You teach the adult Come, Follow Me class. Your job isn't to present the lesson — it's to create a conversation worth having. Adults learn through discussion, not lectures. The quality of your questions matters more than the quality of your answers.
Day One
Do These Things First
Meet with the Sunday School President.↗ text them
Ask: Is there one class or multiple? Do I cover the full adult class or a specific group? Are there any class dynamics I should know about? What does he or she want the second hour to feel like?
Know the curriculum. Sunday School uses Come, Follow Me ↗ — the adult/family edition. It follows the same weekly schedule as Primary and home study. Know where the class is currently in the year and read a few upcoming lessons to orient yourself.
Observe the class at least once before you teach. If timing allows, sit in while a colleague teaches — or while the outgoing teacher finishes out. Notice: how do class members engage? Who asks questions? Who goes quiet? What's the temperature of the room?
Find your room. Is it the same room every week? Does the ward split into multiple Sunday School classes? Know where you'll be before your first Sunday so you're not sorting logistics while adults filter in.
Prepare your first lesson, not just your first outline. Know the material well enough to field questions, follow tangents briefly, and come back. A lesson where you're reading directly from your notes is a lecture. A lesson where you know the content is a conversation.
Your Role
What the Sunday School Teacher Actually Does
You teach the adult Sunday School class — typically the second hour of church, after sacrament meeting. Most wards run a single combined adult class; some larger wards split by age or other factors. The Sunday School President assigns classes and handles scheduling; you prepare and teach.
The curriculum is Come, Follow Me — the same weekly reading plan used across the Church. You're not creating original doctrine or designing a curriculum; you're facilitating a discussion of that week's scripture block in a way that's relevant, engaging, and worth showing up for.
You are a facilitator, not a lecturer. The adults in your class have decades of life experience, faith struggles, and gospel insight. Your job is to create the conditions for that to surface — not to deliver content at them. The best Sunday School teachers are often the ones who talk the least.
You report to the Sunday School President. He or she manages the calling pipeline, sits in occasionally, and is your resource when you need support. You don't need approval for lesson content — Come, Follow Me provides the framework — but keep the President informed if something unusual comes up.
Weekly Rhythm
Every Week
Prepare
Read the week's Come, Follow Me lesson and the underlying scripture block. Identify the two or three ideas worth discussing — not just covering. Write three to five genuine questions you'd want to ask the class. Good questions produce discussions worth having; weak questions produce one-word answers and silence.
Arrive early
Set up the room, arrange chairs to encourage discussion (circle or U-shape rather than rows if possible), and greet people as they come in. The two minutes before class starts are relationship minutes. Use them.
During class
Start with your best question. Let silence breathe — adults will fill it if you give them time. Redirect rather than lecture. When someone says something good, build on it: "That's interesting — does anyone else have a reaction to that?" Keep an eye on the clock so you end on time.
After class
A brief word to the Sunday School President — "today was good" or "we had a hard topic come up, FYI" — keeps them in the loop without requiring a formal report. Teachers who communicate informally build a much better relationship with their president than those who don't.
Running a Discussion
The Craft of Teaching Adults
Start with a question, not a statement
The single most effective shift you can make as a Sunday School teacher: open every class with a question rather than a summary of what you're going to cover. "What stood out to you most in this week's reading?" is better than any 5-minute introduction. It signals that the class belongs to everyone, not just you.
The hard questions are worth asking
Come, Follow Me will sometimes land on passages that are difficult — morally complex, historically uncomfortable, or doctrinally ambiguous. Don't skip them. Adults who feel their real questions can be raised in class will come back. Adults who feel those questions have to be left at the door often stop coming — or stop engaging even when they're there.
Manage the voices in the room
Every class has dominant voices and quiet ones. Your job is to create room for both. A simple redirect — "I want to make sure we hear from a few more people — does anyone else have a thought on this?" — redistributes the conversation without shutting anyone down. The quietest people in the room often have the most to offer.
Silence is not failure
When you ask a question and the room goes quiet, resist the urge to answer it yourself. Wait. Five seconds of silence feels like an eternity to the person at the front — and like a normal pause to everyone else. Adults answer questions; they just need a moment.
One good discussion is worth more than ten covered topics. The goal of Sunday School is not to get through the lesson plan. It is to create a moment where someone understands something about the gospel or their own faith more clearly than they did an hour ago. That's rarely accomplished by covering everything — it's accomplished by going deep on one thing.
Teaching in the Savior's Way
The Church's teacher development resource — "Teaching in the Savior's Way" — is available on the Gospel Library app. It's worth reading before your first Sunday and revisiting occasionally. It focuses on learner-centered teaching, which is exactly the approach that makes Sunday School feel worth attending.
Key Contacts
Who You Work With Regularly
Sunday School President
↗ text
Your direct leader — class structure, substitute coordination, room issues, difficult dynamics. Keep them in the loop.
Class Members
Know them as people, not an audience. A teacher who knows Brother Williams served a mission in Brazil and Sister Chen just lost her mother teaches differently — and better.
Other Sunday School Teachers
If the ward runs multiple classes, stay coordinated. Share what worked, what didn't, what's ahead in the curriculum. You don't have to teach the same way — just stay in sync.
Quick Notes
Operational Notes
Room number, class time, typical enrollment, anything worth handing off when you're released.