The Boy and the Sunday School: A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age BoysAlexander, John L.
Religion
The Boy and the Sunday School: A Manual of Principle and Method for the Work of the Sunday School with Teen Age Boys
Alexander, John L.
Sunday schools
Things cannot happen in a day. Christianity itself is a growing,
developing thing. "First the seed, then the blade, then the ear, then
the full corn in the ear." Have patience! Maybe you will have to win the
boys yourself first, before you can win them for Him. Read this letter
from a man who has the vision, the plan and a lot of common-sense
patience, and think it over:
"Very recently I came across your card, and it brought to mind the
promise I made to report progress with my class of boys.
"You see so many people in the course of a week, to say nothing of a
couple of months, that it may be well to remind you that I am the chap
who came to your room in ----, and afterward stuck to you all the way
to ---- when you were leaving town.
"When I saw you I was having an average attendance of three, if one is
allowed to stretch a fraction of a boy into a whole one, and a
membership in the class of four. These boys had lost all interest in the
Sunday school, and it was only that 'Dad said you must' that any of them
came at all to the service.
"Today I have done as well as the faithful servants, and behold my four
talents have gained other four. There is no longer a membership and
average attendance, for they all come when they are not sick or out of
town; and one thing which is a wonder to me is that a good many of the
boys from other schools come to us whenever there is no service in their
own churches.
"I have not said 'now boys' to this class once, but we have gone hunting
caves and are going again next Thursday, and we are all going camping if
we can arrange a time during the summer.
"These boys, who used to come to the church with a lurching walk and
underlip stuck out, now come in like men. They have covered the class
room walls with pictures from magazines, have brought rocking chairs
from home and use their room as the place to plan the fun for the
following week. They have, after some pretty violent pushing from the
teacher, petitioned the powers to give the basement of the church over
to them and the other classes of intermediate grade for the purpose of
having a social evening once each week. The petition has been granted
and we will probably open up about May 16th.
"None of my class show any violent signs of getting converted yet, but
when one considers that this is a class who could not keep a teacher
over three or four Sundays; who used to start a rough-house on all
proper and improper occasions, and who had been known to throw books or
any other handy article when they got sick of hearing any more Bible, I
think I can report progress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account