Summaries of 1928-29 Seminars
'Vacation time is almost over, and college halls will soon be humming with V life, and seminar plans for the new school year will be given right of way. The reviews of achievements last year which follow will be read with interest and profit. The seminar idea is growing and being perfected, as tangible results testify. These changes among college Bible teachers should also be noted: Elder B. L. House of P. U. C. goes to Union; Elder H. S. Prenier of U. C. goes to E. M. C.; Elder W. R. French goes to W. M. C.; Elder T. M. French of Africa goes to A. U. C.; Elder B. H. Shaw, to Southern Junior College; and Elder L. H. Hartin of Battleford, to Oshawa. The other teachers remain practically the same as last year.
L. E. F.
Atlantic Union College.— Approximately twenty students have been engaged in actual field work, and about 120 meetings have been held, comprising four distinct efforts, meetings in our own churches, and fifty Bible studies. Four persons have begun to keep the Sabbath as the result of work done by the ministerial band. We have twenty-six students preparing for the ministry, seven of these completing their course this year, and we hope that all will be assigned to field work this summer. Sixteen of the forty-nine members of our ministerial band this year are young ladies preparing for the Bible work.
C.L. Taylor, Dean.
Broadview College.— Five of our ministerial seminar students gained actual field experience this year. A German student held twenty-five meetings in a near-by town, and several persons have become interested in the truth. This student will connect with a tent effort in Chicago this summer. Three other students assisted one of our German ministers in his Sunday night meetings in Chicago, being given opportunity to speak to the people on several occasions. Two of these students will conduct tent efforts this summer. Four of our students finished the ministerial course and are planning to enter the work permanently.
M.H. Schuster, German Bible Dept.
Emmanuel Missionary College.—During our evangelistic season, sixteen ministerial students have conducted seven public efforts, assisted by musicians and Bible workers in about equal number. Icy roads played havoc with the attendance at the meetings, but some have begun the observance of the Sabbath, and it is impossible just now to report how many will eventually be baptized. Two young men are graduating from the ministerial course, and two young women from the Bible workers' course. These have already been placed under appointment in the field. Two are graduating from the junior ministerial course, and they also are placed. Some are graduating from the literary course who will enter ministerial work. I hope to see a great stimulus to evangelistic endeavor in our denomination in the forthcoming school year.
W.R. French, Dean.
Southern California Junior College. — We truly have a group of missionaries in our ministerial seminar, and some idea of the extent and results of their activities may be gathered from the accompanying summary. This work has not all been done in the interests of people living in the vicinity of the school, but includes real home missionary work in the school. Several of the girls living in the dormitory were not Seventh-day Adventists when they came, and our seminar girls have been giving them Bible studies. Five of the nine young people recently baptized were brought to take their stand through the efforts of our seminar girls, and in a short time four more are to be baptized, who are fruits of student effort.
(See PDF for statistics)
The Southeastern California Conference is taking on two of our young men this summer,— one for English and one for Spanish work, and another of our students will be employed by the Southern California Conference. Four of the members of our ministerial band have made application as recruits for foreign fields.
L.A. Wilcox, Bible Teacher.
Southern Junior College.— The totals of our seminar activities are as follows: Sermons, 56; Bible studies, 17; missionary visits, 54; other services, 49; much literature distributed. Three churches have been visited regularly, and a weekly Sabbath school has been conducted. The meetings carried on by two boys in the ministerial department, have resulted in several families' becoming interested in the message, and the effort will be followed up during the summer vacation. One of the students has completed the junior ministerial course and enters active field work, and three other students will act as tent masters in connection with evangelistic campaigns this summer.
S.M. Schleifer, Bible Teacher.
Union College.— The work of our seminar has been the best during the past year of any time in its history. For the inexperienced, we had practice-preaching exercises, in the presence of the ministerial band. I would estimate that twenty-four students took part in these practice sermons, and much practical help was rendered. The more experienced students engaged in field work of a varied nature. Several students conducted prayer meetings each week during the year, several near-by churches were visited each Sabbath, a midweek service has been held regularly at the State Reformatory, attended by about three hundred prisoners; we also hold regular weekly meetings at the county poor farm. Then there has been conducted a series of evangelistic meetings in the city of Lincoln, with an attendance ranging from fifty to two hundred. The interest is developing, and some of the people are now attending our Sabbath services. The students greatly enjoy this field work, and we have twelve young men and women who desire to dedicate their lives to the ministry and Bible work.
A. J. Meiklejohn, Seminar Instructor.
Walla Walla College.— For brevity and completeness, Elder F. M. Burg, of the Bible department, reports in summary form as follows: (See PDF for statistics)
Washington Missionary College.— Since starting the new theological course in 1927 our record shows an enrollment increase from almost nothing to about one fourth the present attendance in the college department. Between September and May, 1928, the students brought twenty-five people into the truth. With these as a base, we organized a new church in Washington, known as the " Mount Pleasant Church." During the last six months of 1928 there was received from this church $3,700 in tithes and offerings. Since November, 1928, to the close of the school year, four student efforts have been in progress in different sections of the city, which have resulted in eight being baptized, with thirty others who are very much interested. We have had seventeen Bible workers in training this year. The seven graduates from our theological department this year have been granted field papers by the Columbia Union Conference and assigned to definite work.
B.G. Wilkinson, Dean.
Greater New York Academy.— A ministerial band of five young men was organized and has done good work. The main feature of their activities has been the conducting of street meetings, at which the attendance and the interest manifested have been very encouraging. We hope that next year the ministerial band will be considerably larger.
C.S. Sawyer, Bible Teacher.
Laurelwood Academy—Our students are young, making it difficult to or ganize for active field work. But throughout the winter the older stir dents have gained experience in visiting among the near-by churches. Ii place of the ministerial band, we have what we call a " leadership drill," to train and prepare the young people to fill places of responsibility in their own home church. For example, wes have explained and demonstrated all phases of Sabbath school work, cover ing senior, junior, and kindergarten, In place of the missionary readings, our young people have given talks or missions, and as a result the Sabbath, school offerings have been doubled right along, as compared to the offerings of the previous year. We have also conducted drills along the line of the Missionary Volunteer work,— what can be done to help the church and the pastor, how to take an interest in young people and juniors in the church, and how to conduct senior and junior programs as outlined in the Church Officers' Gazette. While our work has been more on the angle of-developing the young people to help their own home churches, we have not lost sight of the ministerial phase. I believe that when these young people go on to college, they will be better fitted to enter into the ministerial band work, because of this leadership drill.
George S. Belleau, Bible Teacher.
Mount Vernon Academy.— We have had a very profitable year, and quite a number of the young men in our ministerial seminar are definitely planning to enter the ministry. The seminar meetings have been held each Friday evening, with a membership of about twenty. The young men of the seminar have been a decided spiritual force in the school. When we take into consideration the age and the experience of our students, we find that in their ability to present the truth -- publicly, they compare very favorably with the seminarians in the senior colleges. We have not felt justified in holding any public effort during the year, but our young men have held meetings at the State Tubercular Sanatorium, near Mount Vernon, and every Sabbath from two to five of the students visit the smaller churches of the conference. Some give Bible readings and distribute literature in Mount Vernon. We also have an active Bible workers' band, and a thriving Missionary Volunteer organization. A number of our young men will enter the theological course in W. M. C. this fall, but a strong nucleus is remaining around which to build up our seminar work next year. We plan to start a mission in the city, and the conference president assures us of moral and financial support in this endeavor.
L.D. Warren, Bible Teacher.
(Report of colleges outside North America will appear next month.)
