Fall Preparation Checklist

It's the middle of June. It's time to be thinking about "rallying" your Sunday School troops. Here are some points to consider.

• Set your "Rally Day" or "Christian Education Sunday." Plan with your pastor to emphasize Sunday School, recognize and commission teachers for their service, and (if you have not already done so) advance students to the next grade. Resources for Rally Day can be found at cph.org/sundayschool under "Sunday School Tools."
• Choose your curriculum (Cross Explorations or Growing in Christ, check them out at cph.org/sundayschool) and verify your order. The fall material is available on July 1.
• Choose your "path." New CPH customers can choose either a "Recommended Path" (Old Testament in the fall, followed by two New Testament units in the winter and spring) or a "Chronological Path" (starts in the fall with Old Testament 1 and continues straight through the Bible). Continuing customers should be aware that the Old Testament 2 unit was recently offering in fall 2016; if you choose the chronological path, these lessons may be overly familiar to your students.
• Enlist teachers for the fall. Work to have two adults in each classroom; it's easier than you think.
• Contact every eligible family by phone, mail, or email to encourage enrollment in Sunday School.
• Tour your Sunday School classrooms and list physical improvements: painting walls, new flooring, cleaning the windows, repair/repaint/replace tables and chairs, remove faded/torn posters, etc.

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Advancing Grades in Summer Sunday School

Two questions:
1. Do you continue Sunday School through the summer? I think you should; you can find out why here and here.
2. Do you promote students to their next grade at the beginning of the summer or at the end?

If you don't have Sunday School during the summer, there's only one advantage to promoting early: that's if the students get the opportunity to meet their next year's teacher before the summer break. But then, when the excitement is at a high, you send them home for the summer to let the new interest die away? That doesn't make sense.

If you do have Sunday School during the summer, I think it makes sense to promote at the beginning of the summer quarter.

• Students have just been promoted in their day school or public school, some (like kindergartners, sixth graders, and eighth graders) may have actually graduated! It's a big deal! "I'm not in second grade anymore, I'm in third grade. Why does the church make be go to second grade all summer?"
• You'll have a Rally Day or Christian Education Sunday at the end of the summer. (You will right?) That's another opportunity to give your Sunday School a boost, attempt to corral those non-attending families and get them back into the Sunday School habit. If you promote at the beginning of the summer, you'll get two opportunities to make Sunday School a big deal.

Summer can be a "low" season. Use any excuse to infuse a little excitement.

(What's that you say? "Tom, why didn't you mention this a few weeks ago?" My bad. So do it on the first or second weekend of July. You can still give Sunday School a little boost this summer.)

God bless you as you teach God's children His Word this summer!