If you are a pastor or Sunday School director, you will want to get a copy of How to Sunday School Manual by Wayne Poling. Wayne has enlisted Sunday School practitioners from around the nation to contribute articles which answer more than 100 questions about Sunday School. I had the opportunity to contribute two of the articles: one on teachers continuing to develop their skills and one about budgeting.

The Manual is a "compilation of short, to-the-point articles...that offer practical tips and advice for organizing and leading your church's Sunday School ministry. This manual

• Serves as a reference guide for the person expected to know how to administer an effective Sunday School;
• Gives you practical actions you can take for planning, leading, and evaluating your Sunday School;
• Provides all the forms and tools needed to complete the actions outlined" (back cover).

The contents of How to Sunday School Manual include these four sections (shared with a couple of the questions answered for each section):

INVITE:

• How do I evaluate our "invite" attitude?
• How do I discover real prospects?

DISCOVER:

• How do I train teachers to teach more effectively?
• How do I evaluate teaching in my church?

CONNECT:

• How can we build community through the Sunday School?
• How do I build an effective Sunday School prayer system?

ADMINISTER:

• How do I lead our church in annual planning for our Sunday School?
• How can we reorganize our Sunday School without bloodshed?

The 189-page book also comes with a CD full of additional forms, help, book reading list, and resources including the five Sunday School books written by David Francis. The cost is only $14.95. How to Sunday School Manual will be a resource to which you will turn many times for help in the months and years to come. Press the book title links to learn more about the resource or to place an order for it.

Train yourself to be the best Sunday School leader possible. Give God your best. He deserves your best and so do the people God has called you to serve. Be revolutionary!

For more ideas about training, check out these blog posts:

• Creative Ways to Train Sunday School Teachers
• How Often Do You Train Your Sunday School Workers?
• Can You List the Values of Sunday School Teacher/Worker Training?
• Training Sunday School Teachers for Change
• Training Teachers for a Great Sunday School Launch
• Responding to Sunday School Teachers Who Don’t Want to Train
• Trainin g Leaders through Adult Sunday School Classes
• Calendaring Sunday School Growth
• Nine Key Healthy Sunday School Issues, Part 2
• Churches Cooperating to Make Sunday School Stronger
• Could R.O.P.E.S. Improve Sunday School?
• Plan an Exciting Launch to the New Sunday School Year
• Free Training Materials for Sunday School Teachers
• Essential Basics for Sunday School Leadership by Pastors and Directors
• The Many Hats of the Sunday School Director
• Top Priorities of a New Sunday School Director
• Plan for Your Sunday School to Grow This Year, Part 2
• 5 Goals for Sunday School Growth This Year