The Truth About Sunday School - Discover it if you Dare

OPPORTUNITY	GIFTS	TIME
Traditional Teacher – Servants use a traditional model to teach the children each week. This opportunity is available for grades K through 8th at the 8:45 service and 6^th through 8^th at the 9:45 service.	Organized, patient, clear communication skills, a love of children, knowledge of the bible and God’s word, curriculum development	1 to 4 hours of planning time a week and 1 hour every Sunday for 9 months.
Large Group Leader – Servants follow the prepared Graceland curriculum to deliver a bible based message for 10-20 minutes on Sunday to several small groups of the grades. This category is available for Grades K-1^st, 2^nd& 3^rd, and 4^th& 5^th at the 9:45 service.	Organized, patient, clear communication skills, a love of children, knowledge of the bible and God’s word	1-2 hours of planning time a week and 30 minutes every Sunday for 1 to 3 semesters of 13 weeks each.
Small Group Leader – Servants work with the same group of children each week to greet the children and present a hands-on, practical exercise to enforce the lesson taught by the large group leader. A small group leader is the spiritual sheperd for each child in the servant’s group. This category is available for Grades K-1^st, 2^nd& 3^rd, and 4^th& 5^th at the 9:45 service.	Organized, patient, clear communication skills, good listener, ability to keep a confidence, empathy, a love of children, ability to provide bible-based guidance to children facing today’s tough issues	1 hour of planning time a week and 1 hour every Sunday for 1 to 3 semesters of 13 weeks each. Serving for all 3 semesters would be preferable.
Presenter – Servants play roles in a live presentation of the lesson taught by the large group leader. The script is provided and the part does not need to be memorized. Servants have the chance to be a part of a fellowship of servants who work on a rotating basis to make presentations to the various age groups.	Playing a part, enjoy telling a story, being able to “ham it up”, working with others	15 minutes of planning time and 30 minutes of presentation time a week. Each semester you can sign-up for as many or as few weeks as desired.

OPPORTUNITY	GIFTS	TIME
Props – Servants catalogue the supplies currently owned by the church and available for use. Servants identify needed items and solicit these items from parishioners as loaned props for presentations as needed.	Organizated, creative thinking. good record keeping skills	A full day or two during the early summer to create catalogue. 3-10 hours a semester to coordinate needed props.
Signage and Crafts – Servants create signs needed by the teachers, large group leaders and small group leaders and prepares for planned craft activities.	Creative, artistic, likes to make things, likes to put craft supplies together, shopping *A great family project opportunity	1 hour and up Varies depending on how creative the servants wish to get and how many projects servants wish to do.
Bible Verses – Servants copy and cut apart the bible verses for the small group leaders. Servants prepare presentation board for each student and send to families each semester.	Organized, run office equipment *A great family project opportunity	1-3 hours per semester per class.
Copying – Servants copy and sort pages needed for the presenters, teachers, large group leaders and small group leaders. Each presenter part is highlighted and provided to the presenters.	Organized, run office equipment * A great family project opportunity	1-3 hours per semester per class.
Student Connections – Servants complete birthday cards to be sent to each student. Servants send form letter to students who are absent for several weeks. Servants prepare family invitation to each family during the year to be special visitors to their child’s classroom.	Word processing or neat handwriting, organization	1-2 hours a month.
Family Fellowship – Servants organize and host 1 event per semester to allow families to learn a bible lesson together and rejoice in fellowship.	Party planning, organized, work with others, creative thinking, set-up and clean-up at events	3-7 hours a semester.
Service Aide – Servants supervise 1-3 children throughout the year to work at tasks which allow the older children to use their gifts at the church (for example, ushering, perform readings at service, clean-out closets, outdoor beautification, etc.)	Patience, a desire to work with children, develop service opportunity ideas,	1 hour and up. Varies depending on how many service opportunities servant wishes to supervise.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What if you aren’t sure what your gifts are or where to use them? Pray to God for clarification and guidance, talk to others or speak to a servant already involved in Sunday school. Your gifts are not only what you are good at, but also what brings you enjoyment. Serving the Lord should be a joyful experience so that your joy and love can be shared with others. If you are apprehensive, try serving with a friend or family member and sharing the experience. With so many varied ways to serve, there is an opportunity for every interested individual.

2. What if you sign up for an opportunity and decide it isn’t the right place for you? Life is full of trial and error. If you find that your first (or even second or third or fourth) choice for serving if not the right place for your, that is ok. Many of the servants already involved in Sunday school have moved around to find the right fit. The only mistake is choosing not to use your gifts to honor Him.

3. What if you sign-up to serve and then can’t make it due to illness or an emergency? The servant network should solve this problem itself. That means that each type of opportunity will be a fellowship of like-minded servants who can work together and cover for each other to ensure that the work gets done. If not, there will be an administrator to contact and minimize the impact. Again, perfect service is not the goal – faithful, joyful service is the goal.

4. What if you feel you aren’t qualified enough? Don’t worry, all you have to bring is a heartfelt desire to serve. All servants will be trained during the summer by experienced servants. Training will be an on-going activity. Also, there will be an administrator to contact via telephone or email at anytime (well, not the middle of the night).

5. Can you serve sporadically? Yes, there are many opportunities in which you can regulate the amount of time you serve to meet the realities of work and family commitments. For example, the Sunday school currently has a servant who serves only in the winter due to family commitments.

6. What if I want to serve but think the “position” is already filled? There is always room for one more. The more servants working in each area, the better. The more servants, the less any one person feels overwhelmed and stressed. Also, serving is a wonderful fellowship opportunity.

7. What if I want to serve, but only if I can do it with a friend? No problem, just note that on the application form and it will happen.

8. What if you still have questions, need more information, or have some ideas you’d like to share? That’s great! Please contact Jeannie Phillips at 973-729-5094 or jphil@inpro.net (please title the e-mail as Sunday School). Jeannie will be happy to answer your questions or even meet with you one-on-one to explore how you can serve. Weather permitting, Jeannie will also make herself available in the courtyard between services on Sundays in June. Jeannie is also known to haunt The Gathering Place after the 9:45 service.