XVI
RECRUITING THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
1. Necessity. The aspiration for advancement is natural and noble; and therefore every member of the Sunday school who is interested in its welfare, whether officer, teacher, or pupil, desires it to increase in membership, and to spread its benefits as widely as possible. But the recruiting of the Sunday school is not only desirable, but necessary. It is found that in every school there exists an outflow as well as an inflow of members. If in certain departments, as the Primary, new scholars are constantly enrolled, in other departments, as the older grades of the Intermediate and the Senior, there is as constant a dropping out of members from the school. It has been estimated that in most Sunday schools from twenty to twenty-five per cent of the membership changes annually, so that the average period of a teacher or scholar in the Sunday school is less than five years. There are some who remain longer, but others who are members for even a shorter time. Upon the average, every school is a new school once in four or five years. If one fifth of the school leaves every year, there must be an equal number enter it, to keep the school at its normal size. But any institution dependent upon the maintenance of a constituency, whether it be a periodical, a life-insurance association, or a Sunday school, begins to decline when its number remains stationary. The health and life of the school, therefore, require a constant renewal of its membership. The school must have new blood, or it will soon be impoverished and in time die.
2. The Losses from the School. Before the presentation of plans for winning new scholars comes the vital question of holding the scholars already on the roll; for the condition of leakage has a close relation to growth or decline. If the causes of the leakage can be ascertained, and the drain can be stopped, we shall be materially aided in our effort to enlarge the school.
(1) The Search in the School. Careful notation should be kept of the grades from which scholars are lost, or which are below a normal membership; and equally careful inquiry should be made as to the cause of the decline, and methods to correct it should be sought. Is it in the Primary Department, which should be the most rapidly growing department in the school? Is it in the Junior or Intermediate Department, where there ought to be a steady increase, even if it be slow? Is it in the Senior Department? Here there is great danger of losses, especially among young men. Is it not possible to find why they leave the school, and what will induce them to remain? Perhaps the school is deficient in the Adult Department. Must it be admitted that the Sunday school is for children only, and that as soon as its members become men and women their departure from the school is to be expected? The investigation should be more than general, ascertaining what departments are suffering loss; it should be personal, including the name and grade of every scholar who has ceased to attend for a definite period; and as far as possible the reason for his leaving the school.
(2) Following up Absentees. A systematic plan for watching over the membership of the school should be instituted and vigorously maintained. For example, in some schools a report of every absentee is made by the secretary to the superintendent. On Monday morning each teacher receives by mail the list of his absent scholars, with a request to send in writing, as soon as practicable, the cause of absence for each one. In many schools this work of looking after the absentees is performed by paid visitors—a good plan, but not so good as for the teacher to come into personal touch with his own scholars. A business firm watches over its customers, and endeavors in every possible way to hold them. The Sunday school which can maintain its grasp upon its members has the problem of growth already half solved.
3. Characteristics of a Growing School. The strongest force in recruiting the Sunday school is to be found in the character of the school itself. The merchant must have his shelves stocked with attractive goods if he expects customers. In order to obtain scholars there must be a good school.
(1) Efficient. The school should maintain high educational standards; should be thoroughly graded in all its departments, with suitable lessons for each grade; and should have organized classes for young people and adults. The thoroughly good school will rarely lack for scholars.
(2) Attractive. The school should be attractive as well as efficient. Its meeting place should be cheerful and airy, with suitable furniture and apparatus, above ground, and not a damp, dingy basement. It should have enjoyable exercises, like a school, yet not too severely like a public school. It should greet new members heartily, make them feel at home, and cultivate acquaintance with them. There should be an animating spirit of loyalty and love for the school; a devotion which will inspire active effort in its behalf. Around the school should be the atmosphere of a happy home.
(3) Prominent. Among the activities of the church the school should stand forth prominently. It should be kept in mind that, as the neighborhood furnishes the constituency of the school, so the school furnishes the members for the church. In our time three fourths of the accessions by profession of faith come from the Sunday school. The school should be held in honor as the principal source of supply to the church membership. If the audience room is large and imposing, and the Sunday-school room is inferior and unattractive; if the pulpit and the choir are amply supported while the school receives a narrow sustenance, however great the prosperity of the church its duration will be brief. The Sunday school must stand in the foreground, and not in the background, if the church is to grow; and the growing church should have a growing Sunday school.
(4) Special Occasions. Throughout the Sunday-school year occur days which should be recognized, as breaking the monotony of the regular exercises, and as attractive features of the school. Such are Christmas, Easter, Children's Day in June, Rally Day in the fall, and Decision Day, when the net is drawn for discipleship in behalf of the church. Some superintendents look upon these occasions as burdensome, but with careful preparation and an attractive program they will add to the interest of the school, while in no wise detracting from the efficiency of its educational work. An occasional social entertainment for the school, or for each department in turn, and an outing day in the summer, will strengthen that esprit de corps or animating spirit of the school which is its strongest drawing power in attracting new members.
(5) Special Helps. There are communities where certain methods may avail more than elsewhere. A well-conducted Sunday-school library, no longer needed in many places, may be of great value in villages where there is no public library. A reading room, social hall, and gymnasium may constitute the church a home for young men whose dwelling places may be in close tenement houses. Young men are in saloons, and young women are in amusement parks, who might spend their evenings under the healthy influence of the church if places were provided. These plans and other features of the institutional church will need careful and wise administration if they are to do good and not harm; but in many places they will minister to the success of the school and the church, and also to the uplifting of the community.
4. Reaching Beyond the School. Thus far in this chapter we have considered the school rather than the field. One of the chief tasks of the Sunday school, however, is to reach out and lay hold of all the inhabitants, both young and old, in the area of its influence. The following active measures have proved effective in reaching the people and winning them to the school.
(1) Advertise. The school should be kept before the community in every legitimate way. Merchants tell us that the secret of success is first to have salable goods, and then to advertise them; and the same principle applies to the Sunday school. Printer's ink should be used liberally, but wisely. Only neatly printed, attractive matter should be employed. Invitation cards, leaflets, programs of special services, a little periodical devoted to the school, a year book containing the school register, and many other forms of advertisement will help to inform the neighborhood that the school is at work and is ready to welcome new members.
(2) Invite. Every officer, teacher, scholar, and parent should consider himself a committee to speak to others about the school, and to invite his friends and acquaintances to attend it. The little children should ask their playmates, boys and girls in school their classmates, young men their shopmates, young women their associates. No printed paper can have a tenth of the power possessed by the living voice and a hearty hand-shake. It is assumed that the invitation is given only to those who are not already attached to any church or school. All possible care should be taken to maintain a fraternal spirit, and not to build up our own wall by pulling down another.
(3) Visit. The field belonging to the school should be bounded definitely, and should be thoroughly and systematically canvassed. It should be divided into districts, and each district assigned to a visitor and a committee, who should know who may be included in the proper constituency of the school. For this work many schools and churches employ a paid visitor or a deaconess; and none can surpass the zeal or fidelity of many who enter upon such a vocation. But the schools which cannot afford professional workers include some teachers and some adult scholars who can give a portion of their own time to the same task. An organized class of men might be named which grew into over a hundred members through persistent work by a simple plan. A lookout committee, after careful inquiry, would report the names and addresses of men eligible for membership. Then the members in order and by appointment, in groups of two, called upon each candidate, formed his acquaintance, and invited him to the class. Sometimes thirty or forty men would call, but in time almost every man visited yielded to the friendly social influence, became a member, and soon after a worker for the class.
5. A Danger. A caution may be needed with reference to all these plans of recruiting the school. Advertising may be carried to the excess of becoming sensational. Invitations may be pressed upon scholars in other schools. The effort for increase may degenerate into unfriendly rivalry. A good plan may work evil when worked in a selfish spirit. And a too-rapid growth is sure to be unhealthy. The late B. F. Jacobs said, "God pity the Sunday school that gets a hundred scholars at one time!" A quiet, steady, diligent, persistent effort for the school will be of permanent benefit, rather than a spasm of enthusiasm.