08-Religious Education
08 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Text “ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
Matthew 28:20 a. The American principle of separation of church and state imposes upon the churches the responsibility of providing religious instruction through some means other than the public school system. This is a duty which has never been half appreciated, and therefore has not been intelligently undertaken by the Christian forces of the country. It is a task to which the church must rally if Christian intelligence and consecrated gumption are to temper the judgments and direct the forces of our modern inflammable and complex society. For this constructive and highly important service there is need of leaders. For the required leadership where shall we look if not to the ministers of the country, and especially to the pastors?
There are various plans for the co-operation of the church and the public school to give the school children religious instruction. “Where such efforts have been made the initiative has usually been taken by the school. This may have been due in part, at least, to our jealousy lest the church shall encroach upon the rights of the state. Not always however have the churches responded to the opportunity when offered, or been equipped with teachers or with the organization to make the work effective. Where such an opportunity comes to a pastor it should be accepted as a privilege and the work assumed with all the intelligence and devotion at his command. My purpose is to indicate some methods by which the church may fulfill its obligation to its own children in the fundamental service of religious education. I shall name four ways in which the church may perform this function.
Through the preaching of the “Word, the ordinances, the Bible school, and the religious day school. The call is for pastors who can lead in this ministry of the word and in the training of the young. The first method of religious instruction open to every minister is through the preaching of the Word. I have often recalled with profit a remark which the late Dr. E. M. Tomlinson made to me in Alfred. I was then a student in the Seminary, and had preached the previous Sabbath morning in the village church. The theme of the sermon was “An Exposition of the Book of Kuth.” Dr. Tomlinson was expressing his approval of the expository method in preaching, and this is his remark which has been of value to me during these years: “A minister’s sermons should be of such a character that one sitting under his preaching for a number of years would bec’ome familiar with the Bible, even though he never read it himself.” Dr. Tomlinson believed that a layman should read the Bible.
Expository preaching will be all the more interesting and profitable to him who does. But his statement is clear and illuminative, and ministers will do well to apply this test to their preaching. If the pulpit is to.perform its teaching function the minister must be a student, there is no way to get around that, and he must have a well-furnished library, this too is essential. And the present average length of pastorate must be extended. The minister must be a student of the “Word, and a student of all that throws light on the “Word, or aids in its interpretation and in its application to human life. He must be long enough in one place to make some adequate use of the results of his study, and to feel the call to a deeper search into the mysteries of divine truth, in order to meet the demands of a growing congregation, and of developing human souls.
I am convinced that when churches retain their pastors longer, with adequate support, which will go beyond physical necessities and afford the means for the purchase of books and for attending Bible conferences and religious conventions, the day of the teaching pastor will be brought in, and the minister’s service to the church will be enriched and enlarged. I predict, also, that when the ministers more nearly measure up to the standard implied in the remark of Dr. Tomlinson, the length of time during which they can minister with profit to a given congregation will be materially increased. “When a minister is in his study, thinking, praying, preparing a message, he is not in seclusion; he is on the mountain surveying the scene so that he may bring the word of their God to the men in the struggle. The most hopeful hour of the ’desert wandering of Israel was when Moses was on the mount, learning the law of God. In these days there will.be little enough thinking. There is little time to think. But the minister must find time to think. Picking up sermons on the street may do at some times; in these times people deserve better than that. They are on the street themselves and know what is there.
It is the heavens over-arching the street which they do not think of and which the minister must study. He needs to know the street voices, and his own voice must be the steadying one, clearer and firmer than the street voices, with the note of assurance and confidence which all the street voices lack.” The second means of religious education which I wish to mention is available to every church, but is not usually thought of in this connection. I refer to the church ordinances, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The doctrine of “baptismal regeneration” and of “the real presence” in the bread of the Eucharist have been held by us to be so contrary to Scripture that we have rebounded to the other extreme, and have reduced these sacred ordinances to almost empty and meaningless forms. “We have received candidates for baptism who have been tossed our way on the crest of a revival wave, have baptized them and received them into the church, without helping them to appreciate the spiritual significance of the ordinance, and without instructing them in the obligations of church membership. The baptism of our young people should be preceded by instruction. And the service itself should be so conducted as to impress those who join in it by their presence, and especially upon those who are baptized, certain fundamental truths of evangelical Christianity. In the ordinance of baptism three great doctrines of the church are symbolized: the doctrine of the resurrection, of regeneration, and of immortality. Every baptismal service affords a new opportunity to impress upon those who gather something of the depth of meaning and the practical significance of these sacred truths. Evangelical Christians claim no magical power for these ordinances. For that very reason every baptismal service should be approached in a reverent spirit and after thoughtful preparation. Our baptism is a testimony to our personal faith in the resurrection of Jesus, an expression of our purpose to walk in newness of life, and a witness to our hope in immortality. The record of a successful pastorate will show that the baptismal waters have been visited several times a year. “When practicable this service should be held on the Sabbath eve preceding Holy Communion. My conviction is that the frequent baptismal service gives evidence of an effective method of evangelism, and not only indicates, but helps to secure and maintain a normal spiritual life in the church. The Communion service, likewise, should be an occasion for impressing and teaching spiritual truth. The fundamental doctrines of the incarnation, the atonement, and the divine imminence should be better understood and more fully appreciated in every Communion service. Above all, every sincere communicant should come to realize the relation of the Divine Spirit to the human life, so as to be able to go out to do the will of the Father; to follow him at whose table he has sat into the garden of weariness and sorrow, and if need be, to Calvary and the Cross. The ordinances furnish to the church an educational opportunity which ministers might all resolve to use in fuller measure; and they provide the means for spiritual development which they should study to appropriate more effectively. The primary and universal means of the church for promoting religious training and for providing a knowledge of the Word, is through the Bible school. The Sabbath school is the church’s school of religion, sometimes designated, and appropriately so, as the church studying the Bible. It is a school from whicn no one ever graduates, and whose text-book is never mastered. The teachings of the Bible are never exhausted because they are not to be learned but lived. A fresh appreciation of this fact has effected a new method of approach in Bible study, is altering Sabbath school organization, and is furnishing a practical basis for the selection and arrangement of lesson material. The revolution that is taking place in Bible school organization is due to the fact that the pupil has become the center around which the organization is built, and the objective point in the selection of lesson material. The Bible contains neither a set of rules to be obeyed nor a system of doctrine to be believed.
It sets forth the religious experiences of the race that gave birth to the Christ, contains a four-fold account of that matchless life, and records all that he began both to do and teach.
It is a perfect guide to life at every stage of development, the sufficient source of comfort in every time of sorrow, the satisfactory answer to every problem that perplexes the human soul. Its service is not rendered by magic, nor is its comfort the result of a blind faith. Not every page yields the help needed at a given time, and not every passage is appropriate for the instruction of the child. To select from so large a library the proper text for each particular need of the developing child and youth is a large task; one that calls for an intelligent understanding of the Book, and a sympathetic knowledge of the child as well.
Many today see a larger field of usefulness for the Bible school than it has yet occupied. There is need of men in the pastorate who can inspire and train leaders for this invaluable service, if the church of the future is to meet its responsibility in the kingdom of Christ. The last point in this four-fold discussion of the church’s program for instruction in religion is the religious day school. I do not mean the vacation Bible school which, backed by a great organization, is doing splendid work in many quarters, especially in the large cities.
What I am now advocating is a school held in the church or parish house for from two to four weeks, during vacation time. Perhaps there should be only morning sessions. Its faculty will be composed of men and women, and capable young people who can give an hour a day to hear a class, and who can direct their study. The curriculum will cover a wide range of studies including hymn singing and memorizing, Bible stories and biography, denominational history, organization and beliefs, missions, and many o.ther subjects adapted to the needs and circumstances of the local situation. The student body of such a school will include the children of the parish, the young people who have time to attend, and perhaps a class of older people who can devote one morning hour of the day to the study of the Bible, or some denominational or missionary subject.
Such a school, properly conducted and supported, would bring great profit to those who could attend, and, continued for a number of years, it would become a valuable supplement to the regular educational activities of the church.
There are in the Christian church today two opposite views of the Bible, held in such an extreme fashion as to prove the rule that extremes meet. These two views of Bible authority meet at the point where they nullify its power to build character and promote righteousness. The one view gives the Bible a secondary place as an authority in religion, holding that its benefits must be mediated through a specially ordained priesthood. The other view claims for the Bible supreme authority in religion, but holds to such a mechanical theory of inspiration as to lead to an unintelligent and blighting bibliolatry. The Roman Catholic Bible is sealed by the church, the Protestant Bible often becomes a self-sealer. On the other hand, the Bible invites and is receiving today as never before sympathetic and intelligent study. It is the charter of all our liberties, and will yet become in fact what it is potentially, the great human emancipator. A better knowledge of the Scriptures is necessary to the freeing of the world from its present thraldom of superstition and error, and to the bringing in of the kingdom of heaven where all men are brothers. Intelligent, educated, trained Christian leaders are needed, who are devoted to a study of the Word, to promote its study in the churches, and to inspire a more loyal service of the Christ whom it reveals.
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”