TRAINING!—Any advanced ministerial training provision that fails to stronger, more powerful, and more fruitful preachers, teachers, and Bible instructors has missed its way and is largely profitless. We need men and women fired with intelligent confidence in the message of God for today. We need workers filled with deep personal conviction, who create similar conviction in others, We need men who have been fortified by a greater and more accurate knowledge of truth, and have acquired a more effective method for telling it. We need men equipped to study soundly and deeply, and prepared to proclaim effectively the findings of such study. Any other results constitute a deterrent rather than an asset, and will not be encouraged by the leadership of this movement. We must have positive preachers, not negative lecturers and ethical essayists. We must have ardent evangelists, not uncertain voices patterned after the world. We must have efficient pastors, not messageless professionals. We must have virile teachers of the Word, not pedantic projectors of philosophical theories. We must have men of discernment, trained to distinguish between food for the sheep and chaff for the wind. We must have practical men, who can differentiate between that which will strengthen and help and that which will weaken and harm through creating division, uncertainty, and profitless discussion. We need men who are builders, not underminers; men who unite and fortify the church they serve, not those who divide and weaken it. We need powerful, penetrative, persuasive preachers and teachers. And those trainers who can help produce such will be appreciated, supported, and utilized to the full. We must be, and ever remain, distinctively Adventist, not reflectors or adapters of worldly wisdom. That is what our preachers need, want, and are waiting for.
CAMP MEETINGS!—Camp meetings afford an exceptional opportunity for getting our message favorably before others. Well-planned, consecutive evangelistic services at night, covering the high points of the Advent message, systematically and effectively advertised, will still bring the public and produce results, as current camp meetings attest. Temperance and antitobacco rallies give us opportunity to take the lead in these wholesome reforms in the community. We should be the recognized head and not the tail in these important movements that are part of our faith. Specially advertised meetings on religious liberty and calendar reform, as well as cooking schools and health demonstrations, or other appealing features, will bring us into a favorable position and give us a hearing in the community. Hundreds and thousands have been favorably impressed through our literature, our sanitariums, and our radio work. We should crystallize these impressions. We should capitalize upon these preliminary contacts, and bring these friendly attitudes to tangible fruition. Capitalize upon our camp meetings. Let us publicize them so as to get the maximum results out of their potentialities.
SPORT CLOTHES!—It is but an outward matter, but a disturbing trend is appearing among certain of our ministers. Some are succumbing to the lure of sport shirts and sport clothes. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong or immoral about open collars and short sleeves. They are both sensible and comfortable for the rank and file of masculine humanity. They are wholly appropriate for the high school lad or the nonprofessional man. But are they appropriate for preachers? Even professional laymen—judges, lawyers, college presidents, professors, physicians, leading businessmen—rarely ever follow this popular style during the discharge of their professional duties. What then should be said of the clergyman who indulges in wearing sport clothes while engaged in professional duties ? There might be some excuse for such attire around the home or on vacation. Some will contend that sport cuts and colors are lawful. We counter, in all seriousness. But are they expedient for us as Adventist ministers? Do they add to or subtract from the esteem in which we should ever be held? We are to be different. We are even called "men of the cloth." implying a difference in dress. When we see a young preacher without too much experience to back him, and with knowledge and judgment as yet immature, come out in a shirt that reminds one of Jacob's coat, or in a two-color suit with pronounced checks or stripes, has he added to or subtracted from the likelihood of being regarded as a real example and spiritual leader to whom people will go? Will he be looked upon as a model and true representative of the highest profession on earth? Is not the answer obvious?
L. E. F.
