# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S270
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

270 PARISH EDUCATION

years, one would assume that our Sunday schools would be able
to report large gains. As a matter of fact, the number of children
from unchurched homes in our Sunday schools in 1945 (30,353)
was smaller than the number Teported for 1944 (34,322). Our
Sunday schools will achieve their missionary pyrpose only when
they make evangelism a major objective. If evangelism is raised
to the status of a major objective, there will follow attempts to
develop an effective method for reaching the unchurched and for
maintaining contact with them until they become regular in their
attendance. This would be in harmony with the “Each One Reach
One” program. The Sunday school is particularly well adapted to
carry out this program because it is able to reach people whom no
other agency can reach.

_ The Complete Sunday School Program. Viewed both from
the educational and missionary angles, the traditional Sunday school
program requires extension in two directions until it includes the
entire range from infancy through adulthood.

The first extension is downward to the Nursery Roll, or
Cradle Roll. The Nursery Roll can give important assistance to
parents in the Christian pre-school training of their children. It is
also an effective missionary agency. In Spite of these important
advantages only 794 congregations report a Nursery Roll, and
these report only 32,550 little ones enrolled: This wholesale neglect
of the Nursery Roll should be corrected. The phenomenal birth-
rate of the past four years should be a challenge to every Sunday
school to get into the homes of the unchurched and enroll the
babies and solicit the parents for church membership. The Sun-
day school that has a large Nursery Roll will have a large Be-
ginners’ Department, because the Nursery Roll will be a con-
Stant source of children for the Sunday school.

The second extension is upward to the Bible Class Depart-
ment, which ought to include classes for all confirmed members
of the congregation, including a Junior Bible Class, a Senior
Bible Class, and an Adult Bible Class. Here, too, are important
opportunities for education and for missionary activity.

Sunday School Literature. The Concordia Sunday School
Lessons have a wider circulation than ever before. So great has
been the demand for lessons that Concordia Publishing House,
owing also to the paper shortage, has barely been able to supply
all of our Sunday schools. Revision of the Junior, Intermediate,
and Senior Lessons has been completed. The lessons have been
well received and have contributed greatly to better teaching.
Studies have been made on the Beginners’ level with a view to
revision or the preparation of an entirely new course. The Board
for Parish Education is planning a more extensive study which will