Survey participants were directed to force rank six objectives for their group Bible study ministry. The six items were (listed in alphabetical order): Bible study, Intentional disciple making and equipping, Ministry and service, Outreach and evangelism, Relationships/community/fellowship, and Worship.
The results were reported in Lifeway's State of Groups research.
The average ranking of objectives for ongoing adult groups was as follows:
Bible study - 46% rated it at #1
Relationships/community/fellowship
Intentional disciple making and equipping (big gap per research report)
Ministry and service
Worship
Outreach and evangelism
Reflect on these results for a moment. Worship done by within the Bible study group, rated higher than outreach and evangelism.
Chuck Kelley, in Fuel the Fire, notes that the Sunday School movement in general began to focus on nurture more so than evangelism in the early 1900s. He saw a shift happening in Sunday School with the focus being on teaching believers primarily. Dr. Kelley notes that Southern Baptist eventually began viewing Bible study groups as a tool for evangelism, which changed the future for Southern Baptist.
Kelley makes this observation with two things in the backdrop. The first was Sunday School becoming an organization for all ages. Lifeway began in 1891 but did not print their first resource for adults until 1902, called the "Bible Class Quarterly." In the same year and in response to a directive issued by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1900, Lifeway published their first training book for Sunday School leaders called the Convention Normal Manual. The book included information about teaching and organizing a standard Sunday School including how to do so with adults. The introduction of this manual and a new resource for adults in the same year would have complimented each other. Here is where we see the shift toward nurturing or discipleship in today's terms, with the focus being mostly on teaching adult believers. In short, the force rankings of the six items used in the Lifeway Research survey in early 2025 would have been mirrored by many church leaders during the early 1900s.
The second event identified in the background by Dr. Kelley was the hiring of Arthur Flake as the first director of Sunday School in 1920. Flake became a champion for reaching lost people through Sunday School. In his first book in that role, Flake wrote:
Pastors and superintendents are fast realizing that we have just been playing at the Sunday school business from the standpoint of reaching people, and that a large Sunday school can be built wherever people live in large numbers.
There is inspiration in numbers, but let it be understood that a school does not necessarily have to have an enrollment of a thousand members to be great. It may be a really great school and have an attendance of a hundred or less. However, no Sunday school is worthy of being called a great school unless it is reaching a large majority of the people who should attend it. This is true no matter what other claims to efficiency it may have. (Building a Standard Sunday School, 1922, p. 20)
A snapshot of Southern Baptist reinforces the shift that took place after Flake's call for Sunday School to be more intentional in reaching people. In 1920, 173,595 baptisms were reported by Southern Baptist Churches. The reported baptisms in 1925 were 224,844.
What did they start doing in 1920 that moved them from 173.5 K annual baptisms to 224.8K annually baptisms?
1. Organized to pursue
While reaching was not ignored, teaching was the priority and that is seen in the amount of space dedicated to it in training books prior to 1920. In 1920, Flake began calling for churches to know who in their community were not attending a Bible study group, to enlarge their organization to reach those not attending, to enlist new leaders based on that enlarged organization, to provide the space and resources needed, and then to go after the people they knew who were not in a Bible study group. The new Bible study groups were set up based on who they were seeking to reach, which also means they knew who by name who they were seeking to reach.
2. Mobilize the Sunday School members, all of them, for the purpose of reaching.
On the inside flap of what most consider Flake's journal dated November 1919, we find what Flake called the fourfold test of a great Sunday School.
Reaching its possibilities
Really teaching the Bible
Winning the lost for Christ
Enlisting, training, and utilizing the church members
Enlist – assign definite task
Train – put books into hands, get them studying
Utilize – all can do something – the SS offers the place for entire membership to work
The fourth action was critical. The tasks assigned to non-teachers were connected to reaching a group of people in some way. Reaching became everyone's responsibility.
3. Annual evangelism training for leaders
The focus of the annual training for Sundy School leaders was to be evangelism training. In Flake's initial book, ten options were identified that could be used, meaning they could offer training on the subject for ten years without repeating.
4. Visitation (monthly, regular in 1954 edition of Flake's book)
After becoming director of Sunday School for Lifeway in 1920, Flake produced three pamphlets. The pamphlets were:
Denomination Work of the Sunday School – offered ideas for leveraging special emphasis days to build the Sunday School (the concept of growing seasons).
The Real Problem with Sunday School - Some thought the problem to be location (meeting at church site) and others thought the problem to be the pupils or potential pupils (not interested or not willing to study). After debunking these excuses, he pointed out that the real problem was a lack of trained officers and teachers. He compared the basic training provided in the work of Sunday School to the training pastors received at the seminary. He then outlined actions a pastor could take to train leaders, to create an army at the ready.
Monthly Visitation Day – Flake emphasized that a monthly day that supports the overall outreach strategy of the Sunday School, was a way to create accountability for visiting absentees and prospects (Quote: Someone asked, "why have a Monthly Visitation Day, why not everybody visit when he can?" That is the very reason for setting a definite time to do Sunday school visiting. "Everybody" does not visit "when he can." Remember this, people who do Sunday school visiting only when it is convenient, do not visit at all.)
We are not much different. People will not just wander into our groups and worship services, we must pursue them on purpose.
5. Call to prayer for those far from God.
In his first book, Flake specified that "Every teacher should have a prayer list of all lost for whom his class is responsible" (p. 103). He explained this idea in greater detail in the paragraph that followed: Each teacher should have a prayer list both of the lost pupils in his class and of the lost who are prospects for his class. This list should be kept in the Bible and daily spread out before God as the teacher prays for each one by name. ….Many Sunday School pupils can be reached only through prayer. This was THE key. Prayer for lost people, by name and for the opportunity to share with them. Conclusion: Chuck Kelley makes the following conclusion which seems fitting for us as well: New efforts should be made to refocus Sunday School on evangelism. Teachers need training to teach the lessons evangelistically. While the plan of salvation is printed in all Sunday School literature, lessons that focus on how to become a Christian should be regularly emphasized, not just printed. History has demonstrated that the success of those efforts will have a major impact on whether or not Southern Baptists achieve their evangelistic potential. Without connecting lost people to a process of Bible teaching and relationship building, Southern Baptists are less likely to reach them. If that evangelistic process does not happen in Sunday School, what will replace it? To this point, nothing on the same scale has been developed by Convention entities. (Fuel the Fire, page 89)