Date of Award

4-1952

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Seminary

Abstract

Throughout its history, the work of the Sunday school has been willingly carried out by corps of godly, voluntary workers. The major portioned of the educational efforts of the Church has fallen upon this agency. These volunteers have carried on their work with little training in educational principles and techniques. They have had but little more personal training in the systematic study of the Bible, the history of the Church, and its doctrines. God has honored these sincere, conscientious efforts with a measure of success which has resulted largely from native ability. In order that future efforts might be more effective and thorough, and in order that the desire of the workers for proper training might be honored, the Church must provide practical and systematic training for these to whom such a vital task has been entrusted.

The purpose of this study was 1) to determine the need for an adequate teacher-training program in the Oregon-Washington Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church through an investigation of attendance comparisons over a nine year period, an analysis of local Sunday School attendance during the year 1950-1951 and an analysis of departmental performances during this period, an analysis of previous training records of teacher and substitute teachers, and a survey of the opinions of the pastors of the local churches concerning adequate teacher-training; 2) to make a sampling of representative literature in the field of Christian education dealing with teacher-training, including literature based on both evangelical and liberal theologies, which embodied theoretical, practical, and tried procedures and techniques; 3) to consider the problems most evident in the methods and techniques of Christian teaching, particularly noting basic elements of the learning process and the individual responsibility of the Christian teacher in realizing the desired goals of Christian teaching; 4) to formulate a proposed plan for a teacher-training program within the boundaries of the Oregon-Washington Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, including suggested ways of administering the plan on the local Church and Conference levels; and 5) to formulate a curriculum which would be use in such a teacher-training project in the designated Conference.

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Christianity Commons

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