The fact that a membership is small does not mean that the church is necessarily small, however, for it may have talent and potential for great things. Some churches small in number are far larger in strength, vision, and accomplishment than others with much longer rolls.

ADVANTAGES OF BEING SMALL

All large churches were once small, hut some have never made any progress because they have a "small church" complex. They say, "We are so small that we can't do anything." If they but looked at it differently, they would realize that they have some advantages over their larger neighbors: First, it creates a consciousness that everyone must work-it does away with the "They don't need me" idea; second, it increases the feeling that success depends on unity and pulling together.

Others will never grow much because of the current decrease in populations of small towns. These should strive harder than ever to save themselves and to so teach their members that they can prove to be a blessing wherever they go.

ORGANIZATION DEMANDS CURRICULUM

Curriculum cannot be separated from organization. They must go hand-in-hand, with each planned to fit the other. God has given us the perfect pattern for church organization, but even when a congregation does not yet have men qualified for elders and deacons, it can still have some degree of sensible organization in its Bible school. This should be based on its local conditions: with or without elders, with or without a local preacher, with good facilities or poor ones. No one type will fit every church, but if it is scriptural and in harmony with common sense and local conditions it is good. Any type, however, must have as many as possible 'working to make it a success. A good equation to remember is "Organization plus administration equals success."

Next to teachers, curriculum is the most important factor in Bible school. By this we mean not only the subjects taught, but also their relation to each other and their Sequence. Someone has said, "What you would have in the life of a people you must first put into the Bible school."

To be a good school, the Bible must be taught in lessons that are consecutive, comprehensible, and complete. Instruction should place the child first, youth second, and adults third, and should include nurture and guidance of the pupil through fellowship, worship, service, and recreation. These principles have been recognized by secular schools and by our own institutions of higher learning, but the churches have been slow to recognize and adopt them. The means that we use to achieve whatever measure of these goals that we have set up for our Bihle school is what we can call our Curriculum. Following are some points to remember in our planning:

THE BIBLE OUR SOURCE BOOK

We can illustrate Bible truths with other materials, but it is our only authoritative source of information in spiritual matters. It is up to the church to delve into it, gather material, and apply it.

BIBLE NOT A TEXTBOOK

Although it is our only source book, it is not a textbook, with materials for different ages gathered together and arranged in proper lesson form for each age. This, too, is up to us.

CURRICULUM INCLUDES: –

1. Teaching the Bible subjectively.
2: Activities aimed at a practical application of the facts learned

a. Worship
b. Service
c. Wholesome recreation where fellowship, co-operation, self-control, courtesy, kindness, honesty, fair play, etc., can be taught and caught.

IT IS NOT ALWAYS THE SAME

Truth is constant -- never changes-but churches are different and pupils are different – intellectually, culturally, socially, morally, and spiritually. Because they differ, their needs differ, and therefore the lesson forms and methods must differ.

ALL MUST WORK

All personnel should co-operate in planning it: preachers, elders, teachers, and pupils.

LIBRARY NECESSARY

A library is needed to help teachers to prepare it.

CORRELATED

It should be correlated up and down, and across: that is, the line of study in each Sunday morning class should relate to the others and also to the classes at other times in the week.

THE BUILDING MUST SERVE US

A final very important consideration when we plan a curriculum is space. Some church buildings have only an auditorium with a small room on either side of the vestibule or the baptistry. These need not give up in despair, but rather have a greater challenge than others. The more ingenuity employed in partitioning and utilizing the space that there is, the broader the curriculum possible.

Many churches have devised portable partitions, or have unscrewed the pews and re-arranged them into intimate groupings for Bible classes. If this was not enough, they have gone to private school houses, or other available buildings. The main thing was: They were determined. You can do it, too!

1 Austin Sibert preaches for the Hamlin, Texas, and gave this as a part of a lecture at the ACC Summer Workshop, 1959.