Changes in our headquarters staff are always important, but the most recent change will be of particular interest to THE MINISTRY readers. When at the last General Conference session A. C. Fearing was elected as an associate secretary of the Ministerial Association, his particular responsibility, in addition to the general work of the Association, was that of building up the work of the pastor, an area somewhat neglected in recent times. His years of experience as a successful pastor-evangelist well qualify him for this work and already his visits to the field have brought most encouraging reactions.
That same session recommended that Louise Kleuser, who for eighteen years has been our faithful secretary for the Bible instructors' interests around the world, should taper off her work as soon as someone could be found to take over her many responsibilities. No member of our staff has carried more varied types of work and with greater efficiency than has Miss Kleuser. Anyone who begins to replace her as the leader of the department she has so ably built up will need to be both efficient and experienced. After much consideration it has been arranged for Elder Fearing, in addition to his pastoral and evangelistic responsibilities, to assume the field oversight of our Bible instructor division. Naturally, such an arrangement does not permit him to do as much editorial work on THE MINISTRY, and so at our request, H. W. Lowe, of the General Conference Sabbath School Department, has been assigned the responsibility of managing editor of the journal. He has a breadth of experience in many lines of work and this has ably fitted him for this responsibility. For years he was a successful pastor-evangelist. He also served as a missionary in Africa. Later he was president of local conferences; then was a departmental secretary of the Northern European Division. Through the harassing war years he was president of the British Union. In 1946 he accepted a call to the General Conference Sabbath School Department.
At the recent spring meeting of the General Conference Committee held in Takoma Park, he was elected as a General Conference field secretary and assigned to carry jointly the responsibilities as chairman of the committee on Biblical study and research and related fields, as well as that of managing editor of THE MINISTRY. This arrangement will permit your Association secretaries to spend more time at home and overseas in field appointments such as the conducting of ministerial institutes and evangelistic and pastoral councils. It will readily be seen that rather than adding to our staff personnel, we have even fewer associate secretaries, but we believe that the plan will enable us to serve the field with efficiency. The strong leadership that Elder Lowe has given in the Sabbath school work has meant much through the years, and we are confident that his association with the editorial staff of THE MINISTRY will be for the strengthening of our ministerial forces around the world. We welcome him and solicit your prayers that these changes will be seen as definite leadings of the Lord and will make for the advancement of our work.
R. A. A.