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Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

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Sunday School With a Purpose and Plan

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Sunday school has been and continues to be a key element in the church’s role of making disciples. The concept of discipling covenant children has been a part of the church’s role of teaching and training at least since the establishment of the Synagogue at the time of the Babylonian captivity. The fact that so many churches are struggling with the idea of Sunday school is a direct reflection of our times. Brett P. Webb-Mitchell in his book Christly Gestures writes, “I propose in this book that the purpose of Christian education in the church is as follows: Christians live out of the true vision given to them by the grace of God in the writings of the Apostle Paul; the church-amid all the dynamics, controversies, and agendas within congregations and parishes-is the figurative body of Christ on earth and is thus the context of educating all Christians; therefore, the church is education-from the intentional or formal programmatic activities of Sunday schools, youth groups, and catechetical instruction to Kerygma and Disciple Bible studies,” (page 2). He goes on to say that everything a church does and is centers around education and discipleship.

It weakens the church’s role to speak of Sunday school in pejorative ways. It may be the churches best opportunity to “make kingdom disciples” if it teaches what is in accord with sound doctrine and teaches doctrine as life and life as doctrine. However, for Sunday school to be an integral part of the church’s role in making kingdom disciples, it must be thought of with that task in mind. It must have those trained and equipped for the role of teaching and training, and then it must have the right resources to assist. That is where curriculum comes into play.

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A church needs to use a curriculum that is biblically, theologically, and pedagogically sound. Many churches in North America do not always use a curriculum that follows that pattern. Hence children and youth, and maybe even adults, learn eclectically. A good curriculum has a clear scope and sequence in its design. For example, while its scope is to teach the Bible and cover all the biblical truths, it must also have a sequence that will carry you through the Bible in an age-appropriate manner with a clear design.

CEP has a curriculum, Great Commission Publications, that does just that. Its design (scope and sequence) will enable the church to disciple its covenant children in a way that equips them to be kingdom disciples. Its foundation is Scripture, understood redemptively from a covenant perspective, within the Kingdom of God world and life view. It enables a church, beginning with the toddlers and preschoolers through senior high school, to have a curriculum that moves the students along to spiritual maturity.

To have a disciple making Sunday school, your teachers must teach the Bible from the kingdom perspective with a definite plan to encourage the spiritual growth of the students. (The kingdom refers to Christ’s rule and reign over all of life. For further explanation see Making Kingdom Disciples, A New Framework, available from the CEP bookstore.) The process of making disciples begins with God’s covenant children at their baptism, assuming they received the sacramental sign of baptism near birth. Webb-Mitchell suggests that baptism is an “unofficial beginning of our education process.” It actually may mark the official beginning of making kingdom disciples.

CEP and GCP have people and resources available to local churches to make that process more effective, but it has to be a priority with the local church to follow through. For more information or samples of these resources, contact the CEP bookstore at 1-800-283-1357.

CEP Welcomes Danny Mitchell

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dannyhorns.JPGDanny Mitchell will become the new Coordinator of Family and Youth Ministries for Christian Education and Publications in June 2007.He will succeed Dean Conkel, who returned to local church ministry in June 2006. Danny graduated from Covenant College in 1992 with a BS in Biblical Studies and will graduate from Covenant Theological Seminary in May with a Master of Divinity.

Danny has had good experience in youth ministry prior to and during his enrollment at Covenant Theological Seminary. He has worked at both New City Chattanooga and New City St. Louis. Danny has also served as the camp director at Camp Westminster in Conyers, Ga., youth director at Carriage Lane Pres. In Peachtree City, Ga., and as a youth intern at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian. Danny and his wife Mary Pat are already familiar with the CEP family. Danny worked as a member of the PYA, now YXL, task force and Mary Pat is a former CEP staff member.

Danny and Mary Pat met at Covenant College and have been married 15 years. They have two children, Claire and Benjamin.

Coming from a military family, Danny lived in many different places during his early year s. He moved to the Chattanooga area as a high school freshman and became a believer at age 18. He says that he was greatly impacted by both the youth director and a male volunteer in the process of the Lord drawing him to himself.

Danny’s 17 years of experience in youth ministry will serve him well in his new position with CEP. Danny says that even in college he had a specific sense of calling to work with teenagers within the local church.

When Conkel left the position last year, Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator, began a search that took him through many r

Understanding Where Men Are and How to Reach Them

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By Pat Morley, David Delk, and Brett Clemmer

Editor’s note: CEP is partnering with Man in the Mirror to offer the best in training and resources for men’s ministry in local churches. The following is an abridged article used by permission from No Man Left Behind (Moody 2006).

A church was having its annual men’s retreat, with discipleship as the overarching theme. A few of the men from the leadership team became a subcommittee to organize it. They set some goals:

What is the Role of the Leadership in Christian Education?

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To answer this question we need to go back and define what parts of the church involve Christian Education. The answer: everything the church does is Christian Education! Unless we clearly understand this principle true discipleship will not happen. With this understanding we can begin to comprehend what Paul meant when he said the job of the pastor (and note he really says pastor/teacher) is NOT to do the work of the ministry, but to EQUIP the members of his church to do it. This is discipleship – getting all the church operating according to the gifts given to them by the Holy Spirit.

To equip the church means that we are taking deliberate steps to train the people to do all, and more, than we were taught in seminary. One man cannot train everyone. Jesus trained only 12 (in reality three). But think about this – if a pastor trains three elders to do certain aspects of ministry, then he has multiplied what he would have done on his own. Each teaching and ruling elder has certain gifts to be used for the benefit of the church, therefore, if each elder was tasked with training three others with those same gifts we begin to see the multiplication of disciples take place as Jesus intended.

Training more teachers: One of the really sad facts about seminary training is that we get a great deal of training in how to preach, but little, if any, in how to teach. Yet how much more time do we spend teaching than preaching? Therefore, if the leadership does not have anyone who is gifted and trained to teach others to teach, then the church needs to bring in help, such as CE&P’s Regional Trainers.

Jesus did not say to go and preach the Gospel, he said to make disciples, of which preaching is only a part. The process of making disciples takes a lot more than simply listening to a sermon – it takes training, and that training means coming along side those saints we are equipping for works of ministry.


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What I have said here is nothing new or earth-shaking, but it is often forgotten by the pastor who is so busy doing the work of the ministry that he forgets that this is not his job! And if the church thinks it is, then they have not been taught properly. If this is the case for you, then start by re-prioritizing your time and job description so that there is time for true equipping. Start by selecting those who may be already doing works of ministry and help them equip others to do the same. This isn’t brain surgery; it is the difference between having one minister and 200 congregants over against having a church with 201 ministers! It’s your choice – do it the way you are, or do it God’s way. Which do you think he will bless?

One last point: If we are going to set our goal to train disciples, we must first ask what a “fully discipled” person looks like. For this, I am indebted to Perimeter Church for their well-thought description:

“A mature and equipped follower of Christ is one who:

Elders, Executives or Servants?

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Equip2ndQtr2007.jpgThe question we are often asked in a variety of ways has to do with the role and function of leaders in the body of Christ, the church, and more broadly, in the kingdom. The question usually asked is, “Who are leaders and what are their performance expectations?”

In the opening lecture of our video series on the eldership, Elders, Executives or Servants, I point out that every organization has two kinds of leader-formal and informal. The formal are those who are in an official position of leadership, either by appointment or election. The informal leaders are the men and women that have substantial influence in the organization but do not hold an official leadership role. While organizations are quick to recognize the existence of the formal leaders, in our case the church officers, they have often failed to recognize the existence of the informal leaders. Some of you may remember the film Pollyanna. In that story a very wealthy and influential woman in the town, known as Aunt Polly, determined many things in that town, including things related to the church. She was an example of an informal leader with power and influence. We have been called into situations where churches are being ripped apart because of the conflict between the informal and formal leadership. In a few cases such struggles resulted in a church split.

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We have also been in churches where the formal leadership and the followers were in conflict over certain issues that jeopardized the church’s life. The lead article on the eldership clearly reminds us that God established leaders, formal leaders, to oversee or watch over the local church. The article clearly reflects that biblical nature and posture of the role of the eldership. This is important because when we think of the church and its mission, we are reminded that the church is both an organism and an organization, or an organized organism. Actually, that’s the only way we can think of the church on earth, because that is the way God designed it-a living organism with design and purpose. We might say that the church is a structured organism. Further, the Apostle Paul tells us that God orchestrated the church, each part just as he wants it. Some are in the position of leadership while others are followers; yet both are extremely important to the design.

In my doctrinal dissertation a number of years ago, in the section on leadership, I highlighted three major points regarding leadership that I found in the writings of Richard Hutcheson, a Presbyterian Clergy in Washington D.C.

First, we must have a theology of leadership. Part of this theology is recognizing that every leader has a distinct calling and gifts in specific areas, just as the church has a distinct mission. Second, there is the pragmatic side of leadership. Hutcheson said that leaders must know how to use the leadership and managerial skills in a way that is compatible with our theology, especially our understanding of the church’s role.

Third, leadership has an evaluative role. This means that the leadership is asking the right questions: How effective are we in carrying the mission that God has assigned to our church? Are we effectively carrying out our church’s mission? Are our leaders using their specific God-given gifts? Are we using our leadership and management skills theologically to set the vision for the church’s mission?

What this means is that the church’s leaders, while viewing themselves as shepherds, must be trained in the best of leadership skills, starting with doctrine and theology. Leaders of the church should also have skills and techniques to be capable of leading in the broader kingdom. However, to avoid the temptation of simply adopting the world’s way of leadership, or to take the very opposite “fundamentalist” approach of proof texting everything we do, we must work together to integrate all the principles of leadership that we know into our theological framework. As effective leaders, we do not simply adopt the ways of the world in carrying out our responsibilities, nor do we narrow our scope by feeling as though we have to quote scripture and verse for all that we do.

God’s body, the church, or any other kingdom entity, is not to be carelessly and sloppily arranged. The church is made up of people, and the Apostle Paul says that the church is more or less effective, “as each part does its work.” The role of the leadership is to help each and every part (person) know where he or she fits into the body and what function they are to carry out. That does not automatically happen. It requires knowing our mission, knowing our people, and knowing how to lead them forward in their mission and purpose. Any organization, especially the church, must know and demonstrate how leaders and followers work together to carry out and accomplish their mission of equipping people to live as kingdom disciples in a fallen world.