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Missionary Education in the Sunday School

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Missionary Education in the Sunday School MISSIONARY EDUCATION IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL BY R. E. DIFFENDORFER A FEW months ago the following letter was received at the office of the Missionary Educatiqn Movement. It came from the director of an institute for the training of Siinday School teachers in one of our large cities : ‘ You will note that the Training Institute is solely for the purpose of religious education. The question of arrang- ing to have missionary instruction included another year in the curriculum is for the Board of Managers and the Teacher Training and Graded Work Committee to decide.’ In the mind of this Sunday School worker, missionary education and religious education are thought of as two quite distinct processes. In general, this was the attitude of most religious workers ten years ago. It still remains the attitude of many, especially those who have not come under the influence of the more recent efforts to establish missionary education in the policies of the churches. This distinction between religious education and missionary education was so marked and so persistent as to make certain results in- evitable. Mission boards, both general and women’s, re- cognized more and more that the maintenance of their work depended upon a generation of Christian people in thorough sympathy with missionary work and with full conviction that its expanding needs must be met thoroughly and efficiently. For many years these boards had been reaching down into the local church for the purpose of organizing special groups for training in missionary interest and for added support. Mission bands, junior missionary societies, boys’ and girls’ clubs with a missionary purpose, and 28 434 ftztertliztiotmd Review of Missiotzs voluntary mission study circles were organized wherever there were sympathetic leaders to assume the responsibility. Then the mission boards began to see that these special organizations only reached a small proportion of the children and youth in the churches. The local Sunday School was the most permanent organization in the church dealing with boys and girls. Cases were rare where it did not include within its membership practically all the children and youth in the parish. It was natural, on this account, that the mission boards should desire to interest the Sunday School, as such, in their work. Many attempts were made to break into the Sunday School organization. The policies and the methods of ten years ago in missionary education arose out of this necessity. Missionary committees were organized in the Sunday School and special missionary Sundays were introduced into the calendar, on which days missionary programs and special missionary lessons were taught, sometimes by specially prepared teachers. The material used came from the mission boards, rarely if ever having the endorsement of the general Sunday School leaders, secretaries and editors. There was also the temptation to exploit the Sunday School for the purpose of raising money. Collecting devices of various sorts were offered for use and appeals were made to classes and schools for the support of special objects in mission fields. Many conferences were held to discuss missionary giving in the Sunday School and whether or not it would be right to take five minutes each Sunday or once a month, or substitute a missionary lesson for the review lesson once a quarter. On the other hand, it was natural that the Sunday School leaders, not being in touch with the pressing needs of the mission boards, should oppose and in some cases resent thesc attempts to break in upon their schedule with a new program of study, giving arid service. These religious etlric-ators were providing Bible study in cycles of lessons ki1011-11iis tlic ' Uniform Lesson System.' All the publica- tions dcclt with the treatment of these lessons and all the Missiom in the Sitnday School 435 time of the local schools was spent upon their study and discussion. The funds collected in the local Sunday School in the regular offering were used largely for the purchase of the lesson papers and supplies for the school. As a rule, children were not given any instruction or training in the habits of systematic giving, or in relating their gifts to the work of the local church in its community or to home and foreign missions. Sunday School teachers were trusting to a voluntary application by the pupils of the principles of the Bible to everyday life. They were hoping, also, that the pupils themselves would relate their Sunday School teaching to the needs for gifts of money and service. The regular machinery of religious education in the churches scarcely regarded missions as the main business of the church, and religious education made little or no attempt to create a generation of Christians who would so regard it. The effect of this situation upon the pupil in the Sunday School and upon his conception of missions was logical. He looked upon an interest in missions as something special or optional, or something in addition to his religious thought and life. This conception was heightened by the efforts to organize mission bands and other missionary groups. Children were asked in the Sunday School if they would join the mission band which was to meet sometime through the week. These appeals were zealous and, in many cases, convincing, but, after all, it was optional with the children. To them, it was something in addition to the regular requirements of religious education. The effect of this procedure throughout the churches can hardly be over- estimated. Gradually, there appeared a group of religious leaders who saw that religious education was failing to meet the requirements. It was too academic. Functional psy- chology, as taught in our colleges and universities ; pedagogy based upon ' learning by doing ' ; the principles of child development as revealed in child-study ; the changing conceptions of the church and its work ; and a new emphasis 436 Inferitationa Z Review of &lissio?ts on social evangelism and social service were making it in- creasingly apparent that there must be some radical ad- justment in the aims, material and methods of religious education. This was the situation when, about ten years ago, the writer began an investigation of the relation of missionary education to religious education in general, and especially its place in the Sunday School. It was at once discovered that Sunday School and missionary leaders must be brought together for the purpose of mutual understanding and for the consideration of the questions indicated above. In the different denominations, sometimes with offices in the same buildings, these two sets of people did not know each other’s plans or aims. The larger interdenominational groups seldom held conferences or interchange of communications. One of the first duties, therefore, of the Missionary Educa- tion Movement in this field was to assemble the leaders for the study of this question in committees, institutes and summer conferences. The missionary leaders were able to convince the religious educators that religious education fails unless it produces a type of Christian character which will function normally and naturally in all the contacts of life and support the main business of the Church in attempting to establish the kingdom of God on earth. On the other hand, the Sunday School leaders were able to show mis- sionary enthusiasts that they must accept the educational point of view with reference to their approach to children ; that missionary instruction must meet the needs of the children in their growing life, and that the Sunday School cannot be merely exploited for the purposes of raising money to meet an immediate demand. In the last decade in America, we are able to say that the following results have been achieved : (1) Religious leaders now generally recognize that mis- sionary education and religious education are not two separate problems, but that they are necessarily one and the same process. Missions in the Sunday .ichooZ 437 (2) That Bible study, to be effective, must be related more and more to the everyday lives of boys and girls, and must furnish the principles on which the Kingdom is to be extended throughout the world. (3) That a knowledge of the expanding kingdom of God, the needs of people everywhere for the Gospel and the devotion and heroism of God’s messengers throughout the world is most necessary for the application of Bible truths to present-day problems. (4) There is now active co-operation in nearly every denoniination between the Sunday School and missionary officials, for the purpose of putting into effect a new pro- gram of religious education in which interest in missions and their support shall become normally and regularly a part of the child’s religious training and shall reach all the children in the parish, and not merely a few who are asked to join a mission band. (5) When the new International Graded Lessons were in process of construction, these principles were recognized. There were inserted, in course, in the various grades, mis- sionary lessons correlated with other subjects. In many cases, these were not labelled ‘ missionary.’ For instance, in the junior lessons, when the stories of Paul, Peter, John, James and others were inserted under the title, ‘ The Early Followers of our Lord, ’ those concerning Livingstone, Paton, Morrison and others were grouped around the title ‘The Later Followers of our Lord.’ (6) Giving has come to be considered as more than the process of collecting pennies in mite boxes and other devices, or the giving of an occasional offering by the members of the Sunday School. Educational giving now takes into account the principles of stewardship. The child is taught to support the local church and all its various enterprises, including home and foreign missions.
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