More than 1000 Sabbath school (SS) leaders across Australia were trained during a five-week Sabbath School for Life Roadshow from October 13 to November 11.
Special guest speaker Curtis Hall travelled across seven conferences, visiting 24 locations to undertake Sabbath school training with SS leaders, facilitators and attendees.
Mr Hall is the founder of Hit the Mark Sabbath school training and is a lay SS leader from the United States who has a passion for training leaders to run engaging Sabbath schools. He has been teaching and training leaders for more than 14 years.
During his presentations, Mr Hall used his Flight Time Teaching program to encourage SS leaders to take their classes on a journey. Using an aeroplane analogy, he told participants to “get the plane in the air, follow a pre-determined route, deal with any hijackers and make sure you land the plane.”
Australian Union Conference (AUC) SS director Pastor Lyndelle Peterson has worked in conjunction with SS conference directors to coordinate the trip since October 2022. “It’s programs like this that really show that as a Church we are better when we work together,” she said.
“The team of SS directors across Australia are an exceptionally gifted and passionate group. We wanted to do something significant for SS and we worked together as a team to make the roadshow a success,” Pastor Peterson explained.
“This wouldn’t have happened without the AUC and conferences working as a team. It meant some of our smaller conferences that may not have otherwise had the resources could really benefit.”
“The roadshow nature of the trip also meant that Curtis was able to train at many of our regional churches. It wasn’t only bigger city events and regionals; the training came to the people, and we know that was really appreciated,” she added.
Church support and development director for South Queensland Conference Pastor Greg Pratt said, “I knew the training would be good, but the outcomes were even better than expected. Curtis had the ability to train and equip not only adult SS teachers and leaders but also children and youth teachers, who were inspired to breathe life into their Sabbath Schools.”
“I’ve also had SS groups come and share with me that they’re going to take on a mission project in their community as a result of Curtis’ training,” Pastor Pratt added.
Tasmanian Conference president pastor Rick Hergenhan said Mr Hall did a great job in motivating people. “I’ve had many church members come up to me since the roadshow and telling me how they’re going to do things differently as a result of the training,” said Pastor Hergenhan.
The AUC has printed a special Australian edition of Curtis Hall’s Flight Time Teaching training booklet, and copies are still available. For more information, church members can contact their local conference office.
