This book has been telling you what to say to children. The Junior
Post-office will enable the children to say words to you.
This is the Junior Post-office idea. Have a letterbox placed on the
outside of your study door. Have posted up over this box the words
"For Junior Mail Only."
Ask the children to write to you and drop their mail in this box, and
you will receive it promptly and will gladly answer every letter.
When you receive the letters and answer them, announce from the
pulpit that you have letters for the following juniors, and then read
out the names and say the letters will be found on the pulpit table
and can be secured after the service. Sometimes it will have a larger
effect if you send the answer through the regular mail to their
homes. Children like to receive letters in the regular way; they
regard such letters as highly important.
Announce at your Junior Service that you would be glad if they would
write to you about the story or lesson of the evening. Let them tell
the story you told in their own words, and you will be richly
rewarded with a stock of information which they will thus give to you
as to how children listen and oftentimes fail to get your point and
don't understand the meaning of the words you use. You will often be
surprised to note how well they do hear and how much you have put
into their heads and hearts. You will notice the words they use, and
how they construct their sentences. You will also get a hint as to
the action of their little minds when they are thinking.
All of these things are of the utmost value to the worker with
children who has his heart in his task. Sometimes ask them a question
and ask for a written answer through the Junior Post-office. For
instance, ask them if some good friend should give them a thousand
dollars, what would they do with it. You will be amused with the
answers you will receive. When this was tried once with a bright
group of juniors in a city church, one of the answers was, "I would
put it in the bank and save it "; another answer was, "I would buy
books of travel," etc. The best answer the pastor said was this one,
"I would give it to my parents." Each of these letters was answered
personally and good counsel given to the letter writer. At the next
meeting all these letters were read out to the children, and they
took a vote as to the best answer. Sometimes the letters which come
through the Junior Post-office will be little complaints. One wants
to know why it is that he is never put on any committee, especially
the committee for the annual excursion. Another wants to know why she
is never asked to sing a solo at the meeting. Another calls the
pastor's attention to a modest and backward boy who is a good
reciter, but will never push himself forward. Another little girl
inquires if her little brother at home who is too young to come to
the meeting, might be made a member of the meeting and get all cards,
papers, and other things that are given away.
These questions the children ask are big questions to them. They
should be answered with dispatch and dignity. They are windows
through which you can look into child life and "see things."
Sometimes the letters will tell you of their little sorrows and
troubles which to them are as real as your own. Your answer may give
them a lift which they will remember all their lives. Often they will
write to you about the Bible and its wonderful stories, and in their
own language they will discuss these events. Children all believe the
Bible unless some older head has been tampering with them. Sometimes
this fact will come out in their letters. Your answer can easily set
the matter right for all time. They believe in you, and what you say
is the "big law" in the case, and that settles it. They will often
tell you the story of their little lives which seems to be long and
important to them, and by your answer you can tell them of their big
friend Jesus, and how he leads all the way to the end.
At times they will want to know what they must do to be a Christian.
The answer to this letter should always contain an invitation for
them to come and see you personally and talk it over with you. You
must, however, fix the time, or many of them will not act quickly.
This is the best method to use in bringing children to Jesus. If in
the open you ask them, "All of you who want to be saved and live a
Christian life, come forward to the platform," after the first two or
three respond they will often come forward with a rush. Of course,
they do not want to be lost, but many of them have no real thought of
what that act means, and so before their names are taken for
church-membership they should each be dealt with personally. Just
putting the name on a card declaring they desire to be a Christian is
entirely insufficient and should never be regarded as final. Each one
should be dealt with personally and alone.
After Decision Day or revival season their names should be secured
and written to, and an announcement should be made that there are
letters in the Junior Post-office for them, which should contain a
request for a personal interview with them, at which time you can
make plain the way of life. This Junior Post-office method will be a
new way of approach to their inner life and will enable you, as their
pastor, to give counsel that will linger with them for all time. They
will also find that you are their good friend and belong to the
company of juniors as well as the congregation of elders.
This, of course, will take the pastor's time. Well, so let it be; it
is time well spent. And what if the work is hard at times? It is
first-place work and pays the most in the work of the kingdom.
Jesus said to Peter, "Feed my lambs," before he said, "Feed my
sheep." He put first things first. Go thou and do likewise.
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