Operations in World Divisions

A. G. Daniells, Chairman: The brethren have kindly granted to the Ministerial Association this afternoon session of the Conference for the con­sideration of Ministerial Association interests. According to the General Conference program, as announced, we were to have had two half sessions, on different dates, for the consideration of the various phases of our work,—one for reports from the general sec­retaries, and the other for a sympo­sium of reports from secretaries of the divisions; but since coming here we told the officers that if they felt free to grant us all of this afternoon for our reports, we would not ask for anything more; and they accepted the proposi­tion.

Now it falls to me to read the report I have here in written form, which includes reports by my associates, Elder MacGuire and Elder Froom; but as this report will appear in print through the Review [see Review and Herald, No. 29, General Conference Re­port No. 7, pp. 122-125], I have decided that it is best, under the circum­stances, to boil it down to the mini­mum, in order to give all the time pos­sible to these secretaries from the world field, who will tell us about their work; and I desire also to call on several of the officers of the General Conference to speak concerning their observations of the work of the Min­isterial Association. I have not asked all these brethren if I might call on them for impromptu speeches, but see­ing them here, I venture to do so.

I have recently spent about a year in the Australasian Division. Much of that time Elder C. H. Watson, the president of the division, was with me, and led in the ministerial institutes that were held, and in all the efforts made in behalf of the ministry. I wish to ask Elder Watson, who is at this time our General Conference Presi­dent, to speak to us.

C. H. Watson: I am very happy in­deed, dear brethren and sisters, to have the opportunity of talking to you in a meeting that is considering the work of the ministry. I wish that more frequent opportunity could be made possible for giving consideration to the great work that God has committed to the ministry of this denomination.

It has been my privilege to labor during the last four years in a division of the world field where there is a strong ministry, and I am happy to have seen the organized efforts of the denomination through the Ministerial Association affecting the life and strength and service of the ministers in the Australasian Division. We feel that we need strong help for our min­isters in Australasia, and for our mis­sionaries in the South Sea Island field, and we have been made happy, during the last four years, to have had the consideration of the General Confer­ence in sending us the help of workers who had in mind no other purpose than helping our ministers—upbuild­ing the strength of the ministerial force, and encouraging them to live closer to the Lord, and to become more efficient in the work that they seek to do in His name.

Brother Daniells was sent out to the Australasian field. It was not a new or strange field for him to visit, as he had labored there in the early days, and our Australasian forces were very glad to welcome Brother Daniells to the field. When he arrived, the field was programmed for a series of strong ministerial conventions, and the pro­grams were carried out. The univer­sal testimony of the ministers through­out the field is to the effect that they received great help and blessing at these ministerial institutes. Much was done also in laboring for the member­ship of the denomination in Australia and New Zealand. Special efforts were made at the camp meetings, and in the larger churches. A strong effort was put forth throughout the entire field, and if we can regard the testimony of the people generally, even to this day, we must believe that the effort was a successful one. We know the results of these efforts put forth by the Gen­eral Conference, through its Ministe­rial Association, have been blessed of the Lord, and have operated success­fully for the strengthening of the work in Australasia. I am glad to bear this brief testimony to the effective­ness of it, and I hope the future will show us how we may more wisely and more effectively put forth our efforts to help the ministers of this movement generally, and thus hasten the finish­ing of the work of God.

A.G. Daniells: We have with us Elder A. W. Anderson, the Ministerial Association secretary for the Austral­asian Division, who has almost a thou­sand workers in his constituency, and we will ask for his report to be made now.

A. W. Anderson: Years ago we came to the conclusion in Australia that the progress of our work would be just about commensurate with the efficiency and spirituality of our ministry, and therefore that anything that would create a greater degree of spirituality and more efficiency in the ministry, deserved the hearty indorsement and co-operation of every one of our people. This led us to form what was termed an Evangelical Association, which was carried on for some years, and when the Ministerial Association was formed by the General Conference, we joined with it heartily. Today, all the min­isters in Australia, as far as we know, and especially the missionaries in the islands, very heartily appreciate the publication known as THE MINISTRY, and anticipate the arrival of each issue with much interest. We believe that the service which the Ministerial As­sociation renders is very valuable to anybody of ministers. We have come to believe in the value of the Reading Courses, furnishing regular outlines of study and incentive to ministers to give attention to study, and reading books that are thought producing and develop original thinking, and con­sider that endeavor along this line is worthy of all the stimulation that can be given to it.

A.G. Daniells: We will now ask Elder I. H. Evans, the president of the Far Eastern Division, to speak to us.

I. H. Evans: It goes without saying that we as workers need every possible stimulus to help us in spirituality, and to concentrate on the great work before us. The Ministerial Association has been a great blessing to our work­ing force in the Far East. We have 1,968 workers, and are doing our best to persuade every worker, and the wives of the workers as well, to follow closely the Reading Course as outlined by the General Conference, subject to such substitution as it is necessary to make because of the languages used. We want all our workers to have the benefit accruing from following this Reading Course, and to avail them­selves of all the help that the Minis­terial Association has to give. I am sure that I voice the sentiment of the large majority of our working force when I say that we greatly appreciate the work of the Ministerial Associa­tion. It has been a real blessing to our foreign workers, but especially to our native working force. Many of our natives need the very help that they can get by being persuaded to follow closely this Reading Course plan. Oftentimes they feel unable to buy the literature, but we have en­deavored to supply every worker with the literature when he is not able to purchase it himself.

I can hardly describe to you what a growing interest is springing up in the hearts of our Oriental workers as the result of the stimulation of the Ministerial Department. Many of our workers_. have read books which they never would have read but for the Reading Course provision, and many have been led to branch out in under­takings which they never would have thought of but for the inspiration of this department. I am unable to think of a man in the Far Eastern Division who does not look with great friendli­ness and appreciation upon the help­fulness of this Ministerial Association.

A. G. Daniells: Prof. Frederick Griggs, the Ministerial Association sec­retary for the Far East, has been do­ing very earnest work among the work­ers speaking so many languages, and we will ask him to report to us now.

F. Griggs: The Ministerial Associa­tion is growing in the Far Eastern Di­vision. We have to conduct twelve dif­ferent Reading Courses for our work­ers, which involves the selection of many books. During the past four years the Reading Course enrollment among the native workers has been gaining year by year, and the number completing the courses is growing. For the present year, at the time I came away from the office, we had enrolled 620 of our native workers. This is a large number, and will prob­ably go to between 700 and 800 men and women all over that great field who are taking these Reading Courses.

The majority of our native workers have very little education, but they are earnestly seeking to avail themselves of all the help we can give them, and they are doing a wonderful work in winning souls to Christ. The books that are being read, and the "Monthly Readings" which we prepare in the different vernaculars (largely a re­print from THE MINISTRY) , are prov­ing of immense value in stimulating the native workers to study.

We have incorporated into our Min­isterial Association endeavor what is known as a "Five-Year Evangelical Course for Workers," through which there is direct connection with the Fireside Correspondence School. This course corresponds to a high school course, and includes Bible, history, and science, and the regular Ministerial Reading Course. We expect to intro­duce this Five-Year Evangelical Course throughout all the Far East. At the present time it is working in full measure only in China, where we have 561 enrolled, but I am glad to bring a good report of what has already been accomplished within eighteen months in China, and I believe that the same line of work can be carried on effec­tively, not only in the Far Eastern Division, but throughout the world. I am convinced that there is a connec­tion between our Fireside Correspond­ence work and our Ministerial Associa­tion work which can most effectively serve our evangelical workers. If the ministry is wide awake and earnest and serious in study and preparation for their work, the spirit of study will permeate clear through to the remotest member of our churches. We have a great message to give. We must be wide awake continually, and study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed.

A.G. Daniells. During the last fif­teen years, at least, I have worked with Elder McElhany, the vice-presi­dent for the North American Division, in conducting many ministerial insti­tutes. I wish Brother McElhany would say a few words at this time.

J. L. McElhany: I am glad to speak a word for North America in relation to the Ministerial Association and its endeavors along the line of helping to promote the interests of our ministry. A well-trained, efficient, consecrated ministry is, as I am sure we all recog­nize, the greatest need of this move­ment, so far as the human element is concerned; and it is to bring about this very worthy end that the Associa­tion was organized and toward which it has been bending its efforts. Our workers are reaching out for help along all lines, in the desire to become more efficient in service. The problems of evangelism, pastoral work, preach­ing, visiting, carrying on church work, personal study, and self-improvement are all important elements in the life of a worker in this cause, and the Min­isterial Association stands as a clear­ing house, through which every worker may contribute to the common good of all. A higher and still higher standard for the ministry is our objective.

I am glad to say that as I have visited around over the field I have seen many evidences of the working of the principle for which the Minis­terial Association stands. If I could take time to tell of the ministerial in­stitutes that have been held in various parts of the country, it would give me much joy to speak of the great blessing of God that has rested on these efforts. In connection with our union confer­ence sessions two years ago, minis­terial institutes played a very impor­tant part. These were occasions of deep spiritual blessing to our work­ers, opening up definite lines of study for improvement in the various branches of the work. There is on the part of ministers, Bible workers, and workers engaged in various branches of the cause, a reaching out after higher ideals. And so I bring you a good word concerning what I have seen and heard of the Association and its influence on the work and work­ers of North America.

A.G. Daniells: Now we would like to hear from our General vice-presi­dent, Elder Montgomery, who has traveled almost around the world dur­ing the last four years.

O. Montgomery: I am glad to say just a word of appreciation for the Ministerial Association and its work. For many years there was an urgent request by the ministry for some pro­vision whereby they could be put in contact with one another, and be en­abled to be of mutual help, encourage­ment, and strength as to methods of work, working material, ways of pre­senting this message, and the strength­ening of their ministry in all respects. I rejoice that the time came when we organized and established the Minis­terial Association. It has been my privilege to visit many different fields, and meet with the workers in many different lands, and without any thought of preparation of a report at this time, I am glad to bring to you the reflex that I have gotten from these various fields, as pertains to the work of the Ministerial Association. In every part of the world where I have traveled I have heard words of appre­ciation, and I am sure that the Min­isterial Association is proving to be a definite blessing and encouragement and help to our ministry. If there is any one thing that we need more than another, it is help to become more deeply spiritual and more effective in our endeavor for the salvation of souls and the building up of the church. May the Lord help us in every endeavor that we put forth to this end.

A.G. Daniells: I spent last winter in the South American field, with Brother Haynes, the president, and Elder J. W. Westphal, who has spent twenty-nine years in South America, and who has been giving special at­tention to Ministerial Association in­terests in that division during recent years. We want to hear from these brethren, and I will now call on Elder Haynes.

C. B. Haynes: Our working force in South America numbers 780. This body of men and women are a needy body. They desire to become more efficient in their labors, and the efforts of the Ministerial Association have been of very material benefit to this group of workers in South America. They have been reaching out for the kind of help that the Association has been supplying. This last year we felt that the time had come to give our entire body of workers special help through a series of ministerial insti­tutes, and in planning for these in­stitutes we reserved the time for deal­ing with the great need of the ministry without interruption of business meet­ings or committee meetings.

It has been our policy to make a round of the field once a year, for the purpose of adjusting administrative problems, making our budgets, holding annual committee meetings in the dif­ferent institutions, and conventions for departmental workers, such as the publishing, home missionary, educa­tional, and Missionary Volunteer de­partments. But this past winter we brushed everything else aside, and made the ministry and its interests the all-important thing in the five min­isterial institutes which were arranged for throughout the South American Division. Elder J. W. Westphal, our Ministerial Association secretary, had charge of these programs for the in­stitutes. Elder Daniells responded to our request to come down and make this entire round of meetings, and I think I could not overemphasize the importance of the benefit we received. Our working force today is more uni­fied than it ever has been before, and we know that, as a consequence of these ministerial institutes, our work will go forward in a much stronger way than ever before. We in South America are thankful to God for the Ministerial Association and for what it is doing for our ministers.

J. W. Westphal: The idea of a Min­isterial Association in South America developed from a sense of need. We reached a time when evangelistic work was at a low ebb. Through the development of the departments, and cen­tering thought upon departmental work in the desire to make it what it ought to be, we lost sight, to some ex­tent, of the necessity of our evange­listic work. The evangelists in the field felt it keenly, and they set them­selves to work to bring about a change; and from that developed the idea of the Ministerial Association. I believe Elder Daniells will remember the let­ter which I wrote to him, about eight years ago, in which I set before him the needs of evangelistic workers, and asked that something be done to help them in a definite way. We rejoiced when we heard that the General Con­ference had formed a Ministerial Asso­ciation for the help of the entire field, and we in South America entered heartily into the plan.

I am glad to say that we have seen results along the line of stimulating and making stronger our evangelistic work in the field. There has been a great change in this respect in South America, and today the strong factor in our work is aggressive evangelism. Not only does this apply to our regular evangelists, but our departmental sec­retaries, and leaders in other branches of the work in the field, have engaged in evangelistic work with good success.

We are promoting three reading Courses, in English, Spanish, and Por­tuguese, with a present enrollment of about 200. A deep interest is taken in this Reading Course work. We have started a little paper, called El Evangelista, which is manifolded and sent out each month, with a view to strengthening the evangelistic spirit, and supplying our laborers with ma­terial suitable for use in their work.

This paper is much appreciated. We send it free to our schools, to be sup­plied to members of the ministerial classes, and the students take a great interest in it.

A.G. Daniells: Now we will have a report from Elder L. R. Conradi, the Ministerial Association secretary of the Central European Division.

L.R. Conrad: The Central Euro­pean Division has been in existence only about a year and a half, and con­sequently the work of the Ministerial Association is rather new. But we have given attention to three things: (1) Securing greater success in the work of the ministry; (2) securing greater efficiency in study; and (3) as­sisting the ministry in a general way. When we began our work as a Min­isterial Association, we found that as a consequence of the war and its after­effects, we faced a losing situation. We found there was a decided decrease in the number of baptisms adminis­tered, showing that our evangelistic work was sadly lacking. And we also found there was a serious loss in our membership. Our first move was to ask each union to send us a report of every worker in the union for the preceding six months. When these re­ports came in, we had opportunity to see just what each worker had ac­complished—how many souls had been gained, how many had dropped out. Then we began work with the indi­vidual laborer. We found that this direct effort to help the individual la­borer was effective, and the situation throughout the field soon began to change. There has been decided im­provement, but we are keeping right after this endeavor to help each worker secure the greatest success in his work.

The next thing was to secure more thorough and efficient study on the part of our ministers. The number of our workers who read English is quite limited, but wherever practical, we urge that they take the English Reading Course. But we found it nec­essary to start a German Reading Course, and we have made very thorough work of this. We have at present enlisted all our ministerial workers in the Reading Courses. We believe our ministry ought to improve in study. I am not so young any more. I finished my schooling fifty years ago, as far as the Battle Creek College was concerned; but today I love to study just the same. The min­ister who does not improve, who does not grow, who does not obtain new food for his own soul out of the word of God, will not be able to feed the flock. Personally, I have never kept a stock of sermons. I believe in study­ing, and in studying real hard. When I see a minister who preaches ser­mons so old that when the people hear the first word, they know just what the last word will be, I cannot pity him if the members of his congrega­tion go to sleep, and I think that min­ister is in very great need of such help as the Ministerial Association can give him.

We recognize that much can be ac­complished for our ministry through institutes, and we believe that what we have learned here through the re­ports of the Ministerial Association sec­retaries in other divisions will prove of help to us in developing this in­stitute work more extensively. We do believe that by the grace of God our ministry can become more efficient, both in gaining souls and also in keep­ing the souls gained; and to this end we are earnestly endeavoring as the Ministerial Association of the Central European Division.

A.G. Daniells: Next will be Elder J. C. Raft, now secretary of the Asso­ciation in the Southern European Di­vision, but up to the time of the recent division of territory, he had charge of Ministerial Association work through­out all Europe. Brother Raft has done a great work for the ministers there.

J. C. Raft: I wish we had a thousand workers in our division, but we have only 311. We have 181,000,000 people to whom the message is to be preached, and we know that the only way we can ever reach them is to preach in the spirit and power of Elijah. We are longing for the time when that spirit and power will be experienced by us; we are working toward that end, and are using every means and facility we have, and God is blessing us. We have the Reading Course in English and also in French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Rumanian, and Spanish. At present we have 286 mem­bers in our Reading Courses, and the workers greatly enjoy the books which are selected for them. We hold some ministerial institutes, but not many, as the workers are so few, and the need so great, that we cannot call them from their work, except for one to three days preceding annual meetings in union and local conferences. At such times the workers come together, and we study and seek God most ear­nestly for His Spirit: and this brings a great spiritual uplift to the workers.

When it is time for the regular meet­ing to begin, the workers are filled with new spiritul life and courage, and are ready to help the members who come to the meeting, and we have witnessed an excellent spirit prevailing from be­ginning to end. Our aim is to develop a clean, powerful ministry, for we real­ize what that means to this advent movement. Our ministers are longing for a deeper spiritual experience and a closer connection with Christ. They fear God, and they want to do the work of God in the very best way. Many of our workers have a very limited edu­cation, but God is blessing their sin­cere efforts, and they are bringing thousands of souls to Christ. If we only had more workers, we could da a far greater work; but by the power of God we are going to press on, know­ing that "there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few," and that "He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness."

A. G. Daniells: Elder J. H. Schilling is Ministerial Association secretary for the Northern European Division, and he will tell us something of the work conducted there.

J. H. Schilling: I cannot speak too highly of the appreciation our work­ers have for the help which the Gen­eral Conference Ministerial Associa­tion is giving us. I would like to speak at length, but the time is too short. I will just read a few extracts from letters which express the senti­ment of the workers themselves. [Reads a number of statements.] I should like to refer to the comparative growth of the Ministerial Reading Course in our division during the last three years. In 1928 we had an en­rollment of 86, of whom 75 were for the English Course. In 1929 this en­rollment was raised to 249, and during the first half of the present year the enrollment has reached 420 readers. In 1929 we conducted Reading Courses in eight languages, and this year we are promoting eleven different lan­guage courses. You will understand that this takes a great deal of work, but the Lord has blessed us wonder­fully. Every worker is deeply inter­ested in the Ministerial Association. We recognize the great value which the Association is to us, and on the part of all our workers in the Northern European Division there is a willing­ness to cooperate.

A. G. Daniells: Professor Dick, of the great African field, will speak of the Ministerial Association work in that division.

E. D. Dick: The work in the African Division naturally divides itself into two parts,—the European and the na­tive. We have 238 European workers and 410 natives. Through recommen­dation of the division committee, it has been possible for us to supply all European workers in the field with the Ministerial Association magazine, The Ministry, and this publication is greatly appreciated. There are forty-four languages spoken by our native workers, and as there is very little lit­erature available in these languages, it is impossible for us to do much in the way of promoting the Reading Course among them. We are, however, carrying on a strong evangelistic campaign.

There was a time when we con­sidered that our evangelistic work among the natives was limited to what the native teachers could do in con­nection with the schools where they were placed in charge. But we no longer maintain that idea. We are sending out native evangelists into new and untried areas, and they are winning souls by the hundreds. We consider the Ministerial Association a great stimulus to us in our evangelistic efforts for both the European and the native people; and especially do we receive help through the columns of The Ministry.

A. G. Daniells: We have with us Elder C. E. Wood, who is secretary for the Association in the Inter-American field, and has been closely co-operating with us ever since he took hold of the work in that section.

C. E. Woon: I am deeply impressed that we have reached the time when our ministers and workers in all parts of the field need all the inspiration and help which it is possible to impart, in order that they may become better qualified to proclaim effectively the last warning message to all the world. The General Conference Ministerial Association has been putting forth ear­nest efforts to give this needed help throughout the world field, and I am sure that, as we have listened to these reports today, we have been convinced that their efforts have not been in vain. One hundred and twenty-five of our workers are following the Ministerial Reading Course, and a set of the books is placed in the library of three of our schools for the benefit of the students. For our Spanish workers we make use of the Spanish Reading Course, as selected by the Association leaders in the South Amer­ican Division. The monthly journal, THE MINISTRY, is much appreciated by our workers in the Inter-American Division.

J. S. James* (Southern Asia Divi­sion): Our workers in Southern Asia have a genuine appreciation for all that is being done for them through the work of the Ministerial Associa­tion. No class of workers in all our denominational activities are in a better position to truly evaluate the merits of the Association than those who are called to labor in foreign lands where spiritual darkness reigns supreme, and the atmosphere seems charged with those elements that op­pose the principles of righteousness and truth. Those who are obliged to work under such conditions have con­stant need of such help and encour­agement as will keep the vision clear, faith and hope in the message firm and steadfast, and unbounded confi­dence in the ultimate triumph of the gospel message in the hearts of the most hardened and degenerate.

The Ministerial Association is meet­ing a general need among all our workers, and not one particular class. On the division register will be found the names of ministers, doctors, teach­ers, nurses, Bible workers, colporteurs, and a number of laymen. All our foreign workers, and all Indian work­ers who have a working knowledge of the English language, are regular subscribers to The Ministry. This magazine has been a very great help to our missionaries who have few op­portunities to meet in convention, or to profit by association and counsel with other workers. The Reading Course books have likewise been very inspirational and encouraging. Rarely does the man in the jungle, or in some far-placed mission station, have the opportunity of choosing such excellent material for general reading, and the workers speak in the highest terms ot! the books comprising these Reading Courses. The secretaries of the Min isterial Association are to be congratu­lated for the splendid selection they have been able to make.

The membership of the Ministerial Association in Southern Asia aim to reach a full 100 per cent. We are hop­ing the time is not far distant when one of the secretaries of the General Conference Ministerial Association will be able to meet with our workers in the various sections of India, and assist us in institute work, as has been done in other divisions. Such effort is sure to be followed by in­creased efficiency and success in life and work, and result in a great for­ward movement in winning souls.

The time for closing the Ministerial Association meeting having arrived, Elder Daniells called attention to the fact that nearly nine thousand work­ers had been represented by the sec­retaries who had spoken; and through Ministerial Association contacts, these nine thousand men and women are receiving encouragement and help three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, to enter into a deeper spirit­ual life and to become more efficient in the work of God. Surely this worthwhile endeavor should receive the prayers and the hearty support of all God's people.

* Elder James could not be located at the time of the Association meeting, but later furnished this written report.