Are you looking for a way to motivate your Sunday School team during the sluggish summer months? Try out some of these "Super Summer" Sunday School Events.

Summer Care Nights
Our church conducts Care Night, a time of outreach, on a regular basis throughout the year. Not every attendee in your church is skilled, or willing, to make an outreach visit to a home. But many of them will make telephone calls to prospects. Others will gladly send cards or letters to prospects. A few prefer to pray for prospects.

Summer Sunday School Electives
During the summer, we offer several short-term, elective classes for adults. After having established regular Sunday morning attendance patterns, these new people usually are ready to become part of an established class when the summer ends.

Summer Welcome Class
Our church is located midway between two college campuses. The university setting brings many first-time guests to the church during the summer months as they establish residences prior to the fall semester. A summer Welcome Class is offered for their benefit.

Summer Sunday School Enlistment Campaign
On a Sunday afternoon, more than 150 people came to hear testimonies from people who serve in Sunday School, to take a spiritual gifts inventory, and to commit themselves to a Sunday School ministry. We used this event to launch our Sunday School teacher enlistment effort for the fall.

Summer Fellowship Events to Birth New Classes
God seemed to be sending us many visitors who were single parents. One Sunday morning, during Sunday School, we held a Single Parent Brunch. This fellowship event built a core group for a new Sunday School class for single parents. We have used this same fellowship approach to birth classes for single adults and young married couples.

Summer Home Bible Study Groups
For the past two summers, we have effectively used eight-week, Sunday night home Bible study groups. Since the church is fast-growing, the building of relationships is a key need. The summer home groups help accomplish this task.

Summer Sunday School Training Extravaganza
Saturday morning in August has been a time for training our Sunday School workers who will be serving in the upcoming church year. The day begins at 8:30 a.m. with continental breakfast, followed by a pep talk by the pastor. Then, age groups move to training conferences from 9:00 a.m. to noon.

Summer Sunday School Workers Appreciation Banquet
This banquet in August expresses thanks to our dedicated Sunday School workers. We provide a meal for each worker and his or her spouse. The banquet serves as a relationship-building time and a time to build vision and set goals for the year.

Summer Ministry Skills Training Events
Our deacon group sponsored a series of "Caregiving Skills" seminars on selected Saturday mornings. The seminars were open to anyone who wanted to improve his or her caregiving skills. A local Christian counseling firm provided seminar leaders for these training sessions.

Summer Church Picnic
Your church probably schedules a church picnic. But, did you know you can do Sunday School outreach via the church picnic? Each year, several of our Adult Sunday School classes contact prospects and encourage them to attend the picnic.

Summer Vacation Bible School
Vacation Bible School can be a prime outreach event. A direct-mail flier was mailed to homes near our church. A large sign on the church lawn advertised VBS. As a pastor, I believe in VBS, and we have never had a Vacation Bible School that did not net us many prospects for follow up!

Summer Sunday School Class Back-to-School Ministry Project
Our church is affiliated with the Greater Detroit Baptist Association. A ministry of that association is the Hope Baptist Center , a social ministries center that reaches out to low-income people. We encourage classes to "adopt" a child, or several children, and to provide a full set of back-to-school clothes as a class ministry project.

Promoting Your Summer Events
There is a mindset that because summer is a low-attendance time, we shouldn't bother with a lot of summer activities. Summer is prime time for churches!

Each year, during the last week of May, we mail out to every member and prospect in the database a large, colorful newsletter that shows all of the activities and events for the summer. Extra copies are printed to mail to first-time church visitors to show them that our church is an active, alive congregation.

Gary Hardin is pastor of First Baptist Church in Shepherdsville, Kentucky . This article is courtesy of Lifeway Christian Resources, www.lifeway.com .