Educational Work of the Church
RELATIONSHIPS INVOLVED IN THE EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR’S WORK
Everywhere the educational director turns, there are people. His efforts, his talents, his time, and his energy are expended upon people. Old and young, small and great, talented and otherwise, zealous and lukewarm, Christian and non-Christian, all must be met, considered, and associated with. Although the real-life relationships of the educational director are almost unlimited, this lesson is arbitrarily limited to his relationship with the elders, the local evangelist, the supervisory and administrative personnel and the Bible teachers.
The Elders And The Educational Director
The proper relationship of the elders and the educational director is very important. It is crucial. It involves more than just the elders and the educational director because both the elders and the director are working with the same people, the congregation. Therefore, the relationship that the elders sustain to the congregation and the relationship that the director sustains to the congregation has much to do with the relationship they will sustain to each other. This calls for a clear-cut understanding, which is lacking as yet in many churches, of the place and work of the educational director. This lack of understanding on the part of many churches as to where the director “fits in” has done much to make his work ineffective.
Confusion occurs in many churches when they request a person who can fill a combination of positions, such as director and secretary, director and personal worker, director and song leader, director and “assistant” preacher. This tendency to mix up the duties of the director causes the problem of proper relationships to become very complex. It becomes difficult to establish any real status for the director when his duties are varied and illogically related to the guiding of the educational program. It may be, however, that this is the only way many congregations can secure a man to give direction to their programs of Christian education.1 Certainly this is better than having no educational director at all, but the director will be greatly hindered in his efforts to direct and lead in the educational work, if he is held equally responsible for several activities. If the director is to be a “combination man,” and he will be in most congregations, he will be aided greatly in his educational efforts if the elders will take every opportunity to emphasize his role as educational director before the congregation. This will establish him in the eyes of the congregation as being the one to whom they should turn for Christian educational guidance. Then, the other duties for which he is held responsible, perhaps as important as his educational work, will not distract his educational efforts too much, and cause them to be ineffectual. If the elders have employed an educational director, they, and the congregation, should consider his primary duty the directing of the educational program of the church. This should be understood just as clearly as they understand that the primary duty of the preacher is to preach the Gospel.
If the elders find it expedient to employ a man to direct the educational program of the church, they are responsible for establishing him in the eyes of the congregation as the one to whom they are to look for educational guidance and supervision. This will be difficult, because the church as a whole does not yet take Christian education seriously. Most congregations lack educational vision.2 If they are awakened to Bible school opportunities, the emphasis is usually upon quantity at the expense of quality. Much confusion exists today among elders, educational committees, and even directors themselves, regarding the proper use to be made of the time, energy, and talents of the educational director. This haziness surrounding the person and work of the educational director must be eliminated. The elders can do much to crystallize the thinking of the flock along this line.
If the educational director is not an elder, the membership should clearly understand that he is not to be looked to as such. The elders should clarify his relation to them in the minds of the congregation by teaching the congregation publicly that he is in subjection to the elders. Fur- thermore, the elders should impress upon the congregation that the educational director is responsible to the elders for his task of directing the educational program of the church and that he has been delegated sufficient authority from them to carry out this task. This clarification is necessary, and it must come from the elders, if the director is, in truth and in fact, to be the real director of the education program of the church.
This clarification will necessitate complete co-operation and balance between the elders and the director. They will expect him to be a man with enough initiative to proceed with the program in an efficient manner, yet they will expect him to proceed within the framework of the established policies and long-range plans of the elders. If procedures, policies, and long-range plans for the educational program have not been established, they will look to him with complete confidence for suggestions. When the final long-range plan is established as workable and operative, it should be recognized as the elders’ plan of work, with the educational director operating as their executive in carrying out their plan. If this is clearly established, the congregation will be more responsive to the educational work, the director will have no occasion to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, and the elders will have reason to rejoice as they see the church being edified and nurtured in a systematic way.3
Finally, the success the director enjoys will depend, to a great extent, upon three things: the clear understanding on the part of the congregation of his place and work, the clear understanding and support the elders give him in his work, and his willingness to work under the elders with the congregation in accomplishing the great goals of Christian education.
The Local Evangelist and The Educational Director
The local evangelist and the educational director must be capable of teamwork. They are on the same team. The over-all progress of the educational work of the church will be reflected in the minister-director relationship. If this relationship is good and is built upon mutual admiration and respect, and if each has a proper conception of the other’s work, the program of Christian education will move forward. If each of these two persons goes his separate way oblivious to the other’s role in the great work of evangelization and edification, the educational program will suffer.
Many things may cause the minister-director relationship to become a dissatisfying one for both men involved. Some of the more important factors causing a dissatisfied, and therefore ineffectual, relationship are, conflicting purposes and educational philosophies between the min- ister and the director, an inadequate concept of a director's work on the part of the evangelist, a lack of recognized status for the director, taking over or undermining the work of the evangelist by the director, inadequate educational insight and skills on the part of either man, especially the director, an inadequate administrative ability on the part of the director, a dominating, egotistical personality clash, and a sense of frustration and discouragement on the part of the minister or the director, which will cause either to do an inefficient job.4
The educational relations of the evangelist and the director should be that of association in the Lord’s work. They should be co-operative, with each having a vital field of duty, which both recognize as being indispensable for success of the Lord’s work. When this relationship exists, both will be productive and happy in their work, and the following conditions will mark their association: a common purpose, use of supplemented, various methods in co-operative action to achieve their common purpose, frequent discussions for a sharing and evaluating of views, proper director status recognized by the minister, presence of educational insight and skill, an adequate concept of a director’s function, a clear division and understanding of special activities for which they may both be responsible, a co-operative participation in each other’s area of primary responsibility, and a sense of achievement and joy in their work.5
There are many ways in which the minister-director relationship could be strengthened. When a new evangelist is employed by the elders where an educational director is already at work, he should be a man who is aware of the great place of a systematized educational program for the church. “There are ministers who say that they know nothing about education. If they were to say they know nothing about church administration, or theology, or leading a worship service they would be embarrassed and conscious of severe limitation. But some of these go so far as to decry education, to act as if they rather prided themselves in disdaining it. As serious as such an attitude is, it is less unfortunate than is the situation when a director's best efforts are undermined by disapproval or interference by the minister.”6
The elders should determine, therefore, to employ evangelists who are Christian education conscious and who know how to be a co-worker in the single enterprise of seeking and saving the lost. The minister does not necessarily need to know as much about Christian education as the director does, yet he should understand its nature and the underlying philosophy by which it operates most effectively.
When the elders employ an evangelist or an educational director, they should consider his personality in conjunction with the one with whom he is to work. In this way many avoidable difficulties may be averted. If the personalities of the two men are in harmony, other points of disagreement may possibly be worked out satisfactorily, but if their personalities clash, even association in agreement may become unpleasant. “Difficulties as well as the favorable factors root in personality structure and function. These are manifested in attitudes, dispositions, concepts, values, the nature of self status, the presence or lack of skills and knowledge, and other similar aspects of the individuals involved in the minister-director relationship.”7
It appears, therefore, that the three chief factors in the minister-director relationship are clear delineation of the policies of the total church program and the functions for which each is to be held responsible in carrying out that program, harmonious personalities, and complete dedication to the work in which each is engaged. The elders are responsible for bringing about these feat- ures for the good of the entire church program. The evangelist and the director are each responsible for his own personal conduct, attitudes, and efforts to bring about and maintain a peaceful and harmonious relationship. Therefore, when the elders fulfill their responsibility in the matter, and when the evangelist and the director fulfill their obligations, the relationship of the local evangelist and the educational director will be as God would have it. This proper spirit of Christian fellowship and work between these two prominent servants in the local congregation cannot be over-emphasized. Their lives are before all. They must live by the same guide they teach by, the Word of God.
The Supervisory and Administrative Personnel and The Educational Director By “supervisory and administrative” personnel is meant, ordinarily, the supervisors of the divisions of the Bible school, that is, the children's division, the young people’s division, and the adult’s division, and the department heads of the various departments in these divisions. A large school usually consists of ten departments, as follows: cradle roll, nursery, kindergarten, primary, junior, intermediate, senior, young people, adults, and extension. In some congregations this organization is duplicated for promotional purposes. Also several Bible schools now have attendance secretaries and enrollment secretaries. Often each department has a secretary. Therefore, in a large Bible school program, the “supervisory and administrative personnel” would be from thirty to forty persons, depending upon the exact size of the school and its particular type of organization. These are key personnel, and the relationship of the educational director to them presents a real challenge, which must be met, if the Bible school program is to move forward effectively. Large Bible schools have caused the leaders of religious groups in many places to see the acute need for a man who, by reason of his experience and training, can direct the educational program. “An appreciation of the central importance of religious education has developed rapidly in recent years, and the conviction has taken possession of many leaders of the church that its direction, particularly in larger churches, cannot much longer be committed to the hands of volunteers serving upon marginal time. As a result a new profession has come into existence, that of the director of religious education. Like the minister, the director is usually a full-time, paid officer. His special responsibility is the educational program of the church. He is the supervisor of teaching, the trainer of teachers, the active head of the educational administration in the church. The church cannot be said to be seriously or adequately facing its responsibility for the religious education of its children and youth until it places the leadership of its educational program upon a full-time basis.”8
Therefore, the chief function of the director in his relations with this group of personnel will be just what his name suggests, to direct. He will serve as a liaison between the educational committee, usually made up of elders, and the supervisors and department heads.
This type of relationship, by its very nature, will not be as intimate as that between the director and the elders or the local evangelist. However, the wise director will go to great lengths to make this supervisory relation as personal and intimate as possible. This will be accomplished largely through group contacts in the form of supervisors’ and department head meetings. In these meetings, the director will be particularly careful to create an atmosphere of co-operative effort. Each supervisor and each department head should be made to feel that the director is interested in his problems, and that he is qualified to help solve those problems. The director will em- phasize his role as consultant and advisor instead of lawgiver and dictator. At the same time, he will be diligent to lay down certain principles, which will guide the personnel into creative thinking, so they will be able to solve many of their own problems. He will be striving to get this select group of leaders to use supervision for the improvement of Christian education. He will impress upon them many of the important functions of the supervisor’s task. Some are:
1. To diagnose the educational situation in order to discover what is right and what is wrong in the factors entering into it, tracing causes of inefficiency and poor results to their sources.
2. To prescribe remedies and make use of those factors which will bring about a better educational situation and better results.
3. To keep the objectives of the school clearly before the minds of all who are working in the school, including the children.
4. To develop a comprehensive and balanced curriculum by which these objectives may be achieved.
5. To test teachers with respect to the results being achieved.9
This phase of the director's work will probably tax his ingenuity and capabilities more than any other. Also, the type of relationship established here will be so far-reaching in effect that the success or failure of the entire educational program of the church may well hinge on it. In addition to being an educational director, this relationship requires him to be an executive, a diplomat, a counselor, an administrator, a leader, an organizer, a trainer, an educator. The duties, responsibilities, and some of the technical procedures involved in carrying out this multiple role are discussed in the next lesson.
The Teachers and The Educational Director
It might be thought that the educational director will have his greatest personal contact with the teachers of the Bible classes. This will be true only in those congregations that are so small they have no supervisors or department heads in the Bible school. Smaller schools have no need for extensive organization. In such Bible schools, the director will have opportunity to work with each teacher personally. He will probably know each pupil personally. His greatest contribution to teacher progress will probably be in a person-to-person relationship in which the problems peculiar to each individual teacher and pupil may be discussed and solved.
The direction of a larger Bible school will not be as simple as directing a smaller one. The organization and size of the larger school will complicate the effective contact of the director with the teachers. The contact of director and teachers, however, remains just as vital in the large school as in the small school, but it can be made more effective if the director will remember that the supervisors and the department heads also have a work to do which involves the teachers. If a large Bible school organization is to function as it should, the educational director must keep his work organized, and give all supervisory personnel an opportunity to function properly. His contact with the teachers is no exception. How, then, is his relationship to them to be made vital and meaningful?
The director has four main avenues by which he can personally and legitimately contact the teachers in a large Bible school and not disrupt the responsibilities of other personnel in the organization. These avenues of contact are: teachers’ training classes, regular teachers’ meetings, personal counseling, and social functions.
By “teachers’ training classes” is meant any regularly established class for the specific purpose of training teachers more efficiently to teach God’s Word. Sometimes these classes will be intensive in nature and concentrated into two or three weeks during the year. Many places main- tain a continuous teachers’ training class which meets regularly every week. In either case, this is where the educational director will be able to make a direct personal contribution to the advancement of the teaching staff. He should not spare any effort to make these teachers’ train- ing classes interesting, timely, lively, instructive, and inspirational.10
By “regular teachers’ meetings” is meant those weekly, monthly, or quarterly meetings of the entire teaching staff and supervisory personnel. These meetings usually include a general assembly for devotion and an inspirational message or instructional lecture. This is an excellent opportunity for the director to present some timely thoughts, specific instructions, general admonitions, or an inspirational message. This meeting should be concluded within an hour, after which the session forms into groups for practice teaching, workshops, curriculum study, etc. These group meetings will be along department lines and will be supervised by the department heads under the guidance of the division supervisors. The director should be very careful not to dominate these group meetings. If he participates in any of these group sessions, his participation will probably be more helpful if he has planned something specific with the department head involved previous to the meeting.11
By “personal counseling” is meant the opportunity that will come to the director to discuss the personal problems of others in private. He should do this by request only, as a general rule. Any other general teacher problems should be handled through the organization as established. However, it will be an encouragement to the teachers, and supervisory personnel as well, to know that the educational director is one who is interested in their problems and is qualified to suggest solutions to them.12
The “social functions” mentioned include such things as class picnics, fellowship dinners, ice cream parties, skating parties, and various programs of that nature arranged by the teachers of different classes, department heads, division supervisors, or by the elders themselves. Under such circumstances the director, if invited to these functions, may make a real contribution to good will and general friendliness in the educational program as a whole by showing these characteristics in his own actions.
Summary
The discussion of the relationships of the educational director in this lesson is limited to the elders and the director, the local evangelist and the director, the supervisory and administrative personnel and the director, and the teachers and the director. The proper relationship of the director to each of these will depend largely upon the elders’ clarification of the work and the place of the director. Such clarification will be impossible unless the elders themselves understand it and make diligent efforts to inform the entire congregation.
Footnotes:
1Philip Henry Lotz, Orientation in Religious Education (New York: Abingdon-Cokesburq Press, 1950), pp. 389-90.
2 F.M. McKibben, Improving Religious Education Through Supervision (Dobbs Ferry, New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1931), pp. 29-32.
3 Alan M. Bryan, “Work of a Full-Time Educational Worker,” Firm Foundation, LXXIV (July 23, 1957), 473.
4 D. Lawshe, “Effective Functioning of the Director of Religious Education,” Religious Education, XLVII (May, 1952), 188.
5 Ibid., p. 189.
6 W. Fallow, “Rules of Ministers. and Directors in Christian Education,” Religious Education, XLV (January, 1950), 41.
7 Lawshe, loc. cit.
8 George Hamilton Archibald, The Modern Sunday School (New York: The Century Company, 1926), pp. 183-84.
9 McKibben, op. cit., pp. 15-16.
10H.E. Speck, Jr., “Have Your Own Course for Training Teachers,” Christian Bible Teacher, I (May, 1956), 4.
11H.E. Speck, Jr., “Getting All that You Hope from the Teachers’ Meeting,” Christian Bible Teacher, I (June, 1956), 8.
12Clifford E. Erickson, A Basic Text for Guidance Workers (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1949), p. 130.
