Your cIassroom can be a huge turn-off for visitors to your Sunday school class... for a wide variety of reasons. Many churches have the adult Sunday school class in the church sanctuary. While this is convenient, it is not the most ideal. Sitting in a straight line of pews reinforces the idea of the teacher-as-a-lecturer. While this may be acceptable to people in their 70s and 80s, those who are younger, especially young adults, prefer a more discussion-oriented, teacher-as-a-facilitator model. In a sanctuary, the people may prefer to sit in the same seats they will sit for church, resulting in a scattered group, giving a feeling of emptiness and possibly difficulty hearing one another. The sanctuary as a classroom also struggles with various interruptions: people arriving early for church, children's classes dismissing early, sound crew or musicians preparing for worship, etc.
If your classroom is the sanctuary, what can you do to minimize these potential barriers to the visitor?