Some years ago, I made an experiment in audio-visuals which opened my eyes to a technique that can make the church school a far more effective link in the church’s program. When I moved to Sherman Oaks, California, the nearest Episcopal Church was six miles away; so, with the consent of my bishop, I undertook to start a Sunday School in my home. My use of audio visuals in teaching unfolded for me a vast new world of possibilities for presenting Bible truth in a way that actually makes teaching a pleasure. The boys and girls responded eagerly to “picture teaching.” Indeed, one Sunday morning a prominent composer and conductor asked me what we were doing to make his children want to go to our Church School rather than to Palm Springs for the week-end. My small effort, which started with five children, grew steadily until a mission was established and that mission has become one of the strong parishes in the diocese.
A VISUALLY DOMINATED CULTURE
Out of the experience came a conviction that Christian education had to face realistically the fact that the modern church exists in a visually dominated culture. The motion picture, radio, and television have brought about a veritable revolution in communication.
“Today an average two-year old child has seen more places than his grandfather saw in his whole lifetime,” says Howard E. Tower in Religious Education (Abingdon, 1960). “The same grandfather made up his vocabulary meanings in relation to the word spoken by someone in relationship to the real thing in experience, supplemented by words read in the reader and later the newspaper, magazine, and classic literature. Now the two-year-old grandson sees visual images on the television screen to which meanings are attached which are often unrelated to his actual experience and sometimes unrelated to the corresponding words.… We have experienced a communications revolution. Our culture is visually perceived if not so dominated.…”
The Church School teacher or leader who is not aware of this is severely limited in planning for and carrying out an effective program of Christian education. Certainly the teacher must have such awareness if he is to know the modern vocabulary of his students and what they are thinking and doing. Leaders at the denominational level must be aware of the changed communications situation if they are to develop an adequate curriculum.
THE USE OF MODERN AID
The ideal Church School teaching situation in these times is an adequate curriculum designed to use visual aids. These aids should be made not only to accompany the printed lesson but to be integrated in its very structure. Many denominations are following this pattern in the preparation of their new materials that will come out in 1963 or 1964. A resurrection in teaching effectiveness is on the way, thanks to the pioneers in the churches who have blazed the trail with audio-visual aids.
The teachers’ frustration under old methods lay in the failure of their dialogue to get through to the children. Ordinary Church School teachers are not theologians or Bible scholars or, for that matter, even teachers in the full sense of the word. Yet they feel a sense of duty and loyalty to Christ and the Church that must be met. They offer themselves knowing full well their inadequacies. But God too knows these inadequacies and he also knows that a dedicated person can often be more valuable than one who is merely gifted in teaching ability. The Church School teacher is, and always will be, the living witness of the Christian faith to the children she teaches. Give that teacher the kind of teaching tool that will breathe life into the dialogue and communicate the message, and both teacher and pupil will find themselves in a teaching situation which will achieve amazing results. Such aids must, of course, incorporate a rational dialogue requiring a decision for truth, if they are to be evangelically effective.
It is possible today for audio-visuals to be used in the classroom. The new sound filmstrips are especially designed for this purpose. They fit the “time slot” allotted for “learning time” in the average school. The film with record runs on an average of 10 to 14 minutes, giving the teacher adequate time for discussion in the half-hour usually granted for this purpose. The right tools are now available to help any teacher do a better job. The big teaching advantage lies in such a dramatic presentation of the material that an impact is made which most untrained teachers are unable to accomplish in any other way. The minister knows that what is being taught through the approved audio-visual aid is in keeping with the theology of the church. The children like to learn the visual way. The teacher rejoices to know and feel that the time spent has produced results far and above anything he or she could have achieved without the visual-aid. Discussions are twice as effective because children always react to pictures. After the session the lesson is the chief topic of conversation.
BRIDGING TIME AND SPACE
Audio-visual aids make the Bible a living book. They do not downgrade but rather upgrade the centrality of the Holy Scriptures in the curriculum. Audio-visuals help the pupil to bridge time and distance, to have a new appreciation of the setting in which biblical truth and history transpired, and to obtain a perceptive grasp of the human and divine situations involved. There are dangers here, but individuals, denominations, and educational foundations are engaged in vast programs of research which insure increasingly faithful disclosures of Bible truth.
The superiority of the audio-visual method of teaching may well be illustrated in the presentation of the story of Jonah and the “great fish.” Study of a brief Scripture passage may reveal how God’s mercy saved Jonah from a shipwreck, kept him safely, and eventually deposited him on the beach safe and sound. Yet the real purpose of the Bible story and its vital importance for us today lies in God’s commissioning of Jonah to tell others of God regardless of their race or nationality. God wanted Jonah to realize that religion has life only when it is shared with others, and that not to do this is contrary to the purpose of God. A good sound filmstrip may provide sound effects, storm, shipwreck, and dramatize the story of a man who did not want to do what he was supposed to do as a member of a race God had chosen for a special purpose. The story may end with an illustration in which Jonah finally realizes his responsibility to others of different races and nationalities. A great Bible truth is thus designed and produced to hold attention, deliver a message, and arouse discussion. In the process the teacher discovers an experience in teaching that actually makes the task a pleasure.
Classroom audio-visuals are designed to be used in the most modern classroom techniques. The short focal length throw of the classroom projector allows it to be used at one end of the table. At the other end is the latest lenticular screen which provides perfect viewing at any angle for the children seated around the table. The record attachment is a part of the projector unit. The room does not have to be darkened, for modern equipment will project in normal light. Using the visual-aid tools in this way makes it unnecessary to rearrange chairs when the filmstrip has finished; discussion can begin at once right at the table.
A TOOL FOR EVANGELISM
Strange as it may seem, the 16mm sound film is rapidly becoming a significant educational tool for lay evangelism. A series on the life of Christ or the life of Paul can well be geared into soul winning programs. Indeed the rising tide of religious concern for the nation and the world on the part of laymen has been one of the main reasons for the renewed interest in good Bible films. The layman is serious about his determination to do something in his own way to bear witness to his faith. In presenting a series of films on the life of our Lord or the life of St. Paul, he finds an opportunity to make his witness really count. His friends and neighbors will come to the church to see a good film. Through the experience of viewing the film, an opportunity for real discussion develops. When laymen begin to discuss religion and ask questions, they are going to get more excited about the Christian faith. Ministers are delighted to see laymen enthusiastically take up this method of evangelism. Naturally the minister plays the most important role in this situation. He is the one who must give answers to the questions. Indeed, he may well introduce the film showing, giving remarks pertinent to the content so it will be better appreciated by the viewers. When minister and laymen can thus work as a team, the teaching of adults in the Church School can be more thrilling than teaching children.
Truly a new day is dawning on the horizon of Christian education for both children and adults. Teaching tools such as audio-visual aids are more vital than ever to the program of churches of all sizes. Any Church School curriculum can be supplemented with audio-visual aids to fit lesson content. Reputable and responsible producers assure pastors and teachers that their visual-aids are as theologically and historically trustworthy as any reputable Bible commentary because they are based on sound Christian scholarship.
Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.
