How the Sabbath School Can Help
HARRY W. LOWE Associate Secretary, General Conference Sabbath School Department
It is possible to multiply machinery in our endeavors to reclaim former Adventists and still not succeed. Machinery does not work itself, it has to be directed and controlled, and the more we multiply it, the more arduous and often wasteful becomes the control.
In this matter of reclaiming our former members, we probably have all the organizational setup we need to do a successful work. What we need is a little overhauling, a renewal of our interest and determination, and, above all, a deeper heart concern over those already out, and those in danger of slipping out of the church.
By and large, this is a general pastoral problem of deep concern to every department of the church, but its ultimate responsibility rests upon the pastors and leaders of local churches. It concerns the Sabbath school in a special way, because this department cares for all, from the nursery child upward. It embraces in its membership not only unbaptized children but any non-Adventists who are interested enough to attend.
Probably more than any other department, the Sabbath school, if it lived up to its ideals, could contribute to the solution of the apostasy problem. Here the church gathers round the open Word of God weekly; here its members are led into a daily study of the same life-giving Word. Since "the beauty and riches of the word have a transforming influence on mind and character" (Christ's Object Lessons, p. 132), we are building a barricade against apostasy when we teach the Word interestingly, convincingly, evangelically in our Sabbath schools.
It is just here that the barricade is occasion ally breached by the enemy. Good Bible teaching is not easy work, and any preacher who gives time to conducting a Teachers' Training Course in his churches is doing solid work in forestalling future declensions from the truth.
Teaching small classes of from twelve to four teen adults means that each teacher can keep in personal touch with each pupil. He will know the pupil's mental habits and aptitudes in Bible study, whether he enjoys a good spiritual experience, when he is discouraged or faces fierce temptation, when he is absent a great deal and if he is, whether sickness or indifference is the cause. It is clear that a good teacher, apt at creating a lively interest in Bible study, alive to the needs of each member of his class, interested in the spiritual and temporal welfare of these individuals, will be a tower of strength in the church. Spiritual and doctrinal problems, also sickness and discouragement in an individual, will be discreetly reported to the pastor for prompt attention. It would pay our pastors to keep in touch with our teachers on this pastoral care program. Our laity can be used more than they are, and in this way lay energies can help us in holding what we have and in attracting new members to our Sabbath schools and churches.
Card Index Checkup System
The Sabbath School Department has a card index checkup system arranged to show on four tinted cards 1. Those who are members of the church and of the Sabbath school white. 2. Those who are members of the church but not of the Sabbath school red. 3. Those who are Sabbath school members but not members of the church blue. 4. Those who are relatives, backsliders, or interested green.
Assuming that each school had an up-to-the-minute checkup system, a pastor could at a glance decide on his visiting program. He would thereby nip much apostasy in the bud. He could use these check cards as valuable aids in his evangelistic program of regular baptisms in each church.
Right through all the children's divisions this personal, evangelistic spirit should operate. It is a good appeal to former members and interested people, when adequate plans are prepared to attract the children. "The object of Sabbath school work should be the ingathering of souls," we have been told (Counsels on Sabbath School Work, p. 61), and anything short of that is failure.
A successful school carries an interesting pro gram of missions promotion, which should not be primarily a money-raising project. It should be interesting, cultural, inspiring, calculated to weld the members into a world movement. Together with an inspiring class period, such a program would attract people, and we could confidently go to every former member with an invitation to come to a program that would make him want to come again.
Pastors' suggestions at Sabbath school council meetings as to how programs could be polished and improved might be an invaluable help in securing more attractiveness in Sabbath school programs. Such a plan might serve as part of a concerted effort to invite former members to join us again. Homecoming days need more than the effort to go and invite people. We must have improved programs life without sensationalism, inspiration without cheapness in all our services in God's house.
If every Sabbath school had inspiring teaching, if every teacher were a personal worker, if every Sabbath school program had appeal because of its organization and human interest, if visitors were welcomed and not made to feel like outsiders, if the absent and discouraged ones were regularly visited and made to feel we missed and wanted them, if former members were constantly on our hearts and regularly contacted, if "But," you say, "these are just ideals!" Well, ideals were made to strive after, and when Jesus worked with His church on earth He maintained His ideals though working with imperfect men. The church today is "enfeebled and defective," but it is the object of God's "supreme regard" (Acts of the Apostles, p. 12), and the Holy Spirit works with that church in the terms of an appealing perfection. It is certain that we have the machinery to grapple successfully with this problem of holding and reclaiming our membership. If only we were all imbued with the belief that "in comparison with the worth of one soul, the whole world sinks into insignificance" (Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 614), then we should lose less, and reclaim more, of those precious ones for whom the great Soul Winner died.
If we as workers alone endeavor to stem the tide of backsliding we shall not have much success. We can give leadership, but we must enlist the deepest interest of every church officer in our ranks. People are always won for God when the church cares enough to go after them!
Reclaiming and Holding Our Youth
THEODORE E. LUCAS, Associate Secretary, General Conference Missionary Volunteer Department
A churchman not of our faith has said: "Youth are the pride, the hope, and the despair of most churches. We have a right to be proud of them because their presence shows that we are doing our job of reaching the unreached. They give us hope, for we have a wonderful opportunity to develop them into active Christians. They are our despair because too many of them drift away before they reach manhood and womanhood."
The youth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are the pride and the hope of the church, but not its despair, because the messenger of the Lord has given us courage over and over again with instruction from her Heavenguided hand:
"The charge given to Peter by Christ . . . , 'Feed My lambs' ... is given to every minister. When Christ said to His disciples, 'Suffer the little children to come unto Me . . . ,' He was speaking to His disciples in all ages. . . . Why should not labor for the youth in our borders be regarded as missionary work of the highest kind? It requires . . . delicate tact, . . . watchful consideration, . . . earnest prayer. . . . He . . . whose heart is filled with love and sympathy will be able to reach . . . youth. . . . Often those whom we pass by with indifference . . . have in them the best material for workers. . . . There must be more study given to the prob lem of how to deal with the youth." Gospel Workers, pp. 207, 208.
With the book open to these pointed testimonies, our leaders, looking down through the years, saw the fulfillment of the prophetic vision:
"With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world!" Messages to Young People, p. 196.
Adventists do have reason to be optimistic in regard to their efforts for saving their youth.
However, there are evidences that too many of our young people fade away into the world with too little notice from those closest to them. What can we do to reclaim them as a mighty force for Christ?
In the beginning some things should be understood clearly as to why the church and the Missionary Volunteer Society must work as a unit in this reclamation. The Missionary Volunteer Society is not simply an organization con ducted by young people. It is an organization through which the church can do what needs to be done for her young people. It gives the church an opportunity to lead youth in continuous, organized, and systematic work, to direct their social life for the good of the church and for the good of themselves, to guide them in systematic reading of supremely good books, to direct them in Bible study, and to aid them in learning to live the prayer life. With this brief and simple schooling in the corporate responsibilities of the church and the Missionary Volunteer Society in reclaiming youth, let us see what corporate achievement may be shared.
The Prospect List Every Missionary Volunteer
Society should maintain an active and up-to-date prospect list. An attractive card may be prepared for this purpose, which will show at a glance why a per son is a prospect, when the last call was made at his home, who made the call, and the impression gained by the caller. Every MV Society should have three times as many prospect cards in its file as there are active members. There is no greater thrill than to see names on prospect cards, names which later become real personalities, having passed from the class of reclaimants into MV and church membership. An early step in the matter of preparation is to assemble a prospect list and to write down all pertinent information on cards.
Where do we get names of young people to put on the prospect cards? Strange as it may seem, this is a real problem. One fruitful way of getting names is to take five minutes in the regular Missionary Volunteer meeting and ask each person present to write down the names of all the young people he knows who have dissociated themselves from the church. It is amazing how many names will be handed in by this method. Usually, young people know where these youth are, yet it may never have occurred to them that they should seek to reclaim them, or talk to the pastor about them. The wise leader presents names to his youth group at least once each month and sends out teams to visit the new prospects.
Those who take these cards will frequently comment: "Why, I know this person"; or "I ride on the streetcar with her every day"; "We are in the same class at school"; "She works next door to the office where I work." But when these visitors are asked, "Have you ever approached this person about the claims of Christ or of His church upon his life?" the answer is frequently negative.
The second source of prospects may be the church list. It is a tragic thing to allow those who are discouraged to slip away from the church! Jesus once asked the question of His disciples: "If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray" (Matt. 18:12, 13). An author illustrating this text writes that many times during his boyhood days on the farm a cold winter rain would begin early in the afternoon and the stock would gather at the barnyard gate waiting to enter the shelter of the barn. Then someone would notice that one of the sheep or one of the cattle was missing. He did not think of waiting until the next day, or even until the rain had ceased. He would start immediately climbing the steep grade to the hill pasture, looking for that which was lost. Should it not become the responsibility of Christian young people to list the names of their fellow youth who have dropped out, and then to make adequate plans to win them back to the society and the church?
The third source of prospects may be secured from the pastor's visiting list. If the church maintains a guest book in the vestibule or registers attendance at any of the services, there will be names on these records that ought to be kept on the youth prospect list. Then young people must be ever on the alert in all the services of the church to approach anyone who seems to be the prodigal returned.
The fourth source of prospects is a survey. A survey must be well planned and carefully carried out. Young people usually are frank and will give ready answers to the questions asked them. If the survey method is used, it is important that sufficient time be given to preparation for the work. Carefully detailed plans must be worked out.
Holding the Reclaimed Ones
When a special effort is made to reclaim youth for Christ, what do you have to offer? Are the meetings attractive and challenging? Will they find that which will make them want to come back again and again? By all means, provide something they can understand and enjoy.
One of the first secrets in holding young people is to give them some responsibility. As soon as possible let them feel that they are giving something as well as getting something. Many youth become indifferent and listless because the same few do all the work, and the reason for this is that others have not been challenged to take some part; those who lead too often concentrate on their special friends.
We might re-emphasize the importance of giving effort to making better use of our opportunities and resources rather than trying to replace them. New, untried methods are some times good but not always magical. The available, improved and enriched, is adequate to strengthen the faith and reclaim our youth for Christ. To do for our youth is good, but to do for and with them is much better for the success of the reclaiming process.
Churches must always be on the alert to their job in reclaiming youth. They have energy, originality, and willingness. Even if a youth does not do quite so well as an older person who has had more experience, the harvest of future years will outweigh any minor temporary loss in performance of church duties. Youth add variety and often bring the very best methods.
Youth can be integrated into the church program more often than they are. Sometimes young people in their twenties who could be serving in church positions are not considered mature enough. Responsibilities will add height to their stature of service.
The church will reclaim and hold more of its youth if it is willing to put the youth in positions that will both demand and develop their initiative. It will take more work and thought on the part of the church to win, hold, and save its youth, but the job can be done! It is a glorious undertaking right at our doorstep.
