# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S130
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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130 we Elementary, Education

a Sy Other Part-Time Agencies

_The' effectiveness of religious instruction. depends on the
number of hours devoted to,it no less than on the competency of
the instructor. There is a fit below which. it is impossible even
for a competent instructor to lay a sound. and thorough basis for
the child’s Christian faith and life. The Sunday school in com-
bination with a two-year preconfirmation period. of instruction
certainly does not, in a great many instances, furnish the child with
the clear and accurate knowledge of God’s Word that is to become
directive for Christian living. School men have been able from
practical experience. to calculate the minimum of class periods re-

quired per annum to ensure the educand’s proficiency in arithmetic

and other branches of knowledge. Considering the fact that sanc- _

tification is a process and that this process is often disturbed by
negative or detrimental factors in the child’s environment, it should
be the aim of every congregation to provide a maximum of hours .
for the religious instruction of the children committed to its care.
In the Sunday school the average child receives less than thirty
hours of religious instruction per annum, barely enough to sustain

‘his spiritual life. Where there is no school, more time can. be
procured for religious instruction by introducing one or more of

the part-time agencies. A well-ordered Saturday school will
produce at least as good results as. the Sunday school. A well-
ordered summer or vacation Bible school makes.a valuable con-
tribution to the, child’s religious life and has missionary possibilities.
The same holds true of released-time, or weekday, religious in-
struction. ; . , 7
During the past three years the number of part-time agencies

. (Saturday school, summer school, weekday religious instruction)

throughout Synod increased by 273,.and the enrollment: increased
by 4,563. ‘Synod now Has 2,060 part-time agencies with an enroll-

‘ment of 53,123. These. figures are disheartening, especially since

many of the schools must be classified as confirmation classes and
since the data show that so little has been done to expand, our
system of part-time agencies. The Sunday school is popular, these
other part-time agencies are not. The question is, How can we
make them popular? ‘How can we arouse our congregations to

‘a realization that more time must be devoted to religious instruc-

tion and that for this reason more instructional agencies must be
brought into being? Any endeavor to establish more educational

agencies will indeed entail additional labor on those pastors who

are already overburdened. But in most casés it should be possible
to interest laymen and women and train them for participation

‘ in this work. .It is the earnest: hope of the Board of Christian

Education that the movement for. mare. part-time agencies will

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