A study of Young People’s Society programs in selected churches of California

203 Pages·07.047 MB·English

by  Winters, E. M

A STUDY OP YOUNG PEOPLE*S SOCIETY
PROGRAMS IN SELECTED CHURCHES OP CALIFORNIA
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of Religion
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
fey
Esther Myrtle Winters
August 1942
UMI Number: EP65130
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TABLE OP CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . ...................... 1
Present day situation ............. • • • 2
Purpose of this study .............. 6
Methods of procedure . • .................... 7
II. MEASURING RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES ................ 10
Need of scientific measurement.............. 10
Limitations of measuring religious values . • 12
The questionaire as an instrument......... 15
The values of scientific measurement . • • • • 16
III. PRESENT SOCIETY PROGRAMS.............. 18
Outside speakers ........................... 19
Discussion of present day problems • • • • • • 20
Use of musical Instruments • • . . « • • • . . 21
Use of an orchestra....................... 22
Participation in rallies............... 25
Participation in evangelistic services . . . . 24
Participation in prayer................... 25
Results of contests......... 26
Frequency of social activities......... . ; 27
Amount of advertising...................... 28
IV. INDIVIDUAL ATTITUDES.............. 35
Church membership • • • • • • • • 36
Church membership of parents 38
ii
CHAPTER PAGE
Attendance of young peopled societies . . ♦ * 40
Attendance at other services of the church • • 44
Method used in contacting new members . • . • 48
Participation in young people’s services on
f
Sunday nights . . . . . . . . . . 52
Attitude toward amount of active participation 56
Attitude toward outside speakers • • • • • • • 60
Attitude toward discussion .................. 64
Attitude toward illustrated talks and object
lessons ............................ • ♦ 68
Attitude toward prayer .. .................. 72
Attitude toward practicality of services • . . 74
Preference of s o n g s ........................ 78
Frequency of inviting others to services ♦ • • 82
Method of inviting others • 86
Attitude toward conducting evangelistic
services . * . 90
Attitude toward contests .................... 94
Attitude toward present day problems . . • ♦ • 98
Attitude toward rallies ........ . . . . . . 102
Attitude toward social activities • • • • • • 106
Attitude toward kind of social activities • • 110
V. CORRELATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES WITH
EXISTING PROGRAMS ........................... 125
iii
CHAPTER PAGE
Outside speakers . . 126
Frequency of discussion............... . . . . 131
Rallies................................... . . 136
Evangelistic services ......................... 141
Church membership ........ . . . . . . . . . . 146
Participation in young peoplefs services . . . . 151
Prayer.....................................159
Contests...................................162
Social activities ........................ •• 168
Kind of social activities................... 174
VI. CONCLUSIONS.................................184
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................188
APPENDIX...........................................192
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In today*s world, young people are of the utmost
importance. No other age in man*s span of life boasts
of so many opportunities; no other lays calim to so many
possibilities. They may not rule the world today, but
they will rule it tomorrow. Of them it can easily be said
what Professor A* E. Hayden said of the church:
For this generation much depends upon the
organized religious groups. As leaders and
interpreters of religion, they wield a vast
influence over the lives of men. Carrying
the standard from the cloister and cathedral
into the market place and the laboratory,
they— none more easily than they--could lead
in the patient, piecemeal task of remaking
the world. By focusing the inspirational
power of a practical idealism and the accur­
ate scientific knowledge of facts upon
social maladjustments, the pattern of the
religious ideal might be slowly woven into
the warp and woof of civilization.**-
Their attitude toward Christianity and the church is of
vital importance. What is this attitude? Millions of
young people are answering that question every Sunday.
They are answering not by word, but by action — they do
not attend church 1
^ Percy R. Hayward and Ray A. Burkhart, Young People1s
Method in the Church, p 43. Quoted from The Quest of the
Ages, by A* E. Hayden.
2
I. THE PRESENT DAY SITUATION
^Dr. Prank G-abelein is reported to have said that
of the 49,000,000 young people in the United States,
36,000,000 have never set foot inside of a church.
Beaches, Mountain resorts, and theaters flash the news
that Sunday night is a night of excellent business.
Markets, stores and questionable eating places testify
to the fact that they know that people do not go to church
by staying in business seven days a week. Notice this
report from a recent survey:
The city of New York, with its 7,000,000
inhabitants, has a total of 1,074 churches
with 554,000 members. Thus 7 per cent of
the population has membership in Protestant
churches of the American metropolis. Of
these members only 40 per cent attend church,
that is 2 per cent of New York*s people will
be found in church on a Sunday.
The city of New York is not an exception to conditions
throughout our nation.
In Pittsburgh there are 242,631 unchrched;
in Cleveland, 388,013; in St. Louis, 287,226;
in New York, 4,119,494; Seattle, 261,308;
San Francisco, 419,249; Minneopolis, 283,753;
Los Angeles, 997,204.4
But what of the rural districts?
There are 10,000 villages in America with­
out churches; 30,000 without resident pastors;
^ Christian Faith and Life* April, 1938, p 135
3 Ibid.. p 132
4 Ibid., p 132
3
3,400,000 children under twelve who are
receiving no religious instructions*5
It must also be realized that of those who do attend
only a small number attend regularly and take active part
in the services. Very little interest in the evening
preaching service is stimulated as shown by the fact
that not many young people stay to listen to the evening
message.
This period of youth is of special import because of
the drop in enrollment during this time. “The maximum
age of enrollment and attendance in the Sunday School is
approximately ten years. Of this group 27.7 per cent
are eliminated by the 12th year; 40.1 per cent by the
15th year, and 77*2 per cent by the 19th year.*1^ At
this age the young people*s organizations should be
getting those that the Sunday School has been training
but a very different picture is seen. While these groups
are failing to attract them, evil companions, evil books
and magazines, movie screen, sin, vice, and degredation
are reaching forth slimy hands, making their impressions
and indoctrinations, carving their opinions upon the
tender impressionable child. Unless the church can reach
and grip the heart of the child for Christ, she seems
doomed to die.
£ Ibid., p 133
6 C. W. Young, Teenage Leakage in Sunday School.
Thesis, University of Southern California.
4
Studies in the ages of conversion show that child­
hood and youth are Godfs time for the human being to give
the heart to the Creator. In a study made of 8631 con­
versions, not one occurred after the age of 29 years, and
seven times as many conversions took place at the age of
16 as at the age of 26* fhis study brought out the
following startling figures:
19 out of every 20 who get saved do so before 25
After 25 only 1 in 10,000
» 35 fl w 50,000
11 45 n 11 9 200,000
lt 55 11 " ir 300,000
M 65 11 ,f " 800,000
11 75 11 M 11 700,000
Veiy apparently, the years from 12 to 19 are the
years in which the course of most lives is decided. If
the church fails here it fails at the crucial point. If
the youth slip out of the fingers of the church they may
slip into that vast stream of humanity that crowd our
juvenile courts and fill our prisons. We are told by
authorities that the majority of the crimes of the United
States are committed annually by youth, and that between
2700 and 2800 murders are committed annually by boys
under sixteen years of age. In the following quotation
it is of vital interest to notice that of the total
number of persons arrested during the first nine months
of 1939, over one third of them should have been members
and leaders in the young peoplefs organizations of our
churches•