CHAPTER VI LARGE ORGANIZED BIBLE CLASSES I-Suggestions of First Importance BEFORE describing the general plan for the organization and development of the large organized Bible class for men in the church, I wish to emphasize several vital points in the way of explanation and caution. First of all, the objective of the large class varies from that of the small group in that the large class is usually employed as an attractive center for the rallying and holding of young men to the church through public programs, social functions, and special meetings for evangelism. The organized class has proved peculiarly valuable in furnishing for tens of thousands of the young men of the community, deprived of social advantages, a friendly meeting-place. Its use of the lecture plan in Bible presentation, however, has converted the large organized class into something like a men's meeting with Bible emphasis. Yet such an organization has, through its class loyalty and enthusiasm of numbers in one body, the power to hold many young men in the church, as well as to draw non-Christian men in a way that small groups have not yet seemed capable of doing. It is to be noted that there is a growing feeling that much of this same general advantage might inhere in a thoroughly organized Bible-study department for men representing a combination of public sessions and small classes. With the use of the large class two warnings are necessary. It must be realized on the start that this large Bible-class meeting does not take the place of the small Bible groups which have as their objective the enlistment of men in the personal, systematic study of the Bible. Comparatively little Bible study is found on the part of men in these large classes, and, too often, little expectation of such study exists in the mind and plans of the teacher. There are two methods for associating the large class with real Bible study. One method divides the class into small groups with individual leaders. In some churches these small sections of the large class meet for supper on a week nightthe men coming directly from businesstaking about forty minutes for class and discussion work immediately following the supper. Every man is expected to purchase a Bible-study text-book and to do some study for himself in preparation for these seminar discussions. This group study is really the Bible-study work of the large class, and the public sessions with other means serve as places of ingathering and stimulation for the groups. Another plan which promises much is in line with the idea of the modern adult Biblestudy department in the Sunday-school. The large class meets with the general Bible school of the church for a ten-minute opening program-if such a meeting is not feasible the session is held in the class itselfthe men in the large class then break into small groups of not more than ten men each, for a half or three quarters of an hour of general study and conversation. In this plan the main work of a teacher, in a class of a hundred members for example, consists in training ten of the most competent men to lead as many small classes. Thereby the power, enthusiasm, and dynamic inhering in a compact class or a men's department in the Sunday-school is retained, and also some serious Bible study is accomplished. It is also necessary to note the danger of the possibility of the large class becoming a kind of rival organization to the church and Sunday-school. The members of the class should be made to feel the intimate responsibility for the furtherance of Bible study in the Bible school, of furnishing teachers and officers for this department, and of joining in the school and the church meetings as frequently as convenient. If the Sunday-school superintendent and pastor of the church can be related to the class in some active or official capacity this unity will be |