among West Coast Christian lead ers. One of these, the Rev. Ray Syr- stad, president of the National As sociation of Directors of Christian Education, and Director of Christian Education at Bethany Bap t i s t Church. West Covina, California, as serts, “ TCP is the most exciting idea in Christian education today.” Rev. Paul Dirks, the Director of Christian Education for the Con servative Baptist A s s o c i a t i o n of Southern California, agrees: “ I per sonally endorse Scripture Press’s TCP concept—and their TCP mate rials, too. I’m convinced that TCP is what every church, large or small, needs today.” Does your church have a Total Church Program? Here’s a simple test for church leaders: If your answers were all “Yes,” you’ve taken giant strides toward having a Total Church Program. If you had to answer “ No” to some or all of these key questions, you have a job to do! Yes, TCP is here. Large churches and smaller ones, too, are experi encing a revolution in Christian Education as they shoot for nothing less than a total educational pro gram to meet the total spiritual needs of their people. Isn’t it time you looked into TCP?
Blufton Church pastored by the Rev. Dolan Unruh
with simple confidence in Him to meet the need.” Are pastors today aware of a need for a Total Church Program? “ Yes,” says the Reverend C. Chester Lar son, West Coast radio personality who directs the Christian Worker’s Clinic, heard weekly over Los An geles station KBBI-FM. “ Alert pastors in the West,” Chet shared, “ see the vision of TCP. I find more and more men realizing that a church today just has to cor relate its Christian education pro gram. By this I mean a church has to (1) have a clearcut purpose for
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mary Children’s Church program.” Personnel is usually the big prob lem for the smaller church thinking of TCP. But Dolan Unruh’s experi ence provides three keys to its salu tion: Share your burden for a total program. Train your members. Look to the Lord to bring in new leaders as they’re needed. Another big question mark used to be curriculum. I asked Dolan what his plans for materials were. “Well,” he answered, “we don't want our youth meetings or chil- dren’s church to be another Sunday School. We want each agency to have its own emphasis. So we naturally look to our Sunday School publisher, Scripture Press, for materials. They have what we want.” I asked Dr. Victor E. Cory, far- seeing board chairman of Scripture Press, why, of all the independent publishers, Scripture Pr e s s had stepped out to create materials for the total educational program of the local church. “ Because we saw a need,” he told me. “We felt it was important for Christian educational materials to ‘fit together’ :for children’s church and youth programs to build on Sun day School, but not to duplicate it. And it seemed obvious that the only way to have such programs fit to- gether was to have all the materials written and produced by one pub- lisher. “When we first pioneered chil dren’s church and young people’s materials, few churches were ready for it. Sunday School seemed enough to many. So from a business stand point TCP looked foolish. But we trusted the Lord, and stepped out
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Have you spelled out specific p u r p o s e s for y o u r S u nd a y School, young people’s groups, and other educational agencies? Is som e on e or som e group responsible to see that the purposes o f each agency are being carried out? Do the curriculum mate rials you use in each agency really fit its pur pose? e.g., is your Chil dren’s Church material planned to develop a context for real wor ship, or does it duplicate Sunday School or Bible club? Are the curriculum ma terials you use correlat ed with e a c h other? Does, fo r example, your Children’s Church pro gram build on, but not duplicate, your Sunday School lessons?
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Chet Larsen talking to pastors at Hume Lake. each agency, (2) have someone or some board responsible to see that each agency is carrying out its pur pose, and (3) have curriculum mate rials for each agency that fit to gether and work together.” In fact, dynamic Chet Larson was so convinced of the vital importance of the Total Church Program he re cently left his position as Sunday School secretary of the Evangelical Free Churches of America, and is devoting full time as Scripture Press’s Western Director. And he finds a ready hearing
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SEPTEMBER, 1965
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