Christian Education Association National Meeting

I recently had the privilege of speaking to the national meeting of the Christian Education Association (www.christianeducator.org). I was honored to be among the group of speakers many of whom have been influential on me and my ministry.

I spoke three times on small group ministry of the church. My sessions were titled:

• Three Things We're Doing that We Should Probably Stop Doing
  
• Three Things We're Not Doing that We Should Probably Start Doing
  
• Three Ways to Revitalize the Educational Ministry of the Church
  

I must say the attendees were very receptive to my unorthodox, yet passionate plea for a shake-up in our educational status quo. 

What are those things we're doing that we should probably stop doing? Well, I won't take time to go into all of them, but I do want to leave you with something to ponder. In most churches, the Bible study organization resembles what many of us know as the Sunday School. It takes on different aliases and is managed differently, but at its core it is Sunday School.

In some churches, the way they do Sunday School is no different today than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Matter of fact, some classes have been in existence for about that long... with the same teacher and the same class members. They started as the Young Adult class and have maintained that name in spite of the fact that they are now in their 60s!

Change has come to every other area of life, yet we protect the Sunday School as if the first Sunday School classes were the twelve groups into which Moses organized the Israelites. Why are we so protective of an organization that fails to live up to its expectations?

Why do we have small group Bible study at church? The primary reason is for Bible study so that people can be matured in their faith. In maturing, people become more committed to serving, ministering, and giving. Many churches today are in financial straits because they have abandoned teaching people what it means to be in a right relationship with God. They are more concerned about building the audience than training the soldiers!

So, think about it... why does your church have small groups? Are you ready to do something that works rather than doing the same thing over and over? Are you more concerned about protecting your tradition than reaching people? Think about it!