LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 369

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PARISH SERVICES 369

C. Sunday Schools

While the Lutheran elementary school and the weekday
school continue to enroll a larger proportion of our child con-
stituency each year and the vacation Bible schoo! holds its own
(see Table I) the Sunday school situation has significantly de-
teriorated. The marked decrease in our Sunday school enroll-
ment cannot be attributed entirely to a declining birth rate.
Each year since 1966 we have experienced a progressively
steeper decrease in the proportion of Missouri Synod children
and youth enrolled in Sunday morning educational settings.
The 2 healthiest years for the Sunday school in the Missouri
Synod were 1964 and 1965, when 65 percent of our precon-
firmation children were enrolled in Sunday morning classes.
By 1973 this percentage had dropped to 53 percent of the total
number of our baptized children.

We can only suggest some possible reasons for this marked
decline. Our culture during the 1950s and early 1960s was child-
centered; parents involved their children in Sunday school
because “it was good for the child.” Today our culture is ori-
ented largely toward young adults; less attention is being given
to the needs of children. Interest in the church and its ministry
is less intense today than it was a few years ago. In our affluent
society people are more involved in recreational activities and
give less time to the church. Because of geographical mobility
people were lost to our church when they moved from one
community to another. As an aftermath of the high birth rate
of a decade or so ago, many churches may have been over-
whelmed by the large number of children for which they were
responsible. With a proportion of children and youth larger
than that of adult members, many congregations were unable
to supply an adequate number of teachers; consequently they
failed to provide an adequate person-to-person ministry to
every individual on their membership roll. Possibly the quality
of teaching in the Sunday school was below that which pupils
were receiving during the week, so that pupils lost interest in
the Sunday school. Also, many congregations stopped holding
regular Sunday school teacher training sessions. The end result
was that children were absent from Sunday school and grad-
ually drifted away from church involvement. These are but
a few possible reasons for the rather drastic decline in Sunday
school participation.

D. Our Challenge

Today we seem to be at a turning point in history where
we are reassessing our institutions and way of life, and setting
directions for the future. As a church we too can well assess
where we are and then determine our future course. We suggest
the following:

1. Every congregation would do well to evaluate its educa-
tional ministry, identify its strengths, correct its weaknesses,
and plan for a more effective ministry in Christian education.
To assist congregations in this activity Synod’s Board of Parish
Education offers as a tool Parish Renewal Through Education
materials.

2. Every congregation is encouraged to consider seriously
an expanded weekday program of Christian education for all
preconfirmation-age children not enrolled in a Lutheran ele-
mentary school. Synod’s Board of Parish Education’s publica-
tion Planning Weekday Programs in the Parish is a helpful tool.

3. To halt the attrition of baptized children, every congre-
gation is encouraged to establish and maintain a strong Chris-
tian education ministry to all baptized members of the parish.
Each child baptized in one of our churches should be put on
a nursery roll. Periodically his parents should be contacted
through nursery roll materials, telephone calls, and possibly
home visits. The congregation should offer group experiences
in parent and child development. When the child is old enough
to enter any of the church’s schools, the congregation should
actively seek to enroll the child in that agency.

4. To help continue a basic person-to-person ministry, each
congregation is encouraged to develop and maintain a complete
and accurate soul-accounting system. Visits to every member,
especially absentees, ought to be made. In every way a genuine
concern for every member of the congregation should be ex-
pressed.

5. Each spring and summer the congregation should en-
courage the parents of all eligible children to enroll their child
in the Lutheran elementary school or weekday school of re-
ligion during the coming school year.

6. To strengthen its ministry of Christian education each
congregation is encouraged to consider calling a director of
Christian education. Smaller congregations might well explore
the possibility of calling a DCE in cooperation with other
churches in its area.

7. Every congregation is encouraged to plan and make,
perhaps in cooperation with other churches, periodic surveys
of its community to discover who the unchurched are, and to
develop a list of them. Whenever appropriate, the unchurched
might be invited to enroll in the church's educational agencies.

XI. Lutheran Prekindergarten. Elementary. and
Secondary Schools for Training Messengers of the Lord

Schools Train Messengers

Full-time programs of Lutheran education do train messen-
gers of the Lord. Research directed by the Board of Parish
Education and reported in How Different Are Persons Who
Attended Lutheran Schools? (Milo Brekke, Concordia Pub-
lishing House, 1974) indicates that Lutheran schools are effec-
tive and the evidence shows they effectively train the Lord's
messengers.

Persons who have attended Lutheran schools, on the aver-
age, have much more Biblical knowledge than they would have
if they had not attended. As adults Lutheran school attendees
engage in more congregation work. They live more under the
Gospel than under the Law, and are much more sensitive to
both. Such persons have developed a respect for human beings
and have a greater understanding of the differences among
human beings, whether involving race, culture, economics,
goals, or living standards. They function better in families and
can determine right from wrong and know why. The person
who has attended a,Lutheran school is more likely to enter one
of the full-time ministries of the church and thus is more likely
to commit himself to be a full-time messenger of the Lord
through one of the professional ministries of the church.

The evidence is also clear that the more years of full-time
Lutheran education a person has had, the more significant are

TABLEI
Our Educational Agencies for Elementary School Children

Weekday School

Day School Sunday School

Baptisms Enrollment % of Baptisms Enrollment % of Baptisms Enrollment % of Baptisms

Grades 1-2

1972. —s«'148,179 (1965 — 66) 8,260 5.57% 30,708 20.72% 94,504 63.78%

1973 __________ 143,708 (1966 — 67) 8,216 5.72% 30,037 20.90% 87,309 60.75%
Grades 3—4

1972 «165,335 (1963 — 64) 16,015 9.69% 31,669 19.15% 102,252 61.85%

1973 ss s«155 7,456 (1964 — 65) 16,004 10.16% 30,387 19.30% 94,491 60.01%
Grades 5-6

1972 ____—s«169,441 (1961 — 62) 33,436 19.73% 32,207 19.01% 102,436 60.46%

1973 ___________ 166,906 (1962 — 63) 33,897 20.31% 31,787 19.04% 96,508 57.82%
Grades 7-8

1972 ____—s«i172,312 (1959 — 60) 80,717 46.84% 28,494 16.54% 95,002 55.13%

1973 ____ «171,813 (1960-61) 81,864 47.65% 28,574 16.63% 91,796 53.43%