成人主日学如何改变你教会的文化
对一个牧师来说，改变教会的文化是件很困难的事情。但在过去十年里，我们教会发现了一个意想不到的工具：成人主日学。
主日学如何改变了我们教会的文化
例子：有一段时间，我们的长老担心我们教会里的约会和世界里的约会没有大区别为了娱乐约会，只是有时对婚姻有期待。他们彼此的角色可以互换，没有使用他们的约会来锻炼他们婚后丈夫和妻子互补的角色。例如，男人不会在关系中担当带领的角色，也不会在关系中承担风险，而是先看看一个女人是否对自己有兴趣，然后才去追求她。并且很多恋爱情侣随便地有身体接触。
为了让教会里单身男女知道圣经相关的教导，教会里几个已婚男士会定期地在晚上主持一些研讨会。虽然有帮助，但这些讲座没有带来长老所希望的文化改变。
以恋爱和婚姻为主题的主日学。长老们请一个教会成员准备七周婚姻的材料和六周约会的材料。前七课讲述婚姻的目的，接下来的六周则是在之前的原则上，学习如何寻找配偶。十多年来，教会每年都在学习这个课程。
这个课程引起了讨论，尤其是刚开始的时候。因为讨论的问题很多，并且要花费很多时间，所以带领人很快就决定用一个整课的时间来解答这些问题，并连续几年，他们每周另外找一个晚上在一个长老的家里回答一些问题。
但现在，我们教会的恋爱文化截然不同了。虽然不是每个恋爱关系都根据圣经原则进行，但大部分都是。尽管只有一小半的单身会众上过这课，但他们对恋爱的认识都受到了这课程的影响。谈恋爱的情侣更自然地问：“我们如何使我们的关系更符合圣经原则呢？”
有时候有些人会反对这课程，说：“我想开始和你约会，但我提前告诉你，我不会完全认同“恋爱课程”的内容。” 但这样说反而证明了这课程改变了会众对约会的很多期待。就连那些没有上过这课的人，这课程也帮助让他们把恋爱放在圣经权柄下面。
很奇妙，我们的成人主日学不仅改变了我们教会对恋爱的看法，也改变了教会对其他方面的看法。教会纪律、对人的恐惧、传福音、性别和单身等话题，也越来越受到各自主日学内容的影响。最近我们还开发了关于工作的课程。
事实上，重要主题上主日学的缺乏有时候会抑制文化的改变。没有一个综合的、涵盖重要话题的教导平台，那么教会里的教导和思想影响工作就完全留给了讲道的应用。虽然有帮助，但不全面，也没有互动。专题讲道系列可以提供帮助，但一个牧师不能经常专题讲道。就算专题讲道可以触动一些事情，但只是触动一次。很多教会的成员流动性越来越大，所以很多话题需要经常宣讲。
怎样用主日学来改变教会的文化
当然不是每个成年主日学都会在教会文化改变上有同样的影响力。在过去的十年里，我们学到了如何用主日学来改变教会文化的几点。
1．长期经常性地教导每一课。
到恋爱课程的第四或第五年，我们才开始看到教会文化上的一些真正的改变。只在有人对某主题“有负担”时开一课，或者只在你们的宗派发布这主题的课程时开一课，这一般不会对影响你们教会的文化。
2．给大家提供教材。
我们的教会一直都把课堂的教材（包括老师的稿子和讲义）放在教会的网站上。最初，目标是给其他教会机会来使用这些材料。后来发现这样也给了我们的会员能力来参考这些材料，特别是在这课没有在上的时候。
3．鼓励课外讨论。
教这些课的教师在教导的时候会建议一些关于主题的书。他们会提供在课外一些非正式的问答时间，尤其是对有争议性的话题。他们也会在讲义上提供他们的电子邮件地址，并鼓励大家提问。理想情况下，主日学不只是一个事件，而是一个对话的始作俑者。
4．花时间来全面覆盖一个话题。
一个有效的主日学课程不需要回答所有的问题，但必须足够彻底，提供一个可以回答任何问题的框架。我们通常发现六到十三周长的时间可以足够开发和应用这样一个框架。
5．在讲道里提到成人主日学。
当牧师以经文讲道的时候，应用往往会涉及到某个主日学的主题。在这样的情况下，牧师有机会引导大家去上这课：“如果你想在这方面多想一想，可以考虑参加……”
6．用课程来教圣经经文。
专题教导的一个危险，是课程的教导变成明智建议的提供，而圣经只是用来作为证明。当然，需要有明智的建议和经文支持。你们的会员有可能因为响应明智建议而改变他们的行为，但他们更有可能因为圣经有更好的理解而改变他们的想法和态度。所以只要有可能，我们发现教导会员多了解相关话题的经文有很大的帮助。
假如你正在计划一个课程，关于我们为什么要活出支持我们传福音见证的生命。你可以动脑筋提出六种不同的准则，每个有经文的支持。或者，你可以花全部的时间把彼得前书从头讲到尾。第二个做法会涵盖相同的准则，但还会有更多。一路上，你不单会直接教导圣经，但还会帮助会员看到他们之前可能没有看过的东西（例如，顺服世俗的权威如何助于教会对福音的见证 — 彼得前书里的一个重要的主题）。更重要的是，你们的会员上完这课之后会更熟悉一段经文，使他们以后可以继续挖掘这段经文。
How Sunday School Can Change Your Church’s Culture
Changing the culture of a church is one of the most difficult things for a pastor to do. But over the last decade our church has discovered an unexpected tool for changing a culture: adult Sunday school.
HOW SUNDAY SCHOOL CHANGED OUR CHURCH’S CULTURE
Here’s an example. For some time, our elders were concerned that dating in our church too closely resembled dating in the world. People dated for fun, and only sometimes with an eye toward marriage. They treated their roles interchangeably, failing to view their interactions as a chance to prepare for the complementary roles of husband and wife. For instance, men would not lead and shoulder the risk in relationships, but instead sit back to see if a woman was interested before he put his cards on the table. And of course many couples maintained cavalier attitudes toward physical touch.
Periodically, several married men in the church conducted evening seminars for single men and women in an effort to inject biblical teaching into their thinking. And, while helpful, these seminars did not accomplish the culture change that the elders desired.
Enter a Sunday school class on dating and marriage. The elders asked a man in the congregation to prepare seven weeks of material on marriage and six on dating. The first seven described the goal of marriage, while the next six applied the principles discussed there to the process of finding a spouse. This class has been repeated each year for ten years now.
The class was controversial, especially at first. The questions became so lengthy and involved that the leaders quickly decided to devote an entire class to Q&A, and for several years they held an additional Q&A session at an elder’s home on a weekday evening.
But today, the culture of dating in our congregation is markedly different. Not all dating relationships in our church are conducted according to biblical principles, but most of them are. And while only a bare majority of our single members have taken the class, virtually all of their conversations about dating are overshadowed by the content of that class. Couples more naturally ask, “How can we make our relationship more biblical?”
Sometimes, people have those conversations in reaction to the class: “I’d like to start dating you, but I want you to know that I’m not completely in line with X, Y, or Z from the dating class.” But even statements like these show how much the class has changed members’ expectations about dating. It provides the basic framework for discussion, even for people who have never taken it.
Wonderfully, our adult Sunday school program has effected changes not only in our church’s dating culture, but in other areas as well. Conversations about church discipline, fear of man, evangelism, gender, and singleness increasingly embody the content of their respective Sunday School classes. Just recently we have developed a class on work.
In fact, the lack of a Sunday School class on an important topic has sometimes inhibited culture change. Without a single, comprehensive body of material that adequately covers a topic, the job of teaching and influencing thinking in the church is left to sermon application that, while helpful, is neither comprehensive nor interactive. A topical sermon series can help, but a preacher can afford to preach topically only so often. And even when a topical series touches on some matter, it touches the matter just once. Most of our churches are increasingly transient, which means that some subjects need to be addressed regularly.
HOW TO USE SUNDAY SCHOOL TO CHANGE A CHURCH’S CULTURE
Of course, not every adult Sunday school program is equally effective at changing the culture of a church. Here are a few lessons we’ve learned across the past ten years about how to make Sunday school into a tool for changing a church’s culture.
1. Teach each class on a recurring basis.
It was only in the fourth or fifth year of teaching the dating class that we began to see a real culture change take place. If you address a topic only when someone “has a burden” to teach it, or when your denomination publishes curriculum on it, you will most not likely make a different in your church’s culture.
2. Make your notes available to everyone.
Our church has always posted class notes (including the teacher’s manuscript and handouts) on our website. Our initial goal in doing this was to give other churches that chance to use our material, but along the way it has given our members’ the ability to study those notes when a class is not being taught.
3. Encourage discussion outside of class.
As they teach, our teachers suggest books to read alongside the class. They set up informal times of Q&A outside of the class, especially for controversial topics. And they put their email address on a class handout and encourage the class to ask questions throughout the week. Ideally, Sunday school is not merely an event but the instigator of a dialogue.
4. Take the time to comprehensively cover a topic.
An effective Sunday school class does not need to answer every question, but it must be thorough enough to provide a framework that could answer any question. We’ve generally found that six to thirteen weeks is long enough to develop and apply such a framework.
5. Reference adult Sunday school in your preaching.
As a pastor preaches through Scripture, they often hit upon sermon applications that cover the same terrain as a Sunday school class. In moments like these, the preacher has the chance to direct people to the class: “If you want to think about this further, consider attending…”
6. Use the class to teach Scripture.
One of the dangers of topical teaching is that the substance of the class becomes wise advice, with the Bible used merely as proof text. Of course, there is a time and a place for wise advice, and a time and a place for proof texts. But while your people may change their behavior in response to wise advice, they are more likely to change their thinking and attitudes in response to a better understanding of the Scriptures. So wherever possible, we have found it helpful to walk people through larger passages of Scripture related to the topic at hand.
Suppose, for example, that you are planning a class on why we must live lives that support our evangelistic witness. You could brainstorm six different guidelines with a Bible passage for each. Alternatively, you could spend the whole time walking the class through the book of 1 Peter. This will probably cover those same guidelines, but much more as well. Along the way, you will not only ground your teaching directly in Scripture, but you will help your class to see things they have never seen before (such as the fact that submitting to earthly authority helps the church’s witness to the gospel—a key theme in 1 Peter). What’s more, your church members will walk away knowing a section of Scripture better so that they can mine it for years to come.
作者：Jamie Dunlop
Jamie Dunlop是国会山浸信会的牧师，负责教会行政管理和直属机构的运作。
翻译肢体: 余丽君
用圣经视野和实用资源装备教会领袖
进而通过健康的教会向世界彰显神的荣耀
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