School. Only half the churches said they conduct any kind of children’s church program, and less than half have pastors’ instruction classes or weekday boys’ and girls’ clubs. Hardly any of the churches sur veyed have released time classes or classes for the mentally retarded. 6. Slightly more than half the Sunday schools had active Cradle Roll Departments and less than one in four had a Home (Extension) De partment. Both of these depart ments were more evident in larger Sunday schools. 7. Elective courses in adult Sun day School classes were being con ducted in about one-third of the churches, at the time of the survey. 8. In the two-year period preced ing the survey home Bible classes were started by only three out of ten (29.4% ) of the churches, and branch Sunday schools or churches were started by only one out of ten (10.0% ) of the churches. Both of these ministries of outreach were more popular in the West and in larger churches. 9. Two-fifths of the pastors said they spend most of their time in study and sermon p repa ra tion , whereas most of the directors of Christian education and associate or assistant pastors reported that they spend most of their time in organization a n d administration. Many of those who are involved in a dm in is tra tio n would prefer to chnge to other tasks such as ser mon preparation, teaching, or coun seling. 10. Almost three out of four of the respondents in d ica ted they were involved in helping recruit teachers and other workers. But the lowest-ranking educational activity (out of 21) in which the pastoral staff were involved was teaching a Sunday school class of children ( 2 . 6 % ). 11. The three (out of 17) top- ranking problems in the church educational program that were of concern to the respondents were these: greater dedication and inter est in spiritual matters, greater out reach to the unsaved, and better trained laymen. KB
RESEARCH REPORT ON CHURCH EDUCATIONAL MINISTRIES Major Findings EDITOR’S NOTE: Scripture Press Foundation has re leased a “ Research Report on Church Educational Ministries.” As stated in the report, the purposes of the project “were (1) to determine which kinds of Christian education agencies and func tions are provided by evangelical churches and for which age-groups; (2) to determine the portion of evan gelical churches that are involved in selected forms of outreach ministries such as branch Sunday schools and home Bible classes; (3) to determine the extent of participation on the part of the pastoral staff in certain church educational activities, and (4) to de termine the pastoral staff members’ assessment of the two greatest needs in their church’s educational pro grams.” The following summary items are re printed from the report. The complete 47-page report is available for $1.00 each (payable in advance to help cov er computing, printing, handling, and postage costs) from Scripture Press Foundation, Box 513, Glen Ellyn, 111. 60137. T he following are some of the highlights from the findings of this extensive survey of thousands of churches in the United States and Canada. 1. After the pastor, the church staff member most likely to be hired next is the church secretary. S lig h tly more than o n e -th ird (36.2% ) of the churches surveyed were reported to have a church sec retary, most of them part-time. 2. Only one-tenth (9 .8% ) of the churches surveyed were reported to have a director of Christian educa tion, and most of those were in large churches. 3. Four out of fiv e o f the churches whose leaders participat ed in this survey have a Sunday school attendance of 250 or less. 4. Two (or more) Sunday morn ing church services were held in only one-tenth of the churches, and those were more likely to be in the West and in communities other than rural ones. 5. The three most popular edu cational agencies were the Sunday school youth fellowship or training hour groups, and Vacation Bible
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