Ordain Local Burden Bearers

I have observed that when the local churches have been fully organized by the carrying out of God's plan and program, and men have been ordained in "every church," the work has been correspondingly strengthened and the church has grown both numerically and spiritually. Some conference and mission leaders labor under the misapprehension that there are not men of sufficient experience and ability to be thus set apart for eldership in local churches. But the only way, according to God's plan, for men to be trained to carry responsibilities, is for burdens to be laid upon them. When this is done, using the best material available, it is usually quite remarkable how rapidly men do grow and develop.

As an example, I have in mind one local mission field the leader of which continually argued that there were no men in the local churches who could be safely entrusted with the responsibility of an elder. The work in that field stood at almost a standstill for a period of years. Finally, a change in leader­ship in the mission came about. One of the first questions the incoming mission superin­tendent asked me as union director was, "What would you think of our choosing and ordaining some church elders?"

I happily replied, "That is just what I have wanted to see done for years in this particular field." Within a few months the thirty groups called church organizations were fully officered, and elders were chosen and ordained. The work of that mission immediately began to take on new life. The membership began to multi­ply and the tithe began to show an increase. These men were soon called together in a church-elders' meeting, and they have thus met each year since in that field. They immediately got under the load of responsibility, and the membership increased so rapidly that it was not long until the mission was organized into a conference with more than two thousand members. The tithe increased in a period of four years from about seven thousand dollars to seventeen thousand.

Thus it was demonstrated in a Spanish field—and I believe the same is true of all peoples —that farmers and men otherwise busy with the usual temporal affairs of life, can and will carry the load of local church leadership when that load is placed squarely upon their shoul­ders. Then the regular workers can give more time to raising up new groups of believers.

As in the local church group, so in the con­ference or mission organization with a grow­ing constituency—men must be chosen and set apart to the general work of gospel service for the church at large. After many years of administrative experience and observation, I am thoroughly convinced that it is imperative in our growing work for men to be carefully chosen and set apart to the ministry. As the membership enlarges and the message advances, younger men must be called to help carry the load of responsibility.

Great care and caution must ever be used in choosing and calling men, but we must not be so cautious that men are allowed to carry their work for an unlimited period of time without being ordained because of fear that they may not prove able to carry the load. When proper care and caution are used, men called to this high and holy calling usually measure up to the standards and the requirements of the work. God's plans are always the best plans. And God's plan is to use humble, earnest, self-sacri­ficing men to carry on the work of the church.

For a more thorough and complete presenta­tion of this important subject, all should read the chapter on "Ordination" in "Gospel Work­ers," pages 441-445. Mrs. White gives an impressive description of Christ's ordination of the twelve in "Acts of the Apostles."

"It was at the ordination of the twelve that the first step was taken in the organization of the church that after Christ's departure was to carry on His work on the earth. Of this ordination, the record says, 'He goeth up into a mountain, and called unto Him whom He would: and they came unto Him. And He ordained twelve, that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach.' Look upon the touching scene. Behold the Majesty of heaven surrounded by the twelve whom He has chosen. He is about to set them apart for their work. By these feeble agencies, through His word and Spirit, He designs to place salvation within the reach of all.

"With gladness and rejoicing, God and the angels beheld this scene. The Father knew that from these men the light of heaven would shine forth; that the words spoken by them as they witnessed for His Son, would echo from generation to generation till the close of time. The disciples were to go forth as Christ's witnesses, to declare to the world what they had seen and heard of Him. Their office was the most important to which human beings had ever been called, second only to that of Christ Himself. They were to be workers together with God for the saving of men. As in the Old Testament the twelve patriarchs stood as representatives of Israel, so the twelve apostles stand as representatives of the gospel church."—Pages 18, 19.