83. Equipment.—All who attend should have their own Bibles. Tablets and pencils should either be brought from home or be furnished by the school. There should be a good blackboard at hand, also the necessary maps and charts for lesson study. A teachers' library is very important, and the librarian should be present, so that the workers may take home the books if they desire. Models of the tabernacle with its furniture, the temple, an Oriental house, etc., will be helpful. Leaflets on various phases of the work, for distribution, may profitably be used from time to time.
84. Who Should Attend.—Certainly the pastor. The teachers are his best helpers; the Sunday-school is the whitest part of his great field. He cannot afford not to be in vital touch with the workers of the Sunday-school. He may or may not be the best person to teach the lesson. All the officers of the school should be there, for the details of their official duties will be discussed from time to time. Of course the teachers will be there, and the substitute teachers who are to act on the following Sunday. It would be well also for the prospective teachers or the members of the training class to be present, if possible. Some schools require the attendance of the teachers upon this meeting.
85. The purpose of the meeting is to study the school, to plan for the school work, to create Sunday-school enthusiasm; to disseminate Sunday-school intelligence; to maintain a vital relation to the great Sunday-school movements of the day; to show how to teach the lesson for the following Sunday. It is to help, instruct, encourage, and equip the officers and teachers at every point, and in every way.
86. Time and Place.—If possible, devote an evening to it, late in the week and at the church. Settle upon one night and stick to it. Those who are absent will always know exactly when and where the next meeting will be held. No more important meeting is ever held at the church than this, and it ought to have the right of way one night in the week. It is a short-sighted policy on the part of any church to deny this.
87. Methods of Lesson Work.—The Workers' Meeting is not a Bible class. To conduct it as one will usually kill it. A good Workers' Meeting presupposes previous preparation of the lesson on the part of the teachers. They do not come there to study the lesson. Other things being equal, that Workers' Meeting is the best which, under wise leadership, has the largest number of participants. It should be conducted on the catechetical rather than the lecture plan. The method of presenting the lesson should have more consideration than the subject-matter. The "Angle Method" of conducting the lesson periods of a Workers' Meeting is very popular, and is explained by the following, which may be printed on cards, and handed a week in advance to ten persons, each of whom is asked to be prepared on a given "Angle."
Angle No. 1—Approach.
Give subject of last lesson, brief intervening history, time, place, and circumstances leading to this lesson.
Let the lesson text be read at this point.
Angle No. 2—The Lesson Story.