# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S664
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

-bring new opportunities, Certainly the wartime exigencies have

Ill. YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK

[301]
Report of Board for Young People’s Work

Your Board for Young People’s Work presents herewith a brie
summary of the major activities covering the triennium 1941—1944

all congregations. ;
The purpose of youth work, as the Handbook states it, is “tes
provide for the youth during the post-confirmation period con
tinued training in Christian knowledge, in Christian living, and.‘
Christian service.” When the general objectives of youth welfa
endeavor is phrased in such comprehensive terms, certainly no cone.
gregation would fail to qualify as an agency or instrument for’ ;
young people’s work. However, when these broad aims are r
duced to simpler elements, we have a list of suggested activities’
that can well serve as a standard of attainment and a reference
to a great variety of helpful hints for the productive operation Of
a young people’s society. For growth in Christian knowledge the:
regular use of the Bible is obviously the prime essential. A young:
people’s society should be, above all, a Bible-study group. These.
formal studies can be conducted in the regular meetings or o
Sunday mornings. We can report at this point that our surve
of 1942 discloses that approximately ninety per cent of our societie
engage in fairly regular Bible study, and that about eighty p
cent of these devote a part of their meetings to this activity. Whil
the Bible is used exclusively by many instructors, the variety: o
so-called helps and accessories is surprisingly large. Many soci
eties enrich their Bible courses by lectures, slide and motion pic
tures, topic studies, open forums, pane] discussions, mission studies
evangelism projects, history of missions, plays, pageants, dramatiza:
tions of notable episodes in church history, promotion of summel
camps and winter conferences, leadership institutes, and choir work
Outlets for Christian service are provided by canvassing, distri
bution of tracts, clerical assistance in the church offices, church
publicity, arranging the annual roll call, planning reunion services
with the pastor, soliciting subscriptions for church periodicals, and
performing a variety of routine chores for the congregation. This
list of suggestions is extensive but not exhaustive. New occasions

x

considerably enlarged the activity program of our youth organi-
[80}