Yesterday’s blog post was part 1 in a 2-part series on Arthur Flake and his formula for growing a Bible study ministry. Your church may call it Sunday School, Adult Bible Fellowship, LIFE Groups, or some other term. Your group may meet in a classroom or a living room. Flake’s Formula will work in any of the above scenarios.

His formula, K-E-E-P-GO, is a step-by-step way to grow your Bible study and/or your Bible study ministry at large. Yesterday I covered K and E (Know your possibilities, Expand your organization). Today I’ll cover the final three components of the formula.

E: ENLIST and TRAIN the WORKERS

Once you know your possibilities for future growth (step 1) and you enlarge the organization (step 2), you must enlist new leaders for those groups (step 3). People often do not volunteer to lead groups because they are not asked – so we must be intentional about identifying and approaching people whom we believe are able to provide quality leadership. Almost 100% of the volunteers that a church will need are going to come from adult Bible study groups. That’s why it is so important for group leaders to hang on to their group members with a very loose grip!

P: PROVIDE SPACE and EQUIPMENT

This is the fourth step in Flake’s Formula, and one you cannot overlook. You know your possibilities (step 1) and you have expanded the organization (step 2). You have enlisted workers for those new groups (step 3) and now you must provide a place for the groups to meet, plus the equipment the group needs to do its work.

GO: GO AFTER the PEOPLE

The fifth and final step in Flake’s Formula is to simply Go After The People. By this time, you’ve identified growth potential, expanded your organization, enlisted new leaders, and provided space. All that’s left to do is to go after the target groups and invite them into Bible study groups. Although the work that precedes this step is often hard to accomplish, this step is where the real work of expanding the Sunday School takes place. This is where “the rubber meets the road.” The formula won’t work if you simply sit back and wait for the people to show up – you must go after them. It requires a degree of aggressiveness on your part. Flake said, “If we stop here, all the work which had been done will  be largely in vai, the organization will go to pieces and discouragement will result on every hand” (5 Step Formula, p.24).

In Summary

Here is Flake’s Formula all put together:

Know your possibilities

Enlarge the organization

Enlist the leaders

Provide space and equipment

GO after the people

To receive a free downloadable e-reader version of the book 5 Step Formula for Sunday School Growth, follow this link to LifeWay’s website and the exact page where you can download the free version. I encourage you to read it and learn more about this amazing man, Arthur Flake, and his vision for helping groups expand their ministries by reaching new people.