in the present, with a clear vision of the future. It must not only
cherish a loving memory of its field as it has been, but understand
thoroughly what it is, and what forces are shaping it for the future.
The leaders in each Sunday school working for itself, or preferably
those conducting the Sunday schools of a neighborhood working unitedly,
should ascertain the nationality, religious condition, and church
relations of every family in the district; and not only of every family,
of every individual who may have a room in a boarding house. Each
political organization knows the residence and party proclivities of
every voter in the district; and the churches may learn from the
politicians practical lessons upon the best methods of work.
(2) _Cultivate the Field._ Since the scholars must come to the school
from the population around it, they should be sought, brought in,
taught, and evangelized, with all the energy and wisdom which the church
possesses. And not only the scholars, but also, in large degree, the
teachers must be home-born and home-taught; therefore the Sunday school,
to be successful, must train up workers from its own constituency.
(3) _Provide for all Elements._ By diligent and constant effort the
school should be made representative of all ages, of all classes, of all
sections, and as far as practicable of all races found in its community.
(4) _Adapt Methods._ If a former constituency has removed from the
field, and a new population has surged in, the new element must be
looked upon as the constituency of the school. Its needs must be
recognized, however different they may be from the needs of the past;
and plans must be formed to meet those needs, whatever transformation of
the school the new plans may involve.
XVI
RECRUITING THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
1. =Necessity.= The aspiration for advancement is natural and noble; and
therefore every member of the Sunday school who is interested in its
welfare, whether officer, teacher, or pupil, desires it to increase in
membership, and to spread its benefits as widely as possible. But the
recruiting of the Sunday school is not only desirable, but necessary. It
is found that in every school there exists an outflow as well as an
inflow of members. If in certain departments, as the Primary, new
scholars are constantly enrolled, in other departments, as the older
grades of the Intermediate and the Senior, there is as constant a
dropping out of members from the school. It has been estimated that in
most Sunday schools from twenty to twenty-five per cent of the
membership changes annually, so that the average period of a teacher or
scholar in the Sunday school is less than five years. There are some who
remain longer, but others who are members for even a shorter time. Upon
the average, every school is a new school once in four or five years. If
one fifth of the school leaves every year, there must be an equal number
enter it, to keep the school at its normal size. But any institution
dependent upon the maintenance of a constituency, whether it be a
periodical, a life-insurance association, or a Sunday school, begins to
decline when its number remains stationary. The health and life of the
school, therefore, require a constant renewal of its membership. The
school must have new blood, or it will soon be impoverished and in time
die.
2. =The Losses from the School.= Before the presentation of plans for
winning new scholars comes the vital question of holding the scholars
already on the roll; for the condition of leakage has a close relation
to growth or decline. If the causes of the leakage can be ascertained,
and the drain can be stopped, we shall be materially aided in our effort
to enlarge the school.
(1) _The Search in the School._ Careful notation should be kept of the
grades from which scholars are lost, or which are below a normal
membership; and equally careful inquiry should be made as to the cause
of the decline, and methods to correct it should be sought. Is it in the
Primary Department, which should be the most rapidly growing department
in the school? Is it in the Junior or Intermediate Department, where
there ought to be a steady increase, even if it be slow? Is it in the
Senior Department? Here there is great danger of losses, especially
among young men. Is it not possible to find why they leave the school,
and what will induce them to remain? Perhaps the school is deficient in
the Adult Department. Must it be admitted that the Sunday school is for
children only, and that as soon as its members become men and women
their departure from the school is to be expected? The investigation
should be more than general, ascertaining what departments are suffering
loss; it should be personal, including the name and grade of every
scholar who has ceased to attend for a definite period; and as far as
possible the reason for his leaving the school.
(2) _Following up Absentees._ A systematic plan for watching over the
membership of the school should be instituted and vigorously maintained.
For example, in some schools a report of every absentee is made by the
secretary to the superintendent. On Monday morning each teacher receives
by mail the list of his absent scholars, with a request to send in
writing, as soon as practicable, the cause of absence for each one. In
many schools this work of looking after the absentees is performed by
paid visitors--a good plan, but not so good as for the teacher to come
into personal touch with his own scholars. A business firm watches over
its customers, and endeavors in every possible way to hold them. The
Sunday school which can maintain its grasp upon its members has the
problem of growth already half solved.
3. =Characteristics of a Growing School.= The strongest force in
recruiting the Sunday school is to be found in the character of the
school itself. The merchant must have his shelves stocked with
attractive goods if he expects customers. In order to obtain scholars
there must be a good school.
(1) _Efficient._ The school should maintain high educational standards;
should be thoroughly graded in all its departments, with suitable
lessons for each grade; and should have organized classes for young
people and adults. The thoroughly good school will rarely lack for
scholars.
(2) _Attractive._ The school should be attractive as well as efficient.
Its meeting place should be cheerful and airy, with suitable furniture
and apparatus, above ground, and not a damp, dingy basement. It should
have enjoyable exercises, like a school, yet not too severely like a
public school. It should greet new members heartily, make them feel at
home, and cultivate acquaintance with them. There should be an animating
spirit of loyalty and love for the school; a devotion which will inspire
active effort in its behalf. Around the school should be the atmosphere
of a happy home.
(3) _Prominent._ Among the activities of the church the school should
stand forth prominently. It should be kept in mind that, as the
neighborhood furnishes the constituency of the school, so the school
furnishes the members for the church. In our time three fourths of the
accessions by profession of faith come from the Sunday school. The
school should be held in honor as the principal source of supply to the
church membership. If the audience room is large and imposing, and the
Sunday-school room is inferior and unattractive; if the pulpit and the
choir are amply supported while the school receives a narrow sustenance,
however great the prosperity of the church its duration will be brief.
The Sunday school must stand in the foreground, and not in the
background, if the church is to grow; and the growing church should have
a growing Sunday school.
(4) _Special Occasions._ Throughout the Sunday-school year occur days
which should be recognized, as breaking the monotony of the regular
exercises, and as attractive features of the school. Such are Christmas,
Easter, Children's Day in June, Rally Day in the fall, and Decision Day,
when the net is drawn for discipleship in behalf of the church. Some
superintendents look upon these occasions as burdensome, but with
careful preparation and an attractive program they will add to the
interest of the school, while in no wise detracting from the efficiency
of its educational work. An occasional social entertainment for the
school, or for each department in turn, and an outing day in the summer,
will strengthen that _esprit de corps_ or animating spirit of the school
which is its strongest drawing power in attracting new members.
(5) _Special Helps._ There are communities where certain methods may
avail more than elsewhere. A well-conducted Sunday-school library, no
longer needed in many places, may be of great value in villages where
there is no public library. A reading room, social hall, and gymnasium
may constitute the church a home for young men whose dwelling places may
be in close tenement houses. Young men are in saloons, and young women
are in amusement parks, who might spend their evenings under the healthy
influence of the church if places were provided. These plans and other
features of the institutional church will need careful and wise
administration if they are to do good and not harm; but in many places
they will minister to the success of the school and the church, and also
to the uplifting of the community.
4. =Reaching Beyond the School.= Thus far in this chapter we have
considered the school rather than the field. One of the chief tasks of
the Sunday school, however, is to reach out and lay hold of all the
inhabitants, both young and old, in the area of its influence. The
following active measures have proved effective in reaching the people
and winning them to the school.
(1) _Advertise._ The school should be kept before the community in every
legitimate way. Merchants tell us that the secret of success is first to
have salable goods, and then to advertise them; and the same principle
applies to the Sunday school. Printer's ink should be used liberally,
but wisely. Only neatly printed, attractive matter should be employed.
Invitation cards, leaflets, programs of special services, a little
periodical devoted to the school, a year book containing the school
register, and many other forms of advertisement will help to inform the
neighborhood that the school is at work and is ready to welcome new
members.
(2) _Invite._ Every officer, teacher, scholar, and parent should
consider himself a committee to speak to others about the school, and to
invite his friends and acquaintances to attend it. The little children
should ask their playmates, boys and girls in school their classmates,
young men their shopmates, young women their associates. No printed
paper can have a tenth of the power possessed by the living voice and a
hearty hand-shake. It is assumed that the invitation is given only to
those who are not already attached to any church or school. All possible
care should be taken to maintain a fraternal spirit, and not to build up
our own wall by pulling down another.
(3) _Visit._ The field belonging to the school should be bounded
definitely, and should be thoroughly and systematically canvassed. It
should be divided into districts, and each district assigned to a
visitor and a committee, who should know who may be included in the
proper constituency of the school. For this work many schools and
churches employ a paid visitor or a deaconess; and none can surpass the
zeal or fidelity of many who enter upon such a vocation. But the schools
which cannot afford professional workers include some teachers and some
adult scholars who can give a portion of their own time to the same
task. An organized class of men might be named which grew into over a
hundred members through persistent work by a simple plan. A lookout
committee, after careful inquiry, would report the names and addresses
of men eligible for membership. Then the members in order and by
appointment, in groups of two, called upon each candidate, formed his
acquaintance, and invited him to the class. Sometimes thirty or forty
men would call, but in time almost every man visited yielded to the
friendly social influence, became a member, and soon after a worker for
the class.
5. =A Danger.= A caution may be needed with reference to all these plans
of recruiting the school. Advertising may be carried to the excess of
becoming sensational. Invitations may be pressed upon scholars in other
schools. The effort for increase may degenerate into unfriendly rivalry.
A good plan may work evil when worked in a selfish spirit. And a
too-rapid growth is sure to be unhealthy. The late B. F. Jacobs said,
"God pity the Sunday school that gets a hundred scholars at one time!" A
quiet, steady, diligent, persistent effort for the school will be of
permanent benefit, rather than a spasm of enthusiasm.
XVII
THE TESTS OF A GOOD SUNDAY SCHOOL
In the United States more than a hundred thousand Sunday schools are in
session every week. Some of them are very good, many are only moderately
efficient, and some are poor in every respect. The question arises, what
constitutes a good Sunday school? Is it possible to establish some
standard of measurement by which the rank of any Sunday school can be
fixed? In such a standard there must be several factors, for the points
of excellence in Sunday school are not one, but many. It is the aim in
this closing chapter to ascertain the criteria or the tests of a good
Sunday school. The statement of these tests involves the summing up and
in some measure the repetition of much already given throughout these
pages.
1. =Representative Character.= The first test of a Sunday school is
found in its relation to the community around it. The Sunday school is
not a bed of exotic plants, dug up from their native soil, potted and
protected in a conservatory. It is an outdoor garden wherein are
cultivated the flowers and fruits that are indigenous to the region. A
true Sunday school is a group of people drawn out of the larger world
around it, and representing every element in that world, both as regards
social life and age. If it represents the rich and the prosperous only,
it is not a good school, unless the neighborhood is unfortunate in
containing only such people. If it is a mission school for poor people
in the midst of a self-supporting population, it is not a good school.
If it includes few members above sixteen, and none above twenty-five
years of age, it is not a good school, for it should embrace all ages
from the infant to the grandfather. The school which is to stand on the
roll of honor is one that fairly represents its constituency.
2. =Organization.= Another requirement for a good school is that it be
well organized as a graded school. There may be Sunday schools which
make up by their spirit for what they lack in system; yet the exceptions
are few to the rule that in Sunday-school work organization is essential
to success. It is true that machinery creates no power; there is nothing
in a constitution and by-laws to make an institution successful. It is
the efforts of living men and women that bring to pass results. But
organization directs and economizes power; so that, other elements being
equal, the graded school quickly becomes the best school. We have
already seen that a graded school is one with departments defined, with
the number of classes in each department fixed according to the needs of
the school, with promotions at regular periods, based either on age or
examination or merit, or on all three factors in combination, with
lessons graded according to the departments, and, as its most important
element, with a change of teachers when the pupil is promoted from a
lower to a higher grade or department. The graded system is not easy to
establish; it requires firmness and tact in the authorities, and a
self-denying spirit on the part of teachers; but it will abundantly and
quickly repay all it costs in effort and sacrifice, and it is an
essential in a really good Sunday school.
3. =Order.= A good school is orderly, yet it is not too orderly.
Everybody is in place at the proper time. At the minute, and not a
minute later, the superintendent opens the school. If he rings a bell,
it is a gentle, musical one, held up by the leader as a signal and
scarcely sounded. There is not more confusion than at the opening of any
other religious service. Only one service is conducted at a time;
singing is worshipful, just as well as prayer, and the Scriptures are
read thoughtfully and reverently. No officers are rushing up and down
the aisles during the services; no loud calls are made for order; yet
there is a suitable quietness when quietness is desirable. A good school
is never disorderly, yet it cannot be said that the best school is
always the most orderly. Occasionally one sees a Sunday school where
order has gone to the extreme of repressing all enthusiasm, where the
program is too finely cut and too thoroughly dried, where the mechanism
moves with the precision of the lockstep in a state prison. The ideal of
the Sunday school is not that of the French minister of education who is
reported to have stated that he could look at his watch and tell at that
minute what question was before each class in every school in France!
4. =Spirit.= For lack of a more definite term we call the next
characteristic of a good Sunday school its spirit. In any successful
school one feels rather than finds a peculiar and individual atmosphere.
Every member, from the superintendent to the Primary scholar, manifests
an interest in the institution; an interest of blended love, loyalty,
enjoyment in it and enthusiasm for it. There is a social spirit in each
class and in the school as a whole. Its members do not meet as
passengers in a railway station, each one wrapped up in his own business
and watching for his own train. They all have their individual
friendships and social relations, yet a bond unites them all as members
of one Sunday school. This peculiar _esprit de corps_, an interest in
the institution, is a strongly marked feature in every progressive
Sunday school.
5. =Educational Efficiency.= The Sunday school is in the world with a
definite work--religious education. Its religion will be based on the
Old Testament and kindred literature in a Jewish school; it will be
based on both the Old and New Testament and supplemental literature in a
Christian school; but whether Jewish or Christian, its work is the
teaching of religion, as contained in the living Word, and illustrated
by the lives and teachings of the heroes of the faith. The true test of
a Sunday school is the answer that it can give to the question, "Does it
teach the vital religious truths of the race so as to develop individual
character and efficiency?" That is its task, and by its success in
accomplishing it each school is to be judged; not by the splendor of its
building, or the exactness of its machinery, or the enthusiasm of its
members. The thirty or thirty-five minutes devoted to the lesson is the
supremely important period in every true Sunday school. The time is
often bound to be all too short for teaching divine truth, and printing
it upon mind and memory so deeply that all the studies and pleasures of
the six days between the two Sundays will not cause the teaching to
fade. Yet the time is as long as the ordinary teacher (or preacher) can
hold attention to one subject, and therefore in most classes it is
sufficient. Toward that half hour of teaching, therefore, all the
energies of the school, of the training class, home study, teachers'
meeting, gradation, government, should be turned. For the vital aim of
the Sunday school is the eternal message of God to men through men, so
that men and women of the Christ spirit and character may be developed.
6. =Character-Building.= The first task, therefore, of the Sunday school
is to teach the Word, but that teaching is only a means to an end, and
that end is greater than mere intellectual knowledge--it is the building
up of a complete character. This is more than "bringing souls to
Christ," or leading them into church membership. If the sole aim of the
Sunday school was to compass the salvation of the scholar and to
surround him with the walls of a church, then we might safely dismiss
our scholars when they have passed through a crisis of conversion and
entered the church door. But the Sunday school is to do more than save
its scholars from sin. It is to train them in the completeness of a
Christian character; and such a character involves not only personal
righteousness but also service for God and humanity. Its aim is not to
take people apart out of the world, but to set them in the world,
equipped for work in making the world a Christian world, and thereby
establishing on earth the kingdom of heaven. The measure by which the
Sunday school accomplishes such a work as this, constitutes the final,
crucial test of its success.
It cannot be said that any one of these six essentials of a good Sunday
school stands supreme. They do not march in Indian file; nor are they to
be set one against another in a comparison of values. These traits of a
complete Sunday school should rather be regarded as one of the New
Testament writers describes the traits of a complete character, in that
familiar yet only half-understood passage, "As in the harmony of a
choral song, blend with your faith the note of energy, and with your
energy the note of knowledge, and with your knowledge the note of
self-mastery,"[12] through all the eight aspects of the Christian; so
let these six essential elements be combined to form that noble
institution, the ideal Sunday school.
FOOTNOTE:
[12] 2 Pet. 1. 5-7.
APPENDIX
BLACKBOARD OUTLINE AND REVIEW QUESTIONS
I. THE HISTORIC PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL MOVEMENT
BLACKBOARD OUTLINE
1. =Mag.=
2. =Mod.=
3. =Lay.=
4. =Unp. Wor.=
5. =Sel.-sup.=
6. =Sel.-gov.=
7. =Sel.-dev.=
8. =Bib. stu.=
REVIEW QUESTIONS
To what race in the world does the Sunday school mainly belong?
What are some of the lands in which it is found?
What does the circulation of its literature show?
What influence is the Sunday-school movement exercising upon the world?
How many salient traits of the Sunday school are named in this chapter?
What are those traits in the order named?
To what race can the ancient germ of the Sunday school be traced?
What institutions among that people contained the elemental principle of
the Sunday school?
What gathering similar to a Sunday school is described in the Bible?
Who was the founder of the modern Sunday school?
In what place, and what year, was the first Sunday school held?
What aided to make this institution known?
Was the first Sunday school established under direction of the clergy or
the laity?
Has the clergy, or the laity, been the more prominent in the work of the
Sunday school throughout its history?
What has been the attitude of the church toward this institution?
What has been stated concerning the compensation of the teachers in the
earliest Sunday school?
Was the plan of paying teachers for their services continued?
Are the majority of Sunday-school officers and teachers now paid for
their services?
What has been the effect of this condition, of unpaid service, upon the
growth of the Sunday-school movement?
How has this condition of voluntary, unpaid work affected the moral
influence of the Sunday school?
How have the expenses of the Sunday school in most places been met in
the past?
How are such expenses met in the best schools at the present time?
How has the self-support of the Sunday school in the past affected its
government?
What is the present share of the church in the government of the school?
What forces have directed the development of the Sunday school as a
movement?
What fact in its origin largely accounts for the unity of method in the
Sunday school?
What is the text-book studied in the Sunday school?
What has been the influence of the Sunday school in behalf of the Bible?
II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
BLACKBOARD OUTLINE
1. =Aim.= Rel. ins. (1) Kn. (2) Ch. (3) Ser.
2. =Meth. Tea.= (1) Teach. (2) Sch. (3) Text-b.
3. =Rel. Ch.= Bel. ch. Ca. ch. Sup. ch. Feed. ch. Sup. ch.
4. =Gov.= (1) Rights of teach. (2) Auth. of ch.
5. =Off.= (1) Sup. (2) Assoc. sup. (3) Sec. (4) Treas. (5) Fac.
6. =Mem.= All ag. all clas.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
What is a Sunday-school constitution?
What is the difference between an ideal and a practical plan?
Are all constitutions written?
What six points should be provided for in the constitution of the Sunday
school?
What should be the aim of the Sunday school?
State the definition of the Sunday school as given by Dr. Vincent.