fuse it. We have the greatest message and program in this Space Age! Sell it to your community and parents! 5) Men are needed in our Sun day schools: Too long, Sunday school has been a “w om an ’s world.” We need every woman, but we also need men — men in every department, in every class. Men participating in abun dance will produce interest, sup port and talent most schools need. We reach men only when we sell them on a job and a pro gram. 6) A “Head-Startn Program is a must: Don’t wait to see what can be done with the pre-school “Head-Start” program. Let’s get going! The government has prov en what can be done in this area. The Sunday school of the 70’s will have a strong “Head-Start,” per haps daily, program for pre schoolers. It will give every Sun day school a “Head-Start.” 7) More people must he enrolled as students: During the 60’s, the National Sunday School Associa tion of Wheaton, Illinois, promot ed and fostered a “Double in a Decade” Sunday school enroll ment program. It has many good and worthy features. Sunday school enrollment and attendance will naturally decline unless we are constantly build ing it up! The above “guide-lines” can be the foundation upon which we can build a better and bigger Sunday school in the 70’s. Henry Held, President of Ford Foundation, said some time ago, “There is much we can do to make our schools not only good, but OUTSTANDING . . . in a day of change. However, it will de mand on the part of all involved courage, imagination and vigor.” This must be said of the Sunday school, too. Will you get involved in Sunday school and Christian education TODAY? Rev. C. Chester Larson is a representa tive for Scripture Press Publications, working out of the West Coast office in Fullerton, California.
Christian (Workers'Clinic b y C h e s te r C a r son
A decade o f chan ge
J o h n F . K en n ed y challenged the American public early in his political life, when he said that the 60’s would be a decade of decision and change. He went so far as to predict that the 60’s could well be the one decade which would determine the des tiny of mankind for many years to come. Who would want to argue this truth ?Think of the many changes that you have encountered in the last years. Changes in your home, your community, your church — yes, your world. Early in the 60’s a cross-sec tion of Americans were polled re garding the relevancy of the church in our times. One out of fourteen (14%) indicated that the church had very little effect upon them. Seven years later, in 1968, a similar poll was taken. This poll indicated that 54 out of 100, or 54%, said that the church had lost touch with them, and perhaps nothing could be done to regain the place it once had. The church and Sunday school has always had its critics and rightly so. Anything worth hav ing always suffers c r it ic ism . Rather than answer the critics, perhaps one should allow the criticisms to become “guide-lines” for improvement. Let us, there fore, focus on a few of these criti cisms to help improve the Sun day school, in this, its 190th year of being the church’s right arm. It will also give us a new per spective for the 1970’s that will soon be upon us. 1) Sunday school is not enough: The Sunday school has always been the “heart” of the program
of education in a local church. It is still the educational arm of the church, but it is not enough. A church must have a Total Church Program if it is to meet the challenge of the 70’s. 2) The Home and the Church must work together: A Total Church Program cannot compete or cheat against the home. If it competes, its only purpose of helping people will be lost. The Total Church Program must co operate and compensate the home and family. There is still no sub stitute for parents. This means a complete overhaul of the every- night church program. It means that the church must strengthen its Sunday and mid-week pro gram. This latter should be a Family Night affair that can be worked into busy home schedules. 3) The Church needs a multiple staff: Many a so-called sma ll church needs a full staff of com petent workers. Today as in no time in the past decades there are men and women trained in any one of several educational minis tries. The local church and pas tor must give a multiple staff its rightful place. It will cost money, but most chu rch es have the money if the members see and know of the need. 4) Adults/Parents must he en listed in a program o f Christian Education: Parents are the key to Sunday school attendance and enrollment. Parents must be sold on a program of education that produces definite results. Rather than feel we have something for parents and they should support it, we should have a program so attractive that parents cannot re
OCTOBER, 1969
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