Looking Ahead In Christian Ed
edited by. Margaret Jacobsen9 M .A .
Associate professor of Christian Education, Biola Bible College
The Church Library books (November 1953 issue of Ladies Home Journal) says, “ Juvenile delin quency of our time cannot be under stood unless you know what has been put into the minds of children.” Young minds are being fed with filth, consciences seared, evil desires aroused, and standards lowered or lost. What difficult, resistant ground in which to sow the seed of God’s Word. Surely we who are, Sunday school teachers, Christian parents and earnest Christians must be concerned about this menacing condition. Can we protect our children and youth from this evil influence? Yes, we can—by replacing it with reading material which blesses and builds Christian character. Use that power ful influence of the printed page for God’s purposes— to open eyes, melt hearts and direct wills toward Him. Develop an appetite and appreciation for Christian biography, novels, in spirational and study helps by put ting such books into their hands to read. What a great supplement to our teaching and worship can be the home-reading of books that challenge, guide, illustrate and thrill with the adventure of living for Christ, as demonstrated in biographies. If we are to minister effectively for Christ to our pupils, our friends and families we must guide their reading habits. The church must meet the reading needs and problems of its people. Every church is responsible to provide a good lending-library for its Sunday school, youth work, adult program and general membership. The library is an essential arm of the church, greatly extending its min istry as books go into the homes to evangelize, to inspire and challenge to deeper consecration, teach the doc trines of its faith, train Sunday school workers and other lay leadership. No church can overlook this arm and feel that it is fulfilling its respon sibility. Christian leaders are increasingly recognizing the vital ministry of Christian books and magazines. More
and more churches are assuming their responsibility of p r o v id in g active lending-libraries for their people. To meet this growing vision for church libraries, the Christian Educa tion Partner Service has published a library handbook which offers com plete guidance in setting up and maintaining an active church library. Any church can have a good library according to the proven “ Library Day Plan” for obtaining 100-500 new books for the library—in one day and without cost to the church budg et. A list of 500 basic books is given, covering every field of interest in a church library. Each book is cata logued. The complete book catalogu ing system is included (Dewey deci mal, slightly adapted). Every impor tant detail on organizing the library, selecting, obtaining and processing the books, opening the library, ad vertising the library and keeping the books in circulation is given in the pictorial manual section. Accession and financial sheets are included for listing every book and recording each item of money that is received and expended for the library. A miscel laneous section allows for library re ports, notes, etc. Other helpful pro visions are a set of 27 shelf-classi fication tabs, a window stencil, sam ple book pocket-card and file cards, and the correct placement of all pa per book-processing supplies. The Church Library Handbook is published in notebook form to provide for an expanding library record. Sup plementary book lists and new ideas for the church library will be pub lished annually by the Christian Ed ucation Partner Service and will fit into the handbook—a perpetually up- to-date library program. A library supplies kit, a temporary file-box con taining 100 each of the paper supplies needed to prepare books for circula tion, is available as a companion to the handbook. The Church Library Handbook ($4.95) and the companion Library Supplies Kit ($6.95) are published by Christian Education Partner Service, Box 535, Montrose, California.
11Tancy, a sparkling 10-year-old, was I given a Sugar Creek Gang book by her mother — with a silent prayer. Soon after Nancy began reading the novel she said, “Mother, those boys and girls are real Chris tians, aren’t they?” A few days later her mother reminded Nancy of her statement and asked if she didn’t want to accept Jesus as her own Saviour so that she would be a real Christian, too. “ Oh, I already did . . . the other night . . . in my room,” was Nancy’s radiant reply. “What brought you to the point of accepting Christ?” I asked a friend who had come out of a very worldly life at the age of 27. “ Someone gave me a Christian novel . . .” was her answer. “What led to your decision to go into full-time service?” I asked an other. “ I borrowed a copy of Borden of Yale from our church library and God spoke to me through Bill Bor den’s life,” he said. And so we continually hear the testimonies of those who have been saved, blessed, challenged, trained or led by the reading of Christian books. We praise God for the increasing wealth of available Christian litera ture. And yet the tragic paradox— the vast majority of our boys and girls, youth and adults are starving spiritually and morally for lack of Christian reading. Instead, these mul titudes are filling their hearts and minds with the cheap, sensuous and often vicious stuff of the world which they see, hear and read. Most of our grocery stores and drugstores today are following the newsstands in of fering an abundance of that poison ous trash in the inviting form of comic books and pocket editions. We have long acknowledged the power of the printed page to influ ence thinking-standards and desires. What is to become of our children and youth if their thought-life is molded by the popular destructive reading of today? Dr. Frederic Wer- tham, in a revealing article on comic
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