Welcome To The Pennsylvania State Sunday School Association's
"STEPS TO SUNDAY SCHOOL SUCCESS"
ONLINE WORKSHOP
"A Workshop On Involving Every Member In Sunday School Growth & Renewal"
INTRODUCTION & INSTRUCTIONS
Welcome! You are about to begin an exciting journey that will hopefully see positive change and growth taking place in your Sunday school as you become involved with our "Steps To Sunday School Success" workshop. As noted above, we have sub-titled the program as "a workshop on involving every member in Sunday school growth and renewal." In other words, every church and Sunday school leader, teacher and member - everyone who is interested in Sunday school - should see and be a part of this workshop.
The workshop is an in-depth study of the primary elements involved in bringing about Sunday school growth and renewal. The workshop is presented through 17 different video clips - each featuring P.S.S.S.A. Executive Director, Rodney Pry - as the presented. The videos range in length from about 2 minutes for a little over 8 minutes. Between each of the video clips there is an activity related to what the viewer has just seen and heard.
These activities are presented in text form and involve a variety of things, such as questions to think about and answer, additional information to read, and other activities. The video portion of the workshop totals about 90 minutes and, if you take the time to work with each of the activities, the complete workshop will take you about an additional hour or more. But, we really think that you will find the time involved in working with the complete "Steps To Sunday School Success" workshop will be well worth your time and the time of the other leaders, teachers and interested members of your church and Sunday school.
The workshop begins with a look at why Sunday school is important. It then takes the participants through a "Sunday School Health Check" to examine their Sunday school's past, present and future health. Those sections are followed by studies related to the primary elements that we believe should be involved in any Sunday school growth and renewal effort.
These elements include spiritual renewal, being open and welcoming, promotion and positive public relations, program renewal, teacher recruitment and training, witnessing and invitation, and prayer. As we explore each of these elements, we will try to show you why each of these elements are important and we will also give you a variety of ideas for things that you can do to implement changes and improvements in each area.
The workshop concludes by leading participants through a series of steps to plan very specific things that each person...each teacher, leader or ordinary member...can do to help bring about positive growth and renewal in their Sunday school.
There certainly are no magic answers to bringing about growth and renewal in any Sunday school, but we sincerely believe that our "Steps To Sunday School Success" workshop can be an important tool in helping to bring about major improvements within each church's Christian education ministry. But, again, there is no magic formula for getting this done. If genuine improvements are to come in your Sunday school, you and the other teachers, leaders and members will need to make a major commitment of your time, talents, energy and prayer!
USING THE WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES: When you are working with the workshop activities, we suggest that you highlight the text, copy it and then paste it into a word file. By keeping all of the activities in one file, you will be able to more easily go back and re-read your notes, and it will also allow you to type your answers and comments right in the file.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORKSHOP ACCESS CODE: Obviously you have the "workshop access code" which allowed you to begin the "Steps To Sunday School Success" workshop. But, did you know that when one person from a church purchases the workshop and receives the "access code," they have our full permission to share that "access code" information with the other interested teachers, leaders and members of their own church? It's true! And, there is no additional cost for sharing this information with others from your church.
USING THE WORKSHOP WITH A GROUP STUDY: The workshop has been designed primarily for use by individuals, working at their own computer, on their own schedule and at their own pace. But, the workshop can also be used as a group study for the teachers and leaders of your church. All you need to do is plug your computer into a video projector to watch the videos. And, if you are working with a group, we suggest that you make copies of each of the activity pages for each of the participants.
HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS? If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact the Pennsylvania State Sunday School Association. Phone 717-652-1930 or E-mail us at either office@psssa.org or mail@sundayschoolhelp.org.
Again, thank you for allowing us to share our "Steps To Sunday School Success" workshop information with you. Now, let's get started!
