Annual Sunday School Class Promotion Options

June Promotion Month

Advantages

• Many children would like to promote as soon as school is over.
• You are promoting at the beginning of a literature quarter.

Disadvantages

• This is a poor time to begin the year with a big Sunday School promotion since most will be involved in summer vacations and activities.
• The children that are promoted into the youth group are generally still too young for a typical summer youth activity schedule.
• Older preschoolers going into a first grade Sunday School class would find the curriculum geared for children who have completed the first grade. This could make the curriculum difficult for them.
• The first months of a Sunday School class are important for a teacher to get to know the children and the children to know the teacher. The summer months are generally high absentee times for both children and teachers making this relationship building time difficult.

Conclusion

June promotion is generally not recommended because the summer months are normally low attendance time in the church. This would prohibit a good strong beginning of the Sunday School year.

September Promotion Month

Advantages

• Promotion, even though a few weeks behind the local school schedule, is still timely.
• Most of the church has settled in for the fall and this makes it a good time for a strong Sunday School emphasis.
• You are promoting at the beginning of a literature quarter.
• After a good promotional emphasis in early September, you would have several months before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays that generally will distract from the Sunday School emphasis and goals.

Disadvantages

• The nominating committee would find that most of its work would happen in the summer months.
• The first Sunday of September is generally during the Labor Day weekend.

Conclusion

Even with the problem of the Labor Day weekend during the first week of September, this is the most recommended promotion time.

October Promotion Month

Advantages

• The nomination committee would have time in the fall for its work.

Disadvantages

• Promotion would be during a literature quarter.
• Promotion would happen too far after the start of the school schedule.

Conclusion

While for years this has been the accepted promotion time in the church, the moving of the start of local school to early August and the moving of the Sunday School literature to a September – November quarter have made it an inadequate promotion time.