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M ore t h a n S unday S chool ? For a church of 74 members? “ Ab solutely,” says pastor Dolan Unruh, of the small Blufton, Ohio, Mission ary Church. “We’re shooting for nothing less than a total educational program. Something to meet the wide range of spiritual needs of our children and youth.” Why “more than Sunday School” ? Partly because of the overwhelming pressures our culture places on all of us. Look at some of the evidences. A recent university survey shows children between the ages of 4% and 11 watch TV an average of 4% hours a day—a staggering total of 1,642V 2 hours a year! A third-grad er comes home to pour eagerly over a school text on dinosaurs, complete with charts asserting man’s status as an evolved animal. An even high er percentage of boys and girls in many Sunday Schools come from homes where parents show no in terest in spiritual things [35-50% in many Midwestern churches per sonally checked by the writer]! Certainly mor e than Sunday School’s meager 52 hours a year are needed to ground our young ones in God's Word, and to guide them in their Christian experiences. Another impetus to developing a total educational program has been a growing awareness of the church’s responsibility to minister to the total spiritual needs of its people. Sunday School’s emphasis on in struction has been right and vital, but more than instruction is needed. Here’s how leading Christian edu cators have pictured the problem, using a series of three concentric circles. Note the aims of Christian
education in the center circle: to lead individuals to know Christ as Saviour, to grow in Christ, and to serve Christ. S u n d a y School ,.\ C h ild re n s \ 'S c h o o l / ^ e llo w s h ^ J A f o r s h ip \ C h u r c h ' 'Brinq to ' CHRIST Serve Grow in CampXlnstruction Expression Groups/ Weekday Clubs Four blended Biblical elements, shown in the second circle, promote these aims: (1) instruction in God’s Word, (2) worship of the Lord Him self, (3) expression in living out Bible truths, and (4) fellowship with the Lord and His people. Bealizing that in Sunday School’s one brief hour, a week the emphasis is mainly on instruction, many churches have created other agen cies to stress worship, expression and fellowship, to be sure that the essential elements for Christian growth are available for every pupil. Thus the outer circle shows six common primary agencies: Sun day School for instruction, graded Children’s Church for worship, youth programs for training and expres sion, and VBS, camp, and weekday clubs for instructional-evangelistic impact. (Of course, other activities and agencies are included in many 'Vacation, ''Bible j C „ . . ...
churches’ educational p r o g r ams : leadership training classes, graded choirs, church library, pastor’s in struction classes, missionary groups, etc.) And so the idea of total church program has developed. But “more than Sunday School” has seemed out of reach to many smaller churches. “ Total chur ch program,” they feel, “ is all right for 1,000-member churches. But it’s be yond us.” That’s why it’s so exciting to hear men like Dolan Unruh say with en thusiasm, “ TCP [Total Church Pro gram] is catching on here in Bluf ton,” and to hear him tell of God’s blessing in his short 1%-year minis try there. How is the Blufton church building toward a TCP? “Our first job, of course, was our Sunday School. At first we had no men teachers. Now we have four— with the Junior Highs, Senior Highs and our two adult classes. This sum mer we’re going to sprint, not slump! We’re planning a series of eight teacher-training sessions in July and August, and hope to ap point new men teachers this fall. Then, too, we’re dividing our eve ning youth group into Junior High and Senior High groups. The Lord has given us a newly-saved couple to sponsor one of the groups, and we really praise Him for them. We’re also w o r k i n g on departmentally grading our Ch i ld r en ’s Church. We’re praying that the Lord will bring someone in to lead our Pri- Rev. M r. Richards teaches Christian Edu cation at Wheaton College and Moody Bible Institute Evening School.
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