RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 19724, 26 November 1927, Page 16

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Foewaud.]

“You must live each day at your very best; Tile work of the world is done by few; God asks that a part bo done by you.” INTERMEDIATE AND SENIOR BIBLE CLASS. (Concluded.) The organisation of these two groups will follow very closely that of the junior class, care being taken to give the members a very big share in the plans and work of the class. The officers must be those elected by the members, and each must have a definite work. The one time slogan ‘‘A job for every man ” should not be carried into young people’s work, for we need to remember that an office may be a name only, and by giving a young man or woman such a position we are deliberately developing a habit of inefficiency. While the leader may be elected by the controlling body of the church every consideration should be given to suggestions made by the young people themselves. A class president chosen by the members, for his fitness and character, should take charge of all committee meetings, conduct the worship service, and help to keep the members together. The part of the leader is to direct and advise, and to take charge of the instruction at the Sunday session; the most successful leader being t|ic one who is not very much in evidence, the members themselves doing the work in their own way, with the help of suggestions. The other officers will include a secretary and treasurer at least. The committee should bo “short term,” elected to carry through some given activity, and should bo divided on a fourfold basis—physical, social, mental, and spiritual—rather than on the one-time division of membership, flower, athletic, missionary, prayer, etc. Organisation is important, and its value in work with adolescents cannot be too often stressed. Once the purpose of class and department organisation is clearly understood no leader will bo content to work without an efficient and effective government. The need of the member demands an organisation; for opportunity must be given to each “to learn to do by doing,” to develop himself by self-ac-tivity, wisely directed by the leader, to his highest self-realisation. Cynthia Pearl Mans, in ‘Youth and the Church,’ summarises the advantages of the organised class thus: — 1. It utilises the social or group instinct, providing au effectual channel through which to train young people in Christian conduct and service. 2. It develops leadership by fixing responsibility. What is everybody’s business is nobody’s business. Organisation transforms the class from a leader enterprise to a member by making each one share in the management, and direction of its activities. 3. It utilises the energy, ambition, the desire to do things, so characteristic of young people. 4. It increases class spirit, loyalty to the church and the church’s school. 5. It encourages mutual sympathy, interest and understanding, and strengthens the position of the leader, enabling him to become more and more the friend and counsellor of young people. By putting the control of the actual work of the class into the hands of the members there is given an added incentive and an extra gain in the development of leadership founded in Christ—the aim of all our work. Tho selfevident aim in using committees is a sawing of time and effort, resulting from giving responsibility to a smaller group; but in young people’s work there is another purpose —namely, that of training and practice. Not only does a committee system give the individual an opportunity to become well acquainted with the details of some special information, but it gives him a chance to do things. This is the finest of all opportunities to train the individual member of the class. The advantage of the “short term ” committee over that elected for a period—say, a vear—is that it does not tire tho young person, making frequent changes possible, while affording an opportunity for every class member to have a chance to do everything, thus making for wellbalanced growth. “ Variety is the spieo of life ”to the adolescent. He cannot sustain interest at any one thing long; ond the short terra committee not only gives every member all types of responsibility in rapid succession, but avoids ; the monotony of repetition. This way j ef conducting tho class means more j work for the leader and officers, but' tho results will repay all the time and effort involved. A Bible class will be I properly organised (1) when it has i enough officers and committees to carry on its work successfully, each activity . fulfilling its separate function. (2) When it is definitely connected with and forms part of some church or church school. (3) When it has regular Sunday and through-the-week (at least once a month) meetings. (4) When there are definite ago limits. (5) When it has a definite goal and a. working programme for a given period of time. Class organisation is of no value, however, unless the class has acme very definite aim or goal which is shared with the leader, tho members seeing the organisation as the channel through which this aim is to be accomplished. The aims of the class will be: To win the members to personal alleEiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and aviour; and to train the individual members, through Bible study and correlated subjects, Christian conduct, ■ recreation, and service, in the “ Jesus way of living.” In other words, to make the knowledge about Christ and his teachings function in the daily conduct of the member. Tbe success or failure of a class must always bo bound up in the actual work to be accomplished. _ No amount of organisation can bo justified without a genuine programme, and this leads us to make a hurried survey of the typo of programme most suited to these years under review. All programmes must recognise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs and interest ol young people, for the fourfold programme of Christian education is essential for the complete development of the member. Then the three chief factors in all programme building must be provided for—instruction, oxpressional activity, and worship. Thus we shall have th©_ through-the-week and monthly activities of the class closely related to the instruction of the Sunday, providing the inspiration, training, and opportunity to fix ideals and determine development by guiding and directing the activity life of these young men and women. Worship has been defined as “ the cry of tho human soul for companionship with God,” and a very definite place must he given in the session to the cultivation of the devotional life of tho member. “ The opening exercises, usually consisting of a hymn, often chosen at random, and prayer, does not help to develop the spirit of worship, and should not bo permitted in the class of to-day. A well-thought-out worship service, closely related to the subject of study, and suited to the members’ needs, will teach young people to' worship through the conscious cultivation of feelings that have to do with new attitudes of appreciation, while providing opportunity for expression through taking part in the worship programmes. Training for service in the realm of worship is given by the leader when, through the worship service committee, he makes it possible for the member to have a definite part in the planning and conducting of these services. Tho mast important factor m worship is the offering (not the collection, as it is often called), for it gives the member an opportunity of sharing God’s purposes in building up His Kingdom. In the offering wo aro co-operat-

ing with God, and “thus in this purposed act we find the real heart of worship, which is fellowship with God, in worth-while activity.” Tim aim of all worship is to make the worship attitudes and appreciations habitual in daily conduct. If the member does not go forth from communion with God to the making of a better world, then worship has not accomplished its full purpose. “To think God’s thougnts after Him. is to work out His thoughts in daily living.” The teacher or leader who “ knows tho Book, and knows the boy and girl, young man and young woman,” is able to help them through tho difficult period of adolescence at all stages of the way, until they reach complete manhood and womanhood, fully equipped and fitted to play a worthy part in the life of the community, and to serve the Christ in all life’s relationships.