Copyright: August 2011
All Rights Reserved
Our Sunday School is Dying
First Aid:
1. A leader has to step forward.
2. A decision and a declaration have to be
made.
3. You better get to praying.
4. Call in a specialist.
5. Re-establish and refocus on the correct
purpose.
Rehab Key: Establish Teacher Training
We Are Going Through A Slump
First Aid:
1. Take the seasons into consideration.
2. Focus on the things that you can control.
3. Don’t complain to the faithful about the
unfaithful!
4. Extend a challenge to your leaders and members.
5. Ramp up ministry contacts.
Rehab Keys: Evaluation, Evangelism, &
Encouragement
Our Teachers Are Not Committed
(and often arrive late)
First Aid:
1. Re-communicate purpose & priority.
2. Elevate & acknowledge best practices.
3. Communicate standards & expectations.
4. Back up if needed but don’t back down!
Rehab Keys: Establish standards at point of
enlistment and orient leaders annually.
Our Teachers Will Not
Participate in Training
First Aid:
1. Evaluate your plan (schedule, content,
format, delivery, logistics, & promotion).
2. Survey your leaders for honest feedback.
3. Get a quick victory.
4. Train the Trainable.
Rehab Keys: Develop an enhanced, systematic
plan and reward participation.
We Do Not Have
(M)any Young People
First Aid:
1. Open the eyes of the congregation with
congregational/community demographics.
2. Make a decision: Live or Die?
3. Listen to some students and young adults.
4. Talk about the future and the legacy of those
present.
5. All hands on deck!
Rehab Keys: Gains may mean losses and you must
focus on the fertile soil (Children – Young Adults).
We Do Not Have Enough Leaders
First Aid:
1. Buy time by appealing for interim
commitments.
2. Transition from public appeal to personal
enlistment.
3. Meet with Adult Group Leaders to
communicate their role in raising and
releasing leaders.
Rehab Keys: Year round enlistment, equipping,
and apprentice teacher strategies.
A Lot Of People On
Our Rolls Do Not Attend
First Aid:
1. Resist the urge to purge but conduct an
honest audit.
2. Elevate the Sunday School as a priority.
3. Conduct the “contact crazy” experiment.
4. Re-establish the role of the roll.
Rehab Keys: Track contacts and teach “twopronged magnet:”
(passionate teaching + relationships).
Our Worship Attendance is Much
Larger Than SS Attendance
First Aid:
1. The Pastor must make an immediate declaration.
2. Begin to elevate Sunday School by all means.
3. Incorporate testimonies into the worship.
4. Conduct an enrollment campaign in worship.
5. Utilize fellowships as a bridge.
Rehab Keys: Conduct honest evaluation and
implement best practices.
We Have A Teacher
Who Needs To Step Down
First Aid:
1. Diagnose the severity of the issue.
a. If it’s skills, proceed slowly.
b. If it’s commitment proceed deliberately with
deference to church written guidelines.
c. If it’s doctrine, proceed deliberately with
deference to denomination or church doctrinal
statements.
d. If it’s moral failure or severe violation of
Scripture, take immediate action with aim of
restoration.
We Have A Teacher
Who Needs To Step Down
First Aid:
1. Diagnose the severity of the issue.
2. Work with key leaders through the process.
3. Consider implications without compromising
convictions.
4. Take caution against neglecting Scriptural
precepts.
Rehab Keys: Develop written guidelines and talk
through process before there is a problem.
Our Teachers Are Boring
First Aid:
1. Identify the roots of the problem (passion,
skills, or preparation).
2. Provide immediate tools and instruction.
3. Offer evaluations for individuals or the
group.
Rehab Keys: Equip rather than assuming or
neglecting.
We Are Completely Out Of Space
First Aid:
1. Conduct preliminary analysis
a. Conduct walk-through
b. Identify vacant spaces
c. Conduct paper analysis and determine potential
immediate alternatives and adjustments.
2. Communicate status and barriers to congregation.
3. Identify two or more spaces for additional classes.
Rehab Keys: Conduct a detailed space analysis and
initiate an annual “Realignment Sunday.”
We Have A Class
That Will Not Cooperate
First Aid:
1. Determine severity: Individual or a class? An
individual class or group of classes? What are
implications?
2. Choose your battles carefully.
3. Temper expectations for the short term and set
incremental goals for change.
Rehab Keys: Focus on relationships with leaders and
discuss scenarios in advance of issues.
They Want To
Split (or change) My Class!
First Aid:
1. Don’t misinterpret a compliment as an
insult.
2. No one desires to “split your class.”
3. See the big picture.
4. Remember the concept of “follow the
leader.”
Rehab Keys: Aspire to reproduce and plan to
bear fruit.
We Never Have Any Guests
First Aid:
1. Take a look in the mirror (lacking purpose,
passion, challenge, or boring?).
2. See the fields…
3. Apply the Law of Large Numbers
4. Open the side doors.
Rehab Keys: Work on the total environment
and lead your group to be evangelistic.
Our Guests Never Return
First Aid:
1. You must take a look in the mirror.
2. Make corrections to make visiting an
enjoyable experience for guests.
3. Implement an intentional follow-up
strategy.
Rehab Keys: Develop an inviting climate
(spiritually, educationally, and relationally).
No One Wants To
Help With Outreach
First Aid:
1. Outreach begins with the Teacher.
2. Lead your class to pray by name for those
who do not know Jesus as Savior.
3. Enlist the proper way.
Rehab Keys: Elevate Outreach in your group
and participate in existing church outreach
activities.
I Cannot Get Anyone
Involved In Discussion
First Aid:
1. Invest time developing and strengthening
relationships with group members.
2. Always start with a warm-up question.
3. Don’t fear temporary silence.
4. Rephrase and/or use open ended questions.
5. Subdivide the group.
Rehab Key: Master multiple teaching methods.
My Class Has No Life
(lacks morale)
First Aid:
1. Vision is more than a buzz word.
2. And when they had prayed… Acts
4:31
3. You are called to lead.
Rehab Keys: You must keep growing,
sowing, and going.
My Class Is Not Growing
First Aid:
1. Do not apologize for wanting to grow.
2. Apart from Christ, you can do nothing.
3. It takes a team.
4. There are some numbers that matter and must
increase (enrollment, contacts, leaders, prospects,
and number of groups/classes).
Rehab Keys: Become a growth expert and understand
that increase may require decrease.
I Do Not Like The Curriculum
First Aid:
1. Honor the convictions of your leaders.
2. No preparation free curriculum exists.
3. Good curriculum is not what makes the teaching
good. It is you!
4. Converse with your leaders to understand needs,
issues, and reasons.
Rehab Keys: Learn to make any curriculum effective :
Anointing, Preparation, Creativity, and Application.
I Do Not Have Time To Lead My
Class (to do all that is needed)
First Aid:
1. Begin building a team.
2. Begin leading instead of simply teaching.
3. Learn to enlist effectively.
4. Enlist with options for depth of
commitment.
Rehab Keys: Improve your time management
and place all group members on a team.
I Cannot Get Anyone To Help Me
First Aid:
1. Relationships are critical.
2. Pray and pour your life into others.
3. Ask for simple commitments to begin.
Rehab Keys: Invest in developing your
personal leadership skills and build a
team.
Our Leaders Expect
Too Much of the Teachers
First Aid:
1. Do not fear or reject standards.
2. Do not hesitate to seek help.
3. Do not overextend yourself.
Rehab Keys: Do not be afraid to wrestle
with commitment and do not neglect to
build a team.
I Want To Quit
First Aid:
1. Clarify what you mean by “quit.”
2. Be sure it is for the right reason.
3. If you must, then quit the right way.
(Give notice, Resolve disputes, Follow procedures,
Transfer to new ministry role, Debrief with
leaders.)
Rehab Keys: Three things you can’t do: Drop
out, stop serving, or leave without resolution.
Copyright: August 2011
All Rights Reserved