SMS MOMSRHSMSMomome & OM OM SAO AO O LTO OT OMT OOM AES. RE — YOWO MEMO WOU SFU eo Ue : : 4 sh - Ps 2 , » ao LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. PRESENTED BY chsh ee fs, See Eee re BX 8905 .P6 M4 1927 c.3 Manual of the Presbyterian program for young people MANUAL OF THE ‘Presbyterian Program for Young People Building With Christ PREPARED BY Young People’s Work of the Board of Christian Education Working Codperatively with the Young People’s Depart- ment, Board of Foreign Missions, and the Department of Young People’s Work, Board of National Missions. PUBLICATION DEPARTMENT PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION WITHERSPOON BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 1927 Copyright, 1925, by the PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Printed in the United States of America First Printing—June, 1925 Second Printing—October, 1925 Third Printing—June, 1926 Revised Edition Copyright, 1927 CONTENTS PART OL The Presbyterian Program for Young People CHAPTER PAGE PEEOUUCUIONL MMR: 3c \ teumemerat Trt wr i Weg far eee ete 5 ee tnesy ono Lcoplennsthe: @hurchiy. mena sie 2, ieeeyY OUIISe L COpley Inv OLSHI pr. artes rere ten 18 ieeeey Olive coplesande struction mn: oyun. iy Vem. Olle | COPIOMINR Ser VICCgs eal tae a 42 Wee Ounoe Peoplesands Wecreation mite as 57 Part II The Program in the Organizations Wiehe Young+People’s Section of the Church: .~ 73 VII. Young People and the Organization and Work OrtherLrespyteniani@ nurclioues wre 85 VIII. The Young People’s Department of the Sun- day jOChGOM arse trie meer Ree Cat en es 93 ExXrabesy ouncereoples m0cicty. ree: sb oo 104 mm blice VV EStttiiisten (utd ee cn ceeniy tena 114 lgeebhe Younseviens Fellowship... 2.46%, ere 23 PSM OC DIL Vir |. \Meaenebeteret gars Wei ae sueon c i alate Brodey «AE ate 133 PDpeIdIxe A. GHinlinc OL COnLENt es aperah uae tee 136 Appendix B. Age Group Program Promotion Through ther ramets eaderciip peck cme teen tane: 147 For further information in regard to the Presbyterian Program for Young People, write to YouNG PEOPLE’s WoRK BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 423 Witherspoon Building Philadelphia, Pa. Or Younc PEOPLE’s DEPARTMENT BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 156 Fifth Avenue New York City Or DEPARTMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE’s WorK Boarp OF NATIONAL MISSIONS 156 Fifth Avenue New York City INTRODUCTION The first edition of this Manual of the Presbyterian Pro- gram for Young People has been exhausted. Its appearance about two years ago marked an advance in the effort of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. to provide an adequate program of Christian education for its Young People. For the first time the Church offered a carefully studied program which provided, in something like a proper balance, those types of experience essential to the Christian faith and life of Young People which had distinct reference to their interests, characteristics, and needs. The revised edition is now published. It deals with the same program which has been prepared by the Board of Christian Education working cooperatively with the Board of National Missions and the Board of Foreign Missions. These Boards, which have varying responsibilities for Young People, have cooperated in organizing and promoting this unified educational program. The changes in this edition have been made in the interest of clarity of presentation. It seems advisable here to emphasize the fact that this is a program for Young People, from eighteen through twenty- three years of age. It is not a program for the high-school age group and is not adapted to their use. Neither is it a program for adults. It is only one part of a complete Church program for children and youth. Some materials for other age groups, such as the Juniors, the Intermediates, and the Seniors, have already appeared. Others are in process of preparation. Workers with these groups should secure the materials prepared for their use. The interpretation of the age limits for this program— eighteen through twenty-three years—should not be based entirely upon chronological age. These limits indicate in general that age group which has the interests and needs and is entering into the life relationships characteristic of later adolescence. It is important that there be developed for the Young People of this particular age group a program which 5 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM shall prepare them for the experiences and life relationships of adult manhood and womanhood. At this age in particular the insights, the experiences, the activities of the earlier years may be enriched and expanded to form personalities capable of the finest leadership. Ifthe opportunities for this expansion are missed in these critical years, they are exceedingly diff- cult, if not impossible, to recover. The use, in many Young People’s groups, of the materials of this program confirms us in the conviction that such a program was needed, and that this particular program is adapted to its purpose. It would be impossible to acknowledge in detail all the assistance which the Young People’s Age Group Committee, representing the Boards of Christian Education, National Missions, and Foreign Missions, has received in the prepara- tion of this Manual and its revision. The Committee is profoundly grateful for this assistance and for the cordial reception that the Program has received from the Church. It remains only to say that the Program is dedicated to that spirit of youth of which John Bunyan spoke when he wrote of Master Valiant-for-the-truth: “Forget not Master Valiant-for-the-truth, That man of courage, though a very youth: Tell every one his spirit was so stout, No man could ever make him face about.” Harotp McA. Rosinson, Administrative Secretary of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. A. é PART I THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM FOR YOUNG PEOPLE It is important to remember at all times that the content of the Program is essential; not the organization through which it is given. Gaia biel THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH Young people are asking one question with great persist- ence: “Is it really possible to follow Christ in our day?” A religion confined to certain times or to certain places of wor- ship or to separated parts of life cannot possibly satisfy the youth of the present. They face an extremely difficult situation as they take up their full share in the life of the world of to-day. How are they to build fine characters in the midst of many downward influences, how are they to help to avert world catastrophe and to establish peace and co- operation among nations? No wonder they want to know whether the supreme principles of the living Christ can be practically applied to actual life! Can those teachings which found utterance in the quiet hills of Galilee be made dominant in the crashing industrial centers of the twentieth century? Can those ideals voiced when Palestine was a colony of the great Roman Empire be made the bases of national laws and international relation- ships in the modern world? Can Christ’s way of love and service be applied to the vexing problems of home life in America, to difficult decisions of campus activity, to the daily grind and incessant competition of the business world? Young people are asking not only, “Can Christianity be believed?” but more especially their question is, ‘Can Christianity be lived?” Nor do the minds of youth stop there. If Christianity can be lived, why is it not dominant and controlling in political, social, and industrial life, in racial contacts, and in international relationships? If it is applicable, why war? why famine? why disease and pestilence? why ignorance? why injustice? Nor is this the end. If Christianity is practical, why is it not supreme in the personal lives of Christ’s followers? Young people are rightfully challenging the value of medio- 9 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM cre Christianity and half-hearted conditional acceptance of the truth. In the world to-day, does not Christ call his followers to take him seriously in all things and put the whole strength of their lives into the advancement of his Kingdom? Such consecration, like a pioneer’s adventure into an uncharted land, will doubtless mean hardship, loneli- ness, even sacrifice, but surely nothing else is sufficient to solve the problems which the world faces. Many young people have already heard the call and are challenging the Church by their devotion. Millions more are ready to follow. Who will help them to hear the challenge? With young people facing such issues, what shall the Church do? Clearly it cannot be satisfied without pouring out its best for them that they may have all the light and guidance possible. Under the pressure of this conviction, the Presbyterian Program for Young People has been pre- pared. It attempts to provide one unified and purposeful plan leading to Christian life, growth, and activity to take the place of the separately published and sometimes overlapping programs which preceded this correlated form. It is hoped that this Program will help the young people under the stimulus of the great challenge of to-day to find Christ’s truth and to approach his ideals as they build their lives. It aims to help them to accept and carry out their share of responsibility for the promotion of Christ’s cause. It expresses alike the will of the Church and of its young people that Christ shall rule in the world and in each life. These purposes find expression in the aim which has been adopted for the entire Program. THE AIM OF THE PROGRAM Growth in effective Christian living through personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, acceptance of his purpose for the whole of life, and united service for the advance- ment of the Kingdom. Since this aim expresses the very heart of the Program, it is well to dwell a moment on its significance. On it the committee planning the Program spent much time and 10 ¢ ] piieoy OUNG PEORLE INCTHE, CHURCH thought. The aim speaks of growth, for clearly one great con- ~ cern is that the Christian program in these years shall stimu- late young people to see a great goal ahead and to conceive of life as progress, with increasing opportunities and responsi- bilities. The Program seeks to provide those studies and to suggest that actual practice in Christian living by which the young person will grow toward “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” The aim contemplated “growth in effective Christian liv- ing.” The great need is for Christians who know how to put their religion into practice in the midst of the world’s life, who can bring the purpose and power of Christ to bear on the whole situation in which they find themselves. How wistfully the earnest Christians of great countries like China and Japan look toward America, wishing that the land which sent out those who proclaimed to them the gospel would demonstrate the power of that gospel in its everyday life and its national affairs! If the cause of Christ is to triumph, there must be a generation of Chris- tians who can apply his spirit and principles in the home, in social life, in business and industry, in politics and public life, in international dealings. There is no hope for this except “through personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord’”—Saviour from sin and failure, from littleness and selfishness, Giver of the vision of what a life may be and of power to live victoriously, Lord of thought, desire, and act, and of all the powers, abilities, and influence his followers possess. The aim further expects this growth in effective Christian living to come through the “acceptance of his purpose for the whole of life.” For years there has been recognized a ringing challenge to certain young people to accept Christ’s purpose for their lives and enlist as missionaries or ministers. Too often it has been assumed that this was a peculiar kind of call and that no such thrill of consecration may be ex- perienced by those who remain behind in the ordinary walks of life. Surely there have been few greater mistakes. Christ calls every Christian to share his great purpose for mankind. 11 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM Every young person should see that to be fully Christian one must make Christ’s purpose for the world the dominating purpose of his own life, live as thoroughly for the advance- ment of Christ’s Kingdom as does any missionary or other full-time Christian worker. Only on this basis can life- work choices be rightly made; only on this basis can the Christian hope for the fullest life and expect to make right use of the money, influence, abilities that may be his; only in this way can the cause of Christ be advanced in the world as it ought. Finally, the aim looks for growth in effective Christian living through “united service for the advancement of the Kingdom” of God, knowing that such service is essential to growth in the Christian life aside from its value in itself. The Program plans not only to encourage service and to suggest many helpful ideas, but also actually to provide training for service and to call attention to opportunities in the individual church and community and in the work of the Church throughout this land and to the ends of the earth. THE FOUR DIVISIONS OF THE PROGRAM Clearly the attainment of the aim that has been set forth will require instruction. How much there is for young people to learn: about Christ, his work, his purpose, his teachings, his way of life and all that it implies for our day, the salvation he brings and the hope he offers; about the Bible and its revelation of God’s will; about God the Father and his love for men; about the Church, its life and worship, its God-given task in which each Christian is to share; about conditions in the world about them; about other peoples ; about the making of a home; about health, and many an equally important subject required for an abundant life. Just as clearly must the Program include worship, the drawing near to God, the seeking and finding fellowship with him. Not by knowledge alone can young people build able Christian lives but by sharing God’s love and experiencing his inspiring and strengthening presence. 12 fate OUNG PROPLE IN’ THE: GHURCH Service also must have a large place in the Program. The Christ whom young people are to follow came to serve, proclaimed that he who would be greatest must be “servant of all,” and “went about doing good.” Those who follow him must give themselves in service. There are few greater needs than that of enlisting young people in actual service for Christ and their fellows, both that their religion may be real and that they may help to bring God’s will to pass. While the need for recreation may not be so apparent to most people, it is none the less real. Christ came that men might have abundant life, and the heart of youth calls for fellowship and joy which should be a part of the whole life of Christians and not separated from their religion. WHAT IS THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM FOR YOUNG PEOPLE? It is a plan to make possible for young people the fullest Christian knowledge and experience by combining worship, instruction, service, and recreation so that each one of these may contribute to the unity and completeness of life. Where there are several organizations for young people within a church, plans are made for cooperation whereby the separate organizations may participate in carrying out one common Program for Young People from eighteen through twenty- three years of age. If desired, the organizations may unite to form a single organization, or if only one exists, work may be enlarged so that it will include the complete program. The Program covering these six years is not for the Sunday school alone, nor for the Young People’s society alone. It is for the Young People’s Section of the Church, which embraces all young people of these ages whether re- lated to the Church by membership, by participation in one or several of its organizations, or by attendance at any of its services. It covers the whole range of instruction and activity. It attempts to visualize the young person’s relation- ship to the Church from his own point of view, and to suggest an attractive and attainable goal in his training. This Manual explains the general principles underlying 13 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM the Program. The Year Books, as they are issued, will give the themes in which the programs for each year center, and will recommend the definite program material to be used. Neither of these books will contain the actual courses to be pursued, but they will direct people to the places where courses may be obtained and explain how the work may be assigned to the different organizations. Sunday-school les- sons, mission-study textbooks, leaflets—all will be used as materials to convey the Program to the individual church. WHY ONE PROGRAM FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE? Individual churches need unified programs. Any num- ber of agencies may be interested in the religious education of young people and any number of programs may be offered to that end. Where many are offered, young people must choose, rejecting one and accepting another; or else, select- ing from each, they must draw up, consciously or uncon- sciously, their own “unified” programs. The individual church, likewise confronted with a diversity of programs and suggestions emanating from different sources, must choose between them or select from each the elements which seem most useful and practical. To some extent, worship, instruction, service, and recreation such as are contemplated in this program have been present in some form in various parts of the Church’s work for young people in the past. But there has been no one program which made adequate provision for them all. Since there has rarely been any effective way of correlating the work of the different organi- zations, there has been no assurance that any one young person was receiving help in all these phases of life. The Presbyterian Program seeks to remedy this situation by providing one Program, built each year around a great central theme, to be carried out by the cooperation of all the organizations within a church or by one organization with a three hour a week schedule. The Program is the result of the cooperative effort of the three Boards, of Christian Edu- cation, Foreign Missions, and National Missions, to offer a 14 THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH course of religious education which will contain in scientific proportions all the elements necessary for adequate training of Presbyterian young people as citizens of the Kingdom of Christ. The various young people’s organizations need a unified purpose. The Church is no longer satisfied that various groups of young people shall make lonely and separate struggles toward their goals. Nor are the young people will- ing to live unto themselves in their various organizations. There is a new determination that with each group con- tinuing its proper work and responsibility, all shall unite in a common purpose and find together the pathway toward God. To climb surely, to advance unitedly, and to attain fully is the purpose of the Church and of its young people. This Program is the first attempt on the part of the whole Church to carry out that ideal. THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE SIX YEAR PROGRAM The years following the age of eighteen are years of prog- ress. Young people are making their way in college and professional schools. Some are passing rapidly through an apprenticeship in business or industry and acquiring the skill and knowledge necessary for mastery. Some are es- tablishing their own homes and others are looking forward to doing so. Through it all, there is the joy of doing, happi- ness in progress, and an exhilaration in accomplishment, which are characteristic of the age. But preparation for secular life and civic citizenship is not enough. Young people must also be trained for leader- ship in human advancement and for citizenship in the King- dom of God. There must be definite progress and inspiring accomplishment in their religious lives. The six-year cur- riculum of the Building With Christ Program is planned to supply the need of this period of progress and develop- ment, and is intended to secure the spiritual maturity and strength necessary for the new responsibilities of life. It should make possible in the individual church a _ well- 15 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM balanced program, rich in value because suited to the needs of the young people and consistently attractive because filled with challenges to service and accomplishment. THE PROGRAM FOR EACH YEAR As the whole Program has a purpose, so each year of the course has a distinct purpose and a definite theme. All worship, instruction, service, and recreation will be appro- priate to that theme. Sunday-school lessons, Young People’s society topics, and other parts of the Program are planned with these special purposes in view. ‘The various organi- zations, such as the Young People’s Department, the or- ganized classes for those of this age in the Sunday school, the Young People’s society, the Westminster Guild, the Young Men’s Fellowship, each in its own field of work, are united in the accomplishment of one task for the year. As groups of young people in the Church of Christ they move forward together. The Program does not urge the discarding of organizations now serving satisfactorily, nor does it suggest the curtailment of any activities in the individual church which may go beyond it. But it does insist that there is a certain mini- mum of religious education which young people should receive. Whatever organizations are maintained, it is in- tended that the elements of this Program shall be distributed among them in the most effective way possible. Methods of doing this are suggested in later chapters of this Manual and in the Young People’s Year Books. The program for each year, with its special purposes and themes, is presented in the Young People’s Year Book to be published annually. This will contain information con- cerning the special objectives of the year and will carry more detail than would be possible in the Manual. The Year Book is for the use of young people and their leaders, teachers, superintendents, and pastors. The Year Book and the Manual together cannot carry in- structions for every situation, nor can they answer every problem. But the individual church adopting the general 16 THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH purpose of the year and incorporating those parts of the _ Program which are suitable, will have no difficulty in cor- relating its various activities. It is hoped that in the themes of each year and in the purposeful and cooperative effort which these programs call forth, the young people of the Church may find God’s purpose for the whole of life, and unite as Christians for the advancement of the Kingdom. 17 CHAPTER II YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORSHIP A Bedouin of the desert on a prayer rug, his face turned toward Mecca, his heart turned toward God; a Hindu at Benares, seeking cleanliness in unclean waters; a Turkish dervish reeling in a frantic and ecstatic attempt to merge his consciousness with that of the Infinite; an Indian, quiet and yearning before the presence of the Great Spirit—thus do men worship. They may have knowledge or be utterly ignorant. Laws and traditions may or may not be recorded in their minds. But to them all comes the yearning for God and the desire to find some way of communion with him. For Christians more than for those of any other faith, worship means a personal relationship with God. Through the revelation of God there has been given a law of life which is supreme. But there is something more. Through worship, Christ with his spirit enters into men’s hearts, turning them toward God and giving them the will and power to live this life. And without such worship, hours of study, knowledge of the Bible, projects of service, attempts at Christian fellow- ship are vain. Important as all of these things are, they are dependent for their value upon men’s attitude toward God and their feelings toward their fellow men. If we “speak with the tongues of men and of angels,” if we “have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge,” if we “have all faith, so as to remove mountains,” if we be- stow all our goods to feed the poor and give our bodies to be burned, and have not love, we are nothing. Under and above everything is man’s attitude toward God, his fellow men, and himself. This is the original spring of life. It is the motivation of service. The entire life within the Church and man’s own personal development depend on his at- titude of mind and heart and the spirit with which his life is imbued. 18 &, YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORSHIP WORSHIP IN THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM That the young people may have that fundamental relation- ship to God upon which all else depends, that they may have a consciousness of his presence as they study and apply his principles, that they may learn the will of Christ and be strong in its accomplishment, worship is made one of the basic ele- ments in the Program. The study which is planned, the varied forms of service which are suggested, and the helpful recreation contemplated all depend for their effectiveness upon worship, which gives the needed spiritual impetus. THE AIM OF WORSHIP To establish and develop that filial relation- ship with God and Christlike fellowship with men through which the worshiper shares God’s Spirit and purpose and receives strength for Christian living. This aim assumes that worship is primarily an act of communion with God. In public worship it is also com- munion in which one’s fellow worshipers share, so that hearts not only are drawn near to God but also are united to one another. Together the worshipers find fellowship with God, and by this experience they are bound closer to all who follow Christ and are encouraged to live as God’s children. That Christians need this mutual encouragement is clear. The fact that it is found in group worship is what gives great value to communing with God in company with one’s fellows. True, one may enter into communion with God alone, but one never enters into it with the interests of one’s fellow men left out. “The whole world is the audience chamber when God holds court.’ Jesus makes this point strongly when he insists that one coming to the altar to worship God must be in right relations with his fellow men. ELEMENTS OF WORSHIP Into acts of communion certain great attitudes enter, particularly reverence, praise, gratitude, aspiration, loyalty, good will. Though these may not all be present in any one 19 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM act of worship, it is doubtful whether there is any true worship that does not include one or more of them, for instance, reverence. How impossible it is to approach God without reverence! Yet how many services have been attempted where it is not present, as in some “opening exercises” in Sunday schools where bells are banged, persons face in all directions and are inattentive, and late comers enter as they please. Many elements enter into the encouragement of reverence: the appearance and condition of the room, having everyone face the leader, securing quiet before any act of worship be- gins, use of songs that are reverential (how many are not!) sung with appreciation of what they mean, thoughtful reading of the Scripture, purposeful and definite prayer. In the same way the other attitudes might be discussed. If one is to be worthily grateful to God for his immeasurable and constant goodness, thoughtful attention should be turned to the subject in advance. The Bible is full of splendid records of the thanksgiving of grateful people. An appropriate passage should be selected. There are hymns of gratitude in which the worshiper may find finer expression for his own thoughts and feelings than he himself could frame. The prayer should not be an unthinking word of thanks, but an expression of heartfelt gratitude for appreciated blessings. These considerations help to show the vital importance of planning most worship services thoughtfully in advance. How can these essential attitudes be secured if at the last moment some one hurriedly looks up a Bible passage which is later limpingly read, thumbs through a hymn book to see what may be sung lustily on a moment’s notice, whether or not it fits, is reverent, or has any meaning, and prays ram- blingly without previous thought? MEANS OF WORSHIP Perhaps enough has been said to suggest that if young people really wish to worship they should value and use rightly the several means of worship—hymn, prayer, Scrip- 20 YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORSHIP ture, offering, message, which may take such form as a talk, story, or a selection from devotional literature. A few words on each of these subjects may be helpful. Hymns. Much of the spiritual wealth of Christianity has been poured into its religious music. Nearly all Chris- tians have experienced the joy and help that great hymns bring, whether sung in a worshiping company or repeated in the quiet of one’s heart. There are hymns whose words are an encouragement or a challenge, to be treasured for many a time of need, whose music will lift the soul out of many a rut of discouragement. Any Christian deprived of the inspiration of the great hymns has suffered a serious loss. Young people should give attention to good religious music if they are to worship well. In the first place, they should never use so-called hymns whose music is irreverent and whose words are unworthy of a place in the worship of _the God of all the earth. Hymns should be selected that express real religious thought and feeling and are appropriate to the occasion. The music at a missionary service should not be limited to two or three hymns already worn thread- bare. There is a whole range of fine and appropriate hymns on God’s love, on the spread of his Kingdom, on service. The number as well as the variety of hymns that can be sung well should be constantly increased. This will require study, and indeed every group of young people ought to make a study of the great hymns, their meanings, and the stories behind them. A good musician might be asked to lead the group in a study of hymnology, making clear the beauty and worth of the greatest hymns. Good books for use in the groups or individually are suggested in the Bibliography. By such study the worship of the group as well as the lives of the individual members will be greatly enriched. New hymns should be added to those already known by the group, but time should not be taken during the worship service for learning them. This practice should be arranged for at some other period. There are many interesting ways of in- troducing a new hymn. The words may be put on a stere- 21 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM opticon slide and thrown on a screen; or pictures illustrating the hymn may be used. A musician in the group may ex- plain the points of interest inea good hymn tune. Some one may relate how the words came to be written or tell some- thing about the life of the writer. Often a new hymn may be used first as a solo or a quartet and then learned by the whole group. Now and then such a solo or quartet may be very effectively accompanied by a pantomime of the action of the hymn. Prayer. No one can exaggerate the value and impor- tance of prayer, prayer which unites hearts with God and seeks to find his will, prayer which is the greatest resource for fine living and for all Christian service. In the young people’s services of worship and in their own lives prayer should have a large place. Much more careful thought should be given to the sub- ject of prayer than has generally been given. Perhaps in the revolt against written prayers, repeated sometimes by rote, our Protestant churches have gone too far to the other extreme so that we are sometimes in danger of entering the presence of God carelessly to say words without thought. Both for public and for private prayer it behooves us to do some serious thinking. For most worship services those who are to lead in prayer, as well as other participants, should be asked con- siderably in advance. The prayer should always be thought through beforehand, and now and then it would be well to write it out completely. Classes and societies should formu- late group prayers for unison use, perhaps having several for different occasions or on different subjects. A little cooperative thinking may develop some prayers that really express the spiritual aspirations of the group and help in drawing near to God. Groups and individual persons ought to make a study of prayer. Some of the great prayers of Christian history may be learned and used. A collection may be made of choice prayers on various subjects. Some of the best books are listed in the Bibliography at the end of this volume. 22 J \ YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORSHIP Certainly prayer should be definite. Most of the worship programs will naturally suggest subjects for prayer. Be- sides seeking help to know and to do God’s will and to share his Spirit, prayer should certainly include intercession. Many persons and causes need our prayer—friends, institu- tions, those in authority, the nation, the Church, those doing Christian work, and many others. There should be prayer for the work of the Church in the community and through- out the nation and the world. It is well to work out a definite plan of prayer topics that may be printed in advance on the regular topic cards or programs or be posted in the meeting room. Prayer for missionaries and their work should find a large place in such plans. For this, the Year Book of Prayer for Missions will be of great value. Is it not time for young people to take seriously Christ’s teaching and example in respect to prayer? A brief study of his life will show that he lived in the atmosphere of com- munion with God and prayed long and earnestly before mak- ing all great decisions. Do they take him seriously when he says: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done,” “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’? Imagine what would happen in any young people’s or- ganization that began to act on those great realities. Are there problems in the group? Let those who are interested meet frequently in earnest and believing prayer. Are there new plans to be undertaken? Surely they should be launched with prayer and real faith in the Father who hears. What ought to be done can be done by God’s help. If even a few see the need, believe the duty is God’s will, and care enough to pray earnestly together, they will find the way opening to enlist the zeal of others and to accomplish the task. Probably there are few more valuable things that most groups of young people can do than to encourage and help to develop effective prayer life in the individual members. A study of prayer may well be made, using a good book on 23 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM the subject. Members of the group may covenant together to pray daily for certain definite causes or persons. In- dividual members may be helped to participate in prayer in the meetings of the group by being asked beforehand and given suggestions. Surely a way must be found to develop and use this great resource of prayer. Scripture. Perhaps no other means of worship has been so badly misused as Scripture-reading. Stoutly main- taining belief in and reverence for the Bible, men have often used it most disrespectfully. Too often the Scripture is hastily selected and read without force or appreciation. A great opportunity is lost when the Bible is read carelessly and in such manner as to hide from others the boundless wealth which it holds. Contrast with this a quiet vesper service on a winter afternoon. As the pastor began to read familiar phrases from the gospel, the church and the choir and the congrega- tion faded from consciousness and there appeared on a hill- side the radiant form of the Son of Man surrounded by hum- ble folk: who eagerly listened to such great words of truth and love as never man had heard before. The reading ended and the church became real again; there was no sermon— none was really needed that afternoon; the worshipers had listened to the deathless words of Christ. So man may enter into the truths of God and share the spiritual vision of the greatest souls of the ages by reading and hearing the Scrip- ture aright. The Scripture passage for each service should be chosen well. in advance. Let it be studied and rehearsed aloud by the person who is to read it until he or she can read the words in such a manner that all may get the message. One fault in the choice of passages for Bible-reading has been to limit the selection to those already familiar. All the great subjects of which men want to think in worship serv- ices have been splendidly treated in the Book of books. A little search will reveal additional passages of beauty and helpfulness on almost any subject with which we are deal- ing, out of which the hearers will get new benefit. 24 YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORSHIP Responsive and unison reading should be well done, with everyone taking part. It would pay to put time and effort into preparation for this part of the program. By having the group learn to use effectively unison opening sentences, unison responses, and the like, the service of worship may be enriched. Offering. Giving is too often considered a formality or a matter of business to be slipped in somewhere on the program when the opportunity presents itself. Young peo- ple frequently fail to recognize giving as a part of worship. It is one of the most beautiful parts. It is a means of pouring out one’s life to God, the return to him of his own, the participation of the individual in the work of the King- dom. As such it should have a definite place in many serv- ices of worship. The manner of giving the offering may help to make it worshipful. Let nothing irreverent or careless be done. The spirit of the service should not be broken. To have in- strumental music during the giving of the offering may help. A prayer of consecration or a stanza of a prayer hymn may well follow. No offering should be taken thoughtlessly and as a matter of course. Everyone should know for what gifts are in- tended. Certainly many of the offerings should be for Christian work outside the organization, such as the definite objects under the Boards, in which the organization is glad to share and with which it keeps in close touch. Thus the offering will be a real sharing in the work of the Kingdom and therefore an act of worship. Message. There will often be short worship services consisting of hymns, prayer, and Bible-reading only, but many services will include a spoken message. This should be carefully prepared. Probably it will carry the theme of the service more specifically than any other part. Many methods are available. There may be a thoughtfully pre- pared talk on the topic, or several very short talks by dif- ferent persons, or an appropriate and effective story well told. A blackboard talk or map talk may be used, especially as MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM in missionary services. A brief stereopticon lecture or a simple dramatization or pageant may convey the message. The Bibliography suggests books from which to select this material. The wealth of devotional literature found in the writings of those who have lived close to God and learned the secrets of the spiritual life offers a treasury from which selection may be made for this part of the service. An appropriate selection, well utilized, may bring the message to the hearts of the worshipers in a peculiarly effective way. Such litera- ture also enriches personal devotions. WHERE YOUNG PEOPLE WORSHIP When the worship of young people is discussed, we are accustomed to think of some one church service in which they figure largely. But this connotation is too limited. The worship of young people includes all those services in the church in which they have any part, and all the time which they spend in this fundamental part of the Christian life. Included in young people’s worship are the Sunday church services, the Sunday school, the midweek meeting, the society hour on Sunday evening, the devotional portion of the week- day activities of young men or young women in their separate groups. Included also are the family altar and the private prayer life of each individual person. Often the true mean- ing of worship is discovered, and young people find for the first time that communion with God for which they have been seeking in the services of a conference or institute. Worship in the Church Services. These services, no less than others, belong to the young people. The church is not an organization of older people in which youth is permitted to share. They, together with the older people, are the church, and its services are theirs. The young people must, in the first place, assume their share of responsibility for the effectiveness of these services. No young man or young woman should enter the Sunday or midweek services without an earnest petition to God that the prayer, the music, the giving, all may be to the glory of 26 YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORSHIP God and the uplifting of every soul present. Young people should realize that sharing the service in spirit and in act is a direct contribution to the worship of the congregation, and that their failure to do so definitely detracts from the value of the service to the other members. There is a corresponding necessity that those planning the worship of the church should recognize in due proportion the needs of the young people. Music which is chosen for congregational singing should be selected very often with the yearnings of youth in mind. Special music should be so planned that occasionally it will lift up the prayers and desires of those in this period of life. Prayer which binds the great heart of the congregation to God should now and again echo the vibrant petitions of young men and young women. When older people and younger are being borne into the presence of the Almighty, the young people must also be remembered. They, too, must be lifted up. Worship in the Church Organizations. The chapters on the Sunday school, Young People’s society, Westminster Guild, and Young Men’s Fellowship in Part II of this book will discuss worship in the programs of those organizations. Worship in the Home. Worship begins in the individual life, and every Christian should have that close, personal communion with God which is the source of power for Christian living and thinking. Prayer, or communion with God, should begin and close the day, and should establish that fellowship with God, through Christ, which makes of daily life a constant companionship with him. The Pro- gram for Young People presupposes such private worship, and counts it the necessary foundation for a Christian life. The thought of private devotions leads naturally to a con- sideration of family worship, since both come within the home. The difficulty of finding time for family worship and indifference to its importance have resulted in its being largely neglected to-day. There is no excuse for failing to ask God’s blessing upon the food which his goodness has provided. Furthermore, where there is a real desire to gather the family for Bible-reading and prayer, a time can 27 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM be found. At the breakfast table just before separating for the duties of the day, or after the evening meal, a few moments spent in worship, with children as well as parents participating, will bind the group together in true fellowship with God. Some of the books of prayers mentioned in the Bibliography may enrich these family devotions. On Sun- days time may be found to enjoy together some of the great hymns of the Church and to make them a part of life. THE ORDER OF SERVICE For every worship program an order of service should be planned. A little thought will help greatly in making the service beautiful and truly worshipful. The outline that follows is intended to suggest various parts which may be included in a well-planned service and an acceptable order in which they may appear. There is no intention of saying that this order is best or that everything that is mentioned need be used in any one service. 1. SECURE QUIET BY a. Quiet instrumental music or b. Leader in silence on platform or c. Several notes on chimes. 2. CALL TO WORSHIP BY a. Bible verse recited by all or b. Devotional stanza sung quietly or c. Chorus, quartet, or solo—one stanza or d. Bible verse by leader, one-verse response by pupils. 3. HYMN a. Special hymn chosen as hymn for month or b. Hymn embodying theme. 4. SCRIPTURE a. Read in concert or b. Read by selected group or c. Read responsively by leader and group, or by two sections of groups, or d. Recited by pupil or e. Dramatized where passage makes this possible. 28 YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORSHIP 5. SpecIAL Music a. Vocal or b. Instrumental or c. Hymn. 6. PRAYER a. Brief prayers—three to five—led by young people. (Suggest in advance theme related to the general theme for month.) b. Conclude by unison use of (1) The Lord’s Prayer or (2) Brief prayer on theme for the month printed ; on programs or fastened in hymn books or (3) One verse of prayer hymn. 7. MESSAGE BY a. The leader or b. A special speaker or c. One or several of the young people. 8. OFFERING a. Brief explanation as to purpose for which gifts are made. b. Recognition of God as Source of our gifts. (1) Verse of Scripture recited by all or (2) Verse of Scripture recited by leader or (3) Stanza of a hymn sung by all or (4) Stanza of a hymn sung by selected group, as solo, or played softly. c. Collecting the offering (room very quiet, except for instrumental music). d. Receiving offering at platform. (1) Prayer of consecration by leader or in unison or (2) Verse of Scripture recited by all or (3) Verse of Scripture recited by leader or (4) Stanza of hymn sung by all or (5) Stanza of hymn sung by group, or as solo, or played quietly. 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS (These should be brief, to the point, given distinctly. Inter- est and variety in method should be kept in mind.) 10. Hymn (Chosen to interpret the theme.) 29 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM 11. Brter CLOSING By PRAYER a. Leader or b. Selected member of group. 12. BENEDICTION a. Unison benediction spoken or b. Unison benediction chanted or c. Benediction sung by selected group, all joining in Amen. GENERAL SUGGESTIONS FOR PLANNING WORSHIP PROGRAMS Have a purpose for every program. No real worship program can be planned without some definite end in view. The aim will help to unify the program and make it effective. Choose a theme for every service. In most cases it will be best to base the worship on the thought of the study of the worshiping group, and thus secure some attitude or feeling which vitalizes the truth of the instruction period. In using the Presbyterian Program for Young People it is also important that the theme be allied to that of the quarter, so that the worship may contribute to the aims of the entire plan. This is made possible for all churches by the use of the worship programs found in the Young People’s Year Book. They illustrate the way in which one theme after another can be carried out in the services which the young people plan. Achieve unity in each program. After determining the purpose of the service and choosing the theme, the next step is in the building of the program, making sure that each part is a direct contribution to the purpose of the whole. All hymns and special music should be in harmony with this purpose. The prayer, Scripture-readings, and talks should be planned with the theme in mind. Regardless of its effec- tiveness or beauty, any part of the program which detracts from the main purpose is a disturbing element. Prepare in advance. Those who are to take part should have ample time for preparation. Programs should be planned in advance for a month at atime. The length of the 30 YOUNG PEOPLE IN WORSHIP service should be determined beforehand and the program kept within the time allotted. Use young people in planning and leadership. Respon- sibility for special programs may be assigned to classes or committees appointed for the purpose. Using the same people too frequently for the same part of the service should be avoided. Secure a favorable atmosphere for worship. 1. Be sure that the room has an atmosphere which makes worship possible. It should be clean and never littered with old Bibles, hymn books, or quarterlies. If the pictures are not suitable, uplifting, and of good quality, take them down. A clean wall is better. If there are attendance or bulletin boards in the room, keep them up-to-date, or else remove all announcements from them. Before the service begins see that the temperature and ventilation are right. Neglect of these details may result in the defeat of well-planned worship programs. 2. Plan carefully that late comers shall not disturb the worship. Use ushers at the doors. Have chairs so arranged that the entrance is in the rear. Have seats in the rear for late comers. Do not allow them to enter during the progress of the service. Have pauses during which they may be seated. 3. Exclude all announcements or business from the wor- ship period. Put them before or after. 31 CHAPTER Ill YOUNG PEOPLE AND INSTRUCTION The truth by which men live is not a lucky find. It is not discovered in refined and solid nuggets. It is more like the gold of Alaskan streams which is gathered only through patient sifting and laborious effort. Truth consists of golden grains which earnest men seek and find, and separate and unite into a treasure of immeasurable value. Young people sometimes think that the truth of God and his Kingdom is gained more easily. So much of superb revelation has come down through the centuries, so much of vital knowledge has been gathered, that it seems necessary only to open the storehouse and find prepared and ready all knowledge and all truth. Fortunately for humanity, this cannot be. Although truth is eternal, each one must make it a part of his own experience. By his own effort it must be- come vital in his life. Young people must have knowledge. A common fallacy among them is that anyone will fulfill his destiny if his heart is right; that if only he does the best he knows, if only he is as kind and true as he knows how to be, he cannot fail. They seem to believe that God’s will for their lives can be discovered without giving time, thought, and energy to the study of his Word and the progress of his Kingdom. But no one is doing the best he can unless he knows the best. True kind-heartedness depends upon full understanding. One cannot be true unless he knows to what and to whom he should be true. Attitudes of good will, love, kindliness, mercy, and generosity without basic knowledge become sentimentality. Service to Christ and the Church, when done in ignorance, is fruitless and sporadic, mistaken and self-defeating. With the heart, God gives a mind. With power, he gives purpose. Young people who would serve will develop both. During the years between the ages of eighteen and twenty- 32 YOUNG PEOPLE AND INSTRUCTION three, young people are rapidly gaining knowledge. Some are studying in colleges and universities. Others in business and industry are learning the fascinating details of com- mercial life or beholding the gigantic operations involved in the world’s work. The wonders of modern science are con- stantly before them. Though it may seem so if wrongly presented, nothing of this learning can rightly be dissociated from God; nothing of this knowledge but has its bearing upon the work of the Creator and his purposes among men. All science and all culture can be vitalized by an understanding of the spiritual realities upon which they are based. New learning and new experiences clearly challenge young men and young women to become as conversant with the spiritual truths of life as with the material, to understand the sacred as well as the secular. There is a call to be more than masters of nature’s secrets, more than experts in business, more than creators in the realm of thought. The challenge is to become all this and more—to become masters of eternal truth, to study Christ and his Kingdom in order to lead men and the social order up to God. INSTRUCTION IN THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM Every young person desires that his life shall be of real significance, both immediately and in the future. He cannot be sure where that life will be placed or in what capacity it will be used, but he does yearn so to live and to labor that his years of service will be a direct and unquestioned contribu- tion to the welfare of men and to the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ. The purpose of instruction in this Program is to furnish the intellectual equipment which must be added to the spiritual if the individual’s life is to be significant. All in- struction should result in service. Instruction which does not create a desire to serve the world fails in its purpose. Preparation for service now, and for service throughout life, is the goal of study and instruction. 33 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM THE AIM OF INSTRUCTION To present and interpret the facts of the Christian religion, the principles and ideals of Jesus, and the history, needs, achievements, and methods of his world enterprise as the basis for a well-developed Christian character and for efficient Christian service. THE SCOPE OF INSTRUCTION When the term “instruction” is used, the thoughts of most readers will turn exclusively to the study period of the Sunday-school hour. This is, indeed, an important part of the instruction program for young people, but it is by no means all. The term is here used to include every portion of the church’s program which provides information and instruc- tion for the young people as a separate group or with the rest of the congregation. Under this definition, it will be evident that instruction is most often found in the following: 1. The sermons and prayer-meeting talks of the pastor. 2. The Sunday-school lesson period. 3. Special programs in the Young People’s Department of the Sunday school. 4. The discussional period and special talks in the regular meetings of the Young People’s society. 5. Study classes for young people on missions and other subjects. 6. Week-day meetings with special programs. 7. Church addresses by missionaries and other speakers. 8. Individual reading and study. When goals are set and plans made for the young people of the church, it is obvious that all the channels of instruc- tion must be included, to the end that young people may re- ceive in a well-organized way the Christian knowledge they ought to have. These different channels have all been taken into consideration in planning the Building With Christ Pro- gram for Young People. The necessity for building this instruction into one curriculum in part explains the existence of the Program. It eliminates any overlapping of the in- struction programs of different organizations. At present most churches select a course of study for their Sunday 34 wPOUNG PEOPLESANDIINS PRUGTION schools, but the instruction received in other places is usually - independent of and unrelated to this. By building one in- clusive curriculum and assigning different parts of it to the different organizations and agencies the gaps produced by the former lack of system are avoided. The ultimate resuit is to be a standard six-year curriculum which will contain in its scope the instruction which young people should receive through the church, and which will give them in attractive units a “‘college” course of religious education. This can be made possible for everyone without burden if the program is carefully carried out. THE CONTENT OF INSTRUCTION Bible study has the first and largest place in the cur- riculum, but there are other subjects which are essential if character is to be developed for efficient Christian service, if the achievements and methods of the world enterprise of Christ are to be understood, and if young people are to be trained to share in that enterprise. Bible and missions will be studied each year. Provision will be made for the other subjects at intervals during the period covered by the Program. The content of instruction for the six-year curriculum is arranged under the following headings, though subjects are broken up into working units and distributed in various organizations and departments of the church. Bible. Beginning with the problems in a young per- son’s life, such as those of belief and action, social and in- dustrial relationship, personal stewardship, life-work choices, home and social relationships, the answers to these problems are sought in the Word of God. Then the Christ in whom these answers are found is studied and, later, the rest of sacred history with Christ as the center. Those who preceded him and the great plan of salvation which reached its consum- mation in his death and resurrection, those who followed and carried on his work, making our faith possible, are studied in the other units of the course. Missions. The courses in missions are planned that the 35 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM young people may understand the Biblical basis of the mis- sionary enterprise, the history of its development, the task of to-day, and the part of the Church and each in- dividual in the establishment of the Kingdom. The Church. This study is included that young people of to-day may know the Church through which the gospel has come to them, and may be prepared to pass on the heritage which it treasures to the youth of to-morrow. Stewardship. Christianity as a law of life, involving principles of acquisition, saving, spending, and giving, and implying responsibility for money, talent, and time, is the basis of this study. Evangelism. This phase of Christianity enters into every program of the Church, and every act of the individual. It is presented to young people as their definite responsibility, both collectively and personally. Methods of individual work in calling men to Christ will make the subject practical for those who would be so used. Leadership Training. For those who have potential ability for leadership, training is planned to equip them for work in Sunday school, expressional societies, vacation Church schools, week-day Church schools, missionary organizations, and clubs. Through units of the Standard Training Course offered as electives in the Sunday school young people will have opportunity for specialized training. Vocations. A Christian conception of the service privi- leges in the great professions and vocations is basic to a wise choice of life work. Principles of choice are presented from the Christian point of view and the maximum preparation for service outlined. Religious Art. This part of the curriculum is included that young people may enrich their lives with the devotional treasures of the ages and discover the deeper meanings in the music, art, literature, and architecture of the Christian Church. Health and Hygiene. Personal health standards are studied in their relation to the development of a well- balanced Christian life. They are presented as‘ involving 36 YOUNG PEOPLE AND INSTRUCTION not only the individual but also the family life and the well: being of the race. Because Christians are responsible for the solution not only of community health problems but also of those of the world, this study is related to the missionary enterprise of the Church as well as to civic citizenship. Home and Social Relationships. The Christian home is to-day menaced by mighty movements which strike at its very heart. Therefore the call comes to youth in establish- ing homes to make them centers of gracious Christian in- fluence. The difficult problems which the social situation and personal friendships present to young people demand earnest and frank consideration. This subject in the curriculum is planned to meet these needs. World Citizenship. The application of the principles of Jesus to national and world problems, including the social, - industrial, racial, political, and international, is followed by consideration of one’s personal responsibility as a Christian citizen. THE SCHEME OF INSTRUCTION It must be remembered that this instruction is not to be attempted in any one period, but is to be distributed through the various channels mentioned earlier in the chapter. It must also be remembered that it will not be covered in a one-year course, but is distributed through six years. Wherever adequate instruction in any of these subjects is being presented to the young people by Christian agencies in the community, these portions should not be duplicated in the church program. It should, however, be the goal of each individual church that in the six years between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three its young people shall have had the instruction outlined above. Comparing it with what the Church has been giving, it is much. Comparing it with what young people need, it is little. If the Church is to succeed as the teaching institution which the Great Teacher planned, both young people and their leaders must surely look upon such a program as a minimum rather than a maximum. This instruction with its accompanying service and recrea- 37 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM tion is to be provided by means of a three hour a week schedule, supplemented by special meetings. The three basic periods are as follows: The Sunday-School Hour. This is the most important instruction period. The Bible study for each of the six years will be based upon the theme for that year. Lessons written particularly for Young People, in connection with the Program, will be published in the Young People’s Quarterly of the Westminster Departmental Graded Series. After use in the quarterly, they will be available as electives for use at any later time. A special quarterly is issued to aid the teacher in preparing the lesson and guiding the discussion in class. Units of the Standard Leadership Training Course should be offered as electives to picked groups of Young People as a special preparation for later service in the Church school. These electives may be taught at the Sunday-school hour or at some other convenient time. Lists of other elective courses will be recommended to those who desire them. The Young People’s Society Hour. Two forms of in- struction enter into the regular meetings of the Young Peo- ple’s society. There is the usual discussional and expres- sional period, and there are, on the ether hand, special talks and lectures which are brought into the program from time to time. The plan for each year will contain material and suggestions for each of these phases of instruction within the society. For the special talks and lectures, the Young People’s Society Program has suggestions and requirements for in- formation on national and foreign missions, stewardship, Presbyterianism, Bible study, and prayer. The Year Book contains specific recommendations for each year. Material may be secured through the proper Board of the Church. Special topics for each week have been prepared to use with the Program. They are related to the theme of each year and particularly to that chosen for the Bible lessons of the quarter. The topics chosen in each case will deal with some problem growing out of the Bible lesson of the week. 38 y YOUNG PEOPLE AND INSTRUCTION Though it may involve a knowledge of the truths learned in the earlier session it will not be a rediscussion of them. These topics will appear in the Young People’s Quarterly of the Westminster Departmental Graded Series with the Sunday-school lessons. A page giving suggestions for the meeting will be devoted to each topic. The list of topics, with no elaboration, will be found in the Year Books as they are issued. The topics are intended to be problems for discussion which will definitely challenge young people to real thinking and help them to work out as a group the answers to per- plexing questions of Christian attitude and conduct. The use of the discussion method necessitates preparation and study so that each one will come with thoughts about the subject. It does not, however, contemplate having people reach un- alterable conclusions about which they will tell the others. It is intended, rather, that all shall come with open minds to make their contributions to the discussion and to consider their opinions in the light of what others think, so that the result may be true group thinking. Societies which are en- deavoring to attain a higher standard of individual participa- tion will do well to adopt these discussional topics which relate themselves so vitally to the rest of the program. The Week-Day Hour. This period of instruction is to be one part of the program of the Westminster Guild, the Young Men’s Fellowship, the organized class, or any other club which has regular meetings during the week. Courses of study which will point the way to a program of service will be suggested. In some cases the program of recreation can be linked in a special way to this instruction. Chapters in the Year Books will suggest service and recreational features related to the instruction. The organizations to which this part of the program is assigned should meet weekly if possible, but provision is made for those which must meet less frequently. Some meetings will be devoted entirely to service or to social and athletic activities. But, in a quarter of thirteen weeks, it will be possible for groups to have six or eight periods of study. The ideal of the Program 39 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM is that two of the special courses presented for use in these periods shall be completed each year. To many churches such a program of week-day instruction will appear as the most difficult part of the whole plan for young people. But the task must be faced earnestly and fear- lessly. The Sunday periods are not and cannot be enough for true religious education. If young people are to rise to better things and greater accomplishments, if the church is to take a step forward, all must labor and pray that the week-day period for young people will become an accepted and popular part of the Program. While most Westminster Guilds and Young Men’s Fellowships will pursue their study separately, and while certain themes best lend themselves to discussion in separate groups of men and women, yet there are certain subjects of instruction where a joint discussion would be profitable. When a joint meeting is desired, the matter should be taken up through the Young People’s Cabinet. The chapters of the Manual dealing with the West- minster Guild and the Young Men’s Fellowship, together with the Year Book, will furnish full details concerning this week-day period and its possibilities. GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN YOUNG PEOPLE’S INSTRUCTION Let young people themselves take the lead in urging the inclusion of a full program of religious instruc- tion. Adults should give full codperation and en- courage the young people in their efforts. Hold the teaching of these subjects on as high a plane as that in secular institutions of learning. In no community in America can the Church afford to present God’s truth less effectively than the State presents secular truth. Let three periods a week, in which there is well-planned instruction, be the goal of each church. Use the discussion method as far as possible. If the leader cannot make the discussion purposeful and to the point, some other method should be used. 40 ( YOUNG PEOPLE AND INSTRUCTION Urge the church to provide the necessary equipment. Secular institutions do not teach without equipment. Use the courses written definitely for Young People. If the respect of youth is to be gained, the best courses available, not the cheapest or easiest, should be secured. Let the goal of instruction be a life motivated by the highest ideals of leadership and service. The courses of study are so planned that they will lead naturally to a definite program of service. Instruction should not end with the mere accumulation of knowledge. Every study, every lesson, every item of knowledge presented to youth for mastery, is offered that they may, through that learning, contribute service which will be of eternal value, and leadership which will be of ultimate significance. 41 CHAPTER igi YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERVICE The course of Christianity through the ages has been a trail of loving service. Marred though it has been at times by the mistakes and follies of some of its members, the record of the Church has been full of helpful and saving ministries to all kinds and conditions of men. In its path have flourished hospitals, schools, charitable organizations, social reforms. Its heroes have been men and women who have spent them- selves for others. Its trails of service cross trackless seas and deserts and climb towering mountains to reach those who are beyond. The worst barriers of alien race and language, of hostility and disease have not balked it. In almost every land where it has entered it has finally won its way, no matter what the opposition, by its loving ministry to humanity. This is not to be wondered at, since it follows Him who, even as the Son of God, came not to be served but to serve, and whose life story is an amazing record of the pouring out of self to the ever-present crowd of poor, sick, defeated. hungry, and sinful men who thronged him, until he gave himself on Calvary. For a host of Christ’s followers in all ages, Paul speaks when he explains his own uncalculating and tireless service by saying, “The love of Christ con- straineth us.” Service, then, has a primary place in the Christian life. It is not something added on, it is not a mere by-product, it is of the very essence of Christianity. This has been recognized in giving service a large place in the Presbyterian Program for Young People. THE AIM OF SERVICE To help to build the Kingdom of God by giving practical expression to Christian impulses and ideals through Christian living and action. As this aim indicates, service in this Program is con- ceived not in terms of sporadic and unrelated activities, good 42 YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERVICE as they may be in themselves, but in terms of purposeful work for the Kingdom of God. What an amazing enter- prise it is on which Christianity is engaged! Think of taking Christ seriously in the world to-day, endeavoring to bring his spirit to bear on all life, trying to establish his will in business, in public affairs, in international relations. Think of the sheer “audacity of faith’ represented in the mis- sionary enterprise to-day, in actually attempting to bring the good news of Christ to the people who still do not know him, and to establish his Church and its work of helpfulness in every place and among every group at home and abroad. The World War, stupendous as it was, was no such undertak- ing as this far-reaching task of the Kingdom. There is need of pioneers with tremendous courage, idealism, insistence on victory. These are, after all, youth- ful qualities, and the young people of to-day possess them as much as any other generation in history has possessed them. It was largely young men and young women who made up the circle of Jesus’ immediate followers and first went forth to dare the opposition of the world with the Christian message. It has been largely young men and young women who have set out as pioneers to great unreached mission fields. To-day the youth of the world is astir. To-day the Church’s campaign is more difficult and challenging than ever before. Should not young people be enlisted in that cam- paign of service and sacrifice that shall never end while the darkness of illiteracy and superstition exists, while the oppression of poverty and injustice is anywhere known, while low ideals and hurtful social customs remain, while children must toil in factories and mills, while the world besmirches the ideals of the young, while any man anywhere knows not the love of Christ who “came to seek and to save that which was lost’? This work of the Kingdom is not a far-away and hazy undertaking. The whole world-wide task of the Church reaches down into every community and to every Christian’s doorstep, into his very heart and mind. He who cares for the sick, who visits the lonely, who teaches a class of chil- 43 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM dren the way of Christ or helps them to play a game squarely and with all their might, he who does a humble job honestly and cheerfully, he who stands for a high standard in life against a low standard, he who shows forth Christ in his daily living—he helps to build the Kingdom. After all, the Kingdom must come in the hearts of men and women, and they are reached one at a time. In brief, what has been said is that every Christian is called to be a fellow worker with Christ in the greatest enterprise in which man ever engaged. It is this that is meant by service in the Presbyterian Program for Young People. THE SPIRIT OF SERVICE Before proceeding farther, one point should be em- phasized. It is essential that what is done in the name of service be done in a truly Christian spirit. In Christianity there is no place for a patronizing attitude, for giving the impression of handing down something from a superior height to the unfortunate. A woman long interested in mis- sions was startled when some one asked her if she would be willing toi be helped by a Chinese. She admitted that she would not. There is a good deal of selfish satisfaction in administering benevolence from a superior position, but this is not Christian. Jesus called those for whom he did most his friends. What is needed is mutual helpfulness and con- sideration. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fullfil the law of Christ.” It is difficult to see how anyone can render Christian service to another without really caring for him, appreciating his personality, wanting to share life with him. True Christian service for any life is sharing the best that the Lord has given that life. In the midst of a world of selfishness and almost ceaseless competition the Christian Church and its various organizations should be centers of cooperation, brotherly service, and good will. TRAINING FOR SERVICE Though deeds of service should come from hearts full of good will, care should be taken to guard against well- 44 YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERVICE intentioned but misdirected attempts to help in situations which are not thoroughly understood. There should be oppor- tunities for training for those young people who wish to serve in positions of leadership. There should be careful investi- gation and cooperation with agencies already occupying fields of service in the community before plans are initiated. Young people should realize the necessity of consistently carrying through plans which extend over a period of time. If they undertake to supply leadership for a group in a settlement or mission Sunday school, they should consider faithfully the interests of the group and not be satisfied with a sudden burst of enthusiasm followed by a lapse of interest. ORGANIZATIONS IN SERVICE Organizations, like persons, cannot live for themselves alone if they would really live. The great words, “Whosoever would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it,’ apply as strongly to a church, a Sunday school, or a Christian Endeavor society as to an individual person. Those who are really concerned about the life of their organizations might well turn from schemes for increasing attendance or meeting expenses, and prayerfully and thoughtfully seek out what the organizations may do to serve Christ actively in their own communities and in the farther outreach of the Church’s enterprise. Such proj- ects of Christian service will give new life to Sunday-school class sessions or Young People’s society meetings, making them times for the consideration of vital matters of the Christian life. Service to Members. Young people’s organizations in the church might very helpfully conceive of their whole program primarily in terms of service, beginning with their relations to their own members. Perhaps it would be well to reverse the order of a good deal of the Christian program. Instead of beginning with instruction in the hope that it will work out into action, a beginning might be made by doing what it is clear the Lord would have his followers do, knowing that along that road comes fuller knowledge of him. “If any man 45 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God.” “Go...and lo, I am with you always.” An organization should not exist merely to have interesting sessions or to achieve certain standards or to gain desired recognition. In a very real sense it exists for the sake of its members. An organization should be a center of mutual helpfulness and service through which young people aid one another to find and live the abundant life. Briefly, some of the things young people should find through it are: 1. Encouragement for stalwart Christian living in the common way of life. 2. Help in finding God and understanding his purpose for life. 3. Help in forming effective habits of prayer and of the use of the Bible, in winning others to Christ, in making the best use of time, money, talent. 4. The highest ideals of home, social life, business, politics. 5. Fine friendships, encouragement in the face of life’s temptations. 6. Encouragement to enjoy good literature, to know the great souls of the race, to love beauty, to appreciate the out of doors. 7. Encouragement to seek health and to secure maximum preparation for life work. One of the surest ways for an organization to serve its members is by helping them to see and to carry out the Christian service each should render. Every organization, therefore, will want to lead its members to reach out into wider service. One of the great reasons for lack of interest on the part of nominal Christians in the tasks of the King- dom of God is sheer lack of information regarding the needs of people outside of the usual circle of acquaintance. Young people’s organizations should open the windows of the mind and heart, push out the horizons of interest, reveal the Chris- tian enterprise around the world as the thrilling thing it really is. Besides continually inspiring and guiding its mem- bers in service, every young people’s organization may well 46 YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERVICE covet the privilege of sending one or more members into the ministry or to the mission field at home or abroad. Doubtless some young people will ask, ‘“‘But where are there really worth-while things for us to do?’ All around are tasks in which the young people should engage either as individuals or through their organizations. It is impossible, of course, even to mention them all, but some indications of the possibilities may be given here. The Year Books as they are issued will contain definite suggestions for the service program for each year. Service in the Individual Church. This will not be pri- marily giving of money, much as that may be needed. The Church needs lives. ‘There is much to be done for boys and girls. There are classes to be taught in Sunday school, week- day Church school, vacation Church school. There are, or should be, groups of boys and girls in clubs that need leader- ship in meetings, on hikes, in athletics, and in other activities, Some young people may render fine service by fitting them- selves to undertake these responsibilities. Others may help in social visiting for the church and in inviting people to special services. Young people should seek others for Christ and for Church membership. The young people’s organizations may help in church services, in ushering, in singing, in having charge of a service now and then, and in promoting at- tendance and active participation. There are various kinds of publicity in which young people may help: making posters, caring for bulletin boards, putting notices in local papers, distributing church bulletins and notices. Often the Sunday school or some other organization needs equipment that the young people can supply. Service in the Community. The boys and girls of the community constitute a field of service and offer a great op- portunity to young people. Do the boys and girls have enough playgrounds or do they play on the streets? Per- haps the young people should help to secure equipment and plan recreation. Do the boys and girls have leaders enough for their groups and programs? Perhaps the young people should supply leadership. Are there bad health conditions 47 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM among children of the community? Is there child labor? The young people should find out what other agencies are doing to meet these situations and should cooperate with them. Do the boys and girls attend Sunday school or church? The young people may make a survey or conduct persistent visita- ticn to enroll all boys and girls in Sunday school. Are there Sunday schools within reach of all? How could they be provided? Are teachers or other helpers needed in mission Sunday schools? The young people of the community furnish another field for service. Persistent and systematic efforts should be made to get them all into the church and its organizations, but that is not the main objective. What Christian service can be rendered them? Are working conditions as they should be? Are there lonely young people away from home? Are better recreations and wholesome meeting places needed ? (The next chapter considers that point.) Perhaps there are other groups of young people with whom there should be cooperation in community service. Many other opportunities for helpfulness are present in every community. There may be groups of immigrants who could be taught English and trained in citizenship. There may be race or class prejudices to be overcome. ‘There may be questions of housing, health, standards of living. Hos- pitals, community houses, settlements offer opportunities for service. In many ways young people may help to build a fine, brotherly community. Service in the Nation and the World. The young people should have a large share in the great undertakings of the Church at home and abroad. This work of the Church is the work of every member and will not be adequately done until every member does his or her share. Certain parts of the Church’s work throughout the world have been set aside as the particular responsibility of the young people, who thus have a very large and definite share in it. Each young people’s group should give liberally and pray definitely and persistently for this work. Numerous opportunities will present themselves for closer contact with the missionaries 48 » p) WOUNG) PEOEREVIN SERVICE and mission stations, for example through sending boxes of gifts for Christmas. Further suggestions regarding the rela- tion of the young people to the missionary work of the Church will be found in Chapter VII, and in the Year Book. The years covered by this Program are those in which young people are entering upon their active duties as citizens of America and of the world. They should have a share in movements and programs for the public good. Just now great and grave issues are pressing for solution: the industrial situation, now involving all the world; the race situation, national and world-wide; the question of peace or war. Active movements are on foot to help in solving these and other problems. Christian young people should know about them and share in their work. Perhaps as big a service as young people can render in these very difficult situations is to insist on considering them in a Christian spirit, and on getting at the facts and making them known as widely as possible. Besides there are generally local situations, where the solu- tion of these national and international problems should be- gin—situations regarding race or class or industry that are of the same nature as these problems that agitate the world. SERVING THROUGH GIVING Every church organization has a splendid opportunity for service through its offerings. The money of a man or an organization is a trust and should be used with care and a sense of stewardship. There are great causes needing help; no organization has a right to take an offering carelessly as a matter of course or to give it to an object not understood. The organization, be it Sunday-school class, Young People’s society, Westminster Guild, or Young Men’s Fellowship, should make a study of the causes appealing to it for sup- port and search out others that may not have appealed so forcefully but may deserve more; then, on the basis of actual information, it should work out thoughtfully a budget that will assure a wise and Christian use of its money. The planning of this budget may well provide the most vital and interesting study and discussion that the group has 49 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM known in a long time. It starts with something in which the members are all interested—the use of their money. Does the present budget represent a truly Christian expenditure of the funds of the group? Is too much being spent on self, too little on others? Are the causes to which the money is being given worthy? What are they accomplishing and what are their needs? Shall more be given them? Are there other causes that have been overlooked which should be helped? What are they doing? In what proportion should the money be divided among the various causes? In such a survey every church organization should give chief consideration to the work being done by its own Church, locally, nationally, and throughout the world. The thorough study of these questions raised by the task of working out a worthy budget will require an investigation of the whole work of the Church at home and abroad, of the needs of the community and what is being done to meet those needs, and of great Christian and humanitarian enter- prises of many kinds throughout the nation and the world. Having a real motive, this investigation will be of vital in- terest, and will aid in an understanding of what Christianity is and is doing to-day. After the initial investigation the organization should keep in touch with the causes to which its money goes and keep them before all the members by a regular program of education. There are interesting pos- sibilities here: a world map with lines going out from the. city where the organization is located to all the places where it is at work through its offerings ; a more detailed map show- ing work done in the local community; posters setting forth the various causes to which the organization contributes ; pic- tures illustrating them; a bulletin board on which are posted late news items regarding all this work; and, at the end of the year, a full report and perhaps an exhibit at which the work will be demonstrated not only to members of the organization but to the whole church. Without doubt there will be a marked growth in the size of the offering and a quickening of interest in it as the mem- bers realize the vital share it gives them in the actual work of 50 b) » YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERVICE the Kingdom of God. Opportunities for personal contacts with the causes the organization helps and for personal forms of service for them may present themselves from time to time. This efficiently Christian use of the organization’s money may also help the members to see the great joy of Christian stew- ardship and to use their own money effectively for Christ. DISCOVERING OPPORTUNITIES FOR SERVICE Those responsible for young people’s work in the local church can approach the service program for the year in no better way than through a preliminary survey. The pur- pose of this survey would be to determine what service can be performed by the young people of that church. ‘There would be first the assembling of information and then a study of the facts to determine what should be done. There should be full cooperation with other agencies already work- ing in the field. The young people of each church should determine the scope of their own survey in the light of local conditions. The first survey may be as simple as is consistent with securing results. In order that the service of the year may be closely linked with the theme, the survey should take into considera- tion the year’s study and should adapt itself to the kind of problem involved. For example, when there is to be a study of race relations, the survey should include questions reveal- ing conditions existing among the racial groups living in the community, such as their home life, their economic and social status, their religious and educational opportunities. The Year Books will give definite suggestions for service, but the local group, with the facts revealed by their investigation, will be able to work out more detailed plans. The following outline merely suggests questions which may be used. Other more concrete questions which apply to the local situation should be prepared by the group. PRELIMINARY Facts To BE SECURED 1. Home. a. What kinds of service are we as young people giving in our homes? b. What opportunities for service there are we neglecting? ay MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM 2. CHURCH. a. Personnel. (1) What young people in our church are not participat- ing in our young people’s work? (List their names.) (a) What are the reasons for their lack of interest? (b) What are the weaknesses in our young people’s work which are hindering their participation? (2) What members are advancing during the next year from the Senior Department to the Young People’s Department ? (3) What proportion of our young people are engaged in regular service and leadership in the church? (4) How many are in training for such service? (5) How many more should be enlisted-in order to meet future demands? b. Organization. (1) What organizations for young people are there in our church? (a) Are there too many or too few? (b) Is their work correlated and unified by a Thee People’s Cabinet? (2) How closely do they approach the standards set forth in the Manual? c. Opportunities for service. (1) To what extent are opportunities for individual serv- ice presented to us? (2) What material equipment which our church needs can we provide? (3) How many new teachers will be needed in Sunday school this year? (4) How can we help in the special efforts of the church, such as the every-member canvass, evangelistic campaign, church school of missions, or “church nights’’? (5) Are there organizations for younger people in our church for which we can provide leadership? (6) Should we start such organizations? 3. COMMUNITY. a. What young people in our community should we reach during the year? b. What student groups are there in our community? c. What young people are there in the community whose homes are elsewhere? d. What foreign groups in our community should we be helping? ° 52 » YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERVICE e In what community efforts and special events should we have a part during the year? f. What institutions can we help by holding services or pre- senting programs of music or entertainment? g. Are there small Sunday schools which need help in the way of leadership or equipment? h, What other forms of Christian service do we carry on in the community? 4. NATION. a. How much do we know about Presbyterian national mis- sionary work? b. What vital contacts do we as young people have with this work? c. How much are we giving to this work? How much should we give this year? d. In what national movements for law enforcement, social justice, et cetera, should we as Christian young people be interested ? e. What are we doing to develop friendliness and sympathy between peoples of different races? 5. Wortp. a. How much do we know about Presbyterian foreign mis- sionary work. b. What vital contacts do we have with this work? . How much are we giving to this work? How much should we give this year? d. In what movements for world peace, international justice and understanding should we as Christian young people be interested? e. What can we do to overcome interracial and international prejudices ? OQ SEEKING SOLUTIONS With the data assembled, such questions as the following which look toward solutions of the problems revealed, should be considered : 1. Home. a. What should we as young people include in our program to encourage and train us for service in the home? 2. CHURCH. a. How can we widen the reach of our organizations so that they may serve those young people who are not now interested? 53 YOUNG PEOPLE IN SERVICE b. What can be done to interest in the work of the Young People’s Department those graduating from the Senior Department? c. How may more young people be enlisted in leadership or some other form of service? d. What can be done to improve our young people’s organiza- tion? e. What can we do to help in this improvement? 3. COMMUNITY. a. What can we do to meet community needs revealed by the survey? b. Are there community efforts already started to help meet these needs? What can we do to push them forward? c. Which of the possible pieces of service in the community should we undertake? 4, NATION. a. What can we do to increase our knowledge of the work of national missions? b. What can we do to increase our contributions to that work? c. What definite steps should we take to develop interest in the national movements discovered by the survey to be deserving of support? 5. WortLp. a. What can we do to increase our knowledge of the work of foreign missions? b. What can we do to increase our contributions to that work? c. What definite steps should we take to develop interest in world movements discovered by the survey to be deserving of support? The next step is the assignment of specific responsibility to definite organizations or committees. As the survey should be carried out by the cooperation of all organizations for young people, under the direction of the Cabinet, so some pieces of service may be carried by them jointly throughout the year. In the Year Book, the service activities are sug- gested in outline form with references to the organizations which can best carry the different activities. In the chapters of the Year Book devoted to the Program in separate organizations full assignment of the service activities is made. Any church which does not have the various organizations may distribute the service items in the 54 WH YOUNG PEO PERSINSSERVICE organizations it does have. The great essential is that the young people shall give service in and for the church and that this service shall be linked with the theme of the year. All service depends upon the consecrated labor of the in- dividual. The service of organizations is the combined service of individuals. Most of the activities suggested can be accomplished by the young people in a church where not a single organization exists to-day, if there are within that church those who are determined to use their hours and their days in the Master’s work. A working church composed of working groups, which, in turn, are composed of working individuals is the ideal contemplated in any program of service. GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN SERVICE . Make a preliminary survey. 2. Consider the needs of the community and the world. Service is selfishness when confined to individual churches. 3. Have a plan and purpose for the year. Each year’s program should center in the accomplishment of this purpose. 4. Have young people plan their own service projects. . Make plans for training young people for leadership and service. 6. Guard against developing one part of the program to the exclusion of the others. There should be a well-struck balance; i. e., local work should not be supported to the exclusion of mis- sions, or vice versa. 7. Do not overlook any items in the program. The definite assignments made aiter the survey should prevent neglect of any part of the program. 8. Make consistent work throughout the year a standard. Overambitious starts and early failures are dis- couraging. 9. See that everyone participates. There should not be a few overburdened members who do most of the work. —_ cn 55 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM 10. Keep the interests and general abilities of the members of the group in mind. Tasks within their powers should be suggested. 11. Avoid overlapping by organizations. The Young People’s Cabinet (described in Chapter VI) should see that such difficulty is avoided. 12. Seize opportunities for uniting the efforts of all organizations. 13. Perform all service with Christlike humility, love, and happiness. CHAE BE RY. YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECREATION No longer do young people or their leaders ask, ‘Shall we have recreation in our church program?” Their question is more likely to be, “What kind of recreation shall we have?” A more vital query, “Shall we have Christ in our recreation ?” should be raised. To put Christ into the recreation of young people through their church program is simply to recognize the claim of Christ to the whole of life and the need for him in it all. The God-implanted instinct that leads men to seek com- panionship insistently claims expression. Perhaps the need for recreation is greater among young people than among those of any other age. Many of them are seeking to satisfy their fundamental craving for friendship amid associations that offer only a travesty of what friendship might be, and in places where unwholesome imitations of ‘‘a good time” are offered by commercial interests. In order to find the real recreation for which they are searching they must have leadership to help them in building a program and opportunity to carry it out. The church should offer both leadership and opportunity. Jesus came that men might have life and have it more abundantly. The church should not look upon recreation as a bait to lure young people within its doors, nor as a con- cession to those “who are going to do those things anyway and had best do them in the church.” Recreation is valuable in itself. A rightly planned program of recreation in the church will help young people to live more abundantly. Fur- thermore, recreation has a contribution to make to the goal for which the church is striving—the building of Christian character in the lives of its young people. That character is strengthened or weakened by leisure-time activities is well known. The church which fails to recognize the significance of this fact, which misses the positive values of a recreation program, loses a great opportunity. 57 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM THE AIM OF RECREATION To help young people in finding and develop- ing Christian friendship and fellowship, to guide them in applying Christian principles and purposes to their social and recreational life, and to assist them in maintaining their lives on the highest possible plane. In planning a program with this aim before them, leaders will find it helpful to formulate specific objectives. Some which might be used are the following: To provide a place and occasion for good fellowship. To provide wholesome and enjoyable recreation. To help to develop virile youth. To raise the whole level of social life to the highest Chris- tian standard. To demonstrate the wholeness of the Christian life and help to develop wholesome Christian character. To establish the finest standards for relations between men and women and to show the joy of comradeship on such a basis. To overcome narrowness and snobbishness and develop inclusive friendships. THE SCOPE OF RECREATION In order to attain the aim just stated many churches and their young people and leaders of young people will have to broaden their ideas of recreation and give the term new content. To-day the word “recreation” is used to denote all those activities which help to recreate, in the literal sense of the word, for finer and better living. Those things which young people do, not because they must, but because they choose; those activities in which they participate with a feel- ing of joy and freedom from routine ; those experiences from which they emerge cheerful when they have been discouraged, relaxed when they have been under nervous tension, stimu- lated when they have reached a point of lassitude—all these are recreation. Many types are included. There are group experiences such as games, music, dramatics, athletics, and the fellowship with other young men and young women growing out of these events. There are family experiences, 58 YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECREATION evenings at home when all ages enjoy a good time together. There are individual experiences, such as reading and the pursuit of various hobbies. The following outline of pro- gram content will help to give an understanding of the wider meaning of the term. PROGRAM CONTENT 1. INDOOR RECREATION a. Parties (as inexpensive as “socials” and much better). b. Formal banquets—with best manners and an interesting program not all “peppy yells.” . Music: orchestra, glee club, choir. . Rhythmic games. Dramatization. . Indoor athletics—group games. . Forum and debate. . Story hours—suggested home reading. Handicrafts. . Recreation for others, church, community, home. to amie) OOO 2. OUTDOOR RECREATION a. Athletics: tennis, baseball, basketball, volley ball, setting-up drills. b. Planned Picnics: tournaments, contests, games, camp fires, stunts. c. Hikes: discovery, kodak, botany, bird, historical. d. Hunts: “hare and hounds,” treasure, pirate expeditions. e. Rhythmic games. f. Dramatization. g. Water sports: boat rides, water carnivals. h. Festivals. i. Winter sports: snow trailing, skating, sledding, snow games. j. Camping—woodcraft. k. Community celebrations. TESTS OF RECREATION In order to judge whether or not these activities are really valuable in attaining the aim of recreation four tests may be applied. Not all of these tests will apply to all types of recreation, but every worth-while recreational activity should produce positive results in one or more of the tests. Does the activity produce physical renewal? The result of any activity should be recreation. It should mean, in some 59 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM measure at least, the developing of muscular strength, bodily skill, and physical poise. Does it provide mental stimulus? Worth-while recrea- tion should be a spur to the imagination; should quicken reason and sharpen the perceptions of the young people. It should help them to acquire good taste and open up to them new fields of interest. Does it result in social broadening? There should be widening friendship circles as the result of worth-while recreation. There should be new understanding of the happy possibilities of sincere comradeship between young men and young women and higher standards of relations between them. Understanding and appreciation of other people should be increased and that understanding extended to include people of different social status, of different nationalities and races, and of different ages. Does it aid in a spiritual awakening? As the preceding tests are met there will come to the young people a new knowledge of God. They will have new zest in living and will recognize that their strengthened bodies are indeed the temples of the living God. Their quickened minds will see God in the tasks of every day, in the out of doors and in the achievements of man—art and science and industry. Their broadened social consciousness will help them to see God in others—even in apparently unlovely folk. They will start eagerly upon the adventure of discovering the best in life. They will have standards of recreation which they can apply wherever they may be. BUILDING AN ATTRACTIVE RECREATION PROGRAM In the face of the lure of many more or less questionable attractions to-day will a thoroughly Christian program of recreation appeal to young people? Confronted with the cheapening of the relations between young men and young women which has occurred in some quarters, can the Church put these relations on the high plane of chivalry, mutual respect, and Christian comradeship? Can young people have a thoroughly Christian atmosphere and spirit, virile athletics, 60 YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECREATION hearty competition, sheer fun, jolly social life? The young people to whom the planning of this part of the program is assigned must believe that recreation under Christian auspices and in the Christian spirit can be made more attractive and satisfying to the young people themselves than any other type of recreation. It can! The committee’s task will not be easy. At times it will be inspiringly hard. Patience and careful preparation will be required if the social events are to be delightful in every respect. With the help of the excellent books of plans given in the Bibliography and with experience the committee will grow skillful. At least the task will never be tiresome. Origi- nality will help to make up for lack of equipment, imagina- tion will help the tiniest bit of money to turn an ordinary room into a place of delightful charm, and a fine spirit of hospitality will bring out the social qualities of backward, shy guests. In making plans for recreation there should be an effort to have one complete and satisfying program for all the young people of the church. In order to do this some group must sit down and consider what recreation the church should offer its young people, what the present plans of the different organizations for the coming year are, and how these plans may be made more effective. The Young People’s Cabinet is the group which would naturally do this. (See Chapter VI.) In considering plans for recreation for the year it should be kept in mind that the program should be balanced and varied to meet the needs and tastes of all the young people. The outline of Program Content (see p. 59) will be helpful in suggesting varied types of recreation. Though the pro- gram should begin with the present interests of the group it should try to enlarge those interests. SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL EVENTS 1. Have a central idea or theme for every party or outing. About this theme may be built the invitations— both individual and poster—the decorations, the games, and 61 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM the refreshments. In developing the theme, plans should be consistent throughout. Red, white, and blue crépe paper streamers as decorations for “An African Palaver” or re- freshments served in fancy china at a “Poverty Party” are quite inappropriate. Consistency does not necessarily mean elaborateness. Simple decorations can be effectively used to create atmosphere. The wrong side of wall paper, painted even so crudely that parts of the scenery have to be labeled, makes an interesting scenic border. Simple but appropriate refreshments suggested by the theme should be served. If no new games to carry out the theme seem to be available, old games may be given new names and adapted to suit the need. The theme may be expressed in a name which will be suggestive and will also quicken the curiosity of the guests. “A Night in Wonder Wonder Land” is more alluring than “A Halloween Social” and “A Jaunt to Old Japan” than “A Mission Study Class Hike.” Themes will be suggested by the seasons, the holidays, and recreation textbooks. The life of other peoples offers rich possibilities for building distinc- tive social events. A card file or a loose-leaf notebook for new ideas about parties, games, stunts, decorations, recipes for refreshments, poster designs, and songs will help the committee in its work. 2. Plan your program as definitely as possible. A prompt beginning and a definite time for ending help to make an event successful. It is wise to work up to a definite climax and then stop instead of letting the occasion peter out. Variation in the type of games and entertainments is a wise principle to follow. After an event in which the entire group participates there may be one in which a few people entertain the rest. It is wise to plan a few more games than will be needed. Then if any particular game should not seem to interest the group another may be substituted immediately. Even a game which the group enjoys should not be played too long. If a game is stopped while everyone is still enthu- siastic it can be used again at another event. The environ- ment and equipment should always be considered. Some 62 au oe p) > YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECREATION plans may require space; others may make a stage or plat- form necessary. 3. Appoint a director for each party or outing. The director should personally supervise the carrying out of the program, using as many assistants as he needs to welcome guests, lead games, and serve refreshments, but keeping control in his own hands. He, or she, will need to possess enthusiasm and self-control. He must be capable of giving clear directions, of seeming to suggest rather than dictate. He must be able to discover leaders, to keep discipline through group action, and to draw the line between Jjollity and boisterousness. The director’s task will be simplified by the presence of a few congenial adults. 4. Reach as many young people as possible. If the invitation is given by general announcement provide a poster on which those who expect to come can register. This will make known the approximate number to be expected and will be an additional advertisment. Newcomers should be invited to enter into the other activities of the Young People’s Department. In this way social events may become a means of recruiting new members. 5. Make imagination an active assistant in planning. More thought than money should be spent. The very sur- roundings will suggest games. For instance, a blackboard on a wall may be, instead of a distraction, a place to draw scenery or the opportunity for a chalk relay race in which pictures of famous men, or of Santa Claus, are drawn a feature at a time by the racing lines of guests. 6. Plan your program prayerfully. Recreation is a vital part of the life of young people. It may be made an effective means of character-building. Those who plan it should approach the task in a prayerful spirit and should seek defi- nite guidance in doing their work. RELATION OF RECREATION TO WORSHIP, INSTRUCTION, AND SERVICE Recreation should be considered an integral part of the whole Young People’s Program and social events should be 63 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM related to the elements of instruction and worship. A “Persian Party,’ for instance, may arouse interest to be continued in a study course on Persia which will be con- cluded by a beautifully worshipful pageant. The ideas of loyalty, team play, and the like, developed in athletics, may be carried over to committee work in class and society. Through games of other countries an understanding of their peoples may be developed which will prove valuable in other parts of the program. A party given by the young people for a student group, a foreign group, or a group of neglected children will be a worthy service project. Plays or programs of varied enter- tainment can be given in homes or as community projects. CONCERNING ATHLETICS Many churches let their programs of recreation begin and end with social events, but their young people really need the physical activity of a program of athletics. If young people are to maintain “their lives on the highest possible plane,’ they need to exercise, in order to keep healthy and well and to develop their physical strength. Though strong spirits have overcome the handicap of weak bodies, the person who is strong physically can give longer and more active service. In many communities, young people of this age connected with the church have very little chance for athletics or for enjoyable exercise. A church which is really attempting to help them to find abundant life should seek to provide such opportunities. Through a program of athletics under its own direction, the church can hope to set the highest ideals of fair play, loyalty, and Christian sportsmanship. The aim should be to include everyone in the program. Competitive sports with good teams may be encouraged, but the emphasis should be placed upon participation by everyone rather than the development of individual stars. This may be accomplished to some extent by a varied program appealing to the interests of different people. Not only basketball and 64 YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECREATION baseball should be included, but also tennis, soccer, handball, swimming, skating, track and field sports, and hiking. Concerning Lack of Equipment. Some churches seem to believe that because they have no equipment they are released from responsibility for putting on a varied program of recreation for their young people. They should undertake to discover ways and means of overcoming this difficulty. A church may sometimes hire for the use of its young people on one night a week a public gymnasium or a gymnasium belonging to a public or private school. There may be bowling alleys in town which the church group can make arrangements to use for a certain period. When equipment has been secured, arrangements should be made for super- vision of the athletic periods so that they may be most effective and so that danger of injury or overexertion may be guarded against. Even those who have good equipment should make every effort to provide a program which will insure its best use. But if no gymnasium can be secured there are some kinds of work which might be pursued in a large room connected with the church. In the most extreme cases, where absolutely no gymnasium work or indoor athletics can be provided, there is still the out of doors. City groups can arrange skating or coasting trips in the winter. Summer time presents the opportunity for swimming and canoeing. By making definite plans and carefully carrying them out, hiking can be made most enjoyable. A definite destination should be selected—an historic spot, some place of natural beauty, a camp site or resting place at the end of a route through country which affords interesting nature study. The abilities of the group should be considered, and long hikes led up to gradually. There should be plenty of food for the hungry group. The art of cooking outdoors is an accom- plishment which all young people should acquire. GUIDEPOSTS OF THE ATHLETIC PROGRAM 1. Include as participants the largest number possible. The program should be varied to meet different inter- 65 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM ests, and definite efforts should be made to prevent the small group who are particularly athletic from making the play too vigorous for the majority. 2. Plan the schedule carefully. Allowance should be made for the working hours of young people and the other responsibilities which they have. 3. Encourage interchurch and community athletic move- ments. Young people should insist on the highest standards of sport in these relationships. Athletic competition within the church should demonstrate clearly that hard competition can be carried on in a Christian spirit. 4. Do not be discouraged by lack of equipment. Efforts should be made to overcome this difficulty. There are suggestions in this chapter. 5. Remember that recreation is not the whole program. Its relationship to the week-day periods of study and service should be so controlled that athletics will be a contribution to rather than a distraction from the main purpose of the program. 6. Secure trained supervision wherever possible. An un- guided athletic program offers dangers which should be guarded against. A BALANCED PROGRAM OF RECREATION FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL The church should not only offer social and athletic events as a part of its recreational program, but should also help each young person to plan his own recreation intelligently. In addition to what is done with the group, the individual should have his own special interests. Some meetings might be devoted to the stimulation of interest in hobbies such as reading, drawing, nature study, popular science, photography, and an infinite variety of other things. Perhaps the best way to create enthusiasm about finding out how well-balanced the individual programs of recreation are would be to have each young person keep a record of leisure time for a week. The group should work out the questions to be answered. Some queries which might be included are: How much time is spent in active exercise? 66 ») YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECREATION How much watching others play? How much in reading? How much in going to the moving pictures or theater? How much in work at a hobby or avocation? How much in rest- ing? How much in idling? When the results are reported, attractive posters might be worked out showing the average time for each thing, or there might be an informal presenta- tion of the typical use of leisure time. With the interest aroused by this method, it should be easy to help each one to work out a well-planned time budget, making sure to provide for the varied types of recreation needed. APPROACHING THE RECREATION PROGRAM In determining the exact program of recreation to be undertaken in an individual church, it is necessary to have at hand certain information. This can usually best be ob- tained by a survey. No one need be discouraged by the technical name, for it does not involve anything intricate or impossible for any intelligent group of young people. In simple terms it means that before beginning the year’s work, a group should find out the facts about recreation for young people in its own church and community. Where the young people are organized under the correlated plan, the Cabinet should see that the proper committees in each or- ganization cooperate in this work; under the unified plan, the Recreation Committee would be responsible. For secur- ing data, such questions as the following might be used: 1) CHURCH: a. What organizations for young people have included recreation as a part of their program? . What events are included in this program? . How many young people have been reached? . Is there any clique spirit which limits the number participating ? e. What other things prevent securing the interest of all young people? f. Is there variety in the types of recreation offered? g. Is there equipment which might be utilized? 67 giao MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM h. Has any provision been made for putting books on recreation into the hands of those responsible for conducting it? i. Is there need for study of the whole significance of recreation in the lives of young people? 2. COMMUNITY. a. Where do the young people find their recreation ?. In clubs or lodges? In homes? In the church? b. What commercial amusements in the community do the young people of the church patronize? c. What standards are maintained by those who con- trol these amusements? d. Do young people go to them because they find in them what they really want or because there is nothing better to do? e. Do those forms of recreation in which young people actually take part or those at which they are onlookers predominate? f. How many of the young people share actively and how many are passive? g. What valuable and necessary forms of recreation are not provided for the young people of the community ? h. What young people in the community should be reached through the recreation program of this church ? With the information at hand, such questions as the follow- ing should be asked before building the program: 1. CHURCH. a. What parts of the recreation program should be continued and strengthened ? b. What parts should be omitted in order to make room for greater variety and new features? c. What additional types of recreation should be added to the program such as gymnastics, games, indoor and outdoor sports, hikes, picnics, dramatics and pageantry, festivals in celebration of special days? d. How may equipment or facilities be secured? 68 YOUNG PEOPLE AND RECREATION e. How may the program be made interesting to the young people? f. What events might the young people plan for other groups in the church, as, for instance, fathers and mothers or younger age groups? 2. COMMUNITY. a. How can desirable forms of amusement which are lacking in the community be provided? b. What can be done to improve the standards of the commercial amusements? c. In what community festivals should the young people participate? d. What interchurch social and athletic activities should be promoted during the year? Nw A PRACTICAL PROGRAM The program of recreation suggested should be practical in any church, no matter what size or how organized. The Recreation Committee can begin very simply, choosing from the possible items those which seem to meet the present situation and enlarging the program as the leaders develop skill and the young people, interest. Recreation should not be overemphasized, but it should be given its deserved place in the development of Christian young people. ee 69 PART II THE PROGRAM IN THE ORGANIZATIONS CHAN PE er THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SECTION OF THE CHURCH The first five chapters of this book have attempted to make clear the claim that every person must have for the develop- ment of his Christian life a well-balanced program including worship, instruction, service, and recreation. If this is to be achieved there must be a plan of organization that gives reasonable promise of success. After a careful study of the problem it is evident that, while conspicuous changes in organization are not essential, there are adjustments that must be made to unite all the young people in the task of promoting a unified program. As the work of the church develops certain things receive especial emphasis from time to time. In work with young people, unity of program and solidarity of age group are receiving special emphasis now. Young people at different ages in their lives have very different characteristics and interests. Recognizing this, the whole group of adolescents, ranging from twelve to twenty-three years of age, is divided into three age groups, namely: the Intermediates, twelve to fourteen years of age—junior high-school age; the Seniors, fifteen to seventeen years of age—senior high-school age; and Young People, eighteen to twenty-three—beyond high- school age. It is this third group, technically called Young People, that constitutes what is called in this chapter the Young People’s Section, or Young People’s age group, of the church. These six years cover a period of life when interests and development are much the same for all. Each individual church should have a great ambition to reach this group of young people, to help to provide the essentials of a Christian character, to give the necessary training for constructive Christian leadership, and to enlist all in the great task of the Kingdom. 73 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM It is the aim of this chapter to point out ways in the field of organization whereby the church may unite all the young people under sympathetic adult leadership in a program so carefully planned for this group that the church will find it easier than in the past to achieve her purpose for them. It should be clearly understood that, while the plan suggested on the following pages keeps in mind the age group eighteen to twenty-three, it will not be impossible to include those a little below and a little above that age line, where local conditions seem to make it necessary. Several factors in addition to age should be used as a guide in determining the age group to which one belongs. Just as far as possible, however, a church should organize and develop the Young People’s Section as a unit. WHERE ARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOUND IN THE CHURCH? A careful survey would be necessary to locate all the young people in any church, but in most churches there are well-known places where they are found. First, there is the group composed of those who are Church members, and those not members who attend the services of worship and midweek prayer meetings more or less regularly. Second, there are young people in the Sun- day school. While for most Church members the Sunday school provides only one part of their Christian training, for many young people this organization provides their only contact with the Church. Third, there are young people in Young People’s societies, organizations that have contributed to the development of leadership qualities in young people. Fourth, there are young people in a variety of special clubs, of which the Westminster Guild for young women is well known. For young men, there are a few Ushers’ Associa- tions, some Athletic Leagues, and a number of Brotherhoods. Fifth, there is a group consisting of those who have enrolled in the special classes for Leadership Training and are engaged in practical leadership, such as Sunday-school teachers and leaders of clubs and societies for younger boys and girls. 74 SS CLE Ow NGzE COPLEY S SEG RON OR THE CHURCH A WELL-BALANCED PROGRAM FOR ALL In the past each organization for young people has had its own program. ‘The leaders of the different organizations have not been brought together to study needs, to consider possible overlappings, or to build a unified program. Fur- thermore, when some young people have had only one con- tact with the church, it has often been impossible to make them feel the necessity for additional training which would be a complement to that already received. To overcome these weaknesses, the plan set forth in this Manual presents one inclusive program for all Young People in the church. Behind the Building With Christ Program is the desire to bring to every young person in the church the fullest opportunity for developing a Christian life. The main concern is that the church make available for all young people the worship, instruction, service, and recreation neces- sary and desirable. ORGANIZING THE AGE GROUP However promising a program may be, it will be effective only through a practical method of organization for carrying it out. To attain this plans are recommended for organizing the entire Young People’s Section. This is practical in a church large or small, in city or country, with volunteer workers or with a paid director. Two plans are suggested. One is called the correlated plan of organization, the other the unified plan of organiza- tion. Both are subject to modification locally in order to meet local conditions. If the entire group of Young People, with its adult leaders, is to be united in undertaking the complete program, the organization will embody in principle one or the other of the two plans suggested. It is impossible to say without a knowledge of the local situation which plan is preferable. The decision must be made by the church in the light of all of the factors involved. The Correlated Plan. This way of organizing the Young People’s Section of the church necessitates compara- 75 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM tively little change in the organizations now existing for young people in many churches. Each organization within the Section, such as the Young People’s Department in Sunday school, the Young People’s society, the Westminster Guild, and so forth, maintains its identity, and each has its officers, but all the organizations are so intimately related that a unified program is practicable. Each organization makes a constructive contribution to the carrying out of the complete Program. The cooperation is made effective through a Cabinet, the membership of which represents all the organi- zations concerned. This Cabinet is more fully discussed later (page 77). In Chapers VIII—XI the different phases of the program for each organization are presented fully. The Unified Plan. This way of organizing the Section is advocated by many as ultimately the most effective. It is suggested that a unified program quite naturally calls for a unified leadership, which requires for most effective results a unified organization. The unified plan therefore is built on the basis of one organization for all the young people of the age group, with one set of officers. According to this plan while there is but one organization all the young people meet for activities that under the correlated plan are carried on by different organizations. For example, all the young people meet on Sunday for worship and study at the Sunday- school hour ; all meet for a devotional and discussion meeting on Sunday evening at the usual time of the Young People’s society ; the young men and the young women meet separately on a week night for club activities, the meeting of the young women being recognized as the Guild and the meeting of the young men as the Fellowship. In the unified plan the one set of officers corresponds in the main to those which are usual in an organization, such as president ; one or more vice presidents, one of whom should be a young woman; corresponding secretary ; recording secre- tary; and treasurer. There is also one set of committees. Each of these committees would naturally assume responsi- bility for one phase of the program. There would be, there- fore, a Committee on Worship, on Instruction, on Service, 76 THE YOUNG: PEOPLE'S SECTION OF THE CHURCH and on Recreation. Other permanent committees would be added as needed. Each committee would be responsible for its particular phase of the work at all the different meetings of the group. If some other alignment of committees is found desirable the individual church may work out that which seems most practicable. THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S CABINET According to either of the above plans a Young People’s Cabinet is essential. Its function is to determine what shall be attempted as a program for the entire Young People’s Section. It must also see that the whole Program is carried out in the way that is best suited to the individual church and that will reach the largest number of young people. It is the clearing house for all Young People’s work in the church, so that duplication of plans by various groups may be avoided. Membership Under the Correlated Plan. Each organi- zation concerned should have membership in the Cabinet, and the session of the church should be represented. The smallest group possible would include: 1. From the session of the church: the pastor, the director of religious education, or some delegated member. 2. From the Sunday school: if the Young People’s De- partment is organized, its president and adult adviser; if not, one adult and one young person selected by the Young People’s classes. 3. One person, usually the president, from each of the following organizations: Young People’s society, Westminster Guild, Young Men’s Fellowship. Membership Under the Unified Plan. Under the unified plan the Cabinet would consist of the pastor, the director of religious education, the adult adviser of the Young People’s Section of the church; the officers of the Young People’s Section; and the chairmen of the permanent committees. This would be the minimum for the Cabinet. Adjustment to Local Conditions. The average church will set up its Cabinet under either plan by choosing repre- sentatives in such a way as best to meet the local needs. It 77 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM is not essential that the Cabinet be composed of the smallest group possible, as indicated in the correlated and unified plans above. ‘The number may be enlarged very easily. To some there is a distinct advantage in having the group called the Cabinet composed of almost all the leaders, including all the Sunday-school teachers of the Young People’s Section, so that all help to form the plans and therefore become inter- ested in carrying them out. There are those also who rec- ognize the advantages of a small group in that it is not so cumbersome, is more easily assembled, and can work more conveniently than is possible for a large group. Organization of the Cabinet. It is suggested that the Cabinet should have a very simple organization with a presi- dent and a secretary. This is recommended because the Cabinet is largely a group concerned with the task of deter- mining the program and making assignments of that program and not with the task of carrying out the program. In a church where the Cabinet consists of all the leaders vitally concerned with Young People there should be an Executive Committee consisting of a small number of the outstanding leaders which could meet more frequently than would be possible for the whole Cabinet. In such case the Executive Committee would assume responsibility for action necessary between meetings of the entire Cabinet. It is expected that in the unified plan there will be meet- ings occasionally of the entire age group in a business session for transacting business just as there are meetings in a Young People’s society for transacting the business of that society. The chart on page 80 illustrates the organization scheme for the correlated plan and the chart on page 79, the organization scheme for the unified plan. Duties of the Cabinet. The Cabinet should study very thoroughly, months in advance, the entire program for the age group. To this end the Year Book should be available. This is issued in the early summer of each year and outlines the program beginning with October and running for twelve months through September of the following year. The Cabinet will also determine in the main how the different 78 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SECTION OF THE CHURCH CHART OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SECTION OF THE CHURCH UNDER THE COMPLETELY UNIFIED PLAN CABINET OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE's SECTION OF THE CHURCH Pastor or Director of Religious Education. Adult Adviser of the Young People’s Section of the Church. President (Student) of the Young People’s Section of the Church. Director of Worship for Young People. Director of Instruction for Young People. Director of Service for Young People. Director of Recreation for Young People. Chairmen of Special Committees. | Teachers of Classes for Young People. COMMITTEE ON WorsHIP Acting as Director of Worship. Students and Teachers as Members of the Committee. COMMITTEE ON INSTRUCTION Chairman|Chairman Acting as Director of Instruc- tion. Students and Teachers as Members of the Committee. SPECIAL COMMITTEES Students and Teachers as Members of the Committees. COMMITTEE ON SERVICE Acting as Director of Service. Students and Teachers as Members of the Committee. COMMITTEE ON RECREATION Chairman|Chairman Acting as Director of Recreation. Students and Teachers as Members of the Committee. ALLEY OUNG PEOPLE OF THE CHURGH BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18 AND 23 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM CHART OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SECTION OF THE CHURCH UNDER THE CORRELATED PLAN CABINET OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE’s SECTION OF THE CuHurcH (Minimum Membership) Pastor or Director of Religious Education. Superintendent or Adult Adviser of Young People’s Department in Sunday School. President of Young People’s Department in Sun- day School. President of Young People’s Society (Christian Endeavor). President of Westminster Guild. President of Young Men’s Fellowship. | | | YouNG PEOPLE’s | YOUNG PEOPLE’S}| WESTMINSTER | YOUNG MEN’s | DEPARTMENT OF |SociETY (Chris- GUILD FELLOWSHIP SUNDAY SCHOOL |tion Endeavor) Superintendent or Adult Ad- viser. President President. President. President. (Student). CouNCIL EXECUTIVE EXECUTIVE EXECUTIVE CoMMITTEE CoM MITTEE COMMITTEE Presidents of| Vice President. | Vice President. | Vice President. Organized| Secretary. Secretary. Secretary. Classes. Corresponding| Treasurer. Treasurer. Teachers. Secretary. Chairmen of|Chairmen of Chairmen of|Chairmen of} Committees. Committees. Committees! Committees. and Special Activities. ALL YOUNG PEOPLE OF THE CHURCH BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18 AND 23 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S ‘SECTION OF THE GHURCH phases of the program may best be carried out. For example, the Presbyterian Program for Young People requires courses on Bible, missions, stewardship, and other subjects. If the correlated plan is being used, the Sunday school would doubt- less be best equipped to teach the Bible courses and the Cabinet would naturally assign to it that responsibility. The mission courses might be assigned to the Westminster Guild or Young Men’s Fellowship, or, if these organizations did not exist, to the Young People’s society. The responsibility of the Cabinet is to see that all important parts of the Pro- gram are provided for the Young People. If an organization which would normally have a share in the program is not found in a church, the programs of the others which are there should be expanded and enlarged to meet the needs. What has been said applies not only to subjects of study but also to service, worship, and recreation. For example, if there are Young People who attend only the Sunday school, while the service and recreation parts of the Program are carried mainly by the Young People’s society, the West- minster Guild, and the Young Men’s Fellowship, the Cabinet will want to be sure that these particular Young People are taken into the plans for service and recreation and made to feel that they have a definite share in these activities. At regular intervals the Cabinet should review what is being done, hear reports from the several organizations or commit- tees, and plan for appropriate new work. Certain parts of the Program should be carried out under the direct supervision of the Cabinet. ‘The service survey de- scribed in Chapter IV is one instance. The particular responsi- bility for this survey might be put on a joint committee made up of the chairmen of the appropriate committees of the sev- eral organizations under the correlated plan or on the Com- mittee on Service in the unified plan. When the survey has been made, the committee may recommend to the whole Cab- inet definite projects of service that should be undertaken and the organizations or groups through which each enter- prise should be carried out. The same committee may see that in planning the year’s program service has a proper 81 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM place and that plans of service related to the theme of the year are carried out. The committee may be given re- sponsibility for general oversight of service throughout the year, reporting to the Cabinet at regular intervals. HOW TO LAUNCH THE PROGRAM When a church wishes to introduce the Presbyterian Pro- gram for Young People, the place to start is with some interested individual or group. The ultimate responsibility for the educational program of the church rests of course with the session and its indorsement and hearty cooperation should be secured. If the church has a Council of Religious Education, the way to approach the matter would be for the individual or group to ask the Council to call a meeting of interested leaders to talk over the Program. Where a Council does not exist any informal method is quite practicable. The following steps are usually advisable: 1. The pastor, some adult in the church, or some of the young people may have heard of the Age Group Program and desire to have it carefully considered. This person or group of persons should assume responsibility for initiating the plan, 2. Information about the Program should be placed in the hands of those who are especially interested in Young People’s work. 3. When this group has had time to read the literature, the group should spend an evening in talking over plans, and determining whether or not in their judgment the Program should be adopted. 4. A meeting of all the Young People with adult advisers should next be held. At this time the whole matter should be carefully explained and the Young People given opportunity to express themselves regarding the advisability of using the Program. Just as soon as a Cabinet is formed it will assume the leadership as outlined above. UNIFYING THE ENTIRE CHURCH PROGRAM The work for Young People is but one section of the church work. Plans for the Young People must be developed 82 THEY OCUNG- PROPLE’S SECTION. OF THE, CHURCH so that they are in harmony with the work planned for those who are younger and those who are older in the church. This practical correlation of the Young People’s work with that of the other age groups is usually secured through the church Council of Religious Education. If such a council does not exist one might be organized, or there might be just a Committee on Religious Education, in the church. On such a council or committee the Young People’s age group should be represented by the president of the Young People’s Cabinet and at least one other representative of the Cabinet, one of the adult advisers being recommended. While it is highly desirable that age-group programs be promoted for all the different age groups it is possible for the Young People to promote their Program quite indepen- dently of other age groups. Leadership Training. Many churches have a depart- ment for training the future leaders of the church called the Leadership Training Department. Occasionally this work is confined to one Leadership Training class. It is expected that some of the very best of the members of the Young People’s age group will be enlisted in this Leadership Training work. This is in full accord with the Young People’s Program. While Leadership Training classes will usually include mem- bers outside the Young People’s age group, all who are eighteen to twenty-three years of age should consider them- selves a definite part of the age group and share in all its activities. Membership in Leadership Training classes should by no means cut young people off from hearty participation in the activities of their own age group. Leaders of Other Age Groups. The service program of this age group will often enlist its members in regular teaching tasks in other departments and in other tasks of leadership quite as exacting. It often happens that such young people tend to lose their contacts with the Young People’s age group as a whole. This should be avoided, for these young people need the constructive help and stimulus that the group may provide. One who teaches during the Sunday-school period and is therefore deprived of the Young 83 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM People’s lesson study should be actively enlisted in all other phases of the Program. ORGANIZATION FLEXIBLE TO LOCAL CONDITIONS The general plan of organization suggested is elastic and makes adjustment to local conditions easy. Care has been taken to avoid suggesting hard and fast rules. Organization, necessary as it is, must be secondary to the Program. The whole problem of working out a unified program for any age group is still in the realm of experiment. The plan is essentially a three hour a week plan. In addition there are the church worship services planned for all which, it is con- fidently expected, the young people will be led to share much more fully than in the past. The secret of the plan is “that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through faction or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself; not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” 84 Dy) CHARA ERG YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH In addition to the relationships of Presbyterian Young People with their own individual churches there are also other relationships of very great importance which offer large opportunities for service and for development. Through Christian Endeavor unions, Sunday-school councils or asso- ciations, perhaps through the Young Men’s Christian Asso- ciation, the Young Women’s Christian Association, a welfare federation, councils of churches, or other organization, they are linked up with young people of many other churches in numerous plans for serving Christ and the community. Such cooperative efforts should have the hearty support of all young people. This chapter speaks primarily, however, of the wider rela- tionships of the young people through the Presbyterian organization and work. As most Presbyterian young people know, their churches are organized through ministers and elders into presbyteries, of which there are about three hun- dred; then, usually following state boundaries, into synods, of which there are forty-six; and, finally, into a General Assembly for the whole country. For over fifty years the women and young people of the Church have worked for missions through societies organized within the bounds of each presbytery. Following the arrangement for synods these presbyterial societies are united into synodical socie- ties, which are in turn directly related to the Board of National Missions and the Board of Foreign Missions. The national and world-wide work of the Presbyterian Church is carried on under the authority and direction of the General Assembly. From time to time in the past, as new needs arose, the General Assembly has set up various agencies to care for these needs. The whole task is now, however, committed to four great Boards. The General 85 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM Council, also created by the Assembly, is responsible for coordinating the work of these Boards and for overseeing the work of the Church at large. Three of the Boards are vitally interested in work among Young People and have Young People’s Departments to help carry it on; namely, the Board of Christian Education, the Board of National Missions, and the Board of Foreign Mis- sions. The Presbyterian Program for Young People has been planned by the Board of Christian Education in cooper- ation with the two Mission Boards. Representatives of these three Boards have worked out the Program and are respon- sible for carrying it on, so far as national administration is concerned. WHERE TO LOOK FOR HELP It is to these Boards that the Young People and their leaders should look for help in their work. Young People’s Work, Board of Christian Education, Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia, will gladly furnish information regarding gen- eral phases of Young People’s life and work in the churches, whether it be the Sunday school, the Young People’s society, or other organizations that are concerned. Personal corres- pondence regarding the work of any Young People’s group is welcomed. Similarly the Department of Young People’s Work of the Board of National Missions and the Young People’s Department of the Board of Foreign Missions, both located at 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City, will welcome correspondence with young people regarding all missionary activities and interests. The secretaries of these Depart- ments of the three Boards are eager for as wide personal contacts as possible with the young people of the Church, and welcome the opportunity of being present whenever pos- sible at such gatherings as young people’s rallies for cities or presbyteries. RELATIONSHIPS To the Presbytery and to the Presbyterial Society. Every group of Young People in the church has a relation- 86 YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ship to the presbytery, and some groups also have rela- tionships to the presbyterial society. The connection with presbytery is through the pastor and the other member of the session who represents the church at the meetings of the presbytery. Presbytery’s Committee on Christian Education has direct connection with the Board of Christian Education, which is responsible for Young People’s Work as a part of its program of Christian education in the home, the church, and the community. The Committees on National Missions and Foreign Missions are directly connected with the Mission Boards, which are responsible for enlisting the interest and service of Young People in the causes they represent. The Board of Christian Education has cooperated with the Board of National Missions and the Board of Foreign Missions in developing and promoting the Presbyterian Program for Young People. In the presbytery the Committee on Chris- tian Education should work cooperatively with the Commit- tees on National Missions and Foreign Missions in passing on to the pastor recommendations regarding this Program. The pastor is, therefore, responsible for talking with young people’s groups about their part in the work of the pres- bytery. All organizations for young people in the church have this relationship. The Young People’s society and the Westminster Guild for a long time have received communications in regard to their missionary responsibility from the Young People’s secretaries of the woman’s presbyterial society. These officers continue to have responsibility for the missionary work of these societies. It is now urged, however, that there be the closest possible codperation between them and representatives of the Committees of presbytery on Christian Education, National Missions, and Foreign Missions. It is most important that both the presbytery and the presbyterial society see the whole program as a single task and unite to give such help as the Young People themselves may desire. To the Boards of the Church. The committees and officers of the presbytery and the presbyterial society receive from the headquarters of the three Boards plans which have 87 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM been worked out for the young people of the Church. After studying these plans carefully they adapt them to meet local conditions and promote them with all the enthusiasm which comes from a close touch with individual groups. The Boards project the general plans for the young people of the Presbyterian Church because they are in a position to speak nationally for all the young people and to help them to think together about problems that have been suggested by the young people in one or another section of the country. The Boards are likewise closest to the needs on the field, and can, therefore, suggest what will best stimulate the effort and support of young people in their service activities. YOUNG PEOPLE’S LEAGUE In recent years a new plan of relationship for young people within the bounds of a presbytery has been developing simple forms of organization for the young people them- selves. These organizations have been given various names : Association, Council, Central Committee. Sometimes they have embraced all the young people in all the Presbyterian churches within a given presbytery; sometimes they have been delegated bodies with representatives chosen from each church. In any case, through these organizations all the young people regularly come together in rallies with some definite subject for consideration. Young people’s work is encour- aged in the churches by visitation, by exchange of ideas, and by the use of helpful material for all the societies. Interest in missions and in other phases of a complete Young People’s Program is promoted, and the churches are encouraged to send delegations to summer conferences. So valuable have these organizations become, and so much do they promise for the future, that this Program con- templates such an organization for the young people of each presbytery under the name, “Young People’s League of the Presbyteryeobies cs at The League is officered by young people who initiate plans for the promotion of their own program, build their own 88 YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE PRESBYTERIAN: CHURCH institutes, and through service develop the power of leader- ship and responsibility. Two advisers each from the presby- tery and the woman’s presbyterial society work with the young people. A leaflet giving a suggested constitution may be secured from any of the Boards listed on page 4, at a small cost. These Leagues do not conflict with the work of Christian Endeavor unions or Young People’s councils of the Sunday- school pupils. They provide opportunity for family fellow- ship among Presbyterian young people and draw their mem- bership from the young people in the church without regard to the organizations with which they are affiliated. They include not only Christian Endeavorers and Sunday-school members, but any young person in the church. FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES It has been shown that no program for an organization of young people is complete which does not provide for the members definite opportunities for participation in service through the giving of money. Since young people are a part of the Church, a large share of their gifts should go to the missionary and educational work being carried on through the three Boards. In order that the young people of an individual church may have a definite share in this enterprise, certain work under these Boards has been committed to the young people of the Church for support by their interest, prayer, and gifts. In offering these objects for support, great care has been taken to choose work that has a particular appeal to Young People. It is expected that all Young People in the Sunday school, the Young People’s society, the Westminster Guild, and the Young Men’s Fellowship will support these objects. Where in an individual church the organizations of Young People are operating through the Cabinet, it would be well to have the whole question of financial responsibilities dis- cussed. The Cabinet may adopt a benevolent budget for all the Young People’s organizations of the church and recom- mend to each organization the share which it should con- 89 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM tribute. Recognition should be made of the fact that some of the organizations will receive from the woman’s presby- terial society apportionments which should be met. If, how- ever, these apportionments amount to more than seventy-six per cent of the total benevolent budget which it is possible to raise, they should not be paid in full at the expense of other objects. Individual groups may designate their gifts to the entire list of objects offered by each Board or they may choose one or more of the objects on the list of each Board, with the understanding that if the needs of a particular object have been fully met by the time the gift is received, it will be used for the other objects on the same list. A leaflet giving the objects for all three Boards may be secured from any one of them. (See page 4.) METHODS FOR REMITTING CONTRIBUTIONS For a number of years Young People’s societies and West- minster Guilds have received from the woman’s presby- terial society apportionments to guide them in their gifts for missionary work under the Board of National Missions and the Board of Foreign Missions. This method of giving is still being followed for these organizations, and missionary gifts should be sent to the treasurer of the presbyterial society, if possible, in equal quarterly payments, before the tenth of June, September, December, and March. Gifts from Sunday schools, and Young Men’s Fellowships should be sent, if possible, in equal quarterly payments, directly to the treasurers of these Boards at the addresses given on page 4. Sunday schools, Christian Endeavor societies, Westminster Guilds, and Young Men’s Fellowships—in fact any groups of Young People in an individual church—should send their gifts to the Board of Christian Education directly to the treasurer of that Board at the address found on page 4. In order to avoid the necessity of borrowing funds at interest to carry the work during the opening months of the fiscal year, equal quarterly payments remitted on the first of June, September, December, and March are desirable. 90 YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH DIVISION OF GIFTS Venn people have frequently asked what ought to be the basis upon which they should divide their benevolence money. It is recognized by everyone that groups of young people have local responsibilities which must be carried. At the same time, they should also face responsibility for the mis- sionary and educational work which has been set aside for their support by the Board of National Missions, the Board of Foreign Missions, and the Board of Christian Education. The following percentages on the basis of 100 per cent for benevolences are suggested by the three Boards as a possible guide for the gifts from organizations of young people: For the Board of National Missions .......... 38 per cent For the Board of Foreign Missions ........... 38 per cent For the Board of Christian Education ........ 14 per cent POCA RO AUISCSIENN, 0. se ae ean Lae Ric onry yee IL, 10 per cent 100 per cent These percentages do not include the offerings on Special Days or gifts from Sunday schools which contribute as a unit. Organizations which receive apportionments from the Presbyterial Society should recognize, in building their budget, that such apportionments are the missionary per- centages suggested above. ENROLLMENT OF ORGANIZATIONS In order to maintain the relationships which were outlined earlier in this chapter it is necessary that all new organiza- tions make their existence known by enrolling at Board head- quarters. All organizations, regardless of name or nature of activity, are expected to enroll with the Board of Christian Education, and with the Board of National Missions and the Board of Foreign Missions. Each organization will thus be in constant touch with those agencies of the Church responsible for work among young people. Presidents of all organizations will receive information regarding methods of work, new materials in the 91 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM Young People’s Program, and desirable activities. It is important that any changes in officers be reported immedi- ately to the Board of Christian Education and to the Young People’s secretary of the Presbyterial Society. THE VALUE OF THESE RELATIONSHIPS Of what value to young people are these wider contacts? In what light ought the young people to think of them? Largely in terms of privilege, for these relations offer young people at least three valuable opportunities : The opportunity for wider fellowship and sharing of experiences. The opportunity for practical help and encouragement in their work and for training and development. The opportunity to join with many others in accomplishing tasks that no one group could do alone, particularly in carrying a splendid share in the whole task of the Church at home and abroad. 92 &) y ) Sieh uethieike MANE THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL It is not fair to hold young people down to the levels of children. Young people are no longer boys and girls; neither are they mature men and women. Youth, with its enthusi- asm, energy, and optimism is dominated by characteristics, interests, and life situations peculiar to its years. The needs of these young people cannot be met in Sunday school by worship planned for adults or by a series of lessons chosen for all ages. Programs of service and recreation intended for other age groups will not suffice here. In other words the Sunday school, above all other agencies of the church, should recognize young people as young people, and should afford them a place of their own where activities adapted to meet their particular needs may be carried on. The young people as a group should be encouraged to study Christian principles and determine Christian standards together. They have reached the point where no one else can do these things for them. In other spheres of life they are assuming large responsibilities ; they must take the responsibility here also. The young people, with their leaders, should work out a plan suited to their own local situation, whereby the whole Sunday-school work of the young people can be made to meet their needs and the life situations in which they find them- selves. WHY ORGANIZE? It has been found that the above ideals for young people in the Sunday school can be worked out best through a Young People’s Department. Here it will be possible for worship services to be conducted which will really establish a contact between the young people and God and which will stimulate the Christlike fellowship among themselves so 93 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM necessary in the right development of a growing life. Here, too, young people may seek out the great truths and facts of Christianity which they need if in later years they are to attain a mature Christian experience. The organization of a Young People’s Department will first of all be a frank admis- sion on the part of the church that young people have a vital place in Christian activity and that the church is trying to help them to occupy that place. Naturally the leaders of such a department will need to have a sympathetic under- standing of young people. The scheme of organization, the program, and the method of carrying out the program must all tend to develop the initiative of the young people them- selves. The size of the church and the number of young people available are of secondary importance. It is often practical to have an organized Young People’s Department, although there may be no separate assembly room for them and even though no individual classrooms are available. One of the best ways to increase the number receiving the benefits of Christian teaching and training is to make sure that the Sunday school is divided into groups such that the interests, needs, and activities of all in any one of the groups are approximately on the same level. PROGRAM With only one hour each week available, the work of the Sunday school must be as forceful and effective as possible, for the study offered here is basic to the whole Program. The work of the young people in the Sunday school must be made strong and effective if this Program is to accomplish its purpose. The Sunday-school period should bring young people close to God. in prayer and praise, prepare them through study for efficient service in his name, and help them to find a Christian solution for their life problems. Worship. A~- certain portion of the Sunday-school period is invariably given to hymns, prayer, Bible- reading, and other means of worship. It is one of the purposes of the Program to make this brief period just as interesting and helpful for spiritual de- 94 YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT OF SUNDAY SCHOOL velopment as possible. By studying the aims and principles of worship as presented in Chapter II, and by building pro- grams that use these aims and principles, the Sunday-school worship period will be greatly enriched and made much more helpful. Two common situations exist in regard to worship in the Sunday school. In many instances the Young People have to worship with other groups, usually the Intermediate, the Senior, and the Adult. Where that is the case, it is obvious that worship must be pianned with all these groups in mind. Even in such a school, a proportionate number of worship programs—in this instance at least one in four—should be prepared and carried out by the Young People’s Department, or by those in the Young People’s classes where no Young People’s Department is organized. The other situation is when the Young People are fortunate enough to have a room in which they may meet apart from all others for their wor- ship service. In such situations, the worship program of each Sunday may be planned especially to meet the needs of young people. These programs may be developed in the light of the theme of the Bible lessons for the quarter and the special lesson for the day, and thus made a vital part of the Young People’s Program. The young people should have the major responsibility for planning and carrying out these services, in consultation with their adult advisers. To give assistance to those responsible for these worship services, at least one sample program is included in the Year Book. Further aid is given in the opening pages of each Student’s Quarterly of the Young People’s Depart- mental Graded Lessons. The initiative of young people will be developed in adapting the suggested programs to local needs and in building additional programs. While there is value in keeping some features of a worship program the same from Sunday to Sunday during a month or even a quarter other features should change each week, making it necessary to build each program carefully. The messages, stories, talks, or poems which are a part of the worship serv- ices are very important features and often give a splendid 95 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM opportunity to relate the theme of the Bible lesson to the worship period. Much care should be given to this item of the program. The general principles suggested at the end of the chapter on “Worship” should be applied. This period should be recognized as one sacred to the worship of God, in which young people learn his will and hear his voice and enter into fellowship with him. Instruction. Every effort has been made in the Presby- terian Program for Young People to secure material for the Sunday school which is vitally interesting to Young People and suited to their lives. The Bible must be made a living book to them, which contains not merely the history of what happened in a far-off time but also the answers to their questions in the complex world of to-day. With this point of view, lessons have been carefully outlined and written especially for Young People. They appear in pamphlet form like other quarterlies and are called Westminster Depart- mental Graded Lessons for Young People. One quarterly is issued for the students, another for the teacher. The Bible outline in the Appendix of this Manual indicates the material that is to be included in the entire series of lessons covering six years. As these lessons are an important part of the complete Young People’s Program, it is recommended that they be examined carefully as to their adaptability to local needs. Each course, after it has appeared in periodical form, is republished in permanent form and thus made available as an elective. By this means a whole series of Bible-study courses for Young People is being built up. While these lessons have been carefully planned and especially written for Young People, it is not claimed that they will meet the needs of every group under all conditions. Realizing this, a number of special courses called Elective Courses for Young People are available. These cover Young People’s lesson courses published during the last few years by the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education. Addi- tional courses are available from other sources. The impor- tant thing is that all the Young People of the church shall, either by class or department, make a careful study of lesson 96 YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT OF SUNDAY SCHOOL materials and choose their Bible-study courses wisely with a long look ahead. Except in rare cases the lessons chosen should be those especially written for young people of this age. If any Sunday school has been content merely to have a group of young people attending more or less regularly, but not inspired to any real work, it should give serious thought to the causes for such a condition. Since the time available is so short, the most systematic effort should be made to use it wisely. The best methods of teaching should be studied. The discussion method, which allows young people to think through their problems together, is heartily recommended. Leadership Training Courses. In many churches a Leadership Training Department is maintained. In other cases there is just one Leadership class which holds its ses- sions during the regular Sunday-school lesson period. The young people who seem to have undeveloped ability as leaders should be urged to join the Leadership Training Department or class. The needs for trained leadership are so great that if there is no class or department available, such a class should be organized within the Young People’s Department unless time outside the regular Sunday-school period is used and adequately meets the need. The course recommended for use is the Standard Leadership Training course. This contains several general units on Bible, methods, and Sun- day-school administration, with a number of specialized units for those young people who want to serve in a particular part of the church. In Appendix B, on pages 147-150, there is a brief outline of the Leadership Training courses, and also the outline of a plan that has been adopted to endeavor to build up a large number of leaders in each age-group field capable of handling age-group programs. The leaders of Young People should keep in mind the many different opportunities for Leadership Training that are available. They include the following: 1, Individual church courses in connection with church night or in connection with other plans for religious educa- tion. They are sometimes held in conjunction with prayer 97 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM meetings, or on a night entirely apart from any other service. 2. Presbyterian Training Schools, when several Presby- terian churches unite in offering Leadership Training courses. Sometimes these classes meet every evening for a week, sometimes one evening a week for several consecutive weeks. 3. Interdenominational Standard Training Schools. The plan for these is often like that outlined in the two above, but several different denominations participate. 4. Training courses under the auspices of county Councils of Religious Education. ‘These meet usually one night a week for ten or twelve weeks and are held frequently in city centers. 5. Summer conferences, denominational and interdenomi- national. Many of these offer Leadership Training courses. These different opportunities for securing Leadership Train- ing courses ought not to be a substitute for definite plans within the local church, but ought to be used to supplement the plans of the local church. Service and Recreation. The Presbyterian Program for Young People in suggesting a unified program for each year, recommends that in churches using the-correlated plan of organization the major portions of both “service” and “recre- ation’”’ be carried by the Young People’s Society, the Westmin- ster Guild, and the Young Men’s Fellowship. If, however, these organizations do not exist in the individual church, it is necessary to make a careful survey to discover whether new organizations need to be launched or the program of an existing organization expanded, or a single new organiza- tion formed for all Young People in the church. If, for instance, the forming of new organizations seems quite un- wise, the Young People’s Department of the Sunday school should plan and carry out through week-day activities a full program of both service and recreation. Reference should be made, in this case, not only to the general program for the year as presented in the Year Book, but also to chap- ters on these other organizations in both Year Book and Manual. 98 YOUNG! FORUTES DEPARTMENT OF ‘SUNDAY SCHOOL ORGANIZATION Experience has taught that a program, no matter how com- plete, is practically useless without an organization through which it may be made effective. Organization is simply the assignment of definite responsibilities to definite individuals. Frequently a group of responsible individuals must be brought together before a program can be built, but the kind and amount of organization must be determined by the character of the work to be done. The organizing of the Young People’s Department in the Sunday school depends upon the organization which has been adopted for the Young People’s Section of the church. In Chapter VI the two plans for church organization of young people are presented—the correlated plan and the unified plan. The organization of the Young People’s Department of the Sunday school will be different under each of the two plans, and is therefore discussed separately. Organizing Under the Correlated Plan. The correlated plan is one which can be most generally used. Therefore the following organization will be the most practical and helpful in the greater number of Sunday schools. Reference to Chart I of Chapter VI will show how the Young People in the Sunday school have their own organization, which is represented by its student president in the Cabinet of the Young People’s Section of the church. This organization of the Young People in Sunday schools should be simple enough to have no extra machinery but complete enough to carry a real program. ‘There should be officers: a president, a secretary, and a treasurer, elected by the students and approved by the superintendent or adult adviser of the Department. Committees on Worship, In- struction, Service, and Recreation should assume responsi- bility for their respective parts of the program in the Sunday school. Other committees may be appointed as needed. The officers and committee chairmen, with the teachers, superintendent of the Department, and pastor or director of religious education should make up the Executive Commit- tee of the Young People’s Department. This committee 99 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM would determine whether the president or some other person should represent the Department on the Cabinet of the Young People’s Section of the church. If a larger Executive Committee is desired, one representative chosen by each class may be added. If the classes are organized, they will prob- ably wish their presidents to represent them, or the classes may elect special representatives. The organization of the Young People’s Department under this plan is shown in the chart on page 101. Functions of Committees. The Executive Committee should assume full responsibility for the work suggested by the Cabinet for the Young People in the Sunday school. Busy officers who have an entire school to care for can hardly be expected to consider carefully the particular needs of any one age group. The Executive Committee should develop a program which will adequately meet the needs of the Depart- ment, and should study worship, instruction, and other parts of the Program in their relationship to each other. Through its representative on the Cabinet of the Young People’s Sec- tion of the church the committee is responsible for securing correlation between the Department and the other organiza- tions for Young People in the church. The Worship Committee is responsible for the devotional period in the Department. If the Department meets sepa- rately from the rest of the school, the committee will have an opportunity to plan all the worship periods for the group. If, however, the Department is meeting in an assembly with other age groups the committee will find it necessary to cooperate with the officers of the other departments of the Sunday school and secure in the assembly exercises a fair proportion of worship suited to the needs of Young People. Provision should be made for them to receive training in the conduct of worship services. The Instruction Committee is responsible for the curricu- lum in the Department. : It should study the courses avail- able and secure those best suited to the group. The Young People’s Quarterly of the Westminster Departmental Graded series contains the Bible study lessons written for the 100 YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT OF SUNDAY SCHOOL ORGANIZATION OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPART- MENT OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVE ON THE CABINET OF THE ) YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT OF THE CHURCH President of the Young People’s Department of the Sunday School. ee ee EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL President. Superintendent or Adult Adviser. Pastor or Director of Religious Education. Secretary. Treasurer. Teachers. Chairmen of Regular Committees. Class Representatives. ees Ee 3 Classes of the Department, Each with a Teacher and a Student President or Representative. 101 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM Program. The committee should also arrange for the Leader- ship Training courses or make plans for cooperating in Leadership Training courses established in the Sunday school. Other instruction features, such as special talks, should be included in the program from time to time. The Service Committee and the Recreation Committee plan those parts of the program assigned to the Department by the Cabinet. It may be that the Cabinet as recommended will assign the greater part of the activities in the service and recreational field to the Young People’s society, the West- minster Guild, and the Young Men’s Fellowship. Where these organizations cannot be maintained, the Young People’s Department in the Sunday school should carry the service and recreational phases of the Program just as far as pos- sible. Organizing Under the Unified Plan. It will be remem- bered that in the churches which are organized under the unified plan all work with Young People is under one general organization, known as the Cabinet of the Young People’s Section of the church. (See Chapter VI.) This Cabinet has committees which are in charge of all worship, instruction, service, and recreation for the Young People. It will be seen by reference to Chapter VI, and especially to the chart on page 79, that when the Young People meet on Sunday for Bible study and worship, they meet as the Young People’s Section of the church. Each element of the program and each activity is planned by the appropriate committee of the Young People’s Section. This precludes having a Young People’s Department in the Sunday school as a separate organization and makes the hour on Sunday a part of the full program planned by the one organization of Young People. The carrying out of the Sunday-school period will be almost the same in this plan as in the case where the Young People’s Department of the Sunday school is organized as a unit apart from its relationship to other activities of Young People. The main difference will be seen in the relationship of the work of the Sunday school to other activities of the young people in the same age group. 102 YOUNG PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT OF SUNDAY SCHOOL ORGANIZATION IN THE SMALL CHURCH There is a common tendency on the part of those in small churches to conclude that such plans for organization and activity are practical only in the large church. The fact is that many of the most important phases of the plan can be worked out more effectively in the small church than in the large church. This is especially the case in the organization of the Young People’s Department of the Sunday school. Some churches may have only one or two classes of young people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three. It might seem that such a situation offers little opportunity for organization. On the contrary, it presents a unique opportunity for unifi- cation and cooperation. There is, to begin with, that which the large church must struggle to obtain, namely, a group well acquainted and already constituting, except in organiza- tion, a Young People’s Department. If there were only one class of Young People, the Execu- tive Committee of that class would be responsible for the whole program of Young People in the Sunday school. The president of the class would represent this group on the Young People’s Cabinet of the church. The Executive Committee should plan the program of worship, instruction, service, and recreation so as to help all the members to live as Christians in the Master’s Kingdom. Those interested in the Young People’s work of the smaller church should not satisfy themselves with low ideals. The best work is often possible in the smaller school. The essen- tial elements of organization, the Program discussed in pre- ceding paragraphs, and the principles which summarize the chapter all apply to the small school as fully as to the large. 103 CHAPTER IX THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S SOCIETY A Young People’s society is already a familiar thing to a large number of churches. It may be organized as a Chris- tian Endeavor society, or under some other name, but the opportunity it gives to “reach, hold, instruct, train, and in- spire young people for Christian living and Christian service” gives it a unique position. The purpose just quoted, which is frequently used by such organizations, gives the reason for their existence. Those churches which already have Young People’s societies, and those which are looking forward to organizing them, are interested in the part these societies have in the Building With Christ Program. Wherever the correlated plan is used, specific parts of the Presbyterian Program for Young People are assigned by the Cabinet to the Young People’s society, and its officers and committee chairmen are responsible for developing them and carrying them out. Wherever the Young People’s Section of the church uses the unified plan of organization, the part of the Program here assigned to the Young People’s society is carried out by the officers and committees of the Section. PROGRAM The Cabinet of the Young People’s Section of the church is the group which should consider the Building With Christ Program and make arrangements for having it carried out by the different organizations in the church. Nevertheless it may prove helpful to indicate here the part of the Program which the Cabinet would naturally assign to the Young Peo- ple’s society. Worship. Although the major part of the worship program will be carried by the church services and the worship period in the Sunday school, both of which should be faithfully attended by the young people, the Young Peo- 104 ») ie OWNG ERE OPI Sy SO GTi iy ple’s society has a distinctive contribution to make in help- ing “to establish and develop that filial relationship with God and Christlike fellowship with men through which the worshiper shares God’s Spirit and purposes and receives strength for Christian living.” In the intimacy of this group it is sometimes possible more readily to feel God’s presence and to become conscious of the way in which, through their common aspirations, all who are worshiping are lifted nearer to him. In such a group young people find it easier to learn how to conduct public worship, to share their own thanks- giving and petitions with others, or really to bring together the desires and longings of those who are worshiping by voicing prayer in behalf of them all. There should be a definite devotional period in the Young People’s meetings. This should be planned with all the principles presented in Chapter II of this Manual clearly in mind. Worship is important and the opportunity of the Young People’s society to make a distinct contribution to the spiritual lives of its members should not be neglected. The Committee on Worship, if a new alignment of com- mittees is adopted in connection with the Program, or the Prayer Meeting Committee, working with the leader of each meeting, should see that this part of the program receives careful consideration. It might be possible for this com- mittee to arrange each month a meeting of all the leaders who are to be in charge. Only by unremitting effort and con- stant planning and supervision can the Young People’s society do its part in helping young people to achieve the goal set for them in the aim of worship. The Young People’s society should also put emphasis upon the private devotions of its members. By discussing practical ways of finding adequate time, by calling attention to helpful books, or by binding young people together in a common pledge to observe a quiet hour, it is possible to give real help to those who are seeking to enrich their spiritual lives by personal devotions. Instruction. The part of the instruction program specifically assigned to the Young People’s society consists 105 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM largely of topics related to the Sunday-school lessons of the quarter. A full discussion of these topics appears in Chapter III, especially in the section entitled ““The Young People’s Society Hour.” Reference should also be made to the Year Book for the topics of discussion to be used each year and for specific suggestions concerning the other elements of in- struction. If the Young People’s society is to do its share in carrying out the Presbyterian Program for Young Peo- ple, it must undertake and complete a well-planned and con- sistent program of instruction. The Prayer Meeting Committee is usually in charge of this phase of the work, or there may be a Committee on Instruction. This committee should study the topics for discussion in the meetings. Those prepared especially for use with this Program are published in the Young People’s Quarterly of the Westminster Departmental Graded series of Sunday-school lessons as well as in the Year Book. These are recommended for adoption. If the committee feels that any topics in the series will not awaken the interest of the young people or aid them in their lives, it is charged with the responsibility of providing substitute topics. In order to carry out its work effectively the committee, as well as the other officers of the society, should become familiar with the Young People’s Society Program as presented in the Year Book. It should make arrangements for all special addresses and discussions called for by the Program. Special attention should be paid to training for leadership. In the past the policy has frequently been training by doing. Young people have been elected to office or assigned to com- mittees in the hope that as they try to do the work expected of them they will learn how to do it. To-day we expect young people to study something about the work of the society before assuming responsibility for any part of it. Opportunities for such study are afforded in classes con- ducted in the society, in leadership courses provided by the church, in community institutes and conferences, and in Presbyterian summer conferences. It should be kept in mind that this training is for leadership in the society and 106 5) ree VOUNG PROP Tle Sood LAT ~ —« also in the church, for the acceptance of responsibility as a church officer or leader should be the natural result of the years of service and experience in the Young People’s society. Service. The exact service activities assigned to the Young People’s society in the individual church will depend upon the results of the survey to be carried out by the co- operation of all organizations through the Cabinet of the Young People’s Section. If no survey is made, the Cabinet should consider the types of service suggested in Chapter IV of this Manual, and the Program outlined in the Year Book, and then make its assignments. It would probably recommend to the Young People’s society specific parts of the service program for the year, including work in the home, the church, the community, the nation, and the world. The scope of such service would include young people not mem- bers of the society, those in the community in particular need of fellowship and friendship, and the people at home and abroad who need the help of the Church. The service activities which the society undertakes should be assigned to the proper committees. If there is one com- mittee on Service, it would need to divide its work, perhaps giving to each member particular responsibility for one phase, and having him form a subcommittee to help him. The membership of these subcommittees should be reviewed by the Executive Committee so that they may see that all have an opportunity to share in the work. In other cases these activities would be distributed among various com- mittees, such as the Lookout, Evangelistic, Missionary, Flower, and Visiting Committees. Care should always be taken that all phases of the work are definitely assigned. Many valuable service activities will grow out of the local situation. The young people, inspired by their study and worship, will discover about them opportunities for helping others which they had never seen before. There may be foreign-speaking people in the community, or a section which needs a mission school; in fact, the possibilities are unlimited. But these possibilities will remain untouched unless the 107 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM young people will search eagerly to find ways in which they may serve, and consecrate themselves to the task of securing the necessary training to do it effectively. All plans for service should be reported to the Cabinet of the Young People’s Section of the church so as to avoid overlapping with other organizations. There is so much which needs to be done that duplication of effort should be avoided. ‘There are tasks for all, and by careful correlation it is possible to make every piece of work count in the whole program of service of the young people. Recreation Those in charge of recreation in the society should study carefully Chapter V of this Manual. It is not expected that the society will do all of this work, for there might be times when the Young People’s Department or an organized class in the Sunday school would want to have its own events, or the Westminster Guild and the Young Men’s Fellowship would take charge of the recreation for young men and young women separately. Definite responsi- bility should be clearly assigned by the Cabinet to the various organizations. It may well be that the Cabinet would give major responsi- bility for the recreation program for young men and young women together to the Young People’s society. In that case the society should realize that its social events should be planned not only for those who are members but for all young people from eighteen through twenty-three years of age in the church. By planning attractive events and using personal invitations it should be possible to reach most of the young people. Specific suggestions will be found in the Year Book. Books helpful in planning this part of the program are listed in the Bibliography. Where there is no Westminster Guild or Young Men’s Fellowship, the Young People’s society should plan sepa- rate events for the young men and young women, such as athletic programs and ‘Mother and Daughter” or “Father and Son” banquets. It might also be possible at times for the Young People’s society to give an entertainment of some kind for all the members of the church. 108 WHhayYOUNG PEOPLES SOCIETY ORGANIZATION A safe rule to follow regarding the organization of a Young People’s society or any other group in the church 1s, ‘Keep the organization as simple as possible.” This means avoiding any elaborate scheme for officers and committees, avoiding a complex constitution and by-laws, and being pro- gressive enough to change the organization to meet the exist- ing needs of the program. Emphasis should be put on the program and work of the society rather than upon organiza- tion. In fact, the program and work should determine or- ganization. A society should have the usual officers such as president, vice president, recording secretary, and treasurer. In some instances it may be wise to add a corresponding secretary. Sometimes a society will elect an adult adviser who will act toward the society very much as a coach acts toward an ath- letic team. A committee should be appointed only when it is needed to carry on some part of the work of the society, not merely because another society has such a committee. It is better for each committee so to plan its work that definite assignments of responsibility can be given to each member of the society to be carried out under the supervision of the appropriate committee. This policy might be worded, “Each committee at work, and each member given something to do.” The kinds of work which need to be carried on in all societies and the usual names of the committees to which this work may be assigned are: Spiritual Activities—Prayer Meeting or Devotional Committee. Membership Activities—Membership or Lookout Committee. Service Activities—Distributed Among the Missionary, Flower, Visiting, or Other Appropriate Committees. Recreational Activities—Social Committee. Missionary Activities—Missionary Committee. Financial Matters—Finance Committee. Some societies may wish to reorganize their system of committee work more nearly to parallel the Program, appoint- ing Committees on Worship, Instruction, Service, and Recre- 109 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM ation. Such matters as finance and membership may require special committees other than these. The adoption of sucha plan would in no way affect the identity of the society, but would merely mean a readjustment of committees by amend- ing the constitution and by-laws. Rotation of officers is usually a wise policy. The rule that no person should succeed himself more than once makes it possible for many young people to get experience in office and to learn how to render efficient service. Elections are usually held annually or semiannually. When new officers in a society are elected, the names and addresses of the president and corresponding secretary should be sent promptly to Young People’s Work of the Board of Christian Educa- tion. Through this Department the information will be passed to the Young People’s Departments of the Mission Boards. ‘The names and addresses of the president, treas- urer, and chairman of the Missionary Committee should be sent to the presbyterial secretary for Young People. MEMBERSHIP Membership in the Young People’s society should be open to all Young People, but experience has proved that it is usually wise to have certain requirements. When the society is affiliated with the Christian Endeavor movement this re- quirement is in the form of a membership pledge. The exact form of the pledge is left to the local group although there are several forms which have become standard. Other socie- ties, not Christian Endeavor, usually have membership pledges or statements of purpose which the young people sign when joining the organization. It is reasonable to expect a young person who becomes a member to promise loyalty to the society, to the church of which it is a part, and to Jesus Christ. Under the correlated plan of organization, Young People indicate whether they wish to be members of the society, but the effort should be to enlist them all. When the Young People’s Section of the church uses the unified plan of or- ganization, all Young People in the church are considered 110 ete eMOUN GEE OP NES SOCLE LN members of the one organization, which meets with the Sun- day school for Bible study, at another hour for the part of its program similar to that of the Young People’s society, and during the week for its other activities. In order to accomplish the best results, the membership in a Young People’s society should be limited strictly to Young People. By adopting the same age limits which are recommended for the Sunday school—eighteen through twenty-three years of age—it becomes possible to correlate the work of the school and the society in such a way that they are supplemental. In studying the program and ac- tivities of the organization, the wisdom of holding to these age limits will be seen. RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATIONS IN THE CHURCH The Young People’s society is represented on the Cabinet of the Young People’s Section of the church by its presi- dent, or, where the larger Cabinet is used, by its officers and committee chairmen. It is through this Cabinet that the whole Building With Christ Program is studied, and ar- rangements made for carrying it out effectively in the church through the cooperation of all the organizations of young people. The Young People’s society should loyally carry its share of the Program. INTERDENOMINATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS The use of the topics prepared for the Presbyterian Pro- gram for Young People instead of the usual topics sug- gested by the United Society of Christian Endeavor does not prevent a society from sharing the Christian Endeavor fel- lowship. There are already societies which prepare their own topics, and the use of the proposed plan in no way hampers societies which wish to affiliate with this movement. Societies which continue to use the Christian Endeavor topics, should not fail to participate in the rest of the Pro- eram. They can still cooperate through the Cabinet in making and carrying out other parts of the instruction pro- gram, and plans for worship, service, and recreation. 111 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM Many Presbyterian Young People’s societies hold mem- bership in Christian Endeavor Unions. Such affiliation is approved, for the Presbyterian Church has always stood for interdenominational fellowship and cooperation. It has also stood, however, for denominational loyalty, and it is not ex- pected that a society will let a program and activities of the interdenominational organization supplant or-interfere with the program and activities of its own church. Membership in Christian Endeavor Unions involves financial responsibil- ity, but pledges to this interdenominational work should not be allowed to interfere with denominational obligations. Proper proportion should be maintained between these de- nominational and interdenominational gifts. In the plan of the church it is expected that Young People’s societies will give financial support to the work of their own Boards of Foreign and National Missions, and of Christian Edu- cation. The interdenominational work will call for time, energy, and enthusiasm on the part of Presbyterian young people in attendance on meetings and in the leadership of county and state organizations. Expenditures of these personal elements should be guarded in such a way that the work in the society and the individual church does not suffer. On the other hand, the church should be glad when it has the opportunity to contribute to county and state activities among young people by supplying the leadership in the service which these organizations render. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1. Consider the society an integral part of the whole church work for Young People. It should be related to the other organizations for young people through its representative on the Cabinet of the Young People’s Section of the church. 2. Know the reason for the existence of your society. A definite purpose consciously arrived at will give efficient direction to your work. 3. Set definite goals for the work of each year to help in 112 Wey OU NGIR BOP UES SOCIETY accomplishing your purpose. These goals should include worship, instruction, service, and recreation. 4. Maintain proper relationships with other groups of Presbyterian Young People and with Young People of other denominations. The Young People’s League in your presbytery will help you to do the first and Christian Endeavor Unions provide a means for doing the second. 113 CHAPTER. THE WESTMINSTER GUILD In recent years young women have been increasingly called to unite in the support of great causes. Fields of service in education and welfare work have demanded and held young women of talent and ability. Of even greater challenge is service for Christ. Many have dedicated their lives to him in lonely and hard fields. There are still many opportunities for serving him which call for the best that young women can give. In the application of Christ’s principles to the social order, in calling young women to an acceptance of those principles for the whole of life, in establishing the Kingdom in the human heart, there is a peculiar work which can be done best by young women who are effectively organized, carefully instructed, and whole-heartedly consecrated to that highest purpose. With the idea that some parts of the Presbyterian Program for Young People can best be carried out by young men and young women in separate organizations, certain units of the Program have been worked out for such organi- zations. This arrangement presupposes that the Young People’s work in each church is planned on a basic three hour a week schedule: the Sunday-school hour, the Young People’s society hour, and the week-day hour—for young men in the Young Men’s Fellowship and for young women in the Westminster Guild. No church is too large and very few are too small for such groups of working, studying, and praying young men and young women, united in Christian consecration to a common cause. HISTORY The young women of the Presbyterian denomination already have a record of real accomplishment. Through their organization, the Westminster Guild, in cooperation with the woman’s missionary organization, their influence 114 THE WESTMINSTER GUILD has been of fundamental importance and their contributions indispensable to the great forward movement of the Church. Primarily interested in the missionary enterprise both at home and abroad, the various chapters of this organization found that the inevitable outgrowth of their missionary activity was an extensive program of service within their own churches and in behalf of their own communities. Every dictate of good Church policy was against the crea- tion of additional organizations among the young women to carry on these wider and enlarged activities. The Presby- terian Program for Young People, based upon principles of cooperation and correlation, proposed to enrich and broaden the programs of the organizations already in existence. The need of an enlarged program for the Westminster Guild was anticipated by its members. ‘They frankly faced the issue. The result of a conference in 1922, at which the matter was under consideration, was a plan approved by the representatives of the young women by which the pro- gram of the organization was enlarged and the purpose of the Guild stated to be as follows: “Realizing that the young women are needed, in the life of our Church to-day, we recommend that an organization be formed which shall look to the development of the highest type of Christian young womanhood, offering the opportunity for normal self-expression by development of the physical, mental, social, and spiritual phases of life, through service in the home, church, community, nation, and world.” The projected program did not lessen the objectives of the organization. On the contrary, the national program was extended to include those varied types of service which had entered so fully and so inevitably into the programs of the individual chapters. The realization of these plans was brought about in the development of the Presbyterian Program for Young People wherein the Westminster Guild with its increased activity now carries its share of the full and balanced program for the young women of the Presbyterian Church. 115 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM PURPOSE The purpose of the Westminster Guild, both nationally and in the individual church, is to unite the young women of the Presbyterian Church in service for Christ and to develop a symmetrical, Christian young womanhood, trained for leadership and service in the home, the church, the com- munity, the nation, and the world. Not only will the West- minster Guild unite the young women of an individual church, but it will also unite similar groups from hundreds of churches in the country. It is hoped that through the enrolling of groups in churches, schools, and colleges in mis- sion lands the Westminster Guild will become world-wide. Thus the young womanhood of the Church will be united in great tasks of service. ORGANIZATION Under the Correlated Plan. Any group of young women in the Young People’s Section of a church which is using the young women’s part of the Presbyterian Program for Young People is qualified to become a Westminster Guild. Under this plan the organization need not be elabo- rate, but a constitution should be adopted and officers elected. These should include a president, a vice president, a secre- tary, and a treasurer. Committees should be appointed as they are needed to carry on the work of the Guild. A natural alignment for committee work would be that following the general scheme of the Program. Membership should be open to all young women of the church or congregation from eighteen through twenty-three years of age. Those who are unable to attend the meetings because of temporary change of residence should be able to retain their membership if they so desire. An effort should be made to enlist every young woman of the church in this organization so that she may share in the complete Program. The ideal is to have in a church one Westminster Guild which includes all the young women in that church. Where there are organized classes which wish to preserve their identity it is recommended that each individual class become 116 THE WESTMINSTER GUILD a Westminster Guild. This would provide an adequate pro- gram for them, and would enable the young women to share in the Guild fellowship and to carry their full share in the Presbyterian Program. A committee made up of rep- resentatives from each of these Guilds would be needed to correlate the work of the separate groups and plan the phases of the program which are to be carried as united activities by all the Guilds. The chairman of this committee would be the logical representative of the young women on the Young People’s Cabinet. Under the Unified Plan. When the Young People’s Section is organized under the unified plan (see Chapter VI) the activities of the young women would be carried out under the direction of the young woman vice president of the Section and the young women members of the Committees on Worship, Instruction, Service, and Recreation. No part of the Program should be slighted. An effort should be made to gain the active support of all the young women of the Section for this part of the Program. WORK The Westminster Guild will wish to interest all its mem- bers in a complete program of religious development and Christian living. This does not mean that the Guild itself must carry out the whole Program of instruction, worship, service, and recreation for young women. Many parts of the Program will be provided elsewhere, as in the Sunday school and the Young People’s society. The Westminster Guild will, however, want to be sure that these elements are actu- ally provided in the other organizations, and that all the young women are encouraged to have a part in them. If a considerable number of Guild members are not sharing in some essential phase of the Program which should be pro- vided elsewhere, for example, the Sunday-school Bible course, the Westminster Guild should try to find some way of supplying this lack. When other organizations are carrying their part of the Program, the Westminster Guild should cooperate by carry- 117 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM ing the particular share allotted to it. Cooperation will be possible through the Young People’s Cabinet of the church, on which the Westminster Guild will be represented by its president or a delegated representative. MEETINGS The program of the Westminster Guild will be carried out in regular week-day meetings, special services, and study classes at intervals during the year. There should also be planned activities of service and recreation. Some of the service projects may extend over a long period of time; for example, the leadership of a younger group should be sus- tained throughout the year. Though such projects may be planned by the Westminster Guild, they will require the time of some of the members outside the regular meetings. It is recognized that there are certain phases of the week- day program which may be carried out with more interest by the young men’s and young women’s groups together. Where this is true, joint meetings should be planned. While certain phases of the study of vocations can be more effec- tively pursued separately, the study of missions could well be taken up by young men and young women together. PROGRAM Under the correlated plan the Cabinet of the Young People’s Section of the church assigns to the Westminster Guild the responsibility for definite parts of the Program. The suggestions which follow indicate the work which will usually be given to the Guild. Under the unified plan the full program of worship, study, and activity here outlined for the Westminster Guild will be carried by the young women in their week-day session under the direction of the young woman vice president of the Section and the young women members of the respective committees. Instruction. Since intelligent participation in the work of the Kingdom depends upon knowedge, the young women will wish to gain a clearer understanding of the task in which they are engaged. They will wish to hear reports of the service projects which they are undertaking in the com- 118 4 THE WESTMINSTER GUILD munity, and of those movements of national and international significance in which they are interested. They will receive letters and publications telling about the work which they support at home and abroad. These should be reviewed or presented in some way at the meetings so that all may become familiar with this part of the work of the organization. In addition to information about work supported there should also be a definite program of study at least twice each year. Young women will feel the necessity for a wider knowledge of work on the mission field so that they may understand the significance of their particular share as it re- lates to the whole. Other subjects related to the Bible study and the themes of the program will have phases which may best be discussed by the young women alone, for example, the particular vocations open to women. Courses of study on these subjects will appear in syllabus or book form and may be obtained from the three Boards of the Church which cooperate in the Program. They will be divided into a con- venient number of lessons so that time may be allowed for the working out of service projects and recreational activities. In approaching the week-day program of study, careful attention should be given to the whole plan of instruction as presented in Chapter III. Special reference should be made to the section on “The Week-Day Hour.” Free discussion should be encouraged in the classes. The purpose is not so much to be taught as to seek together for an understanding of the truth of life. Even this discovery is not enough. Truth dare not be left like seed in a stony place where it cannot grow. When it has been found the next concern of honest minds is the service—to one another, to the church, to the community, and to the world—which should result from such. knowledge. “Faith apart from works is barren.” So are knowledge, understanding, and vision dead without resultant action. Young women through their study have the finest opportunity to transform knowl- edge and learning into lives of golden service. Service. Much of the finest service possible for young women will result from their own suggestions, and will arise 119 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM from the needs and opportunities of the local situation. From a realization of community problems which are of special interest to women, there should be a broadening of the realm of service to include participation in a definite way in those national and international movements through which women may make a valuable contribution to human welfare. Chapter IV of this Manual gives an outline of the scope of service and shows how service projects should be discovered. The chapter on the Westminster Guild in each Year Book will give special suggestions for service in the home, church, community, nation, and world, all of which will be related to the theme for that year. Such suggestions are intended only to open the way for the special work which is assigned by the Cabinet to the Westminster Guild and carried out by the young women themselves. Special plans emanating from the Westminster Guild should be brought to the Cabinet before an attempt is made to carry them out, in order that nothing may be done without the cooperation of the whole Section of the church, so that all overlapping may be avoided. One of the most attractive features of the Westminster Guild is the extensive part which it has, along with the other organizations for Young People in the Church, in the support of definite proj- ects carried on by the Presbyterian Church. Westminster Guild members have a share in the support of those proj- ects on the mission field at home and abroad, and in the field of Christian education, for which young people are responsible. Worship. Although worship for young women is found in the church service, the Sunday school, and the Young People’s society, a definite place should be made for it in the Guild program. The Westminster Guild affords a unique opportunity for helping its members to secure all-round development. The spirit of worship and devotion to an ever- present Christ should permeate the practical service and the healthy, enjoyable recreation of all the members. Worship in the Westminster Guild usually takes the form of a devotional service related to the theme of the study of 120 THE WESTMINSTER GUILD a et the day. Both Bible passage and hymns should be chosen with care. For a full discussion of worship see Chapter II of this Manual. The worship period presents an opportunity for special intercession for the missionaries and for that work in the community, in this land, or across seas, in which young people are especially interested. The “Year Book of Prayer for Missions” should be used. Missionaries who are being supported and boys and girls who are receiving guidance and education are looking to the young women for spiritual strength through prayer. The spirit of worship, both for the members alone and in their group meetings, should be cultivated, and all aids should be utilized to make this the very heart and center of life for every Westminster Guild member. Recreation. The recreational task of the Westminster Guild includes all those activities, social and athletic, which are particularly adapted to the young women alone. A rally in-the fall for all the young women of the church, and social events in connection with the week-day study, constitute the normal social activities of such a group. These should be planned with a full knowledge of the recreational program of the Young People’s society or of the Sunday school, so that there will be neither conflict in dates nor an overloaded program. This codperation will be secured through the Young People’s Cabinet. The athletic program of the young women is the particular responsibility of the Guild. The principles outlined in Chapter V should be carefully studied, and plans made so that the young women of the church may have opportunity for the physical recreation, games, outings, and the general good times which they need. This part of the program for young women of the church is apt to be neglected unless the Westminster Guild plans attractive and healthful physical recreation. The Year Book and other publications of the organization make more detailed suggestions for such ac- tivities. 121 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1. Lead all the young women of the church to realize their definite responsibilities in the task of the Kingdom. 2. Make the program of worship, instruction, service, and recreation rather than organization of primary importance, and urge its use in any form of organi- zation which best meets the local need. not permit the work of the Westminster Guild to narrow down toa small group. Though a few may do the work, determine that the many shall receive the benefits of the program. 122 CHA PEER EXT THE YOUNG MEN’S FELLOWSHIP No one questions the ability of young men to achieve great things. Their activities in athletics, in business, and in many other respects reveal initiative, leadership, courage, endur- ance. The Christian Church, full of adventure requiring initiative, leadership, and all the other qualities of manhood, has failed to enlist as it should the young men of its con- stituency. There are, throughout the Church, groups of young men who are ready and willing for a great task. The time has come when these able groups should be invited to full participation in the work of Christ’s Kingdom. The Presbyterian Program for Young People offers occa- sion for providing what has so long been needed, an adequate Church program for young men. What is here suggested is primarily program, secondarily organization ; and this organi- zation is only for the sake of carrying out the program effectively. No overthrowing of present organization is proposed, but only a simple plan whereby all the young men of a church may work together for the accomplishment of one common purpose. HISTORY Some years ago, the missionary women of the Church realized the immediate and potential possibilities of the young women of the Church, and an organization specifically for Presbyterian young women, called the Westminster Guild, was launched. It grew rapidly and has become a real power in the Church. No such movement was ever attempted for young men. In some churches young men, prompted for the most part by local ambitions, did organize. Some groups were called Young Men’s Brotherhoods, others Ushers’ Asso- ciations, others athletic clubs, others social clubs. There were many kinds, but no attempt was made to affiliate the 123 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM organizations of young men in the Church as a whole or relate them to the one program for all young people of the denomination. The Church is now convinced that a con- certed effort to unite the young men of each church in some form of organization is advisable. The name suggested for this group of young men is the Young Men’s Fellowship. PURPOSE The purpose of the Young Men’s Fellowship is to develop and enlist the strength of young men for Christ and the Church, and to aid young men in living and serving most effectively as Christians. There is a certain esprit de corps found in a group of young men organized for a common purpose and working together at a common task. Such an organization often appeals to those outside the Church in a way that no other can. Its program affords an opportunity for supplementing church worship services and work in Sunday school and Young People’s society by providing additional information through study classes, informal dis- cussions, or participation in dramas and pageants. It seeks especially to enlist the young men in practical service activi- ties in the church and community. This service in turn is practical training for larger church responsibility in the future. The Fellowship also advocates a larger social and recreational program centering in the church and related often to the recreational program of the Westminster Guild. The Fellowship will not only bring together the young men in an individual church but will also, through Young Men’s Fellowships in other churches and on the mission field, create a national and international bond of fellowship in service with other Christian young men. The work of Ushers’ Associations, Young Men’s Brotherhoods, and other organizations, where they exist, would not be eliminated but embodied in the Fellowship and so broadened as to take in additional activities to interest and hold all the young men. The purpose creates a number of immediate objectives which more or less outline a program for the Fellowship, such as: 124 THE YOUNG MEN’S FELLOWSHIP To give young men a definite share in the work of the Church and to prepare them for specific duties in the Church. To discover and suggest opportunities for service. To provide social and recreational activities for young men. To give young men an opportunity to study the problems in this country and throughout the world which they must help to solve, and to enlist young men in the Chris- tian solution of these problems. To promote high standards of personal living and to de- velop personal efficiency, physical, mental, and spiritual. WORK The Young Men’s Fellowship should aim to secure for all the young men connected with the church the whole pro- gram which the church ought to provide to build well- rounded and able Christian manhood. In many cases parts of this program are provided elsewhere in the church, as in church worship services, in the Sunday-school sessions, and in the Young People’s society. In these cases the Fellow- ship will want to make sure that all its members are being reached. By cooperation through its representative on the Young People’s Cabinet it should help to plan the entire pro- gram. In its own program the Fellowship will want to em- phasize those parts of the Program which have been espe- cially committed to it by the Cabinet and are of particular interest to young men. The Young Men’s Fellowship will find an especially large place to fill in the fields of service and recreation. The recognized tendency of young men to drift from the Church may be due largely to the fact that the Church has not given them enough to do. To meet and to discuss is not enough for most young men—they want to be at something that is worth doing. They would like to be good for something—though it may be hard for them just to be good. Surely in case of most churches and committees there 1s enough to keep busy all those who want to work. There are tasks waiting also that affect vitally the welfare of the nation and the world. In plunging heartily into these tasks the young men of many churches will find themselves 125 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM discovering the fullness of the Christian life and will make their organizations centers of a most helpful fellowship. Recreation in the lives of young men may be far more clearly linked with service than has usually been supposed. Few young men can achieve a virile and efficient life without plenty of active and enjoyable exercise, proper mental re- laxation and refreshment, and helpful social contacts. Yet there are many communities where young men, as well as others, find these good things difficult to secure. Some are seeking them in places where they cannot be found. To make them available for all the young men of a church or community is a very real service. This may well be one of the chief interests of a Young Men’s Fellowship. The general activities of the Fellowship may include ath- letic and social programs; numerous projects of service to the church, to the boys, to the community, and to an even wider circle; investigation and surveys; educational trips to such places as factories and historical sites; encouragement of good reading and of further study on the part of mem- bers, e.g., in night school or through home-study courses. Many of the things that young men should know in order to be prepared for their Christian responsibility call for study. Perhaps there should be a special committee to plan every year study and discussion courses on vital topics and to enroll each member of the Fellowship in these courses. The subjects may include the work of the Church at home and abroad, about which young men should certainly be in- formed if they are to be effective members of the Church; training in leadership, such as teaching or leading groups of boys; coaching boys’ teams and managing athletic games; first aid; the choice of a vocation; Christian attitude toward sex; and many other equally vital matters. ORGANIZATION The Young Men’s Fellowship should include all young men in a church who are eighteen through twenty-three years of age. It may be formed by affiliating all the existing or- ganizations for young men, such as classes in the Sunday 126 THE YOUNG MEN’S FELLOWSHIP school, Ushers’ Associations, and athletic clubs, to carry out one program for young men. ‘This requires a very simple form of organization, to clear the whole program, to assign various responsibilities to the several groups, and to try to see that all the young men are being reached. If most of the young men are in organized classes, these classes by adopt- ing the program of the Fellowship for their week-day ses- sions may share in the work being done by young men in the Presbyterian Church. At the same time they secure the benefit of a class program vitally related to the rest of the work for Young People in an individual church. A com- mittee made up of representatives from each of the classes would be needed to correlate the work of the separate Fel- lowships and to plan the phases of the Program which are to be carried as united activities. The chairman of this com- mittee would be the one who should represent the young men on the Cabinet. The Fellowship may be formed as an entirely new organization for all the young men of the church, the various activities being planned as distinct fea- tures of this one organization. Under the Correlated Plan. The organization of the Fellowship should be determined largely in the light of the local activities. Under the correlated plan for the Young People’s Section (see Chapter VI, and chart on page 80), the Fellowship should elect the usual officers, should build a con- stitution, and should appoint such committees as may seem necessary to carry forward the work. Committees on Wor- ship, Instruction, Service, and Recreation, should be consid- ered as possibilities as these represent the different parts of the Young People’s Program. Others should be added as needed. The Fellowship should be a vital part of the Young People’s Section of the Church and its president or other elected member would logically represent the Fellowship on the Young People’s Cabinet. Under the Unified Plan. In those churches where the entire Young People’s Section of the Church has one or- ganization (see Chapter VI, and chart on page 79), the ac- tivities for the young men would be practically unchanged ; 127, MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM even the name might be continued, but the organization plan would be different. Instead of being a separate organization and having a special set of officers distinctly for the Fellow- ship, the activities of the young men would be carried for- ward in the main by the young man vice president of the Young People’s Section, in cooperation with the young men members of the committees of Worship, Instruction, Service, Recreation, and any other existing committees of the Section. MEETINGS It is expected that the work of the Fellowship will be carried on through regular meetings with well-planned pro- grams, activities carried on between meetings, and special studies of vital topics carried out through a series of dis- cussions. The regular meetings should be held at least once a month. Semimonthly or weekly meetings would make for a more active and helpful organization. Part of the time at each meeting may be given to recreation—perhaps athletics if the necessary equipment is available—under the direction of those in charge of recreation in all its phases. A regular period should be devoted to a constructive pro- gram of information or inspiration planned by the respon- sible committee. These programs may be in the form of discussions on vitally interesting subjects; talks by out- standing men; talks by members on their jobs, their hobbies, their travels, or other subjects on which they can give first- hand and interesting information; debates on current prob- lems; stereopticon talks; dramatic presentations; discussion of projects being carried on by the Fellowship, and the work- ing out of further plans. PROGRAM Under the following main heads of the Young People’s Program are indicated some of the things in which the Young Men’s Fellowship should be particularly interested: Service. As stated above, the Young Men’s Fellowship will want to give much time and emphasis to service, both by 128 THE YOUNG MEN’S FELLOWSHIP the whole group and by individual members. In fact, many a Fellowship will begin with definite plans for Christian serv- ice if it wants to make its program vital, letting the study and other features grow naturally out of this service. The Fellowship should share in the service survey con- ducted under the direction of the Cabinet of the Young Peo- ple’s Section. To it would doubtless be assigned the task of discovering facts in regard to the young men of the com- munity ; for instance, whether or not their working conditions are good, whether their opportunities for recreation are suffi- cient and helpful, how many of them are Christian. When the program of service for the year is planned, the Fellowship would be the organization which should reach - these young men. It might also take charge of work for younger boys. Here it should be borne in mind that prob- ably the best service that young men can render these boys, service that probably no one else can render so well, is in living strong and fine lives and in being real friends to the boys. A group of young men playing hard and fair, keep- ing their speech clean and worthy, living virile Christian lives, is a blessing to the boys of any community. To the Fellowship would also be assigned parts of the service program in all its phases, including service in the home, the church, the community, the nation, and the world. Chapter IV of this Manual gives general principles, and each Year Book will contain specific suggestions. The young men will want to share in the support of the particular pieces of work assigned to the young people under the Board of National Missions and the Board of Foreign Missions and the Board of Christian Education. Some of this work has an especial appeal for young men. Recreation. The Fellowship should be a center of Christian friendship and wholesome social life for all the young men of the church. Its recreational program should be carefully and thoughtfully planned to include the activi- ties, both social and athletic, which are particularly adapted to the needs of the young men. This program should include plenty of social good fel- 129 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM lowship. It may be possible to equip an attractive clubroom for the young men, which will assist in centering their social life in the church. One of the finest things the Fellowship can do is to provide a meeting place for young men that will be helpful in all its influences. Social evenings should be reg- ular and frequent, with now and then an affair to which out- siders are invited. Doubtless the Fellowship will want to plan some of its social activities in cooperation with the West- minster Guild, and it will want also to carry its full part in the whole social program for the young people of the church. Keeping in mind the importance of healthful exercise, a definite program of athletics may well be planned for the young men. A church may have only limited equipment, but with a little work and slight expense it may be possible to adapt at least one room for certain indoor sports. Perhaps the church owns some land upon which one or more tennis courts could be made. A near-by lot may afford room for a baseball diamond, the Fellowship assuming responsibility for its upkeep. The young men, through the Fellowship, might even lead in a movement to secure a church gymnasium. In many communities it may be possible to make arrangements with the Young Men’s Christian Association, the public schools, or other agencies, so that a gymnasium or athletic field is available at certain times. This athletic program will doubtless involve the planning of teams and the arranging of schedules of games with teams representing other churches. A Fellowship, however, should not be satisfied merely with having a winning team in some sport which calls for the participation of only a few men, but should seek to foster the sort of program that will get every member into some active sport. Besides the usual athletic contests which a church group might attempt, such as baseball, tennis, track, there are numerous other interest- ing possibilities—soccer, handball, volley ball, skating, hiking, and bowling. The recreation program should not be limited to athletics. Other parts of a man need recreation as much as does his physical nature. The Fellowship should endeavor to help 130 THE YOUNG MEN’S FELLOWSHIP its members to plan varied and worth-while recreation pro- grams that will make the best use of their leisure time. Some of the meetings of the Fellowship may be devoted to such activities as encouraging valuable hobbies, acquainting members with good books and developing habits of reading and an appreciation of art and literature, arousing interest in various branches of science and in the study of nature. The study of nature might well be encouraged through de- veloping a love of the out of doors and the ability to enjoy hikes and longer camping trips. Instruction. The Fellowship should have a definite program of study which should be closely related to the Presbyterian Program for the year as revealed in the Year Book, and to the service activities in which the members par- ticipate. Among the subjects in which young men should be interested are Christian citizenship in its bearing upon com- munity and national problems, racial and international rela- tionships, world peace, the attitude of the Church toward social and industrial questions, vocations for men, the Chris- tian home and what it requires of a man, and the problem of personal efficiency. In the program for each year there should be some study of the Bible and of the great missionary task committed to the Church. Ne If the members of the Fellowship a.2 not in Sunday school, some definite plan should be made by which the Bible-study course of the Presbyterian Program for Young People is taken up, either as a series of devotional studies at the meetings of the Fellowship, or as a special course ar- ranged for some period of the year. Likewise, it should be the aim of the Fellowship to have a definite discussion of some mission subject during some portion of each year. The Presbyterian Program for Young People provides week-day courses on missions and other subjects related to the themes for the year. If the great work of the Church in the world is ever to be carried on as it ought, young men must be ready to do their full share. So vast an enterprise needs the informed and enthusiastic backing of every member of the Church. Besides, young men are vitally concerned in 131 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM the great national and world conditions and issues that are involved in missions. The Fellowship, in planning its year’s program, should read Chapter III of this Manual, and the chapter dealing with the Fellowship in each Year Book. ‘Through its representa- tive on the Cabinet the Fellowship will help to plan the whole year’s program for the young people of the church, and to assign to each group that part which it should carry out. Worship. While much of the worship for young men is provided through the church services, the Sunday school, and the Young People’s society, there are distinct parts of the worship program which the Fellowship should include in its work. There should be brief devotional periods at the meetings of the Fellowship. These should be planned beforehand and should vitally concern the lives of young men. Virile hymns, prayers which express the needs and aspirations of young men, and Bible passages which touch their problems should be used in these periods. The Fellowship should encourage church attendance for all its members, and perhaps assume definite responsibility for helping regularly in the church services. Young men may help each other in their personal religious lives by studying together devotional books, recommending books which have proved valuable, studying the devotional lives of great men, and making definite covenants of prayer between members of the Fellowship. 132 x) BIBLIOGRAPHY This Bibliography does not claim to be exhaustive, but it does attempt to list some books which should prove helpful to those who are interested in young people’s work. GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND METHODS Betts, E. H., and Hawthorne, M. O., Method in Teaching Religion. Coe, G. A., A Social Theory of Religious Education. Cope, H. F., Organizing the Church School. Eggleston, M. W., The Use of the Story in Religious Edu- cation. Fergusson, E. M., Church School Administration. Harper, W. A., An Integrated Program of Religious Edu- cation. Mayer, H. C., The Church’s Program for Young People. Meredith, W. V., Pageantry and Dramatics in Religious Education: National Young People’s Board of the Religious Education Council of Canada, Young People’s Manual. Shaver, E. L., The Project Principle in Religious Educa- tion. Smith, F. W., Leaders of Young People. Thompson, J. V., Handbook for Workers with Young People. WorsHIP Theory: Candler, Martha, Drama in Religious Service, Chapter I. Hartshorne, Hugh, Manual for Training in Worship. Kennedy, M. E., and Meyer, M.’M., The Training of the Devotional Life. Smith, F. W., Leaders of Young People, Chapter XIV. Weigle, L. A., and Tweedy, H. H., Training the Devo- tional Life. 133 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM Hymns and Hymn Stories: Benson, Louis F., Studies of Familiar Hymns. First and Second Series. Benson, Louis F., Editor, The Hymnal Revised, Presby- terian Church, U. S. A. Smith, H. A., Editor, Hymnal for American Youth. Wells, A. R., A Treasury of Hymns. Prayers: Knight, W. A., Prayers Ancient and Modern. Orchard, W. E., The Temple. Rauchenbusch, Walter, Prayers of the Social Awakening. Woman’s Press, Book of Prayers Written for Use in an Indian College. Religious Poetry : Crowe, M. F., Christ in the Poetry of To-day. Hill, C. M., Compiler, The World’s Great Religious Poetry. Morris, Joseph, and Adams, St. Clair, Compilers, It Can Be Done. Porter, D. R., Poems of Action. Stories for Use in Worship Programs: Eggleston, M. W., Stories for Use on Special Days in the Church School. Stowell, J. S., Story-Worship Programs. INSTRUCTION Psychology : Colvin, S. S., The Learning Process. James, William, Psychology, Brief Course. Mudge, E. L., Psychology of Later Adolescence. (In preparation. ) Tracy, Frederick, The Psychology of Adolescence. Principles and Methods: Betts, G. H., The Curriculum of Religious Education. Betts, G. H., How to Teach Religion. Elliott, Harrison, The Why and How of Group Discussion. 134 eo * BIBLIOGRAPHY Shaver, E. L., Teaching Adolescents in the Church School. Weigle; L.A. The Teacher. SERVICE Candler, Martha, Drama in Religious Service. Hutchins, W. N., Graded Social Service for the Sunday School. Loveland, Gilbert, Training World Christians. Shaver, E. L., The Project Principle in Religious Educa- tion, pages 292-317. Smith, F. W., Leaders of Young People, Chapters X-XII. For specific information about the special work set apart for young people’s gifts, write the Board of National Mis- sions, the Board of Foreign Missions, and the Board of Christian Education. RECREATION Theory: Gates, H. W., Recreation and the Church. Powell, W. T., Recreational Leadership for Church and Community. Playground and Recreation Association of America, Com- munity Drama. Richardson, N. E., The Church at Play. Games and Programs: Bancroft, J. H., Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium. Chesley, A. M., Social Activities for Men and Boys. Draper, G. O., Games. Geister, E. M., Ice Breakers and the Ice Breaker Herself. Rohrbaugh, Lynn, “Handy,” The Leader’s Loose Leaf Notes. Harbin, E. O., Phunology. Hofmann, M. C., Games for Everybody. Miller, C. A., Joy from Japan, Chinese Ginger, and Play Plans from Persia. Owen, Ethel, A Year of Recreation. 135 APPENDIX A BASIC OUTLINE OF SIX YEAR PROGRAM FOR PRES- BYTERIAN YOUNG PEOPLE FROM EIGHTEEN THROUGH TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF AGE The aim of the Presbyterian Program for Young People is growth in effective Christian living through personal com- mitment to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, acceptance of his purpose for the whole of life, and united service for the advancement of the Kingdom. Worship The aim of worship is to establish and to develop that filial relationship with God and Christlike fellowship with men, through which the worshiper shares God’s Spirit and pur- poses and receives strength for Christian living. 1. Elements of worship . Reverence . Praise . Gratitude . Communion . Aspiration Loyalty . Good will ans of worship Music Prayer Scripture . Giving . Message (talks, story, drama) f. Devotional literature 3. Types of worship a. Individual b. Family c. General groups (1) Formal service (2) Informal service 136 Mmoacrp 2. M oO ono se APPENDIX A 4. Methods of worship a. By carefully planned programs of worship b. By developing individual participation on the part of young people c. By providing the materials and equipment for wor- ship Instruction The aim of instruction is to present and interpret the facts of the Christian religion, the principles and ideals of Jesus, and the history, needs, achievements, and methods for his world enterprise as the basis for a well-developed Christian character and for efficient Christian service. BIBLE 1. Jesus Christ and daily living . Daily task, in business or school . Home . Companionships . Pleasures . Personal standards of living Social and industrial relationships . Racial and international relationships . Use of possessions Service to others Purpose of life . Place of God in each life Faith m. Prayer n. Choice of life work 2. Jesus Christ himself . Story of his life . His teachings . His gospel of the Kingdom . His revelation of God . His lordship: why Christ is authoritative in our lives . His work for men mmo ro ho ao oD oman op eh 137 Oo MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM Forerunners of Jesus a. The calling and development of the Hebrew people b. Leaders of Israel c. The prophets and their messages (1) Their thought of God and conception of Israel’s destiny (2) Their teachings regarding everyday living 4. Followers of Jesus: their work as revealed in The Acts bh re and the Epistles a. The work and teachings of the twelve disciples b. Paul’s journeys, labors, and teachings c. Other leaders d. The apostolic churches . How we got our Bible a. Authorship of the books b. Historical background of the books c. Preservation, translation, and transmission of the Bible from generation to generation . The literature of the Bible a. Survey of the books as literature b. Outstanding examples of literary excellence MISSIONS . Motives and aims of the missionary enterprise . The Bible basis of missions a. Missionary implications of the Old Testament b. Life and teachings of Jesus as the basis of missions c. Missions in apostolic times . The part of missions in the establishment of Christianity a. The founding of the early churches b. The carrying of Christianity throughout Europe and to America c. Early attempts at world-wide missions . Story of modern missions a. Great pioneer missionaries at home and abroad b. Spread of Christianity to western America c. Beginnings of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and other lands 138 APPENDIX A 5. Present-day background of national and foreign mis- a b sions . Races and peoples . Religious beliefs c. National and world conditions 6. Th ) b e missionary task to-day . Problems to be faced . Agencies at work c. Methods of work d. Accomplishments on mission fields e. f The unfinished task _ Untouched and uncharted resources in the Church 7. The Presbyterian share in the missionary enterprise aan bie Ne a b . History of Presbyterian missions _ Fields in which the Presbyterian Church operates . Work being done to-day at home and abroad _ Method and organization for financing and carry- ing on this work _ Unmet missionary obligations of the Presbyterian Church _ The share of the young people in Presbyterian mis- sions, national and foreign THE CHURCH e Church to-day . The place of the individual in the Church . The program of the individual church c. The program of the Presbyterian denomination ) and how it is carried on through the various agencies d. The courts of the Presbyterian Church and how they function e. The creed of Presbyterians 2cEh a e development of the Church . The religious life of the Hebrews (1) Buildings (2) Music (3) Method of worship 139 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM b. The founding of the Christian Aeibincs (1) Government (2) Methods of worship (3) Program (4) Buildings c. The Church during the Middle Ages: a comparison of progress in art and architecture with lack of progress in evangelical religion d. The Reformation (1) Cause (2) Methods (3) Results e. Modern Church history (1) The growth of denominations (2) Accomplishments of the Church (3) Present-day task of the Church STEWARDSHIP 1. Stewardship as the Christian law of life a. Biblical basis b. Application to the whole of life 2. Stewardship of time a. Budgeting time b. Portion set apart for definite Christian purposes 3. Stewardship of talent and personality a. Christian valuation b. Responsibility for use c. Development 4. Stewardship of possessions a. Principles of acquisition b. Personal responsibility for use (1) Apportionment, budgeting, and accounting (2) Proportionate giving (3) Proportionate spending (4) Proportionate saving c. Money and the world enterprise of the Church 140 WN & APPENDIX A EVANGELISM . Evangelism as part of the Church program a. A continuous activity b. Through education c. Special services . Evangelism as an individual responsibility . Participation of young people in a church or community evangelistic movement a. Publicity b. Service in meetings (music, ushering, and so forth) c. Personal work . Methods of individual work a. Preparation b. Finding opportunities c. Approach d. Meeting objections LEADERSHIP TRAINING . Elementary psychology and pedagogy . Parliamentary procedure . The purpose, organization, program, and administration of such church organizations as: . Official boards in individual church . Sunday school with its subdivisions . Expressional societies . Vacation Church schools . Week-day Church schools . Missionary organizations . Clubs rho @.Q oO 2 the} . Methods in various age groups (Children 1 to 11; Young People 12 to 23; Adults 24 to ?) . Instruction . Worship . Service . Recreation om ® Qu 141 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM VOCATIONS . Types of vocations and their requirements . Professions . Farming . Social service . Business . Politics . Trades . Home-making . Way to choose a vocation a. The world’s need (1) Of health (2) Of education (3) Of Christianity (4) Of political guidance and social justice (5) Of use of earth’s resources b. Ability of the individual to meet the need; special interest and ability as basis for decision . Christian view of work Life as a stewardship . Maximum preparation for life work a. Physical b. Mental c. Spiritual d. Social apo Len (ey (ener tenis, RELIGIOUS ART . Music a. History of music in the life of the Church from the earliest time to the present b. Various types of vocal and instrumental religious music c. Great hymns of the Church . Drama and pageantry a. Drama in the Bible b. Drama in the Early Church c. Medieval religious drama: morality and miracle plays d. Drama and pageantry in the Church to-day 142 APPENDIX A . Literature a. The Bible as literature b. Masterpieces of religious literature . Art and architecture a. Art of the Bible b. Medieval art c. Church architecture d. Modern developments in religious art HEALTH AND HYGIENE . Personal health standards in their relation to the devel- opment of a well-balanced Christian life . Sex hygiene in relation to a. The individual b. The ideal Christian family life c. The well-being of the race . Community and world health problems and the special responsibility of Christians for their solution . Preparation for first aid and volunteer health work HoME AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS . Relationships outside the home a. General social contacts (1) Interdependence of people in community (2) Making the most of present contacts (a) At daily tasks (b) In church life (c) In community life (d) In recreation (3) Making contacts and interests as wide as possible b. Friendships (1) Meaning (2) Opportunities (3) Obligations c. Relationships between men and women (1) Mental attitude (2) Physical basis 143 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM (3) Personal significance (4) Social significance 2. Relationships in the home a. History of family and its place as unit of society b. Ideals of a Christian home (1) Love (2) Fellowship with God (3) Unselfishness and sacrifice (4) Cooperation and helpfulness (5) Hospitality (6) Service to others c. Choice of a life partner d. Obligations of Christian parenthood Wor.Lp CITIZENSHIP 1; Principles of Jesus applied to national and world prob- lems . Social problems . Industrial problems Racial problems . Political problems . International relationships (1) Ideals and problems of world brotherhood (2) War and peace 2. Responsibility of the Christian citizen toward national and world problems . Obligations of the franchise . Knowledge of laws Enforcement of laws . Molding of public opinion Public service coAnore poh) elon Service The aim of service is to help build the Kingdom by giving practical expression to Christian impulses and ideals through Christian living and action. A survey to discover practical ways in which young people can serve in the home, the church, the community, the nation, and the world should pre- cede service activities. 144 APPENDIX A 1. Home Participate in family responsibilities 2. Church a. Participate in meetings and activities of the church and its various organizations b. Participate in financial obligations c. Help in the evangelistic and extension work d. Participate in work of presbyterial, synodical, and national units of Church organization 3. Community a. Share in helpful activities among student, indus- trial, and other community groups b. Work among foreign-speaking peoples c. Assist in civic projects d. Assist in charities and welfare work e. Render service in institutions f. Participate in interdenominational activities 4, Nation a. Help to spread knowledge of and interest in the work of national missions of the Presbyterian Church b. Support loyally the work of the Presbyterian Church on the field of national missions c. Support actively all national movements looking toward enforcement of law, social justice, and cooperation for world peace d. Work actively for the development of Christian friendliness and good will among all peoples in America 5. World a. Help to spread knowledge of an interest in the work of foreign missions of the Presbyterian Church b. Support loyally the work of the Presbyterian Church on the foreign field c. Help to overcome international and interracial prejudices and work for a real knowledge and appreciation of all peoples 145 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM d. Support international movements for world cooperation and peace Recreation The aim of recreation is to help young people in finding and developing Christian friendship and fellowship, to guide them in applying Christian principles and purposes to their ; social and recreational life, and to assist them in maintaining / their lives on the highest possible plane. 1. Content . Reading . Music . Drama . Indoor and outdoor play, organized and unorgan- ized e. Social fellowship f. Athletics g. Gymnastics 2. Method a. Survey of the community to discover its social and recreational needs b. Promotion of wholesome activities which will sat- isfy the play instinct and the social and recrea- tional needs, by such means as: (1) Plays and pageants (2) Athletic events (3) Gymnasium programs (4) Seasonal festivals (5) Parties and socials (6) Entertainments > (7) Summer camps a (8) Hikes and picnics (9) Lists of worth-while games and amusements for use in the home (10) Circulating libraries of home games oem ome 146 APPENDIX B AGE GROUP PROGRAM PROMOTION THROUGH THE TRAINING OF LEADERSHIP It has been recognized by those responsible for the Pres- byterian Program for Young People that one of the most im- portant factors in promoting it is an adequately trained lead- ership. The following plan for the training of leadership has therefore been worked out. It is recognized that the training required for effective leadership includes at least: 1. A study of the types of materials used in the building of a curriculum with an especial study of the way in which these materials have been organized in the Presbyterian Age Group Programs and of the principles underlying these programs. This will include a consideration of the way in which these programs may be adapted to meet the needs of individual churches. 2. A study of the organization to be used in carrying through an age-group program and of ways in which the individual church may adapt the suggested forms of organization and so meet its own situation. 3. A study of the principles basic to the leadership of edu- cational activities. In securing this training the following plan is proposed: 1. “Registered leaders.” a. The Director of Young People’s Work of the Board of Christian Education will register annually such individual leaders and teachers in the local church as meet certain spe- cific requirements in terms of Leadership Training credits. (A Leadership Training credit represents the successful comple- tion of one unit of work in the Standard Training Course. Each unit consists of a minimum of ten class hours of work in some one of the subjects of the course.)- To such leaders there shall be issued some card of recognition and they shall be recognized as registered leaders in their respective 147 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM groups. It is understood that the intention of this register- ing of leaders is not to make the handling of age-group pro- grams impossible to unregistered leaders, but is to place a premium upon preparation for the more efficient handling of the program. b. The individual who applies for the first time for recogni- tion as a registered leader shall offer at least the follow- ing units of Leadership Training credit: (1) The Teaching Work of the Church. (2) Psychology of Later Adolescence. (3) Young People’s Materials and Methods. (4) Organization and Administration of the Young People’s Department. c. After leaders have been registered they must present each year two additional units of Leadership Training credit in order to secure the annual renewal of their registration. The registration may become permanent when the Training Diploma has been secured. The Training Diploma is granted upon completion of the twelve-unit Standard Training Course. d. The Director of Young People’s Work will, from time to time, recognize those who have been listed as registered leaders in some publication of the Board. 2. Agencies for Age Group Program promotion through training of leadership. This type of promotion will be carried on through the fol- lowing agencies : a. Standard Training Schools. A Standard Training School is a school in which, under accredited leaders, units of the Standard Training Course are offered for credit. The school must offer at least four courses and must have at least ten class periods of fifty minutes each. The minimum time for such a school is five days. In a five- or six-day school only one course may be taken by a pupil for credit. The standards for such schools have been formulated by the In- ternational Committee on Education. (1) Denominational short term, five or six days, offering the age-group specialization courses along with other courses. 148 \y © APPENDIX B (2) Special denominational schools organized to offer only those courses essential to registration. (3) Interdenominational Schools, long or short term. It is to be understood that when materials and methods courses or organization and administration courses have been taken in and credits secured from Interdenominational Training Schools, the leader applying for registration should be re- quired to supplement this credit by a study of specific Pres- byterian materials and by satisfactory reports of this study to the Director of Young People’s Work of the Board of Chris- tian Education. (4) Summer Training Schools, especially that at Wooster, Ohio. b. Training classes that meet the standard requirements. These may be: (1) In summer conferences. (2) In the individual church. (3) In the community, serving a number of churches. These classes may be organized to include an entire pres- bytery and so serve a wider area. In all cases the Training class must be registered at the headquarters of the Board of Christian Education, and will be supervised through the medium of an examination. c. Correspondence courses offered by the Board of Chris- tian Education. Note: Credit cannot be given for courses taken in one-, two-, or three-day institutes, even though offered by accredited leaders. The brevity of the time makes it impossible for these institutes to meet the required standards. 3. Leadership for Age Group Program promotion through training of leadership. Since this type of promotion involves the issuance of Lead- ership Training credits, it can be carried on only by those who have been accredited as Standard Training instructors. Instructors are accredited for Standard Training work on the basis of knowledge and previous training and experience in accordance with certain standards fixed by the International Committee on Education. On the basis of these standards in- 149 MANUAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN PROGRAM structors are accredited by the Director of Leadership Train- ing. THE STANDARD LEADERSHIP TRAINING COURSE The Standard Leadership Training Course has been out- lined by the Committee on Education of the International Council of Religious Education and approved by the Pres- byterian Board of Christian Education. It consists of twelve units of work, a unit of work representing at least ten class sessions of fifty minutes each. These twelve units are divided into three groups: six general required units, three speciali- zation required units, three elective units to be selected from the approved list of electives. The outline below gives the general and the specialization required units for workers in the Young People’s Department since that is where speciali- zation work should be done by leaders who are using the Presbyterian Program for Young People. For approved texts consult the Director of Leadership Training, 423 Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia, Pa. THE GENERAL UNITS (Required) . A Study of the Pupil. . The Principles of Teaching. . The Old Testament. The New Testament. . The Message and Program of the Christian Religion. . The Teaching Work of the Church. DAunkwn THE SPECIALIZATION UNITS (Required) Young People’s Department 71. A Study of Later Adolescence. 72. Young People’s Materials and Methods. 73. Young People’s Department Administration. 150 TNT 1 1012 01237 6341 _