July 1928
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W. E dward R affety W. EDWARD RAFFETY, in his “THE SMALLER SUNDAY SCHOOL MAKES GOOD,” sounds the same note'. “Meaning of Evangelism: Sunday school evangelism means far more than most Sunday school workers realize. Its persistent and perennial goal is to bring every, pupil to a place where he will intelligently, joyously, and of his own volition accept Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour and Friend. We speak of the human side as conversion, and the divine act as regeneration. . . . The writer of this paragraph does not confuse religious education and'evangelism. The one is no substitute' for the other. No one can, by the educational process, educate himself, or anybody else, into the Kingdom. Religious education prepares the way, points out the gate way, but each person must enter for himself. The will surrendered must be his own. The acceptance of Jesus C h r i s t as Saviour must be his own acceptance. . ... . Evangelism, in its fullest sense, includes personal sal vation, growth, training, and Christian service. The dynamic verbs which make these possible a re : believe, abide, coma and receive, and go\ and give. Jesus Christ is the center and circumference of it a ll; for the individual is saved by Christ, nurtured in Christ, trained for Christ, HERE is being brought home to thousands of thoughtful Christian people today the conscious ness that something is the matter with our churches in relation to our work with the young people. Over fifty per cent of the children and young people of , Sunday school age in the United States have no contact with church or Sunday school whatever, and except for indirect benefits might as well be living in a pagan country. Of those who are touched by the Sunday school, only fifty per cent are brought into the church. Therefore, as far as church membership is concerned, our Sunday schools must be said to be less than twenty-five per cent efficient. Sta tistics can go no farther, and of course never tell the whole story anyway; but of those brought into church membership, how many do we suppose are really trained for it, and have their fives governed by its deep meanings and by a really Christian attitude and experience? Yet in spite of its very apparent failures and inef ficiencies, the Sunday school is the greatest single agency used by God today for bringing people into the church and into an active and earnest Christian fife. It deals with fife when it is young and plastic, throbbing with pos sibilities for either good or evil, easily impressed and influ enced, and given a permanent bent in the direction of the strongest influence. Because the Sunday.,school does deal with these ,early vital years, and because; properly taken care of, its work includes every other phase of the church’s program—missions, evangelization, inspiring young people to give their fives to Christian service, social service, etc. —the Sunday school and allied organizations which repre sent the teaching work of the church should occupy the major place in all the life and plans of the church. We
and yoked with Christ. Evangelism, when it gathers within its sweep all four of these, has done its perfect work.” P rof . C larence H. B enson There are many others whose tèstimony bearing on the question of Christian Education and Evangelism follows the same direction, but space forbids their place' in this symposium. We must, however, have our last word from Clarence H. Benson, Director of Religious Education courses of the Moody Bible -Institute of Chicago. In his excellent “INTRODUCTION TO CHILD STUDY” under the discussion of Later Childhood, he insists : “It is needless to say that as the child enters his twelfth year, teachers and parents should be confronted with the great responsibility. of bringing him to personally and publicly accept Jesus Christ as his Saviour, As the teacher is the central figure in the sixth year and the Bible the out standing object of the ninth year, so Christ, the center and circumference of all Scripture, should be thè supreme topic of the closing days of childhood. . . . In dealing with children we are generally a year or so too late. The mere fact that eighty per cent of the boys and girls in the Sunday-school slip through our hands without making a decision for Christ, should convince us that the first impressionable period of evangelistic Opportunity may be the last.” need thoughtfully and prayerfully to survey the way we are meeting this great task as Nehemiah surveyed the walls of Jerusalem, find out where the weak places are that need to be built up, what material is already there that we can use, and adopt a plan to meet the needs; then, having a vision of the need and possibilities, and a mind to work, and making our prayer unto our God, begin intelligently and courageously to build up and strengthen these weak walls. W eakness of E ducational W ork There are many serious weaknesses in the educational work in our churches. There is a woeful lack of time, a lack of an intelligent and unified plan and program, a lack of a carefully planned curriculum, a lack of proper supervision and administration, and a lack of adequate equipment and financial support; but perhaps the most serious lack is that of trained teachers. There are many elements that enter into teaching work, but there are three around which all the rest center4-the pupil, the teacher, and the lesson. A teacher rightly prepared, understanding both the pupil and the lesson, furnishes the great basis for an ideal school. You remember when Garfield was asked his notion of an ideal school he replied, “Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and Garfield on the other.” What we Christian educators often fail to, recognize is that the teacfier is just as important an element in Chris tian as in secular education, that her responsibility is much greater, and that because the time in Sunday school is so short and the issues are so vital, it is even more important that she be properly trained. for her work here than in the day school.
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The Need of Teacher Training B y F lorence M . C h a ffe e Bible Institute o f Los Angeles
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