# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S271
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

PARISH EDUCATION 271

include all the departments of the Sunday school. The purpose of
this study will be to furnish an adequate course of study for our
Sunday schools and to provide materials to meet all the needs
of the Sunday school. A Nursery Roll course of 26 leaflets has
been prepared for parents of small children. A second Nursery
Course of 52 lessons, and a manual to accompany the course,
has been prepared for the home and for the nursery class in
Sunday school. Two elective courses on the Story of the Bible
have been written for the Senior Departmnet. The Child’s Com-
panion now has a circulation of 83,000.

Teachers’ Meetings. The report of the Synodical Teacher
Training Committee appears elsewhere in this volume. We have
entered upon an era of intensive teacher training, the training pro-
gram no doubt being largely responsible for this awakened in-
terest in the training of lay teachers. Regular teachers’ meetings,
however, have by no means become the rule throughout Synod.
When we reflect that regular teachers’ meetings have been the
prime factor in making poor Sunday schools into good Sunday
schools and good Sunday schools into better ones, the neglect of
regular teachers’ meetings seems inexcusable. Unless regular
weekly, or at least biweekly, meetings become the rule, we cannot
anticipate a general raising of the standard of the Sunday school.
Teachers’ institutes, as was expected, have been held less frequently,
because a great deal more can be accomplished by the pastor in the
local congregation through our teacher-training program than
through institutes. Circuit Sunday school associations, however,
serve a very good purpose. Through these gatherings teachers
are given an opportunity to exchange notes, to hear lectures,. to
participate in discussions, and to share in Christian fellowship.
Associations are functioning more successfully in some localities
than in others. The Board for Parish Education recommends
organization of Sunday school associations in all the Districts

f Synod.
on eyne Bible Classes

During the past triennium there has been a slight increase
from year to year in the number of Bible classes and in the total
enrollment, as the following figures show:

Sunday School

(Students and Teachers) Bible Classes Bible Classes
1943 51,288 (No figures) (No figures)
1944 _ ~ 54,061 17,955 72,016
1945 67,046 20,255 87,301

In some congregations considerable interest in group Bible
study has been aroused. Evidence of this is not only in the
statistics reported above, but also in the growing number of con-

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