DEAR BRETHREN:
It is not very often that we get a chance to talk with you unordained men alone. I wish it were possible to sit down with each one and just chat to our hearts' content; but I do not have that opportunity. Hence this letter.
1. To LICENSED MINISTERS. You have Successfully completed your internships and are now fully accredited conference workers. Your future depends upon how well you apply the lessons learned in college and in your internships. The knowledge and experience you have already gained should not close your minds to counsel from those older in the work, but it should assist you to make the most of every opportunity to win souls and grow in ministerial ability.
Always keep in mind that your future as a minister depends upon your soul-winning ability under God. Men of other talents are needed in the work, but the men needed most are soul winners. In days of prosperity the conference can employ many types of workers, but in days of adversity the conference can retain only the soul winners. Therefore, I would counsel each unordained man to magnify his calling by winning many souls. I greatly appreciate your loyalty and faithfulness to the conference program, and fully believe that you will succeed in the sacred work of the gospel ministry.
2. To MINISTERIAL INTERNS. You are new among us, and we welcome you into our midst. I appreciate your zeal and enthusiasm, and will do everything possible to make your internship successful. Naturally, this two-year period can be either a trying or a pleasant experience, according to your choosing and attitude. The salary you receive Will just about keep body and soul together. Your budget will not be high, and it will mean careful financial planning on your part to make ends meet. It may be necessary for you to live under conditions that mean doing without a number of things associated with comfort and convenience. You may be tempted to compare your lot with others, and to give voice to your complaints and hard lot in life.
When tempted to sympathize with yourself because of the apparent discrepancies between the ideals you learned in college and the practical outworking of those ideals in conference employ, always bear the following in mind: First, your future in the work will be determined by the attitude and relationships during the two testing years before you. Second, every successful minister among us passed through the same experience facing you, and some of them labored under hardships which would completely discourage you. When tempted to think that your lot is hard, thank God for the privileges and blessings which are yours as a ministerial intern in 1948.
Allow me to admonish you to support faithfully the evangelist you are associated with. He will not, of course, do everything just the way you were taught in college. Neither will you, after you have been in the evangelistic field a few years. Endeavor to be punctual in all your appointments. Fulfill your assignments with dispatch and enthusiasm, whether it be leading the song service, dusting the seats prior to the evening service, operating the slide projector, or distributing handbills. Take advantage of every opportunity to speak in public, to give Bible studies, to call on interested people, to teach a Sabbath school class, to assist in a church campaign, or to listen to a burdened soul who needs your help and prayers.
Your future, dear young workers, is in your own hands. Men do not arrive because their paths have been smoothed for them, but because they have the determination to surmount anything that obstructs their progress. It is in our minds that we conquer or submit, for no man can be defeated who does not acquiesce in his own defeat. If you will adopt this attitude and relationship, it will surprise you how quickly the two years will pass, and that successfully. May God help you to relate yourself rightly to the opportunity facing you.
"When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all up hill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must—but don't you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out—
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt—
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar ;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit—
It's when things seem worst
That you mustn't quit."
THEODORE CARCICH. [President of the Illinois Conference.]