# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S299
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

298 PARISH EDUCATION

to initiate whatever improvements are indicated by their
evaluations.

2. Inasmuch as an average of 75,000 babies are being baptized
in our church every year, and many of these apparently are lost
before they reach confirmation or even Sunday school, it js
recommended that our congregations put forth an organized effort
to remain in close contact with all families who present their
babies for Holy Baptism. To this end it is highly desirable that
all children below the age of four be placed on the Nursery Roll
of the Sunday school and that the parents be contacted regularly
through mailings and visits in the interest of their children’s
spiritual welfare. It is furthermore recommended that an effort
be made to refer to sister congregations the names of the un-
churched families as well as members who move out of a parish.

3. Because three-year-olds who go to a Sunday school class
learn more about Jesus and how to love Him and sing and pray
to Him than they do by not attending, and since they are likely
to learn more by means of separate Nursery classes, therefore
local Sunday schools ought to consider using the new Concordia
Nursery materials in separate Nursery classes for three-year-olds
if they are not yet doing so.

4. Our Sunday schools are sustaining serious losses shortly
after confirmation. Therefore it is urgent that our congregations
strengthen their high school and young people’s Bible classes in
order to build up total Sunday schools in which the whole church
participates in group-graded Bible study for ongoing growth in
grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

5. Many Sunday schools are not yet carrying on a planned
program of missionary education and evangelism. Hence the
recommendation is again made that a monthly Mission Sunday
be observed in the Sunday school, that weekly Sunday school
offering envelopes which include envelopes for missions be used,
and that at least an annual special effort be made at extending
the Sunday school into the local community.

6. The importance of developing early, along with proper atti-
tudes, the habit and skill of participation in the regular worship
services of the congregation should be evident from the fact that
children who do not attend are learning not to attend. Therefore
it is recommended that pastors, teachers, boards of education, and
parents give the attendance of children at the worship service some
earnest special consideration in the next triennium and that con-
gregations be asked to commit themselves to the principle that
regular attendance at church worship is vital for our children’s

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