Lunsford devotes life to Sunday School

By Melissa Lilley

BSC Communications

Phil Stone, left, senior consultant for Bible study and church administration at the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, presented an award to Fred Lunsford, right, honoring Lunsford's decades of work in Sunday School. Dan Lunsford, center, is Fred's son and president of Mars Hill College.

Fighting during World War II Fred Lunsford doubted he would survive the Battle of the Bulge.

Lunsford, who was married only three days before leaving his bride in North Carolina for a 20-month tour, promised God he would do whatever He wanted him to do if He brought him home safely.

When Lunsford returned home he quickly made the transition from fighting for freedom to fighting for the small churches in North Carolina.

Lunsford, 82, was ordained in 1950 and devoted his life to ministry in small churches.

One of the first churches he served averaged about 20 people in Sunday School.

Each week Lunsford picked up the neighborhood children in his pickup truck to "haul them into Sunday School." In just a short time as Sunday School director Lunsford saw Sunday School attendance increase to 120.

For 26 years Lunsford served as director of missions for Truett Association in western North Carolina. "As a director of missions I was a general practitioner but I majored in Sunday School," Lunsford said.

Lunsford's heart for Sunday School came as he grew up in Vengeance Creek Baptist Church. "In that Sunday School I got the nurture and help I needed as a child growing up," Lunsford said.

Lunsford believes in Sunday School because "everyone has an opportunity to be involved and to minister." Sunday School lets a congregation minister and do outreach with the resources they already have. "You can take what they have - you don't have to organize something new," Lunsford said.

During the 1990s Lunsford worked with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC) as a church growth multiplier, also serving in Sunday School, discipleship training and deacon ministry.

About eight years ago Lunsford started the nonprofit group Christian Lighthouse Ministry to serve small churches. Lunsford and other volunteers work with churches to help develop ministries such as evangelism and prayer. They are also devoted to service projects such as buying Bibles for churches and jail ministries.

Lunsford is writing a book about Sunday School that will be published by the ministry he started.

From Sunday School growth campaigns to new church plants started with Sunday School, to salvations in a Sunday School class, Lunsford said Sunday School is changing lives and is not dead, but in some churches, it is asleep.

"We live in an entertainment age - everyone wants to be entertained," he said. "Sunday School is not an entertainment event - it's a learning event."

Lunsford remembers a conference he attended years ago when he heard a speaker say, "As goes the Sunday School, so goes the church. Sunday School is the church doing the Great Commission."

Lunsford devoted his life to these words and believes Sunday School will again be at the forefront of the church's mission once leaders realize Sunday School can help fulfill the Great Commission.

"I believe Sunday School is effective when Sunday School leadership comes to the point where they minister out of the overflow of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives," Lunsford said.

Lunsford and his wife, Gladys, have been married 64 years and have two children. Their son Dan is president of Mars Hill College.