ONE of the perplexities the speaker at an academy Week of Prayer faces is that of counseling. How can the counseling program be made into a more meaningful part of the Week of Prayer?
First let us consider the goal of counseling in a Week of Prayer setting.
Usually, Week of Prayer speakers like to think that in counseling sessions they are leading young people to God. However, the young people who come to see us during the week are usually serious-minded youth who are already earnest in their desire to serve Christ. The unconverted seldom appear.
And why should they? Often they do not really want to be converted. Many times these youngsters are rebellious and actively resist the help the church is trying to give them. Watching them from the platform one almost feels that Satan has cast a spell over them. They seem to be living another life in another world. It is as if they truly do hear a different drum and march to its cadence in spite of the rhythm of the sermons and prayer bands that mark the conventional Week of Prayer.
So the question is, Can a counseling program help to reach these "unreachables"? And if so, how?
The problem is twofold. First is the matter of numbers. If the counseling session is to be anything more than an exchange of names and a prayer it will take at least a class period, say forty minutes. At a day school it is mathematically impossible to see more than eight students a day, or forty students for the week. This leaves the majority of the student body without a personal contact. A boarding school offers additional counseling opportunities in the evenings, but the student body is probably larger.
Second is the matter of voluntarism. How can students be induced to go to the counseling room? The system leaves the initiative with the student. With all the demands for conformity now being made on young people it is easy for the unconverted youth to remain out of the speaker's reach. When the principal announces in chapel that the speaker will be avail able for counseling at such and such a place, any student who asks to be excused from a class to see the minister is automatically marked by his fellows.
The public evangelist answers the problem by going to the individual, but in a school setting it is almost impossible to do that without steeling the student's heart. There is no place in school that a student can call his own where a minister may visit with him in the same way that an evangelist visits with an interest in the privacy of the interest's home. And a direct invitation to the counseling room resembles a summons to the principal's office. The irreligious student is aware of his condition and is prepared to be "pressured" during the Week of Prayer anyway. So when he is singled out for special attention by the speaker he resents it and be comes even more defensive.
And yet the matter of personal contact between the student and the speaker in a Week of Prayer cannot be overemphasized.
Only during the Week of Prayer is he given an opportunity to relate to a representative of God who is not part of the authority structure at the school.
Group Counseling
One way out of the numbers problem is through the group counseling plan. Thus, in a day academy with eight forty-minute periods a day besides chapel the minister who counsels groups of eight students each period will see 64 students a day.1 These would be face-to-face sessions in which the student would have a chance to speak his mind and the minister would be able to respond on a personal level.
While group counseling can solve the numbers problem the matter of voluntarism remains. No matter how deft the mathematical solution it is no good if the unreachables are left with the initiative. However, if the speaker exercises the initiative, assigning everyone to a group and with the school's authority schedules each group, the problem of voluntarism evaporates.
Another advantage to this method has to do with the student's defense system. In a strictly personal counseling situation the minister always outweighs the student simply because he is a minister. This tends to make the student defensive and difficult to reach. But by giving the student company we can help to dissipate this defensiveness and make it easier to grasp his hand and lead him to the Saviour.
The goal I am suggesting for Week of Prayer counseling is to give all the students an opportunity of interaction with a man of God. Any student who wishes to see the minister alone is still free to set up an appointment with him.
Is It Effective?
But, it will be asked, Can group counseling tie the youth to the church as effectively as individual counseling?
As a test the following experiment was conducted at the San Diego Academy. All the students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Individual counseling, group counseling, and a control group. A test measuring the strength of church af filiation2 was given the students on the Friday before the Week of Prayer.
During the week each of the members of the first group was counseled individually for a full forty-minute period. The counseling was nondirective. The student was free to discuss anything he chose. The members of the second group were randomly as signed to groups of seven to nine members and each of these smaller groups was counseled, also nondirectively, for forty minutes. The teachers and administration were very helpful and virtually all subjects appeared at their appointed hour. The control group received no counseling what ever.
At the end of the week the test measuring the strength of church affiliation was re-administered. Results revealed no significant difference between individual and group counseling in the matter of church loyalty. But there is a significant difference between both forms of counseling and no counseling at all. Both individual and group counseling tend to increase the students' loyalty to the church, but the dimension of loyalty is not affected by a Week of Prayer when no counseling occurs.
This points up the need for personal confrontation between the minister and the students. Clearly the sermonizing at chapel time (and at worships at boarding school) although important is insufficient in the strengthening of students' loyalty to the church. Counseling is also indicated. And group counseling is required if the entire student body is to be reached.
Conducting Group Sessions
But how does one go about conducting this kind of counseling program? Actually the mechanics are fairly simple. First, secure the permission of the school administration and the cooperation of the faculty. Second, assign every student to a group.3 It is important that each group be com posed of both sexes. Third, schedule each group to coincide with the school's class periods. Fourth, send a letter to each student the week before the Week of Prayer opens and describe the plan, explaining that this is the only way you will be able to visit with each one. Include the schedule and send along an alphabetical roster of the student body with the time of each student's appointment listed opposite his name. Finally, post the schedule on all school bulletin boards.
The secret of the counseling session is to let the Holy Spirit lead as the students do the talking. Here is where the need for humility becomes paramount. Typically, ministers do too much talking. A group session is useless if it is just another lecture. So let the students talk freely about what ever is on their minds, and let the Holy Spirit work freely with their hearts. Your part is merely to serve as a catalyst.
When the students arrive invite them to sit around a table. It is best if you sit somewhere other than at the head. Open by saying something like, "What would you people like to talk to me about?" There may be considerable self-conscious giggling but usually someone will state a "gripe." Sometimes a boy wants to know what is wrong with competitive sports, or a girl may have questions about dress standards.
Whatever the question may be do not try to answer it immediately. Let the youth talk about it, exploring its parameters and thinking out loud about it. Watch for the quiet one and try to include his opinion. Ask a probing question now and then. Do not be afraid to confess that you don't know something. Be honest enough to admit that some rules don't make much sense to you either. At the same time be careful not to undercut the school's authority. It is surprising how well the students under stand the demands put on you in this respect and if you do not uphold the school the students will not respect your integrity. On the other hand, you should frankly state your own feelings, accepting the responsibility for them as just that your own feelings. All the way through give the Spirit of God a chance to work. If you will watch and pray instead of talking and con trolling you will be surprised and excited at the way in which Christ will mold the hearts of the students before your very eyes. Usually the discussion will become quite serious as the students follow the Holy Spirit along. Remember that one of the chief differences between this kind of discussion and a classroom discussion is the goal. Here they are peering into their con sciences, not their brains; in search of God's answers, not a textbook's. This takes time and you may be able to cover only one topic. But it is better to do one well than a dozen poorly.
As you near the end of the period summarize the thoughts that have been ex pressed, adding your own reaction to them (but be sure to give your reasons) and adjust the summary according to their suggestions. Pray for them and dismiss them as the bell rings.
Now what has been achieved by this procedure?
1. Every student has visited with the minister in a way that allowed him to examine some of his innermost thoughts in the light of God's ideals. He has been able to do this without fear of discipline because the Week of Prayer speaker is not on the faculty.
2. The minister has talked personally with (not to) the students described earlier as "unreachable." He may or may not have brought them closer to Christ, but he certainly has had an opportunity he would not have had without the group counseling procedure outlined above. And the statistics indicate that the probabilities are on his side.
3. Both the numbers problem and the trouble with voluntarism have been controlled.
It is readily admitted that there are many other issues about Week of Prayer procedures that demand attention. How can teachers be brought into the program in a larger way? How can parents be enlisted? How can the week be made more than a ritual?
The appeal of this article is for the speaker to be more efficient in reaching the unreachable and in strengthening the ties between all the students and the church by personal confrontation.
REFERENCES
1. It has been shown that a discussion group is most persuasible if it has seven to nine members. Rath, R. and Mistra, S. K., ''Changes of Attitudes As a Function of Size of Discussion Groups," Journal of Social Psychology, 1963, 59, pp. 247-257.
2. This instrument was developed in the following fashion: Certain appropriate items were taken from Thurstone's "Scale for Measuring Attitude Toward the Church." Others were secured by asking members of the congregation I pastor to write down anonymously their feelings toward the church. I invented a few additional statements.
The resulting fifty items were administered to one hundred freshmen and sophomore students at Rio Lindo Academy. A Likert item analysis was performed and twenty-four discriminating items were selected for the final instrument. The reliability of the instrument has since been confirmed by work with students at Lodi Academy and at Sacramento Union Academy.
3. It is important that everyone understands that assignments have been made randomly lest suspicious students feel they were placed in their specific group for ulterior motives. This is done, incidentally, by numbering the students and then selecting them by the use of a table of random numbers. Any academy math teacher should be able to help.
