The Boy and the Sunday School Part 12

_Separate Rooms_

There should be separate a.s.sembly rooms or divisions for these departments where they meet apart from each other. There should also be separate rooms or screened-off places for the cla.s.ses to meet.

_Equipment_

The outfit for the department and cla.s.ses should include Bibles, tables, blackboards, charts, pictures, maps--including maps for mission study, also relief maps, mission curios, etc.

_Promotions_

Much should be made of promotions to and from the grades within the department. A certificate or diploma recognizing regular work should be granted on Promotion Day. Special work done is recognized by placing a seal upon the certificate. Promotion exercises should include some statement of the work accomplished.

_Sunday School Spirit_

In order to maintain a genuine spirit of Sunday school unity it is desirable to have the whole school meet together from time to time for the common tie and uplift of worship in the ma.s.s. The exercises of festival occasions also help to bring this about, and the common gatherings, regular or special, of the school, tend to magnify the united leadership of officers and teachers. These should never interfere with the work of instruction, the main objective of the school, but should supplement it. Departments should be made to feel their partnership in the Sunday school enterprise, and this may be brought about by the reading of the departmental and school minutes in each department. Continued emphasis should be placed on the oneness of the school--"All one body, we." Thus we may hope for Christian comradeship and loyalty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON BOYS' DEPARTMENT

Boys' Work Message.--(Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).

Cope.--Efficiency in the Sunday School ($1.00).

Huse.--Boys' Department in Springvale, Maine (_American Youth_, February, 1911) (.20).

Stanley.--The Boys' Department in the Sunday School (_American Youth_, April, 1911) (.20).

Waite.--Boys' Department of the Sunday School (Free leaflet).

XII

INTER-SUNDAY SCHOOL EFFORT FOR BOYS

This volume so far has discussed nothing save the work among teen age boys in the local Sunday school, in Organized Cla.s.s or Boys' Department.

This is as it should be, "beginning at Jerusalem" and taking care first of the local school. To magnify the church and church school, however, in the eye of the boy and to make it his central interest or the center of his interests, it is necessary to view Sunday school effort in a larger way than the work of the local school. The Sunday school must become city-wide in its scope and effort. Common town-wide activity, such as outings, athletics, camps, entertainments, lectures, campaigns, etc., must be promoted jointly. Not only this, but the Christian boys of the community must be taught the democracy of Christianity and be led to work together in Christian service for each other and with each other for all the boys of the city. Something of this has been attempted in some places, but always under adult rule. Adult supervision--not rule--is always necessary. Thus city camps and Sunday school athletic leagues have flourished as adult effort for boys. That which is contemplated in the following two chapters is distinctly work _by_ boys _for_ boys in the Sunday school field. The need of adult help to organize and set things going is recognized as necessary, good and the proper thing. The value of the work will consist in the enlistment of the boys themselves and the partic.i.p.ation in and direction of the proposed work by the boys. Boys are not as exclusive, limited or provincial as adults. Their interests are wider than the local church.

The task is to couple those interests with the local church as the center of greater community-wide activity, and to direct them to effective service.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON INTER-SUNDAY SCHOOL OR CHURCH WORK

Barbour (Editor).--Making Religion Efficient (Boys' Work Chapter) ($1.00). This volume also contains the Men and Religion Charts.

Boys' Work Message (Men and Religion Movement) ($1.00).

XIII

THE OLDER BOYS' CONFERENCE OR CONGRESS[8]

This is one of the best forms of Inter-Sunday school work for boys. If it is rightly handled, it will add much to the Christian enthusiasm of the older boys of the Sunday schools.

_It is to be noticed, however, that it is an Older Boys' Conference._ This means that the ages are to be confined to the stretch between fifteen and twenty years. Do not spoil your effort by "running in" boys under fifteen. Of course the younger boy is important, but the type of work accomplished in these conferences is beyond him and his presence will nearly neutralize your effort.

The aim of the conference should be, not merely to put new Christian enthusiasm into the older fellow, but to get him to talk over the problems of the Sunday school from his own point of view. Hundreds of these conferences have been held throughout the Continent, and scores of boys have been led into Christian service thereby. The discussion at these conferences is also most intelligent, being often above the grade of adult groups. The boy gets to know the Sunday school by talking about it, sees its problems, his own needs and the way to meet them. He likewise gets a new idea of his obligations.

It is to be noticed again that it is an Older Boys' Conference. _This means that the boys themselves should direct the work of the Conference as much as possible, and that the Conference should be officered by boys._ I have no sympathy with the men who cannot trust boys to do this work. It is largely due to a fear that the boy will grow conceited because of his new-found opportunity. It is due more, however, to the fear that the boy will act unwisely from an adult viewpoint. Both of these fears come from adult conceit and the inability to trust the boy.

Such men should leave boys and boys' work severely alone.

It is to be noticed for the third time that it is an Older Boys'

Conference. _This means that the large part of the program and all the discussion should be by the boys themselves._ No man should take part in the discussion save the man who leads it, and the future may also provide a boy for the leadership of the discussion. The writer in over a hundred conferences would allow no man to take part, as the aim of the conference was to make it a boys' conference. If men may dominate and intimidate the boy, better settle the matter in an adult group.

The officers of the Older Boys' Conference should be President, Vice-President (who in most cases should be Toast-Master at the Conference Banquet) and Secretary. There should also be a committee of three boys appointed by the President (who may be helped to this end) to report at the banquet session on the papers and discussions. In this way the summary of the conference is as the boy sees it. This is the aim of the conference.

Two ways are open for the election of the officers: by a Nominating Committee and in open conference from the floor. _If a Nominating Committee is the method, no man should be present to suggest or dictate._ The committee should, however, have the right to consult whomever they please, in order to get the information they may wish.

_The writer prefers the Open Conference Nominations from the floor. In over two hundred conferences he has never yet been disappointed in the choice of the boys._

The program should be distinctly a Sunday school one. The conference is in the interests of the Sunday school. Keep it to the purpose intended.

Hundreds of good causes might be discussed, but the objective of the conference would be missed. Below are three different length programs used at different places. They may prove suggestive to those intending to conduct such meetings.

A. Afternoon and Evening Conference (One Day).

PROGRAM

TORONTO

BOYS' WORK CONFERENCE

=December= 31, 1912

_Conference Theme:_--_Training and Service_

=St. James' Square Presbyterian Church=, Gerrard St., between Yonge and Church Sts.

2:00 P.M. Registration of Delegates.

2:30 Music, in charge of Mr. W.R. Young, Choirmaster of St. John's Presbyterian Church.

Devotional--Rev. E.W. Halpenny, B.D., General Secretary, Ontario Sunday School a.s.sociation.

3:00 The Message of the Galt Conference, N.W. Henderson, Robert Walker, Gordon Galloway.

3:20 Address--"Organized Sunday School Work," by John L. Alexander, Chicago, Ill., Superintendent Secondary Division, International Sunday School a.s.sociation.