THE PROBLEM: Conference presidents are looking for qualified Bible instructors. Those already in conference employ are adding birth­day to birthday. Replacements from our col­leges are few. Does this situation exist because of a lack of emphasis in our schools? I tried to find out.

Interview No. I

Question.—As a minister of long experience, have you any suggestions as to where to find a qualified Bible instructor?

Minister.—I don't know of a single one that would be available. All the good Bible instruc­tors I know are busy in the work, and their con­ference presidents won't release them.

Question.—Do you feel that this is a serious problem?

Minister.—Definitely! One of the most seri­ous in our work. The results of our soul-winning program would unquestionably be greatly increased if we had more qualified Bible instructors.

Question.—How about training our laymen?

Minister.—I am heartily in favor of the lay evangelism program. Our lay workers are chiefly valuable as interest builders. But gener­ally they can go only so far. Then they need trained help. It is the same in the care of the sick. A home-nursing course is extremely valu­able. But with it a layman can go only so far. Then the help of a trained nurse or a physician is needed.

Question.—Cannot the minister usually sup­ply this needed special help?

Minister.—The minister is always glad to assist in cases of special need. But it is ab­solutely impossible for him to meet all such calls in addition to his pastoral work, evange­lism, committees, campaigns, building pro­grams, emergencies, and endless telephone calls. Trained Bible instructors are the answer. This is one of our most urgent needs.

I am not discounting the work of our lay members. I believe they would be all the more ready to work if they knew that a trained worker was ready to step in at the proper time. Lay workers are bringing in souls. And they should be encouraged. But a busy minister working with a qualified Bible instructor is able to baptize thirty or forty a year.

Question.—I have noticed the emphasis you place on training. Do you mean the Bible in­structor course offered in our colleges?

Minister.—That is fine as far as it goes. But we do not make our training adequate. And be­cause it is inadequate it loses its appeal to the average college student.

Question.—Just what do you mean?

Minister.—Look into the bulletins of any of our senior colleges. Consider the long list of practical courses offered and required of those who expect to do elementary or secondary teaching. Consider the long list of practical courses offered young women who contemplate entering the field of business, home economics, music, nursing education, medicine, or dietetics. Now turn the pages and consider the number of practical,' or method, courses offered the young woman taking a two-year or four-year Bible instructor course. The contrast is star­tling—just one course is given in personal evan­gelism and another in Bible instructor methods. It is tragic! Then the student is sent out, sup­posedly trained, but still to learn by the trial­and-stumble method so much of what she must know. And souls are lost while she is learning. We wouldn't think of turning a nurse loose with an R.N. degree after no more training than that. Yet the Bible instructor is called to deal with people's souls, not just their bodies.

I tell you, I am concerned about this matter. Evangelism is the very heart of our work. Every­thing else clusters around it. Yet we train so carefully our office workers, our teachers, our nurses, our musicians, and others, but we give these women who go out in direct evangelism —the heart of it all—the poorest practical prep­aration of all. At least that's how it appears to me.

Question.—Just what is your idea of a prop­erly trained Bible instructor?

Minister.—I think of a Bible instructor as being a fireside evangelist, a specialist of many aptitudes, and usually a woman. She should know the difference between the rural and metropolitan approach in her work, and the pastoral or evangelistic company approach. She should be trained in child evangelism—and that includes psychology and all phases of visual education. She should understand how to work with women. And that, of course, in­volves an understanding of family problems. She should understand the medical missionary approach, which necessitates knowing the fun­damentals of hydrotherapy, home nursing, nu­trition, and healthful cookery. She should be ready to train lay Bible workers, which means that she should know something of pedagogy. And it is always helpful if she is trained in some other line besides the Bible work itself—steno­graphic, music, health evangelism, press work, art work, et cetera.

Question.—You mention music. I believe it is recommended that the Bible instructor should not play for meetings. Is that not true?

Minister.—Probably so. But we might as well be realistic. Any conference committee, given a choice, and other things being equal, would unhesitatingly choose the worker who can help along two or more lines. I believe that the college student preparing for Bible work could well minor in one of these other lines.

Incidentally, we believe that in days near at hand much of the work now done by our ministers will have to be carried on by women, as has already been experienced in many totali­tarian states. Would it be poor foresight to give a few of our Bible instructors at least a mini­mum of training for the responsibilities that may all too quickly be theirs?

Question.—You have set the standard very high. It would seem a bit difficult to measure up. I am wondering if your views in regard to adequate training might have been a result of your own experience with Bible instructors. In other words, have those you have worked with been, shall we say, inferior?

Minister.—To the contrary, I have been very fortunate in being associated with some of our finest Bible instructors. And they have each expressed to me the wish that their training might have been more specific as well as more comprehensive. They were united in declaring that almost all of their successful methods were learned after they got out into the field.

Question.—You suggested that the present course given in our colleges is not appealing or practical enough. What did you mean by that?

Minister.—Just this: The very fact that the course is so general would give the impression either that the Bible work is of little importance or that it is something that anyone can do with­out much specific training.

Question.—At any rate, few young women are entering the Bible work. Is there any other cause?

Minister.—One conference president told me that he hesitated to take a young woman into the Bible work, because if she was any good at all, some young minister would soon marry her!

But seriously, while it is true that many who take the Bible instructor course do become ministers' wives, yet there are some fine young women who do not. And it seems to me that if our consecrated young women could only be shown the desperate need, there would be more who would be willing to give their whole lives to this work, making it a career. And all the more so if the Bible instructor work were regarded as a real profession or, better still, as a calling demanding professional qualifications.

We are confident that all will agree that this is a sacred work, as sacred as that of the ministry. Even if they do marry, if their hearts are once in the Bible work, they will continue to do personal work along with their husbands. Such a young woman is not lost to the Bible work. She simply continues in it without expense to the conference.

Question.—Just how would you sum up, then, your suggestions for drawing more fresh, young talent into this important work?

Minister.—In addition to more specific train­ing, I would suggest more promotion work in the academies and colleges—from conference presidents, pastors, evangelists, and successful Bible instructors. Then, as a second suggestion, live Bible instructor organizations in our schools. Some of our schools do have them. Third, a Bible instructor internship plan, with say one Bible instructor intern to every three or four ministerial interns. Fourth, more public recognition—in the church, in the evangelistic company, in publicity, in the articles in our papers, and in workers' meetings. And lastly, a wage scale comparable with that paid to our college-trained women teachers and nurses. Direct evangelism is the most thrilling, satisfy­ing, and productive work in the world. It should be made more attractive.

Interview No. 2

Question.—I have talked with a minister in regard to the problem of Bible instructor em­phasis in our schools. Now I should like to get a student's version. How long did you attend our college?

Student.—One year.

Question.—Have you already chosen your lifework?

Student.—Yes, teaching. In fact, I am teach­ing this year.

Question.—Did you consider any other pro­fession?

Student.—I thought of nursing.

Question.—Did you ever consider the Bible work?

Student.—Only slightly. There just wasn't anything attractive about it.

Question.—Why did you consider nursing? And what made you decide to teach?

Student.—Well, nursing had much to offer, and it certainly was appealing, with the uni­forms and the idea of helping people. But with teaching one can mold young lives.

Question.—Have you discussed Bible work with any of your college friends?

Student.—Yes. Just a few weeks ago I was talking with a friend who plans to be a Bible instructor. She has a real burden, because she feels that Bible work is misunderstood—that people think it is just something for elderly ladies, or folks who do not know how to enjoy life.

We were discussing an article on Bible work that appeared in one of our papers. The picture with it showed a Bible instructor in a home. And she was—well, she just looked like what some of us imagine a Bible worker to be.

Question.—How do young people imagine a Bible worker?

Student.—Well, I grew up with the idea of a little old lady, with a broken-down car, rather shabbily dressed, and not knowing how to act.

Question.—Rather an extreme view, isn't it? Have you changed your mind?

Student.—Well, yes, since I became ac­quainted with some Bible instructors, and since I have some friends preparing for that work.

Question.—You say that you have friends who are training to become Bible instructors. Have they suggested any real problems concerning their choice of lifework?

Student.—Yes, one especially—that of secu­rity. They feel that if one takes a professional course such as nursing or teaching, then one has some independence. If no opening occurs in our organized work, the nurse, teacher, or secretary can readily find work elsewhere. But what se­curity has a Bible instructor? She can so easily find herself without work, for she is usually the first worker to be dropped when a conference is hard pressed financially. And then what?

Question.—Do you personally feel that there is a solution to this problem?

Student.—If Bible work were recognized as a profession among us, that would make a great difference. Bible instructors are called of God. And if one knows that she is called of God, then this security problem is not so big. But it is something to think about.

Question.—While you were at college, did you hear anything about the Bible work? Student.—Just from a few of my friends. Question.—No particular promotion?

Student.—I don't remember any.

Question.—Was there any promotion for teaching or nursing?

Student.—Oh, yes, definitely. And we had our clubs—like Teachers of Tomorrow.

Question.—I have a friend who is a new Adventist. She said she attended the college a year, and didn't even know what Bible work was, except for some casual mention of it by a friend. Is that a rare instance?

Student.—Probably not. And even if friends do speak of it, you would just naturally feel it is an unimportant work, when no public men­tion is made of it. Those who enroll new stu­dents usually are interested in some other field. Bible work isn't suggested as a possible lifework.

There are not many calls coming in to the colleges for Bible instructors. That, of course, may be because conference presidents have not succeeded in former years in finding any. And there are very few young Bible instructors any­where. Most of them are older women. It has been only through a few friends that I have learned that there really is appeal and satisfac­tion in the Bible work.

Interview No. 3

I did not trouble with a third interview. I might have talked with other ministers, with other students. But I have a feeling that a third interview, or a fourth, or a seventh, would be strangely similar to the first and second.

It all sums up this way. There is no work more important than direct evangelism in the homes, close to the hearts of the people. There is no work that offers more of the real thrill and adventure that appeals to young hearts. There are many youthful hearts, full of love for their Master, that would gladly respond to His call into a work that would bring untold satisfac­tion to themselves and eternal happiness to others. But they never hear the call. This very work, one of the most sacred committed to women, has been pushed far into the dim back­ground.

Why?