# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S338 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 338 PARISH EDUCATION AND SERVICES yet it is, depending, of course, on how one defines the term. The Word edifies only when it is communicated (expressed, proclaimed, taught, exemplified) and learned (heard, experienced, studied, received in faith, and lived in personal and social responses of the Spirit). If this is so, we must adjust the focus, nature, and direc- tion of our programs accordingly on all levels — synodical, District, and congregational. 3. What Is the Educational Task of the Parish? What educational programs are needed to involve all the members of the local congregation in the church’s mission to itself and to the world? Involvement of the laity in the life of the church is the major task of the church if it hopes to fulfill its mission through the edifying Word. In the past many congregations have been con- tent to conduct church services and a Sunday school and maybe a vacation Bible school. In the ’70s additional agencies and programs will be needed—for children, youth, and adults. Which these should be and what kind of programs they should offer are some of the urgent questions our congregations must ask and answer soon. 4. What Kind of Educational Leadership Is Needed? If all members of the church are to participate in the church’s mission, educational leadership is needed in the local parish. What kind of educational leadership is needed? Materials alone will not do the job. Nor will leaders and teachers who do little more than repeat words. What makes the edifying Word come alive in people, as it must? What kind of training will better pre- pare both leaders and teachers of the church for their ministry of the Word to today’s church and world? Every local congregation needs: a) Professional leadership for its educational pro- grams. When the pastor cannot give this leadership ade- quately for one reason or another, it can be provided by adding a director of Christian education to the staff (either an associate pastor trained in education, a pro- fessionally trained director, a day school principal or teacher, or a public school teacher). b) Trained lay teachers. Sunday church school staff turnover is presently about 25 percent a year. Only a seri- ous effort at preparing more members to participate in the teaching ministry of the church will keep a parish going strong. This requires an ongoing recruitment and training program. c) A policy-making board of education that provides adequate plans, administration, and supervision for the total education program of the parish. Such a board should consist of imaginative people concerned about meeting the spiritual needs of people at every age in the best possible ways. 5. How Little Education Dare We Provide? A limited religious education is becoming more and more inadequate in the face of today’s education explo- sion. For a church in mission to itself and the world in the ’70s, Sunday school is not enough. Are the churches of the Missouri Synod ready to add a weekday church school staffed with trained teachers and adequate in- structional facilities for their children and youth who do not attend a Christian day school or high school? How much serious education can a parish conduct with- out a day school? Since day schools are costly on any level, shall we as a Synod stop fighting for them and per- haps even encourage our parishes to phase them out gradually? Can we afford to give them up? Furthermore, how long dare we continue to think of Christian educa- tion as something mainly for children and not vitally essential for youth and adults? 6. How Much Christian Education Can We Afford to Provide? If we really want to, can’t we continue to afford our day schools and maybe even expand them and start new ones? Has affluence distorted our sense of values? How much is the individual parish, with or without a day school, investing in its Christian education programs? If we think we cannot afford Christian day schools on either preprimary, elementary, secondary, or college levels (or really cannot), are we willing to work toward federal and state aid in order to still have some church- related Christian schools in the ’80s? If necessary to establish more schools for youth and the training of adults as well as children, are we willing to work to- gether with other congregations of Christians? Few parishes need to struggle alone with their limited re- sources. 7. What Causes Our Communication Failures? To fulfill the Mission Affirmations, local congregations must somehow communicate the edifying Word effec- tively, both to their members and to the people outside the church. All education involves communication, but much education fails to communicate. So we must ask, What are the better ways to teach the Word? Some of these ways may require that the church alter its past practices. For example, successful communication de- mands that the communicator be willing to listen as well as speak, that he evidence openness, and that he enter into dialog. On the other hand, the learner must be en- couraged to participate in the educational process. What keeps us from communicating the Word more excitingly and powerfully? This is another very important question we all need to ask. 8. Is Change Necessary? Change rather than changelessness is a characteristic of our times. In the past we have underscored God’s changelessness and have stigmatized change as decay and evil. But change too is in the nature of our God, who makes all things new by His Spirit. So the question is not, How can the church keep from changing? or, Must the church change? but rather, How must she change in order to communicate with a changing world? C. Some Evident Needs and Opportunities A number of practical conclusions and perhaps even imperatives become evident in any honest, humble, and