The secretaries of the Ministerial Association join our college Bible teachers in discitssion of seminar possibilities and methods. All who have found successful methods are invited to share them with their fellow teachers.--Edtior.
Student seminars in our colleges are more than drill fields for aspiring orators. They are more than occasions to criticize publicly, even constructively, courageous or timid students who must perform. These seminars should reach the fever point of inspiration and interest because both speakers and listeners sense the solemn consciousness that preaching the gospel is the most important business of the church. In this crisis hour of history the church of Christ should prophetically point the way to a better world. Well may we pray for a broader vision of our appointed task—the proclamation of the last message of mercy to a doomed world.
In our contacts with theological students in our colleges we became aware of a great need for unifying and guiding this feature of theological training. It is hoped that through the columns of the Ministry, the Ministerial Association of the General Conference may work.together with the theological departments of our colleges and serve as the medium for an enlarged vision of evangelism, as well as an exchange for student seminar plans.
Student seminars must become more than traditions, or even necessary school functions in which the missionary-minded spirits of a college community participate with students in training. We should also look beyond the entertainment feature, or even the opportunity for practice, important as that is, and should aim to make these seminars occasions of dynamic influence in the molding of young workers. There is indeed a tremendous challenge to evangelism in this closing hour of destiny, for the spirit of true evangelism must motivate our present lethargic efforts.
In the past the seminar programs at our colleges have largely covered the development of young men taking the theological course, but today Bible instructors and future ministers' wives are included in this training also. These young women supply talents peculiar to their sex, and greatly enrich the seminar. They supply artistic needs, and add a finer touch to our evangelistic efforts. Often they accomplish more in their less conspicuous service for Christ in the homes of the interested, than do the best of sermons.
The training of gospel workers begins in our colleges. Our college communities and their adjacent hamlets and towns have long been the experimental fields of our future ministry. Because of a longer acquaintance with the doctrines which we teach, the increasing closed-mind attitude of many people in these neighboring communities presents a difficult problem to our colleges in the training of future evangelists. In some schools this has tended to discourage student soul-winning efforts for those not of our faith, and we have been content to confine ourselves to a more casual missionary work for those within our own ranks. Judging, however, from the cheering reports from several of our colleges, our work for non-Adventists is still producing a rich harvest. Not all the doors of opportunity have closed to our students, for right in these college centers and in their immediate environs, honest souls are constantly embracing our faith.
The remnant church has been definitely charged with the task of bringing the message to the masses in earth's cities and metropolitan areas. Associated with our world-wide mission program, this phase of evangelism has been urged home to us in these stupendous times. When students are so greatly privileged as to observe, and perhaps assist a successful evangelist in a near-by city campaign, this opportunity should be stressed in our seminars. Our leading evangelists are at the very forefront of the controversy between truth and error. They are meeting the heaviest blows of the enemy, and must be alert on every point of approach as well as decision. Wherever possible, seminar directors would do well to invite our evangelists to address their groups. Bible teachers should welcome these evangelistic valiants to their classrooms. They make the spirit of evangelism contagious to the whole student body, and soon seminar messages begin to have an entirely different ring.
Beginning with the accompanying program, which is merely suggestive and may well be adapted to the particular needs of each college group, we plan to publish consecutively in this section of the Ministry a series of five progressive programs. These are scheduled to appear from DeCember to April in the Ministry, or during a major part of the school year. The following topics will be discussed:
I. The Challenge to Evangelism
2. Preaching a Solemn Message
3. The Ministry of Personal Work
4. Teaching for Decision
5. Establishing the New Convert
We would also invite ,our, seminar leaders to submit to the Ministerial Association seminar program material which may be shared with sister institutions. Write us about your plans for field work, and let us together build up an exchange through the Ministry that will become a blessing to seminar efforts in all our colleges.
L. C. K.