At the beginning of a new term I usually ask each student in any class to introduce himself by giving his name and the place from which he comes. In most schools there would be nothing unusual about this. But at the Seminary this is always an intriguing moment, for the whole world is often brought together in one classroom. A few days ago as a new term began I found thirty-five students enrolled in my church history class. The introductions sounded like a roll call of the United Nations: Denmark, England, Holland, Sweden, Germany, Haiti, Jamaica, Brazil, Australia, Korea, and Japan, as well as many areas of the United States. And this is characteristic throughout our Seminary; with students from twenty-six countries, the Seminary motto was never truer than it is today: "From all the world to all the world."
Faculty
The Seminary serves the world—and the world field serves the Seminary—in a variety of ways. While the presence of overseas professors is a common feature of American higher education, the faculty of our Seminary has reflected to an unusual degree the fact that the Seminary is truly a worldwide school. During the thirty-four years of its existence, sixteen of its regular faculty have been persons born abroad in eleven different countries. A total of twenty-six faculty members have served as denominational workers in all but one of the overseas divisions before joining the Seminary staff. During the present year, out of seventeen teachers, twelve have had overseas experience in nine different world divisions. Six of them have earned degrees in foreign universities. The Seminary faculty is truly representative of the denomination's worldwide work.
Extension Schools
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Seminary's outreach is the program of overseas extension schools which has characterized its work throughout much of its history. A pattern was established in 1948 when three teachers were sent to England to conduct short-term courses for workers in the British Union. Since that time twenty-four such extension schools, in all regularly functioning overseas divisions, have been held. Hundreds of ministers and teachers have thus had access to Seminary instruction who otherwise could not have benefited in this way. A list of these schools provides impressive testimony of the Seminary's contribution to our worldwide work:
1948 British Union
1950 South America
1952 Mexico
1953 South Africa
1953 Southern Europe
1954 Inter-America
1955 Southern Asia
1956 Far East
1958 Australia
1958 Germany
1959 England
1959 Norway
1960 South America
1961 Middle East
1962 Far East
1963 Southern Europe
1964 South Africa
1965 Northern Europe
1965 Southern Europe
1966 Northern Europe
1967 Northern Europe
1967 Central Europe
While a large variety of subjects been taught, special emphasis has given to the distinctives of Adventism: prophetic interpretation, the Spirit of Prophecy, and evangelism. Personnel from the Ministerial Association, the White Estate, and the GeoScience Institute have often joined with regular Seminary teachers. R. Allan Anderson, LeRoy E. Froom, and Arthur L. White have been particularly active in these endeavors from time to time.
Missionary Training
Yet another vehicle of worldwide service is the Seminary's recently inaugurated program for the training of missionaries. From its very first session in the summer of 1934 the Seminary has always been a training ground for missionaries under appointment and on furlough. Increasingly, however, the need has been felt for a program of professional training for missionaries, bringing together the study of theology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, and political science to provide a thorough and professional training for the prospective missionary who must now face a world of complex problems little anticipated a few years ago. Such a program was initiated in 1966 when Dr. Myrl 0. Manley, highly trained in sociology and psychology, and with more than twenty years experience as a mission administrator and educator in Southern Asia, joined the Seminary faculty to establish a Department of Missions. Uniting with him in this program is Dr. Gottfried Oosterwal, an internationally recognized expert on the social and religious anthropology of primitive peoples, who has served the denomination for many years both in Europe and in the Far East. Additional strength is brought to this program by Dr. Charles C. Crider, professor of sociology at Andrews University, who brings a rich background of mission administration in the Middle East, and Dr. Elaine Giddings, former missionary in Africa and a specialist in the learning and teaching of foreign language Each summer the Missions Department of the Seminary conducts a General Conference-sponsored institute for missionaries under appointment. Here under expert guidance the prospective missionary studies both the general philosophy of Adventist missions and the specific characteristics and problems of the country to which he has been appointed. He receives basic orientation in living conditions in his new field of labor, he studies current political and social issues, and he seeks the beginnings of insight into the new psychological and religious context in which he will live.
For missionaries on furlough and others who can spend a full year in study, the Department of Missions offers a Master's degree. This program provides graduate-level orientation for those who already have achieved professional status in other fields such as the ministry, teaching, or medical work.
In its faculty, its student body, and its training programs, the Seminary receives its students from all the world, and sends them into all the world to preach the gospel. For more than a third of a century it has fulfilled this role in the Advent Movement; today in an even greater measure than ever before it is achieving this goal as a truly worldwide institution.
