[47] 1. A Program of Visitation Should Be Projected.

The thing now necessary in reaching the people and building the Sunday school up to the Standard requirement and beyond is a loving personal invitation to each one.

As the matter now stands:

• The church roll has been listed.

• The census has been taken.

• The information has been assorted, graded, and tabulated.

• The organization has been enlarged to take care of all the possibilities.

• The enlarged organization has been inaugurated.

• The school has been adjusted to the building.

• The information has been placed in the hands of the officers and teachers.

If we stop here, all the work which has been done will be largely in vain and the organization go to pieces; and discouragement will result on every hand.

The thing needed now to enlarge the Sunday school membership is that this organization should be led by the superintendent and pastor to visit every one of the prospective pupils during the coming week and urge them to come to the Sunday school, and then keep visiting them from week to week with the same urgent invitation until all of them join.

At all times a sharp lookout for new pupils should be maintained by the heads of the departments, teachers, and pupils. All people moving into the community during the year should be located and visited as soon after their arrival as possible, and their names should be reported to the pastor and superintendent. The department superintendents and the organized classes should be on the alert, going after the newcomers continually for their departments and classes.

[48] As the Sunday school roll increases, the absentee list will also increase and it will be necessary for teachers and officers to visit absent pupils regularly week by week if they are to build them up in regular attendance.

Thus the visitation ministry of a school will assume large proportions and will demand constant attention. Regular weekly visitation should be accomplished, the assignments being made and the reports received at the weekly teachers' meeting. Special visitation times should be fostered for different groups. Individual visitation should be continuously urged and assignments made. All the ingenuity, skill, and consecration of the leaders will be needed to plan a varied visitation program and inspire the workers constantly to participate in this all-important work. One definite plan of visitation is discussed here and heartily recommended for all Sunday schools.

2. Monthly Visitation Day Should Be Observed.

If the best results are gotten a monthly visitation day should be observed, the main purpose being to visit and urge absent pupils to come back to the Sunday school. At the same time the prospective pupils discovered in the census who h~ve not been enlisted should be visited again and again.

(1) The purpose of Monthly Visitation Day.

The first purpose of Monthly Visitation Day is to visit and urge all absent pupils to come back to the Sunday school. Second, to visit the prospective pupils who have been discovered in the census; who have not yet been enlisted, and urge them to become members of the Sunday school. Third, to keep a sharp lookout for people moving into the community during the year, locate them as soon after their arrival as possible, and report their names to the pastor and the superintendent.

[49] A monthly visitation day regularly and intelligently observed is almost a sure method of getting in touch with newcomers and will result in the return of absent pupils to the Sunday school. Often the list of prospective pupils secured in the census will be thoroughly worked up within a short time; a new, live list of prospective pupils may be secured for all the departments and classes by maintaining a well-planned Monthly Visitation Day.

(2) The best time to observe Monthly Visitation Day.

The best time to observe Monthly Visitation Day in cities and towns is Saturday afternoon before the first Sunday in each month; in country communities the last Sunday afternoon in each month is the best time.

It is impossible to get a time that will suit and please all, but in the great majority of city and town schools people can easily spend an hour or two once a month on Saturday afternoon doing this work. To be sure, some of the people will have to work and cannot go; however, if the matter is properly presented, it will be possible to get one or more representatives from each class to take part in the visitation.

Another argument in favor of Saturday afternoon is that it is a half holiday and the people in cities who work in offices, factories, shops, and other like places are at leisure, and are usually glad to give an hour to visiting. Again, Saturday afternoon is best because of its proximity to Sunday, and Saturday visits will yield better results on this account.

One country Sunday school which observes Monthly Visitation Day the last Sunday afternoon in each month visits all the homes within a radius of three miles of the church. They really "go visiting." The people all like it and look forward eagerly to Visitation Day. They go after new pupils as well as absentees. This school is [50] more than four times as large as it was when Monthly Visitation Day was inaugurated.

A Sunday school in a certain town observes the last Wednesday afternoon in each month as Monthly Visitation Day. They use twenty to thirty minutes at the close of the teachers' meeting Wednesday evening for making reports and telling about their experiences. This school is steadily and rapidly growing.

Agree to have a Monthly Visitation Day, set a time for it, plan for it, observe it.

(3) The plan for Monthly Visitation Day.

Someone asked, "Why have a Monthly Visitation? Why not everybody visit when he can?" That is the very reason for setting aside a definite time to do Sunday school visiting Everybody" doesn't visit "when he can. Remember this, people who do Sunday school visiting only when it is convenient, do not visit at all.

The value of having a plan for Sunday school visiting lies largely in the fact that people will visit in groups and not alone. For this reason the Sunday school ought to agree to have a Monthly Visitation Day, select the time that will suit the largest number, and observe it. The day should be kept before the Sunday school continually. The pastor should make frequent references to it from the pulpit, and it should be given as much publicity as possible.

The direction of the whole matter necessarily should be in the hands of the general superintendent. He should guiding spirit' and see to it that the day is planned for each month without fail. However, the planning and visiting can be done best by departments. Each department superintendent would naturally direct the work of visiting in his department. He can do whatever planning is necessary with his teachers at the last weekly teachers' meeting of the month. The routes should be [51] carefully planned, the list of absentees and prospective pupils for the different classes logically arranged and the visitors intelligently grouped for the work. Of course, each teacher should visit his own absent pupils when possible to do so.

Nothing should be left to chance. A sufficient number of automobiles should be secured and the routings of each arranged. Promptly at the specified time all who are to engage in the visitation should meet at the church building. The department superintendents should quickly get their officers and teachers together and assign them their visiting lists and send them out with as little delay as possible.

First, every pupil who was absent the previous Sunday should be visited and earnestly urged to be in his place the following Sunday.

Second, every person in the community who at any time has been a member of the school should be visited and cordially invited to return.

Third, every teacher should have a list of prospective pupils who should be visited and lovingly invited to join the Sunday school.

In rural Sunday schools it is best to have visitors divided into four, six, or eight groups, according to the number of pupils to be visited. Instead of each teacher looking after the members of his own class, each group of workers should take care of every phase of the work, from the Cradle Roll to the Extension department. Every situation should be planned for in view of its problems and on the basis of its needs.

(4) The ones who should do the visiting.

(a) The pastor and superintendent should frequently go. Usually they should also call on the sick and those in trou- [52] ble. If for no other reason, they should go for the influence of their example.

(b) The department superintendents should lead the teachers and pupils in their departments, being sure that no one is overlooked who should be visited. Often a department superintendent may have to do the visiting for one or more of his teachers, who could not possibly go on account of having to work.

(c) Every teacher who can possibly arrange to go should avail himself of the opportunity offered by Visitation Day to visit his absent pupils. He should also gain new recruits for his class from the list of prospects furnished him. This is the teacher's best chance to build the class.

(d) Class officers and individual members of Young People and Adult classes should join enthusiastically in this campaign each month. It should be arranged so that the young people may go in congenial groups, in this way making the occasion a joyous one to them.

(e) Junior and Intermediate pupils will be glad to join their teachers and will enjoy greatly the work of visiting. Monthly Visitation Day offers a fine chance to Intermediate and Junior teachers to utilize and interest their pupils and enlist them in real service.

A teacher of an Intermediate class of girls had the. regular members of her class meet at her home and go to the church in a body. They got into an automobile together and spent the afternoon in visiting the absentees of the class and looking up new pupils. One of the girls was heard to remark that she was "just crazy about Sunday school visiting."

Several members of a class of Intermediate boys of ten members, not one of whom had been absent for a month, met, at the suggestion of their teacher, and visited many [53] absent pupils belonging to other classes whose teachers and members could not go.

(f) The Cradle Roll superintendent and her helpers will also find Monthly Visitation Day a delightful time to visit in the interest of the Cradle Roll. Birthday cards can be delivered and the names of many new babies secured for the Cradle Roll.

(g) The Extension department superintendent and visitors can also take advantage of this opportunity, delivering literature and looking out for new members for this department.

(5) The benefits of Monthly Visitation Day.

(a) The Sunday school will grow in numbers. This is certain. The one unfailing method of reaching new pupils for the Sunday school and bringing back the absentees is the personal visit. People will join the Sunday school if they are asked. It is not nearly so difficult to reach people for the Sunday school as we imagine. It is far more difficult to get members of the Sunday school to visit them. Another thing, the absentee list of any Sunday school can be reduced 50 to 75 per cent if the absentees are promptly visited and sufficiently urged to return to the school. A Monthly Visitation Day well planned and conscientiously observed will always mean a larger Sunday school.

(b) The officers and teachers of the Sunday school come into personal touch with the pupils in their homes, and places of business, and can plan the more intelligently to meet their needs. Often the co-operation of parents is secured in this way and a correct solution of the problems confronting many of their pupils reached. On the other hand, when the parents of pupils are totally indifferent to their spiritual well-being, a knowledge of this condition will help the teacher in meeting his pupils' needs.

[54] (c) The pastor gains valuable information of his entire field through the Sunday school officers and teachers. New people moving into the community are found and reported to the pastor. Cases of sickness are discovered that the pastor should know about. These consecrated visitors will find many troubled and discouraged people who should be reported to the pastor. In their visiting they will also find those who are sin-sick, and certainly the pastor should know about these. The visitors should make written reports to the pastor of all cases really needing his attention.

(d) The teachers have an opportunity to enlist their pupils in definite service. Both teachers and pupils will become more intensely interested in the school and in other people as they experience the joys which come through visiting. As they carry blessings into the homes and lives of those whom they visit, they are also blessed themselves.

(e) The Sunday school will be supplied with new material for building the school. New people moving into the community are quickly discovered by the visitors. The annual census is not sufficient, as in growing towns and centers people are moving in all during the year.

(6) Why observe Monthly Visitation Day?

Going after people personally is the one unfailing method of reaching them for the Sunday school. Jesus gave us this method of how to get people into the Sunday school in the Parable of the Supper in the fourteenth chapter of Luke: "The master of the house said unto his servants, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.' And the servant said, 'Lord, it is done as thou commanded, and yet there is room.' And the lord said unto the servant, 'Go out into the highways [55] and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.'"

This method of going after people was good two thousand years ago and is just as good today. It is good in the city and good in the country It gets results every where, every time. All other methods of reaching people for the Sunday school grow old and ineffective. This method of going after people personally, never grows old, but is ever new, attractive, and resultful.

This is the way to build a Sunday school and there is no doubt about it. Hundreds of schools have been built this way. In fact, most of the large schools are pursuing just this method. By diligently following these suggestions a Sunday school will not only reach the Standard requirement and become seventy-five (75) per cent as large as the church membership, but will also become as large as the church roll -- and as large again.