Building Up a Reading Course Circle
by Clifford Goldstein
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Building Up a Reading Course Circle
Proganda in the interests of the Ministerial Reading Course may, by some, be regarded as a very small item; but to the one in whose hands this responsibility is placed it assumes a somewhat different aspect, since the promotion work is really the foundation upon which either a large or a small reading circle is established.
An efficient ministry is the great aim of the Ministerial Association, and the goal toward which every licensed and ordained worker is striving. The Reading Course study plan is but one means to this end, but wherever our workers have followed this course, blessing and power have resulted. Bearing this in mind, the mere routine work of promoting this plan becomes a genuine pleasure to the one who undertakes it.
Where only one language is spoken throughout a division territory, Reading Course promotion does not present the same problems as in the Southern European Division, where there are several language areas. In order that our European workers may enjoy the same benefits as those who read and speak English, it is necessary that suitable books be chosen in the different languages involved. The Ministerial Reading Course is now promoted in six languages in the Southern European Division,— in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Serbian, and Rumanian,— and we hope, as time goes on, to establish Reading Course circles in still other language areas.
Owing to the dividing of the old European Division territory, we had to begin afresh in the matter of building up a Reading Course circle in our newly formed division. We started with the promotion of the English course at the beginning of the year, but the prospects were not the most encouraging, as only seven regular European Division Reading Course members came within the territory of the Southern European Division. After getting in touch with the field, however, we discovered seventy-five English-speaking workers; and a little later we found still more, bringing the total up to 100. All of these workers are supplied with The Ministry free of charge, and the paper is proving a source of great inspiration to them. We find that workers who do not at first enroll for the Reading Course, become enthusiastic about doing so after reading this valuable journal.
Then our division voted to meet 50 percent of the cost of the Reading Course books for each worker, and this has been a great help. We now have an enrollment of seventy-two, with a hopeful prospect of reaching 100 percent. The help which the division has extended to its workers has been a great assistance in our promotion endeavor, and we are sure it would not have been possible to secure such a large enrollment without this generous help. We also gratefully acknowledge the help which has been given by conference presidents who have recommended and encouraged their workers to follow this plan.
Careful routine and follow-up work from the office in support of this very practical and much appreciated help by union and local conference officers, has brought very gratifying results. Insignificant though the office phase of promotion work may appear to be, it nevertheless serves to good advantage in the building up of a large circle of Reading Course members, as well as subscribers to the much-appreciated publication, The Ministry.
Madeline W. Golding, Office Secretary, Southern European Division, Berne, Switzerland.