# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S342 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 342 PARISH EDUCATION AND SERVICES concerned with religious education, several pastoral conferences, and several groups of principals and teachers on both the elementary and secondary levels. More than 200 people participated in these groups. The other options included: 1) A four-agency approach as presently in use but with more attention to avoiding overlap and conflict in content. 2) The plan used by most Protestant bodies of having the Sunday school curriculum serve as basic, with other curricula related to it. The problem in The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod is that the one third of its stu- dents who attend day schools get the central basic mate- rial repeatedly and/or after they’ve advanced beyond it. 3) The possibility of a cognitive curriculum organized around unit topics which could be taken sequentially and serially in any of the agencies. 4) A monthly emphasis, with content unified on all levels for a given Sunday. These four were evaluated and put aside in favor of the dual track. The strongest point in favor of this design is the placing of the core material in two agencies whose enrollments generally do not overlap. A recent study has shown that approximately 40 per- cent of the students enrolled in the Sunday school on the elementary level are also enrolled in other agencies. In some Districts this is above 50 percent. The study also showed that the children doubly enrolled were most faithful in attendance and thus received the overlapping material most frequently. Besides avoiding overlap, the new curriculum is designed to deal in part with the two most frequent criticisms of Christian education in America: (1) “Too little time is given to the task in the typical Sunday morn- ing program” and: (2) Teacher competence and training programs have been on the decline in recent years. Con- gregations will be urged to provide either full-time day schools or weekday schools that provide for a minimum of 2 hours of instruction time or both. They will also be urged to employ professional teachers if possible for the weekday schools. In developing the new curriculum, the planning com- mittee recognizes the absolute necessity of seeing Chris- tian education in a new focus as the basic task and func- tion of the church as the ‘‘people of God.’ This means that when a local congregation calls itself the church it has in that moment assumed the responsibility to teach, educate, and nurture the people of God, all of them at all ages, and help them grow into maturity in Christ. If the congregation does this as church, it does so in the power of the Spirit working through Gospel and sacraments. It does not depend on the Law, legalistic methods, or authoritarian administration to accomplish a task which the Gospel alone can do. Research has shown that it is difficult to discover measurable differ- ences when Christian education uses the same methods and administrative procedures as general education. The production schedule calls for the first materials to appear for use Sept. 1, 1971. The actual development of materials will begin in the summer of 1969 with a work- shop in St. Louis. It is planned that manuscripts will be edited by the summer of 1970 and ready to be processed for production. The plan calls for the materials to be produced as follows: Sept. 1971 Day School ___ Weekday Sunday School__ PN*_ N* PK* K K Ke ry W039 moan www (Summer ‘72) Vacation Bible School Tota! Program Sept. 1972 Day School Weekday Sunday School __ PK PK 10 wm a > a AAD —_ Oo (Summer '73) Vacation Bible School Total Program Sept. 1973 Day School 7 8 11 12 Weekday 7 8 11 12 Sunday School — 11 12 Vacation Bible School Total Program * PN = Prenursery * N= Nursery * PK = Prekindergarten * K = Kindergarten Results in introducing the new curriculum will be more satisfying if the church is ready for it. The self- study suggestion of the ‘“‘Parish Renewal Through Edu- cation” program will help “ready” the congregation. The new curriculum materials will provide resources for the congregation as it faces the task of renewal through teaching. Patterns of Performance (the program for upgrading quality in Lutheran schools) schedules call for a concen- tration on religion in 1972. The new curriculum should provide both the occasion and the vehicle for doing so in a renewing way. If in the study programs related to Patterns of Per- formance, Parish Renewal Through Education, and con- firmation serious attention has been given to the theology of the church, its nature and functions, there will have been good preparation for the new curriculum. Such a study of the theology and function of the church will raise questions related to the nature and purpose of Christian education. It will demand a new look at the teaching- learning process and its methodological and adminis- trative procedures in the light of the nature of the church, and the relation of members with one another in it. 2. New Instructional Materials Produced During the Biennium During the past biennium several developments have occurred in the Sunday School Department which are noteworthy: (1) extensive revision of the Junior Bible Lessons, (2) revision and remodeling of the Nursery Papercraft, (3) renewing of the Resource Kits. Still in the development stage is a series of kits for preprimary