The Bible Study Committee and the Voluntary Study Plan By Ethel Cutler The Bible Study Committee and the Voluntary Study Plan \ By Ethel Cutler National Student Secretary for Religious Work National Board of the Young Women’s Christian Associations 600 Lexington Avenue, New York City 1916 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/biblestudycommitOOcutl The Bible Study Committee and the Voluntary Study Plan By Ethel Cutler Every student who enters college is searching for some¬ thing. That autumn day when the Freshman caught her first glimpse of college she did not see merely stately buildings and tall trees, arched drive-ways or broad stretching campus. She saw a road winding upward toward her goal. And that goal? It bears many names and is reached by many ascents, yet is it not for all who climb “The Road to Larger Life”? Larger life comes with increased knowledge, rightly applied. It comes with enriching friendships and the increased oppor¬ tunities for service. What has this to do with Voluntary Study? What has Voluntary Study to do with this? Every¬ thing, if rightly understood; nothing, if wrongly construed. What is the purpose of Voluntary Study? Why lay plans for Voluntary Study classes and bend every energy to en¬ listing every student on the campus in such study? What is Voluntary Study? The college curriculum makes heavy demands. The tasks of the class room, the laboratory, the library go to make up “the day’s work.” When a student enters college, by virtue of her matriculation she is committed to the academic pro¬ gram. Voluntary Study is not another class of this sort. Such 3 V study as it affords, deals with the immediate problems of the daily life of students and in no way duplicates academic work in Bible or Missions or Sociology. An adequate course in Voluntary Study offers to each student guidance for daily personal fellowship with God with¬ out which the “larger life” is always stunted and warped. It affords opportunity for discussing the fundamental problems of daily life with other students. What, we find ourselves asking, is included in an adequate course in Voluntary Study? Our first answer is instantly “the Bible.” From the days when our Huguenot forefathers would rather die than give up the reading of the Bible, to the present time when it is a better seller than any “best seller” ever on the market, men and women have found the source of their hope and courage and will to do, through the words of that book. Wherever people have really followed its teaching they have found themselves seeking opportunity for social action, until today we recognize that Bible study is only one part of the larger study program of the Kingdom, and we seek to¬ gether the study of the Bible as the source book for our inspiration, the study of social problems as they arise in this land of ours, and the study of world needs as different parts of a single course, unified in aim and ideal. How many of us really believe it of supreme importance that every student on the campus shall know the meaning of daily, personal fellowship with God? How many of us be¬ lieve that this can best be accomplished by giving some time each day to guided Bible reading and quiet prayer alone? Is it our conviction that such daily meditation grows in value as we have a longer time some one day for personal study and for conference with a group of our fellow students over the week’s problems? Then we see the fundamental purpose of Voluntary Study, and we ask, “What is the part of the Bible Study Committee in all this?” 4 The Bible Study Committee The responsibility of the Bible Study Committee is three¬ fold: 1. To stimulate and develop the habit of daily personal fellowship with God in the life of every student in college. 2. To co-operate in the promotion of the standard Volun¬ tary Study courses. 3. To select and promote parallel courses in the Bible where this seems advisable, in consultation with the cabinet and local or field secretary. There are three committees responsible for study courses in the Association: the Bible Study Committee, which never forgets its major emphasis, personal growth in fellowship with God; the Social Service Committee, which thinks con¬ stantly of the need of the local community and the larger community which is the nation, for unselfish service on the part of students; and the Missionary Committee, which hears and helps others to hear the call of the world’s need. Greater strength for all of these committees will come in a united program. This can best be achieved by a “Voluntary Study executive group,” composed of the chairmen of the three committees working and planning together. These three girls should plan very clearly for the responsibility of each of their committees in a united program. This Voluntary Study executive group will need to make a careful study of the situation on the campus, will need to understand the fundamental principles upon which the Voluntary Study courses are based, the eight texts making up the “stand¬ ard” four-year graded course, and the “parallel” courses in Bible, mission and social study. They will need to decide whether in their college all the emphasis should be centered on the standard courses or whether there should be plans for parallel courses in one or all of these departments of study. Here the counsel of the field secretary will be most 5 valuable. There is the further question of co-operation with the churches, the selection and training of group lead¬ ers, the rally and enrollment in classes, the steady follow¬ up work all the year. Only with united thought on all these points can the different committees avoid duplication and achieve a common purpose. This united program will involve first of all a careful study of the situation. Study of Situation What sort of study classes did last year’s committees plan? How many actually materialized? How many have lasted? How many students have been enrolled? What has been the average attendance of each class? Have the leaders been faculty or students? Has there been a normal class or leaders’ council? Have the courses offered touched a wide range of interests? Have the classes laid emphasis on daily Bible reading? Have the courses been chiefly lecture courses, or have they afforded opportunity for group discussion? Have the classes met on Sunday, or during the week? On the campus, or in the churches ? What relation have they borne to the organized Sunday school work of the community? Why have not more students been interested? What is the situation which confronts the present commit¬ tees? What proportion of the student body is in the churches? How vital is their church life? How many have any real in¬ terest in community problems beyond the campus? How many have thought seriously about world needs? How many have become Student Volunteers? Are the college standards such that we are always proud of them? What is the attitude of the students toward Christianity? What is the relation of the churches to the student life? The answer to such questions as these determines the extent to which an ideal program of Voluntary Study can become operative in your college. The live Voluntary Study execu- 6 tive group, understanding the fundamental principles upon which Voluntary Study plans are built, the material available for use and the peculiarities of their local situation, sets out to adapt the plans and methods to the local needs, looking forward always to the time when the program can be more nearly operative than now. Fundamental Principles Any program for Voluntary Study is based on certain fundamental principles: 1. Bible study, world missionary interests and North American problems are fundamentally one they are differ¬ ent phases of the study of the growth and extension of the Kingdom of God on earth. Therefore, any adequate, well- balanced program will afford opportunity for study of all of these themes. 2. Interest in the growth of the Kingdom in the life of the individual is developed through daily personal fellowship with God; and daily Bible study and prayer are a chief means to this end. 3. There is distinct help to be gained by the opportunity for frank discussion under wise leadership with other students of like interests. This means group classes—small enough for discussion rather than so large that discussion generally belongs only to the leader. 4. Obviously the interests of Freshmen and of seniors are not in most cases identical; hence the value of graded study, that is, groups that complete some one theme in a semester and continue a new course in the second half of the year. 5. There should be a standard program for the majority of students, with parallel courses to meet the peculiar needs of special groups. 6. The nature and number of the classes, the time and 7 place of meeting, leadership and texts studied should be plan¬ ned as far as practicable in closest co-operation with the churches. Ideally, the college departments of the local Sun¬ day schools and the Association Voluntary Study executive group, with their several committees, are working together on a united program, promoted jointly by the churches and Association. The Origin and Growth of the Voluntary Study Idea For some years the Joint Committees on Voluntary Study have been working on plans and texts for use in college de¬ partments of local Sunday schools and Association group classes. The Joint Committees are a union of the sub-com¬ mittee of the Lessons Committee of the Sunday School Coun¬ cil and the Voluntary Study Committee of the North Ameri¬ can Student Council. The Sunday School Council is com¬ posed of Sunday school editors and publishers of twenty- nine denominations. The North American Student Council is made up of representatives of the Young Men’s Christian Association and Young Women’s Christian Association in the United States and Canada, and of the Student Volunteer Movement. The Joint Committees are editing a four-year graded course of study, “College Voluntary Study Series,” built on the major interest of each college year. Each book includes suggestions for daily Bible readings with chapter study and suggestions for group discussion. Each year has two parts: the first semester, Bible study; the second, missionary and community interests. The course is in progress as follows: For Freshmen —Theme: Standards. Part I. “Student Standards of Action.” Part II. “Christian Standards in Life.” For Sophomores —Theme: Leadership. 8 Part I. “A Life at its Best.” Part II. “A Challenge to Life Service.” For Juniors —Theme: Religion. Books in process—to deal with Christianity and com¬ parative religions. For Seniors —Theme: Community Obligations. Part I. Social Principles of Jesus. Part II. The Student and the Community. It is possible to give only the subjects of the Senior books as titles are not finally decided until the books go to press. The Senior books will be ready for use in the college year, 1916-17; the Junior books for the year, 1917-18. These eight books constitute the “Standard Course in Vol¬ untary Study,” and will prove widely adaptable to the major¬ ity of students. In addition to the standard courses, there are certain parallel courses available, dealing with specinc themes, either biblical, missionary or social. These lists ap¬ pear annually in the Voluntary Study Prospectus, and under special conditions committees may decide to substitute certain of these courses or offer them as alternatives or as additions to the standard courses. Co-operation Between the Association and the Churches Wherever feasible the Voluntary Study executive group will plan with the local churches, co-operating with the pas¬ tors or Sunday school superintendents, for college depart¬ ments or student classes in the various Sunday schools. In the larger churches with adequate class room facilities a com¬ pletely graded course can be offered with one or more groups for each of the four college classes. In many instances the Sunday school and the Association will decide to have a group for Freshmen and Sophomores, studying either the 9 first or second year books and a group for upperclassmen using, probably, in 1916-1917 the new Senior books which will be available by the time classes begin to organize. In co-educational institutions the ideal is that the Young Men’s Christian Association and Young Women’s Christian Association shall unite in their plans for church co-operation, but except in very unusual circumstances, it has not proved the best plan to have both men and women students in the same study group. Where for local reasons this plan proves impracticable, it may be possible to organize a union college department of the Sunday schools to meet on or near the campus, with a more completely graded course than could be offered in the several churches. In this case the attendance should be re¬ ported by denominations to the different Sunday schools and the students would probably want to have some share in the support of the several Sunday schools. Wherever possible, however, the plan of meeting in the church buildings is to be preferred. The Leadership of Voluntary Study Groups There is no final and iron-clad rule for the choice of leaders for Voluntary Study groups. There are certain principles, however, which we need to keep constantly before us. The qualities of leadership for a group discussion are varied, but certain things are essential: 1. Sympathy with the student viewpoint. 2. Some understanding of how to lead a group discussion. 3. Knowledge of and enthusiasm for the subject of the course. There are no hard and fast rules, but experience has sug¬ gested in most cases,—and your college may be the exception that proves the rule,—that groups of underclassmen may be 10 very successfully led by upperclassmen if the leaders have had the advantage of a normal class or leaders’ council under the guidance of some experienced teacher. Some students make excellent group leaders, even without this training and help, but the number who could have done vastly more with help, warrants the emphasis on its value. Where there are sufficient faculty members or other mature leaders available, they can in many cases make a far larger contribution to the life of older students than can their own classmates as leaders of a group. But a committee in select¬ ing the leaders needs to keep in mind that Voluntary Study is based on the fundamental idea of small groups meeting for discussion, rather than large classes meeting for lectures. Other things being equal, the ideal group numbers not more than fifteen students, preferably ten as a maximum. This affords real opportunity for discussion. The Promotion of Voluntary Study Classes 1. Spring Plans. The spring months afford the best time in which to plan for the work of the coming year. Before the semester’s end the committees need to have a clear and usable knowledge of the task before them—a survey of the past and plans for the future. Plans for the following year’s work with the local chuiches should be made early. Initial co-operation can best be accomplished with the assistance of your field secretary. Subsequent plans may be determined by these initial steps, and the actual methods will differ according to the local sit¬ uation. The leaders should be chosen in the spring, if possible; undergraduate leaders, at least, should be at the summer con¬ ference. Teachers should be secured for the normal classes for different subjects. It would be a great help if the group 11 leaders could have a short course of four to six sessions on methods of group leadership. This should come, ideally, in the spring. The regular normal classes or leaders’ councils should meet weekly for the discussion of the lesson of the following week. Where the series of talks in methods cannot come in the spring, it may be possible to plan them in con¬ nection with the leaders’ councils in the autumn. 2. Fall Campaigns. One of the first Association meetings of the year belongs to the Voluntary Study Executives for the presentation of their plans and the enrollment of students in the various classes. This meeting should be followed by a systematic canvass of the entire student body.* This should make possible the or¬ ganization of classes within the week. It may be found when this canvass is completed that there are certain groups of stu¬ dents who are not yet ready to join Sunday school classes, but among whom a group may be formed to meet on some week day in the dormitory or fraternity house or on the campus. For these supplementary classes, it may be advis¬ able to use standard courses, or there may be some special group which would be reached by a parallel course rather than by one of the other groups. The rally is over, the canvass completed, record made,— what then? Is the work of the committees completed? May the members rest on their laurels until they pass their work over to the incoming committees? No—well begun is half done but not all done, as some people seem to think. Has every group a secretary or an assistant leader who is responsible not only for keeping record of the attendance in a book,but who helps the leader know why there are absences? Are students ill? Have they lost interest because the class lacks just that note of enthusiasm which the assistant leader might throw into discussion? What can be done about it? * See folder, “Winning a College for Voluntary Study,” sent free of charge on request. 12 Does the chairman of each committee know through the re¬ ports of various members of her committee, responsible to report to her about the classes in the churches and on campus, just how things are going and why? A good chair¬ man never does a thing herself that she can possibly get any one else to do, for she has her hands quite full if she keeps track of affairs through her lieutenants. And hers is the responsibility of reports to the cabinet and to her field secretary, and she remembers that there is to be an annual report. When the work of the first semester is well under way, the committees will find themselves busy with plans for the sec¬ ond semester. The choice of new leaders, where this is neces¬ sary, the courses to be offered, the plans for the winter rally and canvass, the organization of new classes and the year’s service comes to an end with the report to the new com¬ mittees. And for the rest? First, last and always, the fundamental purpose for which the Bible Study Committee exists. Co¬ operation with the missionary and social service committees in a united program of Voluntary Study is important. De¬ cision as to the need of and provision for parallel courses in Bible study may have a large place in the committee’s time and effort. Yet the Bible Study Committee remembers also its responsibility for helping every student to find the joy of daily personal fellowship with God. They are ready to suggest special series of daily Bible readings such as the “Christian Social Order” or “The Missionary Message of the Bible” (10 cents each) for use with parallel texts not provided with suggestions for daily readings. They can sug¬ gest certain helpful books of prayer and devotional readings. There must be machinery, and well-oiled machinery does not creak; but what use is the machinery if there is no product. Not the number enrolled in classes nor the number that con¬ tinue the study counts most, but the girls who have learned 13 to know God better and have found an answer to their ques¬ tions of how to live loyally, honestly, faithfully, for the good of the whole. So in and through and behind all else, every member of the Bible Study Committee seeks to realize in her own life the fundamental purpose of the committee, else how could she make it real to others. “For their sakes I consecrate myself,” said One in Jerusalem. Can we say less? Dare we do less? “For their sakes.” 14 ■ STUDENT LEAFLETS For Universities and Large Colleges Advisory Committee. Bertha Conde. 10 cents. Association Membership and Church Work. Bertha Conde. 10 cents. Association Meetings. Oolooah Burner. 10 cents. Association News Committee. Edith Dabb. 5 cents. Bible Study Committee and the Voluntary Study Plan. Ethel Cutler. 10 cents. Cabinet, The. Bertha Conde. 5 cents. World Fellowship (for the Missionary Committee). Mar¬ garet Burton. 10 cents. Conferences and Conventions Committee. Louise Brooks. 5 cents. Finance Committee. Blanche Geary. 5 cents. How to Promote Eight Week Clubs. Mabel Stone. 5 cents. How to Realize Our National Association Membership. Eliza R. Butler. 10 cents. For Colleges, Seminaries and Academies The first eight leaflets listed above, and “How to Pro¬ mote Eight Week Clubs,” and “How to Realize Our National Association Membership,” as listed above. In addition: Committee Work in Small Associations. Eleanor Rich¬ ardson. 5 cents. Finance Committee in a School or College Association. Edith Helmer. 10 cents. Social Service Committee. Eliza R. Butler. 5 cents. Year’s Outline for Religious Meetings. Oolooah Burner. 10 cents. Watch The Association Monthly for announcement of additional leaflets during 1916-17. Order from Publication Department National Board of the Young Women’s Christian Associations 600 LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK PALMER & OLIVER, NEW YORK