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The Church, the Sunday School, and Your Town
by Dr. Clate A. Risely (F orm erly E xecu tive D irector National Sunday School A ssociation )
O u r n a t io n is the sum total of the communities that make it up. If each of us can make our community conscious of our Sunday School we will go a long way toward making our nation Sunday School conscious. In the first chapter of Acts, verse 8, we see an outline of procedure given to us by the Holy Spirit Himself. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Notice the four geographical locations mentioned, Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and uttermost part of the earth. Our Jerusalem is right where we are. Certainly God intends us to begin witnessing for Him right where we are. But God never intended for our witnessing or our vision to stop there! If not through ourselves through others we pray for and support. God intends our wit nessing to include Judaea and Samaria. Am I right when I say that much of our praying, our planning, yes, even our paying has begun at Jeru salem, and some has gone to the uttermost part of the earth, but a great gap has been left between. Judaea and Samaria have been forgotten. Christians in America have failed their country and their Lord in failing to pray for their own land. Many Christians who meet regularly in their places of worship for prayer each week will pray for those in foreign lands and for those of their own church circle with little or no thought for those of their community, state or nation. Little wonder we have the indifference to the church and Sunday School on the part of the world when the world sees so much indifference on the part of the church. Chinches like individuals can and do become ego-centric, but it always means uselessness and finally death. Let us ask God to give us a vision that begins at Jerusalem and extends around the globe including Judaea and Samaria. There was a day when America was Sunday School conscious, but that was not the result of pastors, superin tendents and Sunday School teachers saying, “ I’m inter ested in my Sunday School, but I can’t be bothered about yours.” Would you like to see your community made con scious of your Sunday School? It can be. I want to give five ways you can make your community conscious of your Sunday School. A Better Informed Personnel We need the Sunday School redefined. Perhaps be cause the Sunday School is over 175 years old too many of us have taken it for granted. We need to leam again
its purposes and its aims. Many are working in Sunday Schools today who do not know what Sunday School is. For several years it was my privilege to teach a class in Sunday School Administration and Organization. The first assignment I gave was to write a definition of the Sunday School. The majority of the class were Sunday School Superintendents, some pastors and Sunday School teachers. Is this too difficult an assignment for such a class? The most usual answer would be something like this, “A Sunday School is an organization to teach the Bible to children.” May I ask you two things about this answer. First, who said the Sunday School is only a teaching institu tion? The first responsibility of the Sunday School is to reach. The great commission said “ Go,” “ before it said, “ teach.” The Lord commanded His disciples to go into the highways and byways and persuade them to come in. In modem language every Christian is to be a salesman for Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible is the unbeliever com manded to come to the house of God. Many are the commands to the believer to go, to get, and to give. The reason the average Sunday School is not teaching any more is because they are not reaching any more. The second question I would ask is, who said we were only to teach children? The Sunday School is for everyone. Every member of the family needs to be in Sunday School. Many adults who attend church and even help in Sunday School think in terms of Sunday School only for children. The Sunday School is the church at work. The Sun day School is the workshop of the church. The church and the Sunday School are one in their purposes and aims. The Sunday School is an organization that has as its purpose the reaching of men and women, youth, boys and girls, with the gospel, winning them to the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘teaching them to observe all things,’ train ing them to reach, to win, and to teach others also. This is God’s method of building Christian citizens and re member every Christian is either useful or useless. It is interesting to observe that the fastest growing churches and the fastest growing denominations are those where the pastors are vitally interested in the Sunday School. Indeed a great percent of our church members still come from the Sunday School. What sensi ble salesman will neglect his most fruitful field? A prominent Southern California pastor says, “Any pastor that does not give at least 50 per cent of his time to the Sunday School is neglecting his work.” An Improved Program The third thing that must take place if we are going to make an impression upon our community is an im proved program. It’s still true, “ If our Sunday Schools "are going to be bigger they must be better.”
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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