Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1921)

February. 1921 MOVING PICTURE AGE How Our Church Uses Moving Pictures IV. Using Films in Church Educational Work How moving pictures may be used in assisting the pastor and Sunday school teacher in advancing religious educational work By Rev. Roy L. Smith Pastor, Simpson Methodist Church, Minneapolis 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. THE Christian church, so far as the protestant denominations are concerned, is only beginning to realize the importance of religious education. The vigorous revivalism of the last generation emphasized the matter of personal decisions but it did not develop an educational program by which the converts were trained in religious thinking. Through the modern Sunday School boards, however, increased pressure is being laid on the local churches and scientific methods and high scholastic standards in Sunday School work are becoming more and more popular. But it yet remains for someone to work out a satisfactory educational program for the adult members of the congregation. For years the professional schoolmen have viewed Sun day School methods with benevolent tolerance. It is true that the work has not always been the best but wonders have been accomplished when one remembers that untrained teachers and volunteer workers without pay have worked with children whose attendance was entirely voluntary and with equipment which was always insufficient. As scientific education develops in the public educational system, there is seen a gratifying development of the same standards within the church schools. Because the secular schools have found visual instruction of such value, the church schools may well take the pains to study the subject with great care. The problem does not concern the children alone. The educational program must be planned to meet the needs of the adult group which has grown up under a system that was haphazard and fragmentary. Pictures can be used to advantage in adult work as surely as with juvenile groups. Pictures possess certain advantages and values that should appeal particularly to the educator in the religious field. Scientists and psychologists have long declared that 85 per cent of our education conies through our eyes. Religious education, until late years, however, has appealed almost exclusively to the ear. Pictures that adequately present the message will be found to have unusual advantages because of their natural and scientific appeal. One of the great problems of the church school is .the untrained teacher. The conscientious pastor and superintendent is always asking the question, "What are the teachers teaching?" A picture standardizes the lesson and is not subject to a variable interpretation. In the case of missionary instruction, the personal interest, or lack of interest, does not defeat the picture as would be the case in many instances of oral instruction. The problem of voluntary attendance and discipline encourages irregularity but the entertainment value of pictures Where Film May Be Used Instruction in doctrinal beliefs Implanting the moral virtues Biblical history, customs, geography and stories Home and foreign missions Church history General educational purposes for special organization meetings such as boys' or girls' clubs, men's meetings, etc. helps to secure instant attention and unflagging interest. The church school which experiments in the use of pictures will soon find that they make a considerable contribution to the solution of a number of vexing problems of general administration as well as the purely technical side of teaching. In order to get the best results from film it is necessary to have in mind some definite objective which is to be served by their use. The brief period of time that the school has for its work makes it impossible to use long pictures. One reel is, under all normal circumstances, quite sufficient. There is no time for the purely entertainment film — we have bigger work to do. Every picture shown should have some exact relation to the general educational program — some plan which has been worked out with great care. Such a program will be described in a later paragraph. Some of the problems to be met in this work seem serious indeed. In the first place the average Sunday School room is not adapted to daylight showings. The windows have to be darkened, which interferes with ventilation. Many churches have installed their picture machine in the main auditorium of the church where it is to be used in connection with the services for public worship. No use can be made of it for school purposes without assembling the school in the auditorium. Among the larger schools the departmental idea has been developed until the departmental sessions are entirely distinct and separate. In such cases, a picture shown to one department is missed entirely by all others. The writer has found it of great advantage to install a portable projector and any material is thus made available to all departments with a minimum of confusion and disturbance. Indeed, the opportunity for the use of pictures is such that many churches will find it worth while to purchase a small portable projector for the educational work. The second problem, of course, is the picture material that is available and adaptable to the Sunday School curriculum. A brief study of the religious material used by the school will classify it somewhat as follows: (1) doctrinal, (2) moral, (3) biblical, (4) missions, (5) church history. Much of the Sunday School instruction has to do with the purely doctrinal material, including such subjects as the fact of God, the presence of God, the character of God, the meaning of prayer, the interpretation of religious experience, etc. Such subjects do not admit of treatment in pictorial form and little help may be expected at this point. The Monarch Film Company, Osaere, Iowa, advertises "sermonettes" on such subjects as "God, Prayer, Worship, Gossip, Happiness, etc.," but