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Church NewsMinistry Highlights

Football-Theme Competition Builds Sunday School Excitement

By December 5, 2015No Comments

RiceLakeMI_inlineGRANT, Mich.—Rice Lake Baptist Church built excitement about Sunday School with a fun football-theme competition. The event actually had three purposes, explains Pastor Dan Fullmer: to encourage its members to attend Sunday School, to prompt them to invite others, and to get everyone excited about learning God’s Word and growing in Christ.

The church divided its members into two even teams, Vikings vs. Packers, and then recruited a team captain and score keeper for each team. (Vikings was a natural fit because a member of the Minnesota Vikings attends Rice Lake Baptist Church.)

During the month of October, teams earned two points (a “safety”) for arriving to Sunday School on time; three points (a “field goal”) for each person in attendance; six points (a “touchdown”) for each visitor (defined as anyone who had not attended Sunday School in three months); and two points (a “two-point conversion”) each Sunday a visitor returns, plus three points for attendance.

To help teams invite people outside the church, each captain received a Free Agent List—people associated with the church who have not been attending recently. Those people could be invited to Sunday School by either team. The winning team won a pancake breakfast cooked and served by the opposing team.

“Each week the attendance seemed to increase some (not dramatically, but consistently),” says Pastor Dan Fullmer. And there was a “general excitement in the Sunday School hour with competition, snacks, and expectations of who’s coming.” A small number of visitors attended Sunday School, as well as newcomers to the church who had attended worship services but not Sunday School prior to the competition. Overall, Fullmer says, the promotion was a good “opportunity to highlight the Sunday School ministry for the month to the full church family.”