# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S294
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

PARISH EDUCATION 293

Resolved, (b) That Synod recommend the organization of
circuits as units for the promotion and supervision of schools and
other phases of Christian education,

1. by the appointment of Circuit Committees on Education, and

2. by an extension of the practice of appointing Circuit Super-
visors of Christian Education; and be it further

Resolved, (c) That Synod commend those Districts which
have already taken the forward step and have initiated full-time
offices for the promotion and supervision of education.

C. Sunday Schools

Growth.—In its report to the 1950 convention, the Board
anticipated an enrollment of 500,000. By the time of the 1953
convention the enrollment had gone to 545,000, and the goal of
600,000 was set. Now, praise God, our Sunday schools have passed
that goal and are approaching the 700,000 mark. There also has
been a corresponding increase of Sunday school workers, an
average annual gain of 5,000, bringing the total number of teachers
and officers to 65,000. ,

An enrollment of 600,000 and 65,000 workers! The figures are
imposing. But they are mentioned in this report only for one
reason: our rapidly expanding Sunday school is reaching members
of our church on all levels, and it is reaching more church members
and more unchurched people than any other educational agency.
For thousands of children the instruction given them on Sunday
morning will be the only instruction they will receive prior to
their admission into the pastor’s confirmation class. If the Sunday
school does not build them up spiritually and thus hold them,
they will drop away from the church before the pastor has a chance
to fortify them in doctrine.

In the very nature of the case, an organization with an enroll-
ment of 600,000 can be expected to register a greater annual
increase than it did when its enrollment was 400,000 more or less.
What may look like phenomenal growth is nothing more than
normal growth. There is no reason for pride or boasting. About
75,000 babies are being baptized each year in our Synod. Allowing
for indifferent parents and defections, our Sunday school enroll-
ment ought to increase by sixty-five or seventy thousand through
child baptisms alone. If we held the 30,000 children: we confirm
each year, and if the more than 25,000 adults confirmed each year
were enrolled in Bible classes, that would be another source of
increase, perhaps of 40,000 per year.

But we are debtors also to those who are still without Christ