Most churches in the United States have some kind of Sunday School, Church School, or Bible class program. The publication in 1969 of Elmer Towns' pioneering study, The Ten Largest Sunday Schools, demonstrated the role of these classes in contributing to lasting church growth. Churches differ, however, in approaches taken to such classes. Differences are especially notable in regard to classes for adults. The Church Growth Institute at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, conducted a survey that identified differences in the way growing and declining congregations approach the Bible School -- particularly in regard to the adult classes.

The survey included 300 congregations of the Churches of Christ in the United States. A strati-fled random sample was modified to focus on congregations of the size attended by most of the members. The sample was also modified to include an equal number of growing and declining congregations in each of five size categories: 100-199, 200-299, 300-399, 400-499, and 500 or more members. There were 30 growing and 30 declining congregations in each of these five size categories. The purpose of the study was to identity significant differences between the approaches to the Bible School in growing and declining congregations. The following differences were observed.

1. Growing congregations get a larger percentage of their evangelistic church growth through their Bible School. Adult converts in both growing and declining churches included in this study virtually all came through personal evangelism, but the adult converts in growing congregations were attending an adult Bible class before or at least during the time the personal evangelism was in progress. Adults converted in the declining congregations of this sample tended not to have had any contact with the Bible class or even the worship assembly levels of church activity prior to the time of their conversion. Many of these adult converts dropped out of the church soon after their conversion. One of the reasons the declining churches of this sample are declining is that they have a lower retention rate among adult converts. Biological church growth in both growing and declining congregations of this sample came almost totally through the Bible School.

2. Growing congregations tend to have a more balanced program that places as much emphasis on the adult classes as on the other classes, but declining congregations tend to put most of the emphasis on the younger age groups and neglect the adults. This determination was based on reports by church leaders of their own emphasis and on allocations of resources such as staff time, personnel, and funds. This is a very important point because the adult classes are the most immediate key to lasting church growth. That is where the workers and the financial support come from in most churches.

3. Growing congregations tend to have smaller adult Bible classes -- more in the 30 to 60 member range -- while declining churches typically have larger adult classes. It should be noted, however, that this finding applied only to churches with 200 or more members. This difference was not observed in smaller churches.

4. Growing congregations tend to have a Bible School curriculum--especially at the adult level -- that is more challenging and that has a stronger Biblical emphasis than what is observed in declining congregations. In the growing congregations of this sample, the adult classes had textual or topical studies with high-quality Sunday School literature that required the members to study outside the class and that study got them into some serious Bible reading. In the declining churches, the tendency was to have no formal Sunday School literature--just verse-by-verse studies of the text with members not really expected to do any preparation outside of class or just the "pooling of ignorance" kind of discussions that do not require any preparation time outside of class. In many of the declining churches of this sample, the adult curriculum consisted of little more than "rehearsing the doctrine" week after week with no challenge to learn anything new or to grow.

5. Growing congregations tend to provide more organized small group activity through the adult Bible classes (or through some other means) while declining congregations tend to do little to encourage small group activity. More research is needed before any conclusions could be reached about how applicable these findings are to other fellowships. More research is also needed in churches outside the United States to see if differences observed in this study can also be observed in other nations. If considered within these limits, however, the results of this study seem to suggest a direction churches might want to consider in regard to their adult classes.