I have been teaching a class to gether. Currently we are teaching a primary class. M y wife is the teacher. I am the teacher. She is responsible and I am responsible. W e have a seven day staff meeting in relationship to that class. For example, we have time to gether at home. W e pray about it. Wednesday she reminds me, “ Now what are you going to do Sunday?” Then I remind her on Thursday, “ Now what are you going to do? Am I supposed to pick up the film- strip? Are you going to get the mimeographing done? Do we have all the books, etc.?” W e work on this as a team. When we work in a class as a team, the hoys have some respect for the class because there is a man around. The girls like it because there is a woman around. The girls like to have a man for a teacher once in a while and the boys like to have a woman. It’s a natural re lationship. Actually, when my wife and I teach we are supporting each other in a mutual enterprise. That means she can take a Sunday off without having her conscience both er her about it. Or she can take it off when she has a cold, for in stance, and she can actually sleep in if necessary and not be worried about it. I don’t say this happens very often. When we work together we seem to be less tired. As a team we are more interested in the fam ily in relationship to the children than we would have been as indi viduals because we think of them in terms of parents. The interest in the children of the class reaches out naturally to their parents. Question: To whom may the pastor entrust the responsibility of super vision of the Christian education program of the church? Mr. Sholund: If it’s a growing work, then more and more of the respon sibility is going in the direction of a Director of Christian Education. Even so-called small churches rec ognize the complexity of a full pro gram so that it requires a Director of Christian Education. I think what we have here is a dual leader ship — the pastor guiding the whole work but the Director of Christian Education implementing it in the area of Christian education. Mr. Hendricks: I’m glad this was emphasized. In fact there are many smaller churches that are making
he has to do in terms of his sermon and his other meetings. That means five days a week, four hours a day. That means all morning if he gets started at eight o’clock. What is he going to do the rest of the day? He has his pastoral responsibilities. He has conferences. He has many calls upon his time. He faces a complex situation where God’s guidance is needed for balance. I frankly be lieve that there is more tendency for a minister to realize that he must have two responsibilities in Christian education: 1) to delegate responsibility to other people and 2) to supervise the whole. He rec ognizes that his time and energy will not allow for active participa tion in all areas. Question: To whom may the pastor delegate the teaching ministry of the church? Mr. Hendricks: W e thank the Lord for what the women have done and I’m sure we are going to increasing ly depend upon them in the Sun day school. But a greater number of men are seeing this as a role of real challenge. I think there is a rising tide of masculine leadership. Ten years ago a Christian education conference might have been large ly a women’s group. But today there are more and more men who are enthusiastic and interested in the field. One Dallas chinch has recently reorganized its Sunday school with a man at the head of each depart ment. Their Christian education director said to me, “W e’re getting much greater response now than we ever got before because the women are responding to the lead ership of men who are executives and leaders all week.” There is a trend to put in more men as teach ers in the Sunday school. Using both men and women on the teach ing staff leads to a much more real istic situation. The child does not grow up believing that the Sunday school is a women’s organization. The balance of having a man and a woman, which is the way God has ordained things, really consti tutes our strength. Mr. Sholund: I’m quite sure we could strengthen our Sunday school staff if we would enlist men and women as parents, as couples, to he Sunday school teachers of a class. For a number of years my wife and
tremendous strides by getting a D i rector of Christian Education when they are still small. They are fac ing those crucial problems that come up when the church is in its formative stages. We often get the idea that bigness calls for a Director of Christian Education. Actually he’s often needed more as far as raising a corps of leaders, training them, imparting the vision and set ting good educational rooting when the church is smaller. I’m finding a number of churches that are seeing the need for that kind of leadership. I receive about 17 to 18 letters of inquiry for a Director of Christian Education for every man that I am able to place. They want men because men will give the leadership and the dynam ics at a practical level that are need ed, particularly to work as a team with the pastor. The trained direc tor will actually pay for himself in a relatively short period of time. Question: I understand that educa tional building for churches is on the increase. Are there any notice able trends? Mr. Sholund: It is estimated that there will he about $900,000,000 spent this year on educational buildings for churches. That will he more than on the sanctuaries. There is a definite trend to have larger rooms which will have mul tiple use with larger classes. The reason is, first of all, churches have found that inflation has hit them like it has hit everyone else. They cannot afford to build for floor space and equipment that is only used once a week or occasionally. The second, factor is that during the week the church tends to have more activities than it did before and therefore needs space. It must use facilities that are appropriate to the group, so there is a tendency toward multiple-use rooms. The third factor is that the key to any Christian education program is leadership. It is better to have a good leader of a large group than to have the group broken down into small units with one good leader in one group and two poor leaders in two groups. The tendency is to have larger groups with better lead ership with multiple-use rooms be cause it is less costly.* *Pastors will appreciate the descriptive ap proach to multiple-use rooms in Church Management magazine for July 1956.
The King's Business/October 1957
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