July’s Blog: The importance of Planting Church’s and the importance of the Sunday School.

Since Something the SBC called “The Great Resurgence Task Force” and changed the way we planted churches, I have thought about writing an article about Planting Churches and revitalizing the ones that are “dying” on the vine. So here is part one.

 

In April of 1957, the Sunday School Builder published the following article about the man who would become my Pastor, mentor, teacher, and friend. So hold on; here we go.

 

In May of 1956, a young seminary graduate by the name of Ernest O. Sikes JR. became in charge of the Sunday School that would later be called the Red Bird Baptist Mission. The mission was a challenge given by the University Baptist Church in Coral Gables, Florida. Who had the desire to plant a new work. The desire was to launch a new Sunday School in an area that was two miles from any Baptist Church field. The challenge was accepted even though the church did not yet have a pastor. Mr. J. Erve Lewallen, who had been Sunday School Superintendent for the previous 9 years at UBC, accepted the task. There was a new elementary school being built, and the first order of business was to make application to the school board of Dade County to use the building. So let's look at the steps.

  1. Make application to the school board
  2. Do a census of the territory. (A good man offered to make a map and count all the houses in the area)
  3. Ten Census captains were selected, and each of them was asked to enlist seven helpers. That adds up to 70 volunteers, and they had the task of covering the entire area in one Sunday afternoon. You might also note as good Baptist Lunch was served following the morning service, and seventy people answered the call to serve. It took two hours to cover the ground laid out. December 1 was the target date. There were a total of eight classes. Babies through adults. Mr. Lewellan lead this group on a visitation campaign. Note: he was a layman and a member of University Baptist church. He used the information received from the census and sent teams to every house with information about the new Sunday School. If no one was at home, they left the information. 32 people came that first Sunday in December. The numbers grew, and it became evident that they needed a Pastor to take on the task. Dr. John H. Halderman, Pastor of the Allapattah Baptist Church, recommended a young man who was an experienced pastor and a new seminary graduate to take on the task of the new work. After they spoke to him at length, they knew he was God’s man for the job. You may also note that he was reached by the efforts of a Sunday School teacher who continued to come to his house and invite him to Sunday School, and his father made him go so Hank Simple would “stay off his doorstep.” Everything I learned about church growth I learned from this man. One of the three most important things that he taught me were as follows:

 “Show me a church with a growing Sunday School, and I will show you a growing church. Show me a church with no Sunday School or a dying Sunday School I will show you a dying Church.” 

Number two: If you have to choose between Sunday School and preaching, go to Sunday School. “80 percent of the people come to know Christ through the Sunday School.” 

On March 11, 1957, Ernest and his wife and two of their children came on the field. After his arrival, God began to bless under his leadership. On May 13, they had an attendance of 104 and averaged 87 for the month. 28 people had been added to the church, with 12 of them coming by baptism. So that brings us to the end of Part One. The story continues next time…