THE K ING 'S BUSINESS CHR IST IAN HOME SECTION
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL CAN HELP
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THE CHRISTAIN HOME by Rev. Charles G. Schauffele
T h e S unday school is the only formal institution of Bible Train ing for the large majority of church families. Therefore, it is inherent in the Sunday school’s commission to reach every member of the family and to engage each individual in Bible study suited to his age as well as to nurture the family itself. The Sunday school ought to bring parents and teachers together for P.T.A. meetings at least twice a year and better four times. These gather ings should not be dominated com pletely by a speaker or a film, but should include exchange of ideas in discussion. Only by active and prob ing discussions between teachers and parents can there be unity of aim and sympathy of purpose achieved in Christian Education on the local church level. This church activity keeps parents informed of the work of the Sunday school and puts the responsibility for Christian Education squarely on the home where it ought to rest. The Sunday school may go even farther than this in that it needs to provide parent’s Bible classes. At least six denominational publishing houses now prepare Sunday school materials with the family in mind. Sometimes there are actual quarter lies for the parents based on the child’s curriculum. Sometimes it is a series of monthly form letters inform
each month among the members. Many Sunday schools provide for family social life in an outdoor picnic usually in the spring of the year. For many families and for many reasons this is sometimes a high point in the life of the Sunday school. This en thusiasm and the fine qualities of inter-family fellowship could be re captured again and again with a series of informal family night pro grams under the auspices of the Sun day School. Fellowship, fun, instruc tion and worship could be joined in these never-to-be-forgotten times with the whole family. The sharing of family games, family skits, projects and hobbies would unify this first created group of man upon earth as few other things could do. The Sunday school has many obli gations attached to the privilege of nurturing the Christian family, and one of them is to see that every mem ber of the family is included in its training program. A “black sheep” squad ought to go after those reluc tant members of the family group until they too, are brought within the fold. These “other sheep” will fit somewhere in the levels of the school from Cradle Roll to Home De partment. The alert Sunday School today will not rest until every mem ber of all the families represented in the school are reached for Christ and nurtured in Him.
ing the parents of the child’s class work. But however it is done, there is great economy in teaching parents how to teach the Bible to their chil dren and how to “live the life” before them in homes. Wherever there is a class of children in the Sunday school the church ought also to provide for the parents of those children that they too may leam of God in the Bible. The ministry of good books belongs to the Sunday school in order to carry out its responsibility to the whole family. For the benefit of the adult classes, a Sunday schooljibrary with an abundance of “family-type” books should be in active use. Fre quent reviews and new-book notices should encourage the reading of good books on Christian home-life by par ents and family groups. This could, incidentally, revive the almost de funct practice of families reading aloud together. In some communities the distance to a Christian Bookstore would require a book table sponsored by the Sunday school or some group in the church. Many Christian par ents would invest in Christian books for family use if they only knew where and what to by. Some churches now present a year’s subscription to a Christian family magazine to each new family entering the fellowship. If this were carried out by a parent’s class, several different magazines could be procured and circulated
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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