IV
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL OR CHURCH SCHOOL
The Sunday school is the biggest force of the church in the life of the boy. At times he refuses to attend the stated worship of the church, but if the Sunday school be in the least interesting he will gladly attend it. Its exercises and procedure must, however, be interesting, and rightly so. The boy has the right to demand that the time, his own time, which he gives to the Sunday school, should be utilized to some decently profitable, pleasurable end. Education, even religious education, is not necessarily a painful process. Discipline of mind or body has ceased to be a series of disagreeable, rigid postures or exercises. Medicine has no virtue merely because it is bad to the taste, and modern medical usage prescribes free air and warm sunshine in large doses in place of the old-time bitter nostrums. Even where the boy spirit needs medication, the means employed need not be sepulchral gloom, solemn warning, other-world songs, and penitential prayers, with great moral applications of the non-understandable. The germs of spiritual disease give way before the sunshine of the spirit, just as fast, if not faster, than the microbes before the sun. The Sunday school, then, should be a happy, joyous, sunny place, brimful of ideas, suggestion and impulse; for these three are at once the giants and fairies of religious education, and are the essential elements of character-making.
To produce all of the above, three things are needed: adequate organization, careful supervision, and common-sense leading. The first is imperative, because all education is a matter of organization. The second is part of the first, as supervision is the genius of organization. The third is fundamental, for all expression—true education—depends on the teacher or leader, whose innate idea of the fitness of things keeps him from doing, on the one hand, that which is just customary, or, on the other hand, that which may appear to be just scientific. The science of yesterday should be the tradition of today; that is, if we are making progress in educational processes. Today's science also should be fighting yesterday's for supremacy. Common sense lies somewhere between the two.
The only two of these three Sunday school essentials that this chapter deals with are organization and supervision.
The Sunday school should be a kind of a religious regiment, martial both in its music and its virtues for its challenge to the adolescent boy. Now, every regiment, in peace or war, is properly organized with battalions, companies, and squads. Everything is accounted for, arranged for, and some one definitely held responsible for certain things—not everything. The organization covers every member of the regiment; so should the Sunday school.
In Sunday school nomenclature the regimental battalions are "Divisions"—Elementary, Secondary, and Adult, by name. The companies likewise are named "Departments," each division having its own as in the "Elementary"—"Cradle Roll," "Beginners," "Primary," and "Junior." The squads in each case are the "Classes" that make up the Departments. It is essential that the Secondary, or Teen Age Division, which enrolls the adolescent boy, be adequately organized.
Regiments, Battalions, Companies, and Squads must be properly officered—must be supervised. Colonels, Majors, Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants and Corporals are the arteries of an army. In Sunday school language, the head of the regiment is the General Superintendent, and all the heads of divisions and departments are likewise named Superintendent. The leader of the squad is the Teacher. Then a properly supervised Sunday school is organized not unlike an army, and would be, according to a diagram, like the following:
|
-----+--+--------------+-----------------+-----------------+----
| | | |
Elementary Secondary Adult Special
Superintendent Superintendent Superintendent Superintendent
| | |
Cradle Roll Intermediate Organized Bible
Superintendent Superintendent Class
Superintendent | |
| | |
Beginners' Senior Home Superintendent
Superintendent Superintendent
or
Primary Teen Age
Superintendent Superintendent
or
Junior Boys'
Superintendent Superintendent
and
Girls'
Superintendent
Thus the modern school of the church would have at least twelve superintendents to oversee its work, to say nothing of the special workers, such as Training, Missionary and Temperance. This may seem like an unnecessary array of officers, but the experienced will admit that they are essential to good results in teaching boys and girls of varying requirements. Not until the Secondary or Teen Age Division is adequately supervised, will the teen age boy or his religious education be properly cared for.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
Frost.—The Church School (.65).
Cope.—Efficiency in the Sunday School ($1.00).
Lawrance.—Housing the Sunday School ($2.00).
—How to Conduct a Sunday School ($1.25).
Meyer.—The Graded Sunday School in Principle and Practice (.75).
| SCHEME OF ORGANIZATION OF THE MODERN SUNDAY SCHOOL DIVISIONS AND DEPARTMENTS | ||||||||
| ELEMENTARY | SECONDARY | ADULT | SPECIAL | |||||
| Cradle Roll (1 Minute-3 years) |
Beginners' Department (4-5 years) |
Primary Department (6-8 years) |
Junior Department | (A) Intermediate Department (13-16 years) |
(A) Senior Department (17-20 years) |
Adult Bible Class Department (21 years +) |
Home[1]Department Visitation Department |
Missionary Temperance Purity Training Parents Parents & Teachers Etc. |
| (B) Teen Age or High School Department | ||||||||
| Girls' Department (13-20 years) (C) Boys' Department (13-20 years) | ||||||||
V
THE BOY AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
There are two factors in the above subject—the factor of the boy and the factor of the Sunday school.
The factor of the boy is the more important of the two, as the Sunday school exists merely for the purpose of serving the boy. The boy, therefore, should be thought of first, and the Sunday school should be planned to meet his needs.
What then is the factor of the boy? "The boy is a many-sided animal, with budding tastes, clamorous appetites, primitive likes and dislikes, varied interests; an idealist and hater of shams, a reservoir of nerve force, a bundle of contradictions, a lover of fun but a possible lover of the best, a loyal friend of his true friends; impulsive, erratic, impressionable to an alarming degree." Furthermore, the boy is maturing, traversing the path from boyhood to manhood, is unstable, not only in his growth, but also in his thought, is restless because of his natural instability, and sometimes suffers from headiness and independence. Between boyhood and manhood he travels swiftly, the scenery changes quickly as he travels—but he is traveling to manhood. No railway train or vehicle can keep pace with his speed. Morning sees him a million miles farther on his way than night reckoned him but half a day before. And yet, in all of it, he moves by well-defined stages in his journey towards his destination of maturity. Today he is individualistic, tomorrow heroic, a little later reflective and full of thought, but in all of it is progressively active, moving forward by leaps and bounds. His needs also increase with his pace, and must be fully and timely met, if he is to reach symmetrical maturity. He needs but three things to attain his best: proper sustenance, unlimited activity, and careful guidance. Given these three rightly and at the proper time, the quality of his manhood will go beyond our fondest hope. The sustenance must be in keeping with his years, the activity in line with his strength, and the guidance adapted to the needs of his spirit—firm, compelling, but not irksome. In it all the boy is to be encouraged in self-expression, resourcefulness, and independent manhood. Such is a partial appreciation of the boy and his wonderful capacities, a passing glimpse into a treasure house of wealth and possibility.
What now is the Sunday school? In the days that are past, it was looked upon merely as a weekly meeting of boys and girls. Today it is regarded as an institution for the releasing of great moral and religious impulses into life. Of late there have even crept into its life the names and some of the methods of our public school system. Grading and trained teaching have also come into its life to stay; the modern Sunday school is but little like that of a decade ago, and the changes are not yet done with. Some of the innovations will be proved by experience and retained with modification, while others doubtless will be eliminated as worthless for the purposes of the Sunday school in its ideals of moral and religious education. Improvement, however, is in the school atmosphere.
However, with all the change, past, present and contemplated, the school proper has but little time for the doing of its work. Fifty-two sessions a year, of an hour's or an hour and a half's duration at best, fifty-two or seventy-eight hours a year, only one-third of which is given to Bible study, furnish a meager opportunity to accomplish its aim. Compared with twelve hundred hours a year in the public school, or the twenty-eight hundred hours a year a boy may work, it seems pitifully small, for the aim of the Sunday school is bigger than the other two. The Sunday school purposes to fit the boy to play the game in public school and work and life. It seeks to give him impulses that will help him to keep clean, inside and outside, to work with other boys in team play, to render Christian service to his fellows, and to love and worship God as his Father and Christ as his Saviour. The means it employs for these great purposes are Bible study, Christian music, the association of the boys in classes, and Christian leadership. To these the school is beginning to add through-the-week meetings for what have been called its secular activities. All this has come after a great deal of campaigning on the part of groups of devoted men and women interested in boy life and welfare. The Sunday school has had to overcome many handicaps in reaching the boy of teen age, among which were the lack of efficient, virile teachers, a misunderstanding of boy nature, lessons not adapted to the boy's needs, music that was not appealing, and the indiscriminate grouping of boys with members of the other sex. These, however, have been rapidly overcome, and today the school is fairly well organized to meet the needs of the boy.
There are yet some definite things to be written into the life of the Sunday school to win and hold the boy of teen age in its membership for life.
The first of these is the incorporation into the Sunday school activities of those things that interest and touch and mold every phase of a boy's life. It means the allotment of a definite part of the school period for the discussion of the things the group of boys will engage in during the week, and a through-the-week meeting as a real part of the school work. This allows and provides for the athletic, outdoor, camping, social, and literary outlet for the boy spirit.
Another forward step is graded Bible study, graded athletics, graded service, graded social life, and graded mental activities. The work of the school, to hold the boy, must be new and diverse in its interests, and big enough and broad enough to command his constantly changing attention. As his years so shall his interest be. To his years the work of the Sunday school must correspond.
The Organized Bible Class that is self-governing must be added to the above. Better have the gang on the inside of the church with a Christian-altruistic content, than to permit the boys to organize under self-direction on the outside. The Bible Class, too, has advantages over every other form of organization. It has the Bible at its heart, the one thing necessary to assure permanence, and never allows the thought of graduation. Other boy organizations meet the need of certain specified years; the Bible Class meets all the needs of all the years, and is flexible enough to include all the special needs that are met by other forms of organization.
The greatest need of the Sunday school is capable teaching. By it the Bible Class becomes efficient or the reverse. For the boy the teacher should be a man, a Christian man, who has personality enough to command the boy's respect, and ability enough to direct the boy in doing things. This means a comrade-relationship of work and play, Bible study and athletics, spiritual and social activity, Sunday and week-day interest, and a disposition on the part of the leader to get the boy to do everything—government, planning, presiding, achieving—for himself. This is true teaching and leadership. The greatest thing in the Sunday school is the teacher. For now abideth the Lesson, the Class, and the Teacher, but the greatest of these is the Teacher.
In view, then, of all that has gone before, what shall be said of the Sunday school and the boy? Each to each is the complement; the two together form a winning combination. On the one hand, the modern Sunday school should meet the boy's need at every stage of his development in a physical, social, mental, and spiritual way. It should give him variety and progression in the processes of his maturing, and suitable organization and trained leadership for character-building and man-making. On the other hand, the boy will render the Sunday school and church his service, and through both give his heart's thought, devotion, and worship to his Lord. This is the whole matter of the Sunday school and the normal boy, and is our vision of the future of the church. The past did not do it! The past is dead!
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE BOY AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
Boys' Work Message (Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).
Foster.—The Boy and the Church (.75).
Lewis.—The Intermediate Worker and His Work (.50).
—The Senior Worker and His Work (.50).
Robinson.—The Adolescent Boy in the Sunday School (American Youth, April, 1911) (.20).
VI
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES IN SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK WITH BOYS
Five fundamental principles must be kept in mind when work with boys in the Sunday school is attempted, and without these five principles very little will be accomplished:
1. The first of these is the Fourfold Life. A boy lives physically, socially, and mentally, as well as spiritually. He lives seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, not merely an hour or an hour and a half on Sunday. His spiritual impulses are received and find their expression in the physical, social and mental activities in which he is engaged during the week. Any work that is attempted with a group of boys which ignores this fourfold life of the boy cannot be a success. The man, then, who plans to work with boys must plan to touch the various phases of the boys' lives as he works with them, and he must also do this work in proportion, not putting too much emphasis on any one phase, but allowing equal emphasis on all. The ideal for a perfect work with boys is that which is gleaned from a study of the boyhood of Christ, for the boy Jesus, "grew in wisdom" (mentally), "and in stature" (physically), "and in favor with God" (spiritually), "and with man" (socially). The secret of the life of the Christ as a boy lies in his symmetrical and well-balanced growth.
2. The second principle is Progression. In a successful church work with boys the activities must be graded and progressive. The public school could not command the presence of a boy if the work which it gave him today was the same as that of last week, and that of last week the same as that of a year ago. The inherent interest of the public school to a boy is that he is discovering new things for himself, or being taught new things all the while. This principle must be incorporated in church and Sunday school work to keep the continued interest of the boy. It must be observed, not only in Bible study (and this should be graded), but also in the physical, social, mental and service activities in which the boy finds himself engaged.
3. The third principle is Service. Too long has the church bribed her boys and expected them to remain with her and in her service after offering them wages for doing the thing which they ought to have done for sheer love of it. Socials and clubs and athletic organizations and other devices have been used as a bid to hold the boy, instead of being used because the church owed these things to the boy as part of his all-round development. "Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also"; and it stands to reason that the heart of the boy will be where he is giving most of himself. If he is investing himself heavily in the interest and service of the church, that is where his interest will be.
4. The fourth principle is Organisation.
The law of the boy life in adolescence is organization, or the gang. The church has its choice, either to let the boys organize themselves on the outside, under self-directed and therefore incompetent leadership, or to organize the boys on the inside of the church, provide a definite place for this organization, and so permeate the gang instinct with the spirit of Christian altruism. Every church organization for boys, the organized Bible class, the church club, and other church forms of organization, are aiming to do just this thing. The law of the boy's life is to associate with his fellows and the expression of his purposes is team work. The church, through suitable organization, can meet this need of the boy life.
5. The fifth and last principle is Leadership. Leadership is inseparable from organization, and organization is useless without leadership. The leadership which is necessary for a group of adolescent boys is that of a man, and the problem which is presented to a leader with a group of boys in the adolescent years is not that of teaching, but of awakening virile ideas and purposes in the boy life. The leader must be able to enter into sympathy with and in at least a partial way into participation with all the activities of the group. Everything that a boy does is just the thing that the man used to do. There is, therefore, little hardship, but instead the joy of living again, when a man becomes the leader of a group of boys.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
Alexander (Editor).—Boy Training (.75).
Boys' Work Message (Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).
Robinson.—The Adolescent Boy in the Sunday School (American Youth, April, 1911) (.20).
VII
METHOD AND ORGANIZATION
Organization
By organization is meant, of course, boy organization, the form of organization that attempts to keep the adolescent boy tied up to the interests of the church. Today the forms of organization for this purpose are legion, and strangely enough every such form but one has its headquarters outside of the local church it seeks to serve. The one exception is the form known as the Boys' Organized Bible Class, an integral part of the Sunday school with no allegiance of any sort or kind to any organization but the local church of which it is a part—bone of its bone, flesh of its flesh, muscle of its muscle.
These organizations that flourish in our modern church life naturally fall into three classes: religious, semi-religious and welfare. Other nomenclature, characterizing them might be used, and would be by their founders, but these words classify them for the purpose of our investigation. The religious organizations have for their sole aim the deepening of the religious impulse, and the missionary objective of carrying this impulse to others. The semi-religious are built around religious and symbolic heroes, make a bid for the heroic and the gang spirit, and seek to inculcate more or less of religious truth by the sugar-coat method. The welfare type aims at the giving of all sorts of activity in order to keep the boy interested and busy, and so raise the tone of his life in general.
The religious type of organization includes the forms that may be classed under the church brotherhood idea—the junior brotherhoods of various sorts. They originated because of the need of some kind of expression for the religious impressions that were continually coming to the boy in his church life. The idea was good, but its release poor. Senior forms of organization were imitated, adult forms of worship and service diminutized, and juvenile copies of mature experience encouraged. Junior brotherhoods and junior societies thus have tended to destroy the genuine, natural, spontaneous religious life of boys, and have unconsciously aided the culture of cant and religious unreality.
The semi-religious organizations have gone a full step beyond those of the religious type. Societies like the Knights of King Arthur, Knights of the Holy Grail, Modern Knights of St. Paul, and others of such ilk have in symbolism sought to teach and find expression for the religious impulse. The method has been more or less the religious type in disguise—ancient titles, elaborate ritual, initiations, and degrees, red fire, fuss and feathers, and something doing all the time to attract the boy. The result has been and is a play-idea of organization and a make-believe environment on the part of the boy. In his thought it never classifies with his school or home or general church life. It is a thing apart, some thing or place to retire to, to forget the everyday thing for a moment of romance. The mature mind that is responsible for all of this, however, seeks to bend and use this make-believe world for the inculcation of religious truth; and the product is an astonishing variety of results. Most of it is beyond the grasp of the ordinary man, the only man who at present or at any time will do this work in the church; and where set programs or ritual are followed the work itself loses its fire and misses its effectiveness.
The welfare type of organizations has multiplied in the past few years, and their less religious activities have served to keep the religious and semi-religious types alive. The Boys' Brigade, the National First Aid Association, the Woodcraft Indians, Sons of Daniel Boone, Boy Scouts, and others of like type, are in season and out of season appealing to American boyhood. Their aim is not specific, but general and vague: "Something to do, something to think about, something to enjoy, with a view always to character-building." Their appeal is mostly to the physical and the out-of-doors; their philosophy that of the recapitulation of the culture epochs. Their promoters do not claim that they touch all of life. They seek to dominate the leisure time only, and to produce goodness by affording no free time for positive wrong-doing. The domination is also physical expression, and the mental and spiritual in the boy and his home, school, and church life are not vitally affected directly.
All three types, however, have done splendid work in the past, and are rendering good service in the present as they will in the future. The success of each depends entirely on its leadership. If a leader be steeped in the Idylls of the King, the Knights of King Arthur will be popular with the boys and the church. If the superintendent of the brotherhood or society be human and magnetic, the church and the boy will sing its praises. If the scoutmaster is an out-of-door man and has a point of contact with the boy, the Boy Scouts will be the solution of all our difficulties. Here lies the crux of the whole matter. If boys are added to the church through any organization, it is not because of the method, but because of the worker of the method. The method counts because it is part of the worker—is in his blood.
Method
The aim of all church work should be the production not merely of manhood but Christian manhood. The vision is to see the boy a Christ-like boy—a physically, socially, mentally and spiritually balanced man in the making. The organizations used, then, in boys' work should be selected with this aim in mind.
Again, modern psychology has demonstrated to us that all boy activities must be graded according to each stage of a boy's development, and that there are several such stages. In the adolescent boy these may roughly be classed as the heroic and reflective stages, or as early, middle, and late adolescence. Boy activities, then, must group themselves to minister to the needs of each separate stage in order to work effectively. But psychology has also shown us that the activities of any one stage must also be graded to meet the needs of that one stage. Thus the heroic may run from the twelfth to the fifteenth year, and the activities of this phase should be graded to meet the development of the phase. This is well illustrated by the Tenderfoot Second Class Scout and First Class Scout degrees of the Boy Scouts which operate in this period.
The factors of the problem, then, to be considered in the method are: First, Christian Manhood; second, the fact that there are distinct and separate stages of growth in a boy's development, each stage having its own well-defined steps of growth; and third, the selection of existing boy organization activities to meet the need and produce the aim or desired result.
By way of illustration, let us consider a group of boys just past their twelfth year. All their physical, social, mental, and spiritual needs are to be met. The boys are just adolescent and their outlook because of that is altruistic. They have reached the "ganging" period, and so must have some form of organization. What organizations can be used to lead them into Christian manhood between the twelfth and fifteenth year? There are the Knights of King Arthur, the Boy Scouts, the Junior Brotherhood, the Christian Endeavor, and the Sunday School Bible Class. There are others—hosts of them—but these widely known forms will suit the purpose. For physical purposes we have the Scouts, for social purposes the Scouts, Knights, and the Bible Class; for mental purposes the Knights, and for spiritual purposes the Knights, Brotherhood, Endeavor, and the Bible Class. To see a boy get his own full development under this plan he must needs belong to at least five organizations; and the principle of association among boys is not gangs but the gang. However, much can be done under difficulties. The Scouts will afford free, physical, outdoor expression, without which there is no boy. The Knights will furnish mental ideals and objectives; for the Knights of King Arthur is the mental expression of the Boy Scouts and the Boy Scouts is the physical expression of the Knights of King Arthur. Both of them, with the Bible Class group, will furnish social stimulus and the Bible study, and the more or less valuable devotional expression of the Endeavor and Brotherhood will take care of the spiritual. In using an organization, a clearly defined idea of the end sought should always be in view.
Efficiency
In all church work for boys, efficiency should be sought. It should also be kept in mind that it is church work for boys.
In all our discussion two things must seem striking: first, that we must at present use at least five organizations to meet the boy need, five gangs, when the principle of boy association is not gangs but the gang; and second, that all of these organizations, with the exception of the Bible Class, have their headquarters outside of the local church itself. The headquarters are in New York, Detroit, Boston, Cincinnati, Baltimore, etc., while the work they seek to do is the local church's business. Further, they have all had their birth in the misunderstanding of the church as to her mission for boys. The church, however, has now a new vision of her mission, as manifested by her patience and forbearance in trying out and listening to the voices of all these organizations that would help her from the outside. The church is awake to the need, but is confused in the method, because she recognizes that no single organization that knocks at her door is sufficient and complete enough for her task. She needs all their methods without their organization. She cannot assume their organization, because it is not of her own flesh and blood.
A boy's allegiance cannot be split up among gangs. He must be a member of the gang. One organization is all that he can comprehend with loyalty at one time. This organization must be also of the local church. But the church needs no new organization. All she needs is activities suitable to the boy's growth. She has an organization that the boy cannot outgrow—the Organized Bible Class. At fifteen he is through with the Scouts and the Knights, and at eighteen or twenty he is through with fraternities and orders, or ought to be; for, if a boy be not starved for these things when a boy, he will outgrow them as he outgrows a suit of clothes. Graduation from these orders very often means graduation from the Sunday school and church; for no single organization can be conceived, that with ritual and form can bind together the activities of twelve to fifteen, fifteen to twenty, and twenty to thirty. However, there can be no graduation from the Organized Bible Class, flesh of the church's flesh, blood of her blood, muscle of her muscle; and the Organized Bible Class is flexible enough for an adjustment to every stage of boy development, and to all its physical, social, mental and spiritual needs. The organized class between twelve and fifteen can include all the interests of those years, and when the next stage of growth is on, can discard these for the interests that lie between fifteen and twenty, and so on to the end.
The Organized Bible Class is simple in organization, is modern and elastic, affords the minimum of organization and the maximum of efficiency, is big enough to meet all the boy's needs, and is the church's own. Into it can be poured all the activities of all the organizations ever known, and it can be made the richest and best adapted organization to the boy life of the Church that has yet been conceived.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON METHOD AND ORGANIZATION
Alexander (Editor).—Boy Training (Chapter on Auxiliary Organizations) (.75).
—Sunday School and the Teens (Chapter on Organizations) ($1.00).
Foster.—The Boy and the Church (Chapter on Books and Notes) (.75).
VIII
THE ORGANIZED SUNDAY SCHOOL BIBLE CLASS[2]
When all the plans and methods of work are reduced to a minimum, there is but one. This finds expression in the gang or club life. Boys get together in a group, elect their own officers and select a man who is to be their adviser. Then they go out and do the thing they have organized for in what is to them the simplest and best-known way. It may be stamp collecting, or star studying, woodcraft, or camping, or the hundred and one other forms of boy activity which are so common today. Seventy-five per cent. of these clubs are formed solely for the purpose of physical expression in athletics. Hundreds of such clubs exist today to meet the various needs of the growing boy. The Knights of King Arthur, the Boy Scouts, the Woodcraft Indians, the Sons of Daniel Boone, the Knights of the Holy Grail, the Knights of St. Paul, and dozens of others have been conceived and born for the purpose of meeting the needs of boys, as the founders of the organizations saw them.
In harmony with all the other boys' organizations, and yet bigger than all of them put together, is the Sunday school organization for boys—the Organized Bible Class. It is purely and simply a church organization, and owes no allegiance to any organization outside of the local church. It is also a distinct part of the church life and an organic part of the Sunday school, which is large enough to hold the boy's interest from the cradle roll to the grave. The other organizations serve their day in the life of the boy and cease to be. It is difficult, almost an impossibility, to get normal boys, after fifteen years of age, to take much interest in the so-called boys' organizations, because their lives have outgrown these activities and there is no longer any need of them. The Organized Bible Class presents a method that can never be outgrown. It also has at its heart Bible study, which is the one essential to permanence in any work with boys.
Class Organization
Objective.—Class organization is of no value unless the class has definite objectives. The members should be made to feel that there is some great purpose in the organization. The objectives for a teen age class should be:
1. The winning of the class members to personal allegiance to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord; and
2. The proper expression of the Christian life in service for others in the name and spirit of the Christ. Thus one strengthens one's self and helps others.
Why Organize.—(a) It is natural for a boy to want to get into an organization of some kind. Seventy-five per cent. of the boys of a community are, or have been, connected with some sort of organization. These organizations, rightly controlled, and dominated by strong Christian leadership, can be made a power for good in the community and in the lives of their members. It matters not what the organization may be connected with, it is the activities that appeal.
Why should not the Sunday school take advantage of this natural, God-given instinct, to plan such organization in the church as will present the strongest claim for the loyalty of the boys in the teen age?
(b) The organization is in the hands of the members of the class, activities are planned by them, and discipline, when necessary, is administered by them. The position of the teacher is thereby strengthened. Instead of being an "autocrat" or "czar" in dealing with the class, the function is that of counsellor and friend.
(c) It develops initiative, self-reliance, self-control, and the ability to do things; character is thereby developed, and strong Christian character is what the church needs today.
(d) The Organized Boys' Bible Classes will, without a doubt, become as universal in their scope as Organized Adult Bible Classes. To be affiliated with the biggest teen age organization in the world will, in itself, appeal to every teen age boy and girl.
(e) Organization increases class spirit. The organized class becomes "our class," not the "teacher's class." The unorganized class suffers greatly if the teacher is removed, and sometimes is obliged to disband. The organized class helps to secure another teacher, and, in the interim, maintains its class work and is thus kept together. Though much depends upon the teacher, the permanency of the class should not rest wholly upon his personality and work. Changes must necessarily come.
(f) Organization enables the class to do things. The appointment of special committees, the assignment of definite work to each committee, and the introduction of various class activities does much toward realizing the ideal—"an adequate Christian service for every member." Large and permanent success is assured when this ideal is attained.
Standard of Organization
1. The class shall have at least five officers: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Teacher. It shall also have as many committees as necessary to carry on its work.
2. The class shall be definitely connected with a Sunday school.
3. A Sunday Bible session and, if practicable, week-day session or activities.
4. The age limits of the class shall be not less than thirteen or more than twenty years.
How to Organize
Secure Secondary Division Leaflet No. 2, of the International Sunday School Association.
Study this leaflet carefully, noting especially the standard of organization and the suggestive constitution, which seek to define an organized class. Distribute leaflets among those whom you wish to interest and enlist. Organization should not be forced on the class. Do not go at it as though you were laying a trap. Observe the following:
(a) Think it through yourself; then put yourself in the pupil's place and ask yourself the question, "How would I like to have this presented to me?" This will give you the viewpoint of your class, and you are then ready to go ahead. You must believe in it thoroughly, enthusiastically, before you can hope for the interest and enthusiasm of your class.
(b) Next, get two or three of your "key" pupils, and talk it over with them. Show them the possibilities of the organization, emphasizing the physical, mental, social and spiritual activities.
(c) Follow this with a special meeting of the class, to be held either at the home of the teacher or one of the class.
(d) Make the organization genuine, and show that you mean business. The teen age abhors shams, and will readily detect any weak spots in the organization. Impress upon them the necessity of selecting capable officers. Adopt the class constitution, which follows, select class name and motto, and elect the officers.
(e) Then let the officers conduct the meetings, both in the Sunday and the mid-week sessions. The teacher is one of the class and is the director of activities; the officers and committeemen do the work.
(f) In all things keep in close touch with the general superintendent and the departmental superintendent of the school. Seek the strength that comes from advice and cooperation.
Constitution
A class constitution is not essential, but is often helpful. The following form of constitution is merely suggestive and may be changed to conform to the needs of the class.
Article I—Name.
Article II—Object.
The object of the class shall be the training of Christian character for Christian service in the extension of Christ's Kingdom by means of Bible study, through-the-week activities, mutual helpfulness, and social fellowship, in addition to the winning of its members' allegiance to Christ as Saviour and Lord.
Article III—Class Spirit.
To create an individuality in class spirit, loyalty and enthusiasm, the class shall have an emblem, a motto and a color. It may also have a flower, a song, a yell, a whistle, or such other additions as may seem wise.
Article IV—Membership.
Any boy may become a member of this class on invitation of the class.
The class officers may include the following: Teacher, President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. The officers shall be elected by ballot semiannually by the class, and no officer shall serve in the same position more than two terms in succession, except the teacher, whose election or appointment is governed by the church or Sunday school. The teacher may be elected by the class from a list provided by the church authorities.
Article VI—Committees
There shall be as many committees in the class as necessary, such as Social, Literary, Music, Athletic, etc.
Article VII—Meetings.
The class shall meet at ____o'clock each Sunday for its regular Bible study session. Week-day meetings may be held each week. Special meetings may be called at any time by the president, and the presence of one-fourth of the enrolled membership shall be necessary for the transaction of class business.
Article VIII—Duties of Officers and Committees.
Sec. 1. The teacher shall teach the lesson, shall be an ex officio member of all committees, and shall work cooperatively with the president in promoting the interests of the class.
Sec. 2. The president shall preside at meetings of the class, shall have general supervision over the officers, and shall see that the work of the class is pushed in accordance with its object.
Sec. 3. The vice-president shall take the president's place in case of absence, and shall render such assistance to the president as may be required of him.
Sec. 4. The secretary shall make class announcements, keep minutes of all meetings, write to absent members, and report any information to the teacher which may be desired.
Sec. 5. The duty of committees shall be defined by the activity each carries on, said committee being responsible to the class for the work entrusted to it.
Article IX—By-Laws.
From time to time the class may amend this constitution and pass such by-laws as seem wise in carrying forward the work of the class.
A careful study of the Organized Class diagram on another page (86) will furnish the teacher with a workable plan. In all cases it should be adapted to local conditions.
Mid-week activities should be planned as a part of the weekly program, keeping in mind the fourfold life of the pupil. The planning of these activities should be left almost entirely to the class; any plans that the teacher may have should be turned over to the class by way of suggestion. Place the responsibility on the members of the class, and once they have caught the idea there will be no lack of suggestions on their part.