his part of that equation.

"It allows me to invest in the six or eight people on the team for Alpha and then they are trained to invest in the people who are in the course," he said.

"I want to share my faith. I get to do it from the pulpit every week," he said. Even more than I want to be able to do it, I want members of my church to be able to do it. I think these programs allow that to happen."

Walter Wadell III, staff pastor at Church Stewardship and Growth Center in Warminster, Penn., said programs like his company's "Reach Out and Touch" program are effective because they can be easily followed.

"I find that most of the churches I deal with now are more interested in programs because, unfortunately, they don't have to think. They don't have to be creative. The program is there, it is based biblically and as long as they believe in the product they are trying to get out there - and that is our Lord, Jesus Christ - they don't have a problem with using the material," he said.

But, he said, they are also effective at drawing segments of the congregation into the process that may otherwise not become involved.

"I can tell you what happens is the older saints sitting in the pews really believe their work is done and they are blessed by watching the more zealous, younger Christians getting out there and bringing back their testimonies," he said. "This program is designed in such a way it does not allow the seniors to be the quote, unquote, pew warmers and it absolutely motivates them to get out there and reach other souls for the church."