, Knights of St. Paul, Knights of the Holy
Grail, and the Boys' Brigade. It is essentially true, also, of the Young
Men's Christian Association. The first of these--the boy
organizations--constitutes a method which is at the disposal of the
church. The second--the Christian Association--has grown to be a mighty
operating force, with hundreds of employed officers and millions of
dollars of property. Save for the fact that church members compose the
directorates, it is independent of the church. With this and other
organizations what can the church's relationship be? The seeming answer
would be cooperation--a glad working together for the general betterment
of the community itself by tried and approved plans. However, a new
condition has arisen, which offers more than general cooperation between
the Church and these organizations for the teen age boy. Until recently
the church school had no clear-cut method for working with the teen age
lad, while the boy organizations referred to had such a method, and the
Young Men's Christian Association, after years of work, has a force of
more or less experienced experts in boy life in its employ. The methods
of these boy organizations and the boy experts of the Young Men's
Christian Association must have a field of operation, and the best
field, of course, is that of the church school, where boys should be
found. The Young Men's Christian Association, in its own building,
touches but a minute fraction of the boy life of the city in which it
operates, and, to touch the city boy life, must get out of its building.
It then has a choice of fields, Public Playground, Public School, or
Community Betterment. If, however, it is true to the principle of its
founding--to be an arm of the Church among young men--that which it
attempts to do should be tied up to the Church, or, in the case of teen
age boys, to the church school. To accomplish the latter, what shall the
procedure be? Shall the Young Men's Christian Association win the boy,
and then deliver him, saved for service, to the Church, or shall the
Young Men's Christian Association work with the Church as part of the
Church inside the church school? Common sense would say both ways, and
all other ways possible, just so the boy stands saved and in the Church
for service. And this is as it should be, and the employed experts of
the Young Men's Christian Association should render service to the
Church, both within and without the Church--and