Page images
PDF
EPUB

Various societies reported are as follows: Christian Endeavor 465; young people's societies 31; missionary societies 55; temperance societies 6; Boy Scouts 84; Knights of King Arthur 22; Campfire Girls 64; organized classes 52; choirs and orchestras 33; athletic clubs and organized gymnasium. classes 30; sewing societies 8; miscellaneous societies for boys 102; miscellaneous societies for girls 95; miscellaneous 83.

EDUCATIONAL CO-ORDINATION

18. What educational work do these organizations do? What relation, if any, do they sustain to the Sunday School and its work?

19. Is there any evidence of an inco-ordination of educational effort on the part of these organizations and the Sunday School? What suggestions would you make in view of the situation in your own church?

Fully as the churches have realized the importance of activity in their program for childhood and youth, one may question whether they have clearly enough grasped the fact that such activity is educational in character. There is a great contrast between the answers to Questions 17 and 18. Only 108 respondents report any educational work on the part of the organizations named in the previous answer. And only 24 of these speak of the active, expressional life of these organizations as educational. But education is not through instruction alone; it is quite as much through what we do as through what we learn. The fact is that every organization that the church maintains or permits for children and young people is doing educational work just because it exists. It has an educational significance which is sometimes of positive value and sometimes not sometimes, doubtless, even harmful. The church will in time seek to make each of these organizations find its place in a unified program of religious education which provides in proper correlation both for instruction and for expression.

Eighty-four churches report that these organizations sustain no relation to the Sunday School and its work. Eighty-two report that they stand related only in the sense that the same individuals are members of or leaders in both. Thirty-six report a relation that may properly be termed organic.

"All of these organizations except the two Endeavor societies are carried on under the supervision of the Sunday School. We endeavor to co-ordinate and relate all the educational work of the church." (F17x)

"The particular line of educational work is pretty clearly indicated in the name of the organization. The principle is followed of requiring membership in the Sunday School as a condition of admission to membership in all younger organizations except the Sewing School. Two things that are helpful in keeping the work of our organizations co-ordinated are the submitting of all new plans in these organizations to the pastor or pastor's assistant and to a missionary committee that studies the co-ordination of all missionary, educational and benevolent work throughout the church." (F 67x)

"All closely affiliated and head up in Religious Education Department of the church. They are intended to afford expressional program in addition to the organized class work." (F68x)

"They are all constituent parts of the Sunday School, as regards individual members. As the Sunday School provides impression, these provide expressional opportunities. There is some inco-ordination but we are trying to remedy that. I would have every club center about some specific group or Sunday School class, thus heading up all the young people's groups in the Sunday School, making it carry both the impressional and expressional aspects." (F93x)

Fifty-seven churches report evidence of some inco-ordination of educational effort on the part of these organizations and the Sunday School. One hundred and seventy-two report none. The evidence is mainly in duplication of work, overlapping and competition, failure to observe proper age boundaries, and too great separation of interests and work. The suggestions for betterment are various, as was to be expected in view of the immediately local application of the question. They center about the election of a church committee on religious education, the securing a director of religious education, the federation of organizations, the subordination of all to the Sunday School or merging them into it, and the need of a judicious killing with future care to avoid over-organization. "We ought to have a church cabinet, meeting frequently to make definite plans and so avoid overlapping and competition." (C600x)

"Strengthen all Sunday School class organizations and clubs. Develop the social life of these and of the departments of the Sunday School until adequate provision is made for all the social needs of youth through the Sunday School. Inaugurate a perpetual campaign to enroll every member of every other organization in the Sunday School. (D303x)

"I would put the president and secretary of each organization into a central council for the purpose of unifying the work." (D310x)

"We are able to co-ordinate these agencies in the local church. In district work there is need of a better understanding. We have too much machinery, too many meetings of county and district organizations. Christian Endeavor workers and Sunday School workers should hold institutes together to consider the subject of religious education." (D342x)

"Our difficulty is not so much, as it seems to me, "inco-ordination" as lack of suitably trained persons to take up and carry on the work we can see to do." (F70x)

"Our principle is to center all social and educational work in the Sunday School, the name of which we plan to change accordingly to Church School." (F72x)

ADMINISTRATIVE RELATION

20. What administrative relation holds between your church and Sunday School? Do you have a church Committee on Religious Education? If so, how are its members appointed, and what qualifications do you look for in

them? Does the church appropriate funds for the maintenance of the Sunday School?

Some administrative relation between church and Sunday School is reported by 228 churches. In nearly all cases this takes the form of the election by the church of the Sunday School superintendent or the superintendent and certain other officers. Some add that an annual report is required by the church; and a few state that the Sunday School is looked upon as in every sense the church school. Thirty-one committees on religious education are reported. The members of most of these are elected by the church; in some cases they are appointed by the pastor or by the church's prudential or executive committee. Ninety-one churches appropriate funds for the maintenance of the Sunday School, in whole or in part. It should be added that these figures are largely weighted by the graded-lesson schools. To that group belong 122 of the 228 reporting an administrative relation, 27 of the committees on religious education, and 61 of the schools supported by the church.

"The Sunday School superintendent is elected by the church at the business meeting at which deacons are elected. He is a member of the church committee. The church pays all expenses of the school. Our Men's Association has a committee on religious education which is alive. We put on that committee men fitted to direct education." (F10x)

"The church annually elects the officers of the Sunday School. The superintendent in his administration seeks to carry out the wishes of the pastor. Once a month there is held a meeting of our Sunday School cabinet, consisting of the pastor, the superintendent, secretary, treasurer, the leaders of the Junior and Primary departments, and the missionary committee." (F11x)

"The educational director is answerable directly to the church cabinet. Reports are called for every month. All bills are paid by the church treasurer after vote of the cabinet. Bible School contributions are made on the basis of one-half for church expenses and one-half for missions." (F19x)

DIRECTORS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

21. Do you have a director of religious education or a paid Sunday School superintendent?

The uniform schools report none other than the pastor. The gradedlesson schools report 39, and part-graded schools 4. Of these 5 are assistant pastors and 4 pastor's assistants in addition to their duties in connection with religious education. A number of reports state that they hope to have such an officer soon. One school reports that the kindergarten teacher is paid, but no other.

CHURCH ACCESSIONS

22. How many boys and girls or young men and women united with your church last year, coming from the Sunday School? Is this number typical? Ninety-one churches report "None." Four hundred and thirty churches report a total of 5,063. Sixty-five do not answer or report num

1

bers untypical. From schools of under 100, there was an average accession to the church of 2.9; from those of 100-200, 6.9; from those of over 200, 18.0. From uniform schools the average accession was 5.6; from graded-lesson schools 10.8; and from part-graded schools 8.4. If these figures are translated into percentages of enrollment in these respective groups, however, the differences almost disappear as is seen in the following table:

[blocks in formation]

Whether this percentage is low or high cannot be determined without a careful study of a number of representative schools throughout a series of years. In the absence of further data, it seems to be about what one should expect from year to year in the normal course of the church's program of religious education.

CO-OPERATION BETWEEN SUNDAY SCHOOL AND HOME 1

23. Do you have a definitely planned arrangement by which church or Sunday School seeks the co-operation of the home in the religious education of children? Do you have a parents' association or parents' class?

A striking lack of co-operation between the Sunday School and the home is revealed by the fact that 427 report no effort to interest the home in the religious education of the children, and 60 report "nothing specific." There are 8 references to parents' associations and 33 parents' classes and clubs, composed mostly of mothers. Occasional parents' meetings are held in 10 cases. Visitation by Sunday School teachers for definite purpose of interesting the parents are reported by 16. Otherwise such specific work as is being done in the homes is left to the Home Department, in 39 cases. The lack of helpful co-operation between Sunday School and home, revealed by the replies, has an important bearing upon the loss of Sunday School children to the church, and throws light upon some of the conditions revealed in the answers to the questions which follow.

FAMILY WORSHIP AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN THE HOME

24. What are the conditions in your community and parish with respect to worship and religious training in the home?

The replies received may be classified as follows:

[blocks in formation]

1

Questions 23 to 33 have been collated by the Commission's committees on Religious Education in the Home and Training for Christian Leadership.

a

The answers indicate that regular family worship is almost non-existent among the churches which returned the questionnaire. "Average" was often qualified by phrases like "As good as in most places" reply which can fairly be understood to mean unsatisfactory. The same holds true of the 74 cases in which the question is disregarded. A considerable number of respondents report activity in moral and religious instruction in the home, but the devotional side of religious expression is clearly neglected.

25. What is your church doing to encourage worship in the home?

The answers to this question indicate a recognition of the decline of family worship, and considerable effort toward its improvement. Occasional sermons are preached by 188 pastors. In 53 cases pastors make family worship the objective of their personal work. In 29 replies reference was made to the distribution of devotional literature, special mention being made of the Daily Bible, Helps by the Way, and the Bible Readings and Prayers issued by the Congregational Church Extension Society of Los Angeles. The Family Altar League is also mentioned in several cases. One pastor assists in family worship in the homes he visits. One Sunday School teaches prayers to its pupils and another reports specific instruction of the young in worship. One church reports that no special effort is necessary, as 200 out of 275 members are converts of "Billy Sunday" and there is now much home religion and prayer. Even among these replies, however, there is a great absence of definiteness, so that an attempt to summarize the answers leaves the distinct impression that the vitally important work of building up family worship is left to spasmodic effort instead of being considered a matter of the greatest concern. The impression is intensified by the fact that 156 respondents frankly report "nothing specific," 54 report "no effort," and 99 leave the question unanswered.

RELATION OF CHURCH AND COLLEGE

26. How many young men and women in the last ten years went to college from your church? To what colleges did they go? Did they maintain connection with your church during their college life or transfer membership to a church in a college town?

While the figures reported are necessarily approximate, the vital connection between the church and college is shown by the fact that 368 respondents report a total of 5,507 young people entering college in the last ten years, an average of almost 15 per church. Only 43 report no students, and these, in every case, are small country churches, or churches in mining or industrial centers. Students in colleges having denominational affiliations are slightly in the majority, and practically all of the colleges mentioned are those with Congregational associations. By far the largest number of students, 80.8 per cent, maintained their connection with their home church; 12.4 per cent joined college churches, and only 6.8 per cent became "affiliated" members of churches in college towns.

« PreviousContinue »