A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

d program of Christian education. 1 1. Developments in the United States The Sunday school of the M. B. Church in the United States is the 218 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE RRETHREN CHURCH product of a European heritage molded by the educational and theological environment of the new world. The beginnings were small and insignificant. The Mennonite Brethren who came to the American Midwest in the 1870's initially followed the pattern which they had accepted in Russia some ten years earlier. Between 1874 and 1888 the Sunday school became a regular institution in all Mennonite Brethren congregations. At the conference sessions in 1883 a deep concern for the spiritual welfare of children as a primary mission work found expression in a statement by Elder Schellenberg. He exhorted delegates "to see to it that the little ones learn to read in Sunday school, and that all members of the church in all states be made responsible to send their children to Sunday school for the furtherance of their soul's salvation and knowledge of the Word of God."* The conference accepted this statement as a recommendation to the churches. The first reference to a Sunday school convention appears in the conference minutes of 1889. The general sentiment of conference delegates was in favor of improving the Sunday school through a convention organized for that specific purpose. It is interesting to note that the responsibility for the arrangements of this convention was delegated to the Publication Committee. These Sunday school conventions, held at regular intervals, were a primary source of information and inspiration for teachers who had very few helps to aid them in their important ministry. By 1898 the Sunday school convention had become an established institution of the conference. Prior to the convention held on May 23, 1898, a complete program, listing topics and speakers, was published in three consecutive issues of the Zionsbote.' Questions of greater uniformity and instructional aids in Sunday school work were early concerns of the brotherhood. Since the conference had no Sunday school manuals, either for teachers or pupils, the Zionsbote was used as a medium of instruction. During the summer months of 1898, editor J. F. Harms prepared and published twenty lessons on Bible study for youth, adapted to Sunday school use. The following year, P. F. Duerksen, an early promoter of the Sunday school, published an article in the same paper on Sunday school methods and hints for teachers. 10 In 1900 the first M. B. periodical on the Sunday school and Sunday school lessons appeared as a private enterprise. Published monthly by P. F. Duerksen, Der Sonntagschulbote (The Sunday School Messenger) was made available at a small price to all churches who subscribed to it in various quantities. According to A. E. Janzen, this Sunday school magazine TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE 219 contained the S.S. lessons for each Sund