Pastoral leadership of Sunday school forces

Front matter

Itll II e Pastor's Leadership

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Prefatory Note

These lectures were given in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., and on the foundation provided by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville, Tenn., the two institutions uniting in this way to furnish an annual course of lectures on Sunday School work for the theological students and others who wish to attend. The lectures were delivered ex tempore and taken down by a stenographer. The lecturer's habit of ex tempore address made it impossible for him to confine himself to manuscript. This will account for a certain roughness in diction, which the reader will easily discern. It is hoped that the thoughts presented will be of sufficient merit to lead the indulgent reader to pardon much that appears unfinished.

The first five lectures constitute the regular annual course, and were delivered specifically to the students in the Theological Seminary, and are primarily aimed at their needs as leaders in Sunday School work. The Supplementary Lectures, three in number (including the one by Rev. E. Y. Mullins, D.D., President of the Seminary), were delivered to the Pastor's Sunday School Institute, which had been previously arranged to be held at the same time in the city of Louisville, and which brought together many able Sunday School workers, was largely attended by all denominations and made an occasion very inspiring and helpful in every way.

At the request of the Secretary of the Sunday School Board, the Supplementary Lectures have been added to the others, in order to make the series a little more complete. In these also the aim has been to aid students and pastors in their life work. If in addition to this they also help the ordinary Sunday School teacher, the lecturer

4 PREFATORY NOTE.

will be more than pleased. No one will expect that in a brief course of lectures the whole field of Sunday School activity will be adequately covered. This would have been impossible as the field is large, and for adequate treatment requires a large volume. But the aim has been to block out the outline of work so that he who desires may be aided in his further study along these same lines. Nothing has been given as suggestive that has not been worked out by the speaker in his own experience. The lectures are the outcome of a somewhat prolonged experience with teachers and scholars, and with the actual management of a Sunday School in all its details. No untested theories have been presented, but only those which have proved themselves practical in actual working.

The writer cannot help congratulating his Southern Baptist friends on the most excellent work laid out in this annual course of lectures, especially in conjunction with the Pastor's Sunday School Institute. The influence of this on the work at large must have been very marked and wholesome. It really "sets the pace" for other seminaries the land over, and will doubtless be followed in other parts of our beloved land.

In conclusion the writer begs to thank Drs. Mullins and Sampey, and all his other fellow workers in Louisville, for their aid and hearty sympathy in the work that he attempted. May the outcome of all this lecture course be to the glory of our Heavenly Father, and the furtherance of the work of bringing the young to a saving knowledge of the truth, to the end that they may render better service' in the hastening of the coming of the kingdom of God on earth. A. F. Schauffler.

Fourth Ave. and Twenty-second St., New York.

Preface

Introduction. pagb

By Professor John R. Sampey, D.D., IyL/.D. . . , 7

Lectures.

5. Adjuncts in Teaching 112

Supplementary Lectures.

1. Bird's-eye View of Book of Acts 133

2. Management of Teachers' Meeting 151

3. The Pastor's Sunday School Problem and Its

Mastery. By President E. Y. Mullins, D.D 167

SEMINARY RESOLUTIONS.

Whereas, The second annual lecture course on the Sunday School Board Foundation has just been given by Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D.D., of New York City; and

Whereas, This lecture course has resulted in a marked increase of interest in the work of the Sunday school, both among- our students and the Sunday school public generally, be it

Resolved by the Faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that we express to the Sunday School Board our profound sense of the value of the work it has inaugurated in enabling the Seminary to offer these courses of lectures from year to year.

The course given by Dr. Hatcher a year ago has proved inspiring to all who heard the lectures and all who have read them as published since, the volume being classed, by those capable of judging, among the three or four best books in existence on the relation of the pastor to the Sunday school.

The course of lectures recently given by Dr. Schauffler has admirably supplemented the course given by Dr. Hatcher, the latter having dwelt upon the ideals and fundamental principles of the pastor's relations to the Sunday school, and the former having dwelt with emphasis upon its practical aspects.

Every indication points to a growing interest in this course of lectures and to its increasing usefulness from year to year.

B. Y. Mueeins, President.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., January, 1903.