LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 53

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PARISH, YOUTH, AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES a3

rollment of the child and be on hand to welcome the child on the
first day in church school.

Parents do appreciate the church’s ministry for their young
children. We do well to use this opportunity to involve parents
and their young children in active fellowship with God's
people.

churches but who do not later receive the rite of confirmation
may indicate that we need to place greater emphasis on

[3 b. The significant percentage of children baptized in our

——

7

ministry to persons as individuals. Here we have the example
of Jesus, who spent much time in ministering to individuals
rather than in “‘mass evangelism.”

Our Sunday school workers need to learn to know each
student as a person through home visitations, judicious use of
the presession, observation of students in their activities, and
other means.

Existing evidence indicates that people who belong to a

fellowship of Christians need at least to be able to identify with
some people of the congregation with whom they feel com-
fortable, by whom they are valued as persons, and with whom
they are able to share their joys, problems, successes, and
disappointments. The Sunday school class can fulfill this
function. Teachers therefore need to be sensitive to the needs,
interests, and experiences of each individual student.
Some losses occur for lack of interest in absentees. Every
Sunday school needs a system of personal care through which
every absentee is contacted and encouraged to maintain
regular participation in the life of the church. Once people have
lost all interest in the life of a congregation, they likely will not
return.

c. Usually the Sunday school reflects the ongoing health of
a congregation. If we are to have strong Sunday schools, we
need congregations that are strong in all aspects of congrega-
tional life. Congregations need to assimilate all members in
congregational life, involve them in meaningful service, and
demonstrate concern for the needs of every member. Healthy
congregations produce healthy Sunday schools.

4. The fourth challenge before our Sunday schools is to
utilize fully this agency for evangelism to the growing number
of unchurched people. For most congregations of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod the Sunday school is the primary
agency for the Christian education of young and old. For this
reason our congregations are rightly concerned that the Sun-
day school meet the spiritual needs of their members. We
continue to need to improve our Sunday schools so they fulfill
this function. But in serving our own members we dare not

_neglect our obligation to those who live without Christ.

i
nS.

Because of our obligation of love to the unchurched, the
Board for Parish Services plans to emphasize child evangelism
in 1985. But in the meantime we all need to identify the
‘unchurched people in our communities and invite them to join
us in the study of God’s Word in Sunday school.

B. The Weekday School

For many years Christians have recognized the limitations
of the Sunday school as the only agency for the Christian
education of God’s people. Already in the 19th century our
fathers established Saturday and summer schools for more
intensive religious instruction than is usually available in
Sunday school alone. One fine tradition has been a weekday
school for seventh- and eighth-grade students, usually taught
by the pastor, in preparation for the rite of confirmation.

Also Christians in other denominations have long recog-
nized the need for more time for Christian education than that
provided by the Sunday school. In 1904 Dr. George U. Wenner
advocated a “released time” program whereby public school
students would be given an hour or so of the school week for
religious education provided by local churches. The first
“released time” experiment was conducted in Gary, Ind., in
1913.Some churches in our Synod even today sponsor success-
ful “released time” programs of Christian education.

However, in most localities public school systems are
forbidden by law or public policy to cooperate with churches in
providing “released time” programs. Therefore, the churches
must creatively plan Christian education programs apart from
school hours during the week. This is usually done on a
weekday after school hours or on Saturday.

Advantages of weekday programs include the added time
afforded for Christian education, a more leisurely pace than
that often found in Sunday school, and greater opportunities
for students to develop friendships with others in their church.

Most congregations already have a weekday school in their
pastor’s or director of Christian education’s class of seventh-
and eighth-graders who are being prepared for the rite of
confirmation. It is relatively easy to expand this school by
adding additional classes for children in the lower elementary
grades, and also by offering study groups for youth and adults.

Because of the kind of world in which we live today, it is
even more important that we seek to augment the Sunday
school program with weekday programs of Christian educa-
tion. During the past several years synodical enrollment in
weekday programs has been relatively stable. We are chal-
lenged to proclaim our Savior to more people by strengthening
the weekday programs wherever they are already in existence,
and to establish new programs where they do not now exist.

Statistics for our weekday programs are given below.

ENROLLMENT IN WEEKDAY PROGRAMS, 1979—81
Saturday Schools

1979 1980 1981
Number of Schools ............. 1,121 1,071 995
Preschool ...................... 257 376 208
Grades 1—2 ...........00....... 297 416 250
Grades 3—4 ...............0..... 484 582 461
Grades5d—6 .................... 2,206 2,208 2,050
Grades 7—8 .................... 10,462 10,019 9,109
High School .................... 540 583 431

Weekday After School Classes

1979 1960 1981
Number of Schools ............. 3,563 3,611 3,718
Preschool ...................... 1,631 1,882 2,132
Grades 1—2 .................... 4,083 3,976 3,879
Grades 3—4 .........0..0.0...... 8,524 8,358 7,625
Grades5—6 .................... 17,257 17,252 17,422
Grades 7—8 .................... 41,963 41,249 42658
High School .................... 2,785 2,844 2,819

Released Time Classes

1979 1980) 19K]
Number of Schools ............. 432 456 466
Preschool ...................... 746 836 1,156
Grades 1—2 ...........00....... 1,573 1,561 1,647
Grades 3—4 1.00.00... 2,684 2,651 2,461
Grades5—6 .............0.0..... 3.034 3,130 3,322
Grades 7—8 .................... 4.441 4,692 4,551
High School .................... 1,156 1,204 1,051

Total Weekday Schools

1979 1980 1981
Number of Schools ............. 5,117 5,138 5,179
Preschool ...................... 2,634 3,094 3,496
Grades 1—2 .................... 5,953 5,953 5,782
Grades 3—4 ......0....00.0...... 11,692 11,591 10,547
Grades5—6 .................... 22,497 22590 22,794
Grades 7—8 ...............000.. 56,866 55,990 56,318
High School .................... 4,481 4,629 4,301
Total Students, K~12 ............ 104,123 103,857 103,238
Adults in Weekday Programs ... 146,281 155,439 161,777

C. The Vacation Bible School se

An educational agency that continues to grow in our Synod
is the vacation Bible school. Its attractiveness lies in its ability_
to provide concentrated study of a specific Christian doctrine
at a leisurely pace for members of the congregation. It alsoisa
significant potential evangelism arm of the church. Because
friends of the church can participate for a limited period
without committing themselves to long-term involvement in
the congregation, they are more ready to enroll in the vacation
Bible school than in such agencies as the Sunday school that
suggest long-term commitment.

In 1981, 4,428 congregations conducted a vacation Bible ,