LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 286

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286 PARISH SERVICES AND YOUTH

Christian person who comes to hear, to learn, to grow. In the
boards, committees, and organizations of the congregation the
“everyone” is usually the individual who wants to participate.
But the message of God's love in Christ is as much for the unin-
formed and the unwilling as for the willing participants.

We ask who are the others that could and should know the
truth that sets them free. Do we know who and where they are:
Members of the congregation who have forgotten their commit-
ment? People in the community who do not know God? Children
with learning disabilities, addicted youth, deaf or blind adults?
The old and forgotten? The poor and oppressed? The black, red,
brown, and ignored? The alone, lost among cold computer cards
and outdated membership rosters? The isolated, the insensitive,
the frustrated, the mutilated, the disenchanted, the angry, the
cowardly, the loveless, the bored, the terrified, the perverted,
the preoccupied, the feminist, the chauvinist, the overconfident,
nameless faces betraying inner meaninglessness as they win-
dow-shop, wait for a light, or watch for their bus on the street
corners of our cities?

Name them, one by one! That's how we make new begin-
nings in Christian education. Person by person identify them.
Listen to what they mean behind the words they say. Mark what
worries them or provides them “kicks.” Celebrate what cheers
them. Learn with them what the deepest hurts of life are so that
together you can hear the word of help that comes in Jesus
Christ to heal those hurts and restore to us all the joy of our
salvation.

The “everyone” is EVERYONE.

A Lutheran “Family Portrait” Shows Special Needs

In facing the immense task of Christian education for all
people of all ages, we ask, ‘Where do we begin? Are there some
priorities? If so, what are they?” A Study of Generations:
offers some help here. Essentially this study is a family portrait
of Lutherans (American Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church —
Missouri Synod, Lutheran Church in America) and of their com-
mitment. We are likely to think that all Lutherans have the same
commitment. The study says this isn’t so. The commitment
differs. Some Lutherans have greater needs than others. Some
areas of instruction require special emphasis. The limitation of
resources suggests that in our ministry of Christian education
we give first attention to the instructional areas of greatest need
and to the people whose needs are greatest.

Central to the Lutheran faith is the “grace alone” and “faith
alone” concept. Yet, while 60 percent of Lutherans tend to live
under the Gospel, 40 percent live under the Law. Those living
under the Gospel are surer of their salvation and tend to under-
stand the Bible better than those under the Law. In a spin-off
study on schools it was found that more Christian schooling
tends to show up significantly positive, especially when the
attendance was longer than 3 years. Here then are some pri-
orities for our Christian education ministry to all—to provide as
thorough a Christian education as possible for all: to help young
and old to understand more clearly that Jesus Christ is the only
way to salvation and that the Gospel rather than the Law is the
motivating force for our Christian life and work. The findings
of the researchers also imply that we should give special care to
the needs of persons aged 19 to 22.

The authors of A Study of Generations suggest that the less
well educated tend toward a “life under the law.” As such they
are ‘‘more generally resistant to change, more authoritarian and
more prejudiced in their attitudes toward others.” They look to
the Law to provide structure, mark achievement, establish au-
thority, distinguish between right and wrong, artd determine
Justice. They possess ‘a natural, achievement orientation to
life,’ whereas God is actually calling them to a life of ‘believing,
experiencing, and accepting the Gospel of grace, faith, hope,
relationship, and forgiveness.” The Holy Spirit wants to work in
us “a supernatural, grace orientation to life.”

Here is an important signal for our Christian education min-
istry. Among our priorities is our work with the less sophisti-
cated, the disadvantaged. They need the most help in living in
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why, too, this concern for the young adult between the ages

of about 19 and 22? “They consistently show the least clarity
and conviction of what they believe, whether right or wrong,”
the study indicates. So it would appear that what these young
adults require of us is a demonstration that we care about them.
They really do belong. Through our loving relationship with
them and they with us a mutual building process takes place.
Together we reach a stronger conviction through the power of
the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is Lord and that we are indeed
His people. God’s plan to refurnish His world with His power to
live in peace and fulfillment involves all of us — young adults, too!

All Grow Best If All Grow Together

The Synod’s Board of Parish Education has committed itself
to a ministry of the Word of God with people of all ages, each in
his unique situation. The Board tries to help Christians in Dis-
tricts and congregations throughout the church identify and
analyze human needs and issues in the light of the Gospel of
Christ: to see the meaning of Jesus Christ for people today; to
help them sense what they lack and what they would yet like
to have for a rich life.

If the church is to mobilize an effective service with people
who need and want to change their lives to be more like Christ,
then we must begin to study God’s Word out of a concern for
people of all ages and with the growing ability to discover their
genuine needs. Once we have listed a priority of Christian con-
cerns for the people of our communities then we can assemble
and interpret the information we need to plan the teaching-
learning experiences that helpfully respond to those concerns.
We can also more successfully tie the educational ministry of the
several age levels and agencies into a unified effort.

This is why the Board of Parish Education places such a
heavy emphasis on continuing education. or as some call it,
adult education. The church's decision makers should be equip-
ping each other with new insights into God’s grace and His plan
for His church. Then we can not only make personal choices
that are more consistent with His will, but we will also be the
better equipped to teach our own children and youth and those
in the community whom we seek to bring under the influence
of God's Word. In fact, that's what Christian education is all
about, whatever the age level.

The Holy Spirit works through His Word and the mutual
consolation of brothers and sisters so that when we face so many
alternatives, as we often do today, we can by His power choose
“the better part.” Some poor, some nearsighted, and some very
bad decisions are made when we neglect our ‘lifelong, lifewide,
and lifedeep” research of the Scriptures for a better under-
standing of the way God gets His work done through Jesus
Christ.

If we are disappointed with the witness and service aspects
of church life today we may discover at least one contributing
factor in the Synod’s Bible class statistics. Fewer adults study
the Bible in groups now rather than more. Note the decline in
percentages: 16.0% in 1969: 15.5% in 1970: 14.7% of the Synod’s
communicants in 1971 were enrolled in the church’s Bible
classes. Since these are the people who make the big decisions
in our communities, churches, and families we have reason to
bolster all our efforts in continuing Christian education. A new
commitment here should also have a beneficial effect on all other
schools and classes.

The “Adult School of Religion” concept can help us. In the
Spring and in the Fall congregations set aside one night a week
for six consecutive weeks. In a 1% to 2 hour session adults help
each other work through the meaning of a book or theme of the
Scripture or a contemporary issue that touches them personally,
including also child training. Meetings are informal with shared
leadership. Where such schools of religion for adults have been
conducted, many participants have evaluated them as being
Provocative experiences in Christian nurture.

Neighborhood home Bible study groups, Sunday morning
classes, Circuit Bible Institutes and Seminars on Christian Living
are other opportunities for adults to grow in Christ. Of course,
the point is: adults who make increasingly more difficult de-
cisions day by day will discover in their study of the Scriptures
some potent help for their personal, family, and vocational lives.
And yet adults may be the most overlooked people in the
church's educational ministry. Once when Jesus saw a universal
need, He gathered people around Himself and said, “Listen to
Me, all of you.” When the church follows Him, it commits itself
to the same concern for people of all ages, each in his own