The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-23
ATTENDANCE RECORD LOW

meeting for the attendance at the va rious churches at their midweek serv- ices, and I found that less than per cent in our large churches are really in attendance at the midweek service Now, I draw from this a conclusion that the ordinary midweek service is not meeting either the needs or the de- sires of the large percentage of our membership. The question arises what should be done? I am sure that we need to encourage the devotional life of our people; but I am also sure that if this is attempted in a direct way instead of an indirect way, that we will probably fail in the object we aim at, as the ordinary man feels that his time is largely wasted in attending a service where the prayers are long and nuk1 erous and more or less perfunctory When there is some great, vital demand for a specific prayer our people will meet and pray; but under the ordinary course of things they believe that they can offer their prayers in silence unto God and from their homes as we'll as ip a midweek service
 q am further convinced that there is a demand for the training of our church members on effective christian service. I am trying at Southside to combine these two ideas. It is not new with me. l have tried it before and have been pleased
 
 with the outcome.
 PLAN OUTLINED
 My plan is this: We make Wednes- day evening church night and request that all committees of every kind shall have their meetings on that night From 7:30 to 75O we have a devotional ser vice, with the singing of the best songs under competent leader, and with such prayer as may seem appropriate. From 7:5e to 8.25 I give a Bible lecture; my idea Icing not simply to rehash the story, or point out it's spiritual applications, but to face fairly and frankly the problems of our time and to consider the ques- tions that are uppermost in the minds of the people. In other words, to pre- sent a series of Bible lectures on the modern operation of the Bible and the ap- pl:cation of it's principles to our day. I find the people are interested in these lectures. Then from 8:30 to 9:15 we have classes for all departments of our Sun day school and for our young people For example:
 ''In one room the teachers of the be- ginrers and primary departments meet and study a text book under Miss Annie L. Williams, who is recognized as one of our leading Sunday school workers in the south. Parents who have children under years of age are invited to go in this class and to study the pupil life and how to train and teach these little ones. They also talk over the problems of these departments and plan for the work of the coming Sunday.
 sAt the same time the junior teachers and officers and the parents of boys and girls from to F years of age meet and study book under Ed s. Moore, who has had much experience in the junior work of our Sunday school.
 "In another room the teachers and of- ficers of the intermediate department meet and discuss the problems of the early teen age, under the leadership of Mrs. J. E. billiard, who for several years was superintendent of this department in St. Joseph, Mo.
 '"The teachers and officers of all or- ganized classes in the senior and adult departments meet and study the prin- ciples of organized class work under the leadership of John R. Waters, who is superintendent of the adult depart ment in our school.
 "The home department workers meet and plan for the enlarging of this de- partment and the study of the prob- lems that arise under the leadership of Mrs. G. E. Smith, who is superin- tendent of the department, and Mrs. Jesse Wright, who has had very large experience in this kind of work.
 "The boys and girls of our Junior B. Y F. U. meet. and under the lead ership of H. M Watson they study the problems and plan for the work of the junior society of our church.
 There is a meeting of the older young people-that is, the young people in their later teens and early twenties- and they will study book on How to Be an Efficient Church Member (this class has not started yet. but We ex- pect to start it on next Wednesday, and we have very competent teacher in n, ind for the claSSl