OVERSEAS ASSOCIATION WORK.—In the overseas divisions, the development of the association work has been much slower. World War If brought general disruption in some divisions, and stopped all plans for visitation and institutes. It was recognized that the overseas work must be materially helped. So, in the General Conference Session of 1946, the actions which follow were passed by the full conference on June 14, designed to place the association work in effective form overseas. These comprehensive actions read:
"WHEREAS, There is urgent need of aiding and strengthening our ministerial and Bible instructor workers throughout all divisions, that their service may become increasingly effective and fruitful ; and,
"WHEREAS, The primary purpose of the Ministerial Association is to afford such needed help through its established provisions ; therefore,
"We recommend, I. That division committees be encouraged to give study to ways and means of strengthening the work of the Ministerial Association within their fields ;
"2 That modified editions of THE MINISTRY, in leading non-English languages; be published by the divisions where and when the need warrants it, and that these editions be patterned after the parent MINISTRY, such as those already being published in the South American and Inter-American divisions;
"3 That our world body of workers be enlisted in the United Study Plan, following the Ministerial Reading Course in English wherever it can be read, others to be provided with suitable non-English courses wherever feasible ;
"4.. That co-operative plans be formulated between divisions using the same languages, for the translation of leading English Ministerial Reading Course books or portions for overseas workers who cannot read English ;
"5 That our local conferences and mission fields be encouraged to provide THE MINISTRY. to lay preachers who actively hold meetings for the public, and leading local elders who regularly conduct services for our people ; and,
"6 That in every division, periodic evangelistic councils and ministerial institutes be planned to cover the various sections of the division at reasonable intervals."—Review and Herald General Conference Report, No. 8, June 14, 1946, P. 199.
We are happy to report that the following overseas association secretaries are now successfully serving in their specially allotted posts : J. B. Conley, Australasia ; C. I. Meng and Milton Lee, China; V. T. Armstrong, Far East; W. E. Murray, Inter-America ; Axel Varier, Northern Europe; Walter Schubert, South America ; A. W. Staples, Southern Africa; A. E. Rawson, Southern Asia ; Albert Meyer, Southern Europe. Detached Unions :
G. D. King, British; E. L. Branson, Middle East; W. McClements, West Africa.
In all divisions but one the association secretary is specially appointed for this work, and in several instances he devotes his time exclusively to it. Thus the overseas work is markedly on the increase.
This same General Conference Session of 1946 also authorized the addition of two other associate secretaries for the association staff, to be chosen by the Executive Committee, in order to meet the mounting calls from field and institutions for Association help in the homeland and overseas. The two new associates to be added were particularly (I) to foster average town and average city evangelism, and (2) to aid our college theological departments in their development of a stronger ministerial field training. Melvin K. Eckenrotli and George E. Vandeman were chosen as associate secretaries, especially to work in these lines. (General Conference Minutes, p. 330. Dec. 9, 1946.) Field approval of these appointments is registered by the long waiting list of invitations for spearhead efforts in unions for many months to come, and in calls for assistance from virtually every college in North America, as well as overseas training schools.
The 5946 provision now makes possible association response to growing overseas calls. Since the war R. A. Anderson has conducted extensive ministerial institute work in four overseas divisions—Australasia, Northern and Southern Europe, and Inter-America. Two more association appointments already authorized are for R. A. Anderson to go to Africa for late spring and summer, and L. E. Froom to England for June and July of 1948.
Meantime, the regular issuance of the monthly MINISTRY magazine, the annual Ministerial Reading Course, teaching at the Seminary, field work, and specialized research and writing continues uninterruptedly to serve the body of the movement in well-rounded lines.
2. How the Association Operates
The functions of the association are advisory, not administrative. And each major advance and the extension of the association have been made under specific authorization of the General Conference Session, with guiding Autumn Council actions in the interim. The larger activities of the association are conducted in accordance with such policies under counsel of a
large and representative advisory council, of which the president of the General Conference is logically and rightly the chairman, with the general secretary of the association as secretary.
The association differs from the departments of the General Conference, because the association not only comprises all evangelical workers but embraces all departmental and many institutional evangelical workers as well. Hence, the head of the association advisory council is not the association secretary, but the elected head of the whole movement. This arrangement, it should be added, was made several years ago upon the urge of the association secretary. On this advisory council are representatives, from the following groups : General Conference officers and departments, union presidents, local presidents, evangelists and pastors, educators and teachers, gospel musicians, editors, and Bible instructors, in addition to overseas vice-presidents and Ministerial Association secretaries of the divisions—a total of 104.
The association council is in turn directly responsible to the Executive Committee of the General Conference at Washington. All field appointments are arranged and authorized by the General Conference Committee at headquarters. And all requests for the services of association secretaries in the homeland, or overseas, come to and through the General Conference Secretarial Department, which arranges with the association staff for its appointments, and these appointments in turn are authorized at regular General Conference Committee meetings, and recorded in the official. minutes. The Seminary teaching of the association secretaries is likewise by request of the Theological Seminary Board, with the concurrence of the General Conference Committee.
A similar plan operates in miniature in overseas divisions, where the division association secretary is surrounded by a small but representative advisory council, to give council, direction, and support to his work. The division president is chairman. Vernacular ministerial journals and reading courses, and the„ field work before described, are all part of the7 division association secretary's responsibilities. Real strides are being made in some of the divisions.
Scope and Objectives up to 1943
Probably the most succinct statement of Ministerial Association scope and objectives up to 1943 appears in the authorized Ministerial Reading Course volume for 1943, entitled Principles of Church Organization and Administration, written by Oliver Montgomery, veteran administrator, who was at one time a president, vice-president of the General Conference for South America, vice-president for North America, and finally general vice-president.
After a large committee of eleven of our ablest men had recommended its use as a Reading Course volume, it was approved by the Ministerial Association Advisory Council for the 1943 Reading Course (minutes of July 28, 194). Here are the three paragraphs devoted to the established ministerial association blueprint up to 1943:
"The Ministerial Association
-The Ministerial Association is here listed first because its membership embraces the entire evangelistic worker body—evangelists, pastors, administrative and departmental workers, Bible teachers and Bible workers, both field and institutional. The association was brought into being to foster the study life and ministerial efficiency of its membership, and to afford an interchange of experience and conviction on methods for accomplishing our great commission. The official organ of the Ministerial Association is the MINISTRY, and through its columns, as well as through participation in workers' meetings and ministerial institutes in the home bases and overseas divisions, the objectives of the association are accomplished.
The association is commissioned, by General Conference action, to assist our divisional, union, and local leadership in forwarding the greater-evangelism program, and to aid our colleges in strengthening their ministerial and Bible instructor training. To this end its secretaries give considerable time to special work in these institutions, lecturing, teaching, and counseling, and in teaching in these special lines in our Theological Seminary. The united program of our worker body is fostered by means of the annual Ministerial Reading Course, with some of the books specifically prepared for our workers by specialists in their respective fields.
"The association is not administrative in its functions, but is advisory. The General Conference Ministerial Association staff comprises a secretary and two associates, with the president of the General Conference as chairman of the large and representative advisory council. There are' no union or local association secretaries, but contacts are made directly with the conferences, the institutions, and the individual worker. In the overseas divisions, a division ministerial association secretary is provided."—Principles of Church Organization and Administration, pp. 224, 225.
To this must now be added the provisions of the 1946 General Conference Session. That is the story, younger workers of the Advent Movement, of the why's and wherefore's of the Ministerial Association of the workers of the
Advent faith. L. E. F.