Steve Parr

"Sunday School The Really Excels" offers a variety of insights and reflections on Christian faith formation from Baptist churches. While a nice roundtable of ideas -- chapters are dedicated to rural communities, multicultural churches, and churches in the midst of a crisis -- none of the chapters are particularly innovative and suffer from the limited space available. Readers looking for an in depth treatment of these subjects would do better to find volumes dedicated to them.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.… (mer)

In this book, author and editor Steve R. Parr has engaged a panel of expert contributors to profile a different type of Sunday school ministry (e.g., small, large, rural, urban, established and new) and brings together some insights and lessons that others can use to make their program excel.

I belong to a large church that has Sunday morning programs for all ages but do not call it Sunday school, so I was concerned that there might be a small disconnect. The author acknowledges that they use the term “Sunday school” throughout the book but agree that many churches use other titles for groups of all ages that study the Bible on Sunday mornings in conjunction with and before or after a worship experience. Whew!

One of the contributors, Thom Rainer, states that there is a correlation between church health and the implementation of a strong Sunday school program. His research “consistently affirmed the relationship between an open group ministry like Sunday school and the ability of a church to assimilate new members.”

In each chapter, we are taken into different churches and read the story of how the church grew – not only in size but maturity – as they made the Sunday school ministry a priority. Key leaders and member must know and understand the purpose, keep evangelism and outreach at the center, and make sure leaders are equipped and trained. Sunday school cannot be a standalone organization; it must be part of the church as a whole.

In one of the other reviews I read, the reviewer suggested reading only those chapters that applied to your situation. But I disagree; I found good ideas and insight (and encouragement) in each chapter. I liked the entire book.

I can see this book being used in leadership meetings in a church – everyone reads a chapter or two and then discusses it.

I would like to thank Kregel Publications for providing me with a free copy for an unbiased review.… (mer)