Baptist Pastoral Ministry, Missions, and Church Leadership — Unit 3: Discipleship and the Sunday School and Bible Study Tradition

Key Verse

"And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." (2 Timothy 2:2, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define a disciple from the Great Commission and explain why baptism is the beginning of discipleship and not the end.

2. Explain why Baptists, as people of the Book who hold the priesthood of all believers, give Bible teaching a central place in church life.

3. Tell the origin of the Sunday school and say how Baptists took it up, including the objections of some Baptists.

4. Describe a simple discipleship pathway for a local church and the qualities of a good teacher.

5. Answer the objections that Sunday school is unbiblical, that classes do not make disciples, and that people are too busy or cannot read.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Baptist tradition, for Baptist pastors. It is conservative in doctrine and practical in purpose. Where Baptists or historians disagree, we state the views fairly and then give the answer most conservative Baptists would give. This unit is about how a church helps its people grow in Christ. Church history is in Course 1, the doctrine of the church is in Course 2, and the preaching of the pastor is in Course 4.

What Is a Disciple?

The word "disciple" means a learner, and in the Gospels it means a learner who follows. Jesus' last command to His church is a command to make disciples. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20).

The grammar of the command is worth noticing. There is one main command, to make disciples. Three things describe how: going, baptizing and teaching. Baptism marks the start of the disciple's public life. Teaching continues as long as the person lives. A Baptist church baptizes only those who have professed faith, so every baptized member is a person we have promised to teach. If a church baptizes people and then forgets them, it has done only the middle of the Commission.

The Gospels describe what a disciple is. He follows Jesus and denies himself (Luke 9:23). He continues in Jesus' word (John 8:31). He loves other believers (John 13:35). He bears fruit (John 15:8). The first church in Jerusalem shows the pattern: "they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). The goal is maturity, "to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13), and Paul's labor was to present everyone "perfect in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 1:28).

Why Baptists Put the Bible at the Center

Baptists have always been a people of the Book. Three of our convictions explain why teaching matters so much to us.

First, the Bible is our final authority in faith and practice (see Course 2, Unit 1). If Scripture rules, then believers must know Scripture.

Second, we teach the priesthood of all believers (Course 2, Unit 5). Every Christian has direct access to God and the responsibility to understand His Word. The Bereans were praised because they received the word eagerly and searched the Scriptures daily to see whether Paul's teaching was true (Acts 17:11). A church that leaves the Bible to the pastor alone has given up something the Baptists fought to defend.

Third, we hold to regenerate church membership. Our churches do not baptize infants or count a whole village as members. Our members are those who have believed. A church made up of believers must teach them, or its members will not know what they believe.

Scripture itself says that growth takes food. Peter writes, "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2). The writer to the Hebrews scolds believers who ought to be teachers and who still need milk and not solid food (Hebrews 5:12-14). And God has given the home a place: parents are to teach God's words to their children at home and on the road (Deuteronomy 6:6-7), and fathers are to bring children up in the training and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

The Origin of the Sunday School

The Sunday school did not begin as a Baptist invention. It was begun in England by Robert Raikes, an Anglican newspaper owner in Gloucester, in the early 1780s. Children in that city worked in factories six days a week, and on Sunday they ran in the streets. Raikes and others arranged for teachers to gather them on Sundays, and the lessons included reading, with the Bible as the main text. The idea spread rapidly through England and then to other nations.

Historians do not agree on how to understand this movement. Some stress that it began mainly as a social effort to give poor children basic reading and good behavior, and only later became a religious school. Others stress that its founders were Christians who wanted the children to know the Scriptures from the beginning. Probably both are true. What is certain is that over time the Sunday school became, for many churches, the place where the Bible was systematically taught.

Baptists on both sides of the Atlantic took up the Sunday school in the nineteenth century. In the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention, formed in 1845, established a Sunday School Board in 1891 to produce lesson material and to support churches. By the twentieth century the Sunday school hour was a normal part of Baptist church life in many places: graded classes by age, trained teachers and printed lessons, followed by the worship service.

Not all Baptists welcomed it. Some, especially among the groups sometimes called Primitive or Old School Baptists, opposed Sunday schools, mission societies and similar organizations because they found no command for them in the New Testament. This objection was sincere. We answer it below.

Beyond the Sunday School Hour

In many places in Latin America and Africa, the Baptist teaching ministry goes by other names. Bible study meetings in homes, midweek classes, cell groups, women's and men's fellowships, youth groups, camps and evening schools all do the same work. The name does not matter. What matters is that the church has a regular, planned way to teach the Bible to every age, and that teachers and students meet in groups small enough that people can ask questions.

A good church also relies on a second kind of teaching, which is more personal. Jesus called twelve to be with Him (Mark 3:14). Paul trained Timothy and told him to pass on what he had learned. In 2 Timothy 2:2 we see four generations: Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and the others they will teach. Discipleship is not complete until the learner is able to teach someone else.

Children and Young People

Children are not an afterthought. Parents are the first teachers, and the church helps them and does not replace them. A wise pastor teaches parents how to read the Bible with their children at home, and then provides classes that match the age of the child. Young people face hard questions from school and from the world around them. They need teachers who listen, who know the Bible and who are not afraid of honest questions. Many a pastor was first taught in a children's class by a patient teacher whose name no one remembers. That faithful work is never wasted.

A Simple Pathway

A pastor may ask, "How do I know our church is making disciples?" A simple pathway helps.

1. Hearing the gospel and new birth. The church proclaims Christ and invites response (see Course 4, Unit 9).

2. Baptism. The believer is baptized by immersion after profession of faith (Course 4, Unit 4).

3. A welcome and membership class. Within weeks, new members learn what the church believes, what a Baptist church is, what the church covenant says and how the church governs itself.

4. Regular Bible study. Each member belongs to a class or group that studies the Bible in a planned way.

5. Personal habits. Members are taught to pray, to read Scripture daily, to give, to worship with the church and to share their faith.

6. Finding a place to serve. Each believer has gifts (Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12), and the pastor helps each one to find where to use them.

7. Multiplying. Mature members teach others, lead groups and train new leaders.

The steps do not need to be fancy. A small church can follow this pathway with a pastor, two or three teachers and a few homes.

The Teacher

The teaching ministry stands or falls on its teachers. James warns, "My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment" (James 3:1). A teacher must be a growing believer whose life matches his words, who is loyal to the church's teaching, and who can explain Scripture clearly (see 2 Timothy 2:24-25).

The pastor's duties toward the teachers are these.

• Choose them carefully and prayerfully, with the church's approval according to local custom.

• Meet with them regularly to study the lesson, to pray and to encourage them.

• Give them a sound curriculum, preferably one that goes through books of the Bible and agrees with the church's confession of faith.

• Correct error gently. Teachers should not introduce strange doctrine.

• Thank them often.

Baptists differ on who may teach whom. Titus 2:3-5 tells older women to teach the younger, and the church has long counted on women to teach children and other women. For classes of mixed adults, some conservative Baptist churches ask that men lead, in keeping with 1 Timothy 2:12, and others let qualified women teach mixed classes, reserving only the pastoral office for men. Each church must decide under Scripture, and all agree that gifted women should teach.

Objections and Answers

Objection 1: "The Sunday school is not in the Bible. It is a human program." This is what the Primitive Baptists said, and it must be taken seriously. Baptists hold that the church must follow Scripture in what it does. But Scripture commands the end, which is teaching all that Christ commanded, and it does not prescribe every method. The apostles taught daily in the temple and from house to house (Acts 5:42). The church today uses buildings, hymnbooks and microphones, which are also not mentioned in the New Testament. A method is acceptable if it serves the commands of Scripture and does not contradict them. The Sunday school, or any other class that teaches the Bible, does this.

Objection 2: "Classes do not make disciples. Our church has many programs and little growth." This is often true. Programs can become busy substitutes for obedience. A disciple is formed by the Word and the Spirit, in a relationship with a teacher who lives what he teaches. The answer is not to discard classes but to see them as tools. Jesus with the Twelve and Paul with Timothy teach us that the best discipleship combines group teaching with personal example and friendship. A pastor should ask not only "How many attend class?" but "Are people becoming more like Christ?"

Objection 3: "People are busy, or they cannot read." Both problems are real. Busy members may be better served by short, well-planned study at times when they already gather, or by small groups in homes. Where many cannot read, the church should not leave them behind. Paul told Timothy to give attention to the public reading of Scripture (1 Timothy 4:13), and the Scriptures were read aloud to the people long before most could own a book. Teachers can read passages aloud, tell Bible stories, use memory verses and repeat key lessons. The church should also teach people to read when it can. Baptists, who value personal Bible reading, have often supported literacy.

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a small town, whom we may call Pastor Mateo (a fictional example), serves a church of sixty people. Only he teaches. On Sundays the whole church sits in one room for his message, and children are in the back. Some members have been baptized for years and cannot explain what they believe.

Mateo prays and sees that he must multiply himself. He chooses four faithful members whose lives are steady, and he meets with them on Saturday evenings for an hour to study the next day's passage. In the first month he asks them to lead small groups of six or eight, in the church and in homes. He starts a membership class for new members and a short class for children. He asks the church to approve these steps at a business meeting, so that nobody is surprised. After a year there are three groups. He has not done less work. He has done better work, and the church has begun to teach itself.

Summary

Jesus commands His church to make disciples by going, baptizing and teaching. Because Baptists baptize believers only, every baptized person is one the church has promised to teach. Our convictions about the authority of Scripture, the priesthood of all believers and regenerate membership make Bible teaching central. The Sunday school was begun by Robert Raikes in the early 1780s as an effort to reach poor children, was taken up by Baptists in the nineteenth century, and received the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board in 1891. Some Baptists opposed it as unscriptural, and we answer that methods serve the commands of Scripture. Churches use many forms of teaching, from classes to home groups to personal discipling. A simple pathway leads from the gospel and baptism through membership, Bible study, personal habits and service to the training of others, as in 2 Timothy 2:2. Teachers must be carefully chosen and trained.

Further Reading

• J. M. Pendleton, Church Manual (1867).

• Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students.

• Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (1656), on teaching the people personally.

• Course 1, Unit 6, on the Baptist missionary and educational awakening.

• Course 2, Unit 5 (priesthood of all believers) and Course 4, Unit 4 (baptism in practice).

• Second London Confession (1689) and New Hampshire Confession (1833), as models of what Baptists teach.

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