2004 Sunday School Contest

Goals, Methods, Rules, and Point Values, etc.

Goals:

1. Encourage evangelism: Motivate all church members to evangelize their Friends, Relatives, Acquaintances, and Neighbors (“F.R.A.N. Evangelism”). Members are encouraged to win lost souls via witnessing efforts, granting of invitations (to church), teaching of Bible Studies, handing out tracts, etc.

2. Encourage faithfulness in church attendance.

3. Increase in number of visitors to church: Encourage church members to try to get new people to visit the church on Sunday mornings.

Methods:

1. Teams: Pick teams from among the church membership. Two teams. Team captains for each. Team colors. Team spirit. Enthusiasm, fun, and motivation. Good-spirited competition. Membership on a team does not indicate or constitute official membership in the church (i.e. on the official church roster).

2. Motivation: The team with the highest score at the end of the 7-week competition will be “served” a fellowship meal by the losing team. Of course, the members from the losing team get to eat at the fellowship meal as well, but they must prepare, serve, and clean up! <smile>  More motivation: Gifts/prizes may be bought or donated, and given out to high scoring team members and/or guests (i.e. door prizes). Even more motivation: The end results of the contest are that lost souls are won to God, and members are increased in faithfulness and morale.

3. Points: The point structure encourages the desired outcome: faithful attendance of members, getting guests to attend, and teaching Bible Studies to guests.

4. Leadership: Team Captains keep track of scoring-related actions during Sunday morning services (member attendance, guest attendance, and Bible studies that have been taught previously). Team Captains encourage their team with phone calls (during the week), and with cheers and/or skits (during church services). Team Captains facilitate revival by organizing the efforts of the team. For example, let’s say that John invited James, and James attended. But if John doesn’t feel able to teach a Bible Study, that doesn’t mean James won’t be taught, because the Team Captains will see to it that someone who is willing to teach will work with John and James to get the study taught. Team Captains stay in the church foyer before Sunday morning services, greeting team members and guests, and marking points.

Points Scale

And Points Related Information

The duration of the contest is from Easter Sunday (April 10, 2004) through (and including) Pentecost Sunday (May 30, 2004). Points are calculated only on Sunday morning services. Points are awarded for attendance of Team Members and Guests (both Prior Guests and New Guests) on Sunday morning services during the contest.

During the minutes prior to each Sunday morning service, while the Team Members and Guests are gathering in – and for the first few minutes after the service begins – the Team Captains stay in the church foyer and greet incoming Team Members and Guests, keeping records for the scoring time, which occurs after the service.

Bonus points are awarded for Team Members having taught Bible Studies to Guests during the contest duration (although it is understood that the Bible Studies occur not during Sunday morning services, but rather during the week). PLEASE NOTE: In order for bonus points to be awarded for a Bible Study, the Guest must also actually attend a Sunday morning service. It does not matter whether the Bible Study takes place sooner than or later than the attendance of the Guest on a Sunday morning. Whenever both conditions are met (the Guest’s attendance on a Sunday morning and the Bible Study having been taught), then the bonus points are awarded during the next scoring time.

The Points Scale is as follows:

NOTE: Bonus points for Bible Studies are awarded PER PERSON (per guest taught).

* One recommended Bible Study is the “Ready To Be Free Expanded Study” available from the church. Others include “The New Birth Experience”, “Bible Study In A Bag” (for youth) and other such 1-hour or 2-hour studies.

FOR EXAMPLE: Let’s say that a Team Member teaches a Bible Study to three persons. All three show up the next Sunday morning. One of the three has never been before. Another has been here, but it has been longer than three months. The third has been here less than three months ago. Here is how the scoring would be for that Sunday morning:

Scoring for above example:

Guest #1, present, never been here before:        50        points
Guest #1, was taught a Bible Study:                  500      bonus points

Guest #2, present, attended prior to Jan 1:        30        points
Guest #2, was taught a Bible Study:                  500      bonus points

Guest #3, present, attended since Jan 1:            20        points
Guest #3, was taught a Bible Study:                  500      points

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                                                Total:                1,600   points

PLEASE NOTE: With the exception of the bonus points for Bible Studies, all other points are recurring values for the remainder of the contest. In other words, a Guest is “locked-in” as either a 20-pointer, or a 30-pointer, or a 50-pointer. That Guest holds that point value for the remainder of the contest. So, although the 500 bonus points per person (for the Bible Study) are awarded only once, the Guest keeps accruing the same amount of attendance points each time they attend on a Sunday morning. Consider what would happen during scoring on the following Sunday morning, if all three of the Guests (in the example above) came back to church again:

Scoring for the following Sunday in above example:

Guest #1, present, again:                                   50        points

Guest #2, present, again:                                   30        points

Guest #3, present, again:                                   20        points

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                                                Total:                100      points

Q&A:

Q: What happens during Sunday mornings when a Guest shows up without either team having invited them? Who gets those points?

A: Each team takes turns getting whole families that show up in this manner. It works like a “jump-ball possession arrow” used during a basketball game. A coin toss might start off the “arrow” or “turn” pointing to your team, and whenever a new family shows up that is not connected to either team (was not invited by anyone on either team) then whichever team has the “arrow” or “turn” gets that family. That family is locked-in for that team from then on. Then, when another family shows up in that manner, they would be assigned to the other team, and so forth.

If some question arises that has not been covered here … chances are we’ve run into it before and simply forgot to mention it. Just ask, and we’ll do our best to render a decision on how to handle whatever situation may arise. Thanks for helping to reach the lost!