LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 51

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PARISH, YOUTH, AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES 31

well as successes. The criteria for success or failure are
often difficult to determine. If success is measured by
God’s promise that His Word will always bear fruit, by the
number of students, by the satisfaction of parents, by the
quantity and quality of graduates, by the views that other
school system leaders have of Lutheran schools, then
Lutheran schools are successful.

Other criteria can be listed, such as parent involve.
ment, discipline, modest class size, quality of teachers,
individual student concern, home-church-school partner-
ship, family and fellowship of believers, prominence of
forgiveness, positive peer pressure and relationships, and
the like. To be sure, Lutheran schools have weaknesses
and failures just like every other effort of the church. For
all of these forgiveness is needed and better efforts are
called forin the future. For those responsible for Lutheran
schools the important thing is gratefully to accept the
many successes Lutheran schools have enjoyed as they
proclaim Jesus Christ. Where failure has occurred, more
planning is needed to take advantage of these challenges
and turn them into opportunities under the banner of
“Him We Proclaim.”

H. Him We Proclaim—Through Resources
for Schools and Teachers

To aid school leaders in their task of establishing and
promoting quality Lutheran schools, the BPS school staff
provides a variety of resources. The call to proclaim Christis a
high calling. The School Department, through printed re
sources and bulletins, attempts to assist those responsible for
Lutheran schools. Some of the resources available include:
school feasibility study materials for preschool, elementary
and secondary schools, promotional brochures, chapel talks
and preschool devotions, multicultural resources, and position
statements.

X. Him We Proclaim—Through Our Sunday, Weekday
and Summer Schools

One of the encouraging signs of the past biennium has been
the renewed interest in, and enthusiasm for, the proclamation
of our Savior Jesus Christ through the Sunday, weekday, and
summer schools of our Synod. The long years of decline that
began in 1965 were halted in 1979; many signs indicate that we
may be on the verge of a vigorous, sustained era of renewal in
proclaiming our Lord.

-—— Toproclaim Jesus is more than asking people to accept Him

as their Savior. True proclamation is to lead people to under-
stand more clearly what it means to bea baptized child of God,
to appreciate more fully the salvation the Father has accom.
plished in His Son and which He bestows on persons through
the Holy Spirit, and to equip Christians to live and function as
God’s people and witnesses in the world.

Our most widely used setting to achieve these objectives is
the worship service in which the Word is proclaimed and the
sacraments are administered. Through the worship services of
the church the Holy Spirit blesses and enriches many lives.

But the worship service has its limitations. In seeking to
fulfill the spiritual needs of God’s people in a given place, the
service components must be designed to serve a broad range of
age levels, interests, cultural characteristics, and human needs.
In the worship service it is difficult to offer focused, systematic
Bible study and discussion. The worship service needs to be
complemented with other settings designed specifically to meet
personal needs, levels of maturity, interests, and other indi-
vidual characteristics.

In our Synod the most effective agency to complement the
worship service in proclaiming Jesus Christ is the Lutheran
elementary and secondary school. But the day school also has
its limitations. Most congregations of our Synod lack a school.
The large majority of infants baptized in our churches are
never enrolled in a Lutheran school (perhaps as high as 85%).
The schools minister to people of limited, defined age levels.

Therefore our churches offer Sunday, weekday. and summer
programs of Christian education designed for people of all age
levels, circumstances, interests, and needs. These programs
need to be gratefully appreciated and carefully nurtured as

effective settings for the proclamation of Jesus Christ and His
power and blessing for human lives.

A. The Sunday School

In spite of weaknesses it may have, the Sunday school
continues to be the most viable setting for Christian education.
The Sunday school is designed to serve all members of the
church—youth and adults as well as children. For most people
Sunday morning is still the most convenient time to engage in
church activities. Even those people who propose alternate
settings for Christian education have been unable to suggest
anything else that so captures the attention and participation
of people as does the Sunday school. Rather than dismiss,
ignore, or minimize the Sunday school, itis better to accept this
agency as one important setting for Christian education and to
seek to strengthen it for the mission of proclaiming Jesus.

Statistics from recent years indicate that our Sunday
schools are slowly growing and in other ways are experiencing
new life.

iL

SUNDAY SCHOOL ENROLLMENT, 1979—81 ee
1979 1980 1981
Nursery Roll ...0.0.0......0......... 66,535 69,622 71,631
Baptized in Pertinent Years .......... 169,269 173,054 178,055
Percentage of BaptizedinS.S. ....... 39.31% 40.23". 40.23.
Nursery Class Enrollment ........... 39.510 40.616 42,463
Baptized in Pertinent Years .......... 55.961 35,948 55,815
Percentage of BaptizedinS.S. ....... 70.60%) 72.60" 76.08"
Kindergarten Class Enrollment ...... 51,961 52,547 52,829
Baptized in Pertinent Years .......... 115,570 113,669 111,909
Percentage of BaptizedinS.S. ....... 44.96% 46.23" 47.20".
Enrollment, Grades 1-2 ............. 67,291 65,024 65,224
Baptized in Pertinent Years .......... 119,767 115,563 115,570
Percentage of BaptizedinS.S. ....... 36.18 = 56.27% 36.43%
Enrollment, Grades 3—4 ............. 72.363 68,632 64,945
Baptized in Pertinent Years .......... 134,023 127,800 119,767
Percentage of BaptizedinS.S. ....... 53.99%. 53.70". 4.22"
Enrollment, Grades 5—6 ............. 66.231 66,587 66,481
Baptized in Pertinent Years .......... 137.432 136.279 134,023
Percentage of BaptizedinS.S. ....... 48.19% 48.86" 49.60".
Enrollment, Grades 7—8 ............. 61.456 59,289 59.750
Baptized in Pertinent Years .......... 143,708 140,394 137,432
Percentage of BaptizedinS.S. ....... 42.765 42.23" 43.47%
Enrollment, Grades 9-12 ............ 53.449 52.095 50,719
Confirmations in Pertinent Years .... 196.078 182.621 171,308
Percentage of Confirmed inS.S....... 27.267 28.537 29.61"
Sunday Adult Groups Enroliment ..... 163.821 171.208 177.207
Communicants Over H.S. Age ....... 1.838.170 1,860.023 1.874.400
Percentage of AdultsinS.S. ......... 8.91" 9.20" 9.45"
Home Department ................... 1.250 1,471 1.496
Special Education Classes ........... 1,886 2,032 1,970
Total Student Enrollment ............ 579.218 579.801 583.467
Total S.S. Staff 2.000000, 77468 79,131 79,036
Total Students and Staff ............. 636.686 658,932 662,503

We are grateful to God and the blessing of His Holy Spirit as
we note the increase in Sunday school enrollments. However,
we are concerned about the relatively low percentage of
children baptized in our churches who later enroll in the
Sunday school. Of course, some children enrolled in a Lutheran
school do not attend Sunday school, but we have far too many
children who are baptized in our churches but who are not later
enrolled in a program of Christian education. This situation is
reflected in the relationship of infant baptisms to junior
confirmations, which we shall discuss below under “Confirma-
tion Ministry.”

A large majority of our congregations do not sponsor a
Lutheran school; therefore, a very large majority of infants
baptized in our churches never enroll in one of our day schools.
In addition, there is a growing number of Americans and
Canadians growing up without Christ. Efforts to substitute an
alternative for the Sunday school have generally failed. There-
fore our Lutheran Sunday schools remain our primary educa-
tional agency for proclaiming Jesus Christ both to our own
people and to the unchurched. Because of these facts our
Sunday schools face tremendous challenges.