p. 20 | Church Missionary Services by A. J. S. B.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 15, 1910

Church Missionary Services

By A. J. S. B.

THE Missionary and Publishing Department has recently issued Home Missionary Leaflet No. 3, entitled, “Home Tract and Missionary Work: Its Organization and Relation to the Individual, the Home, the Church, and Our Conferences.” In this envelope-size leaflet will be found the plans approved by the spring council of the General Conference Committee, and by members of the Missionary and Publishing Department.

The leaflet contains an illustration showing the relations existing between the individual missionary worker and the family, the church, the conference, the union conference, and the General Conference missionary and publishing organizations, also the picture of the gospel church and its departments, represented by a large tree and its branches.

Our local conference tract societies have been furnished with a sufficient number of these leaflets to supply one each to their church officers and isolated Sabbath-keepers.

Among the recommendations found in this leaflet is the following, passed by

the General Conference Committee during the spring council, April 5-15, 1910:—

Weekly Missionary Meeting

“That regular weekly missionary meetings be held in all churches:—

“(a) Mid-week, preceding the Tuesday evening prayer-meeting, or at some other hour convenient to the church.

“(b) Preceding or following the regular Sabbath service, or as a part of the service in country churches where mid-week meetings are impossible.

Fourth Sabbath Missionary Service

“That a general missionary service be held in all the churches on the fourth Sabbath of each month:—

“(a) Under the direction of the church missionary committee.

“(b) The co-operative effort of adults and Missionary Volunteers.

“(c) Based upon the monthly program outlined in the Missionary and Publishing department of the REVIEW.

“(d) Regular collection of church in charge of the missionary secretary (librarian), to be used for home tract and missionary work.”

Revival Meets With Approval

This effort to revive regular weekly and monthly church missionary services is meeting with the hearty approval of union and local conference officers, ministers, Bible workers, and lay members generally. As a sample of the opinion of our leading workers on this subject, we quote the following from a letter just received from the manager of one of our publishing houses:—

“I trust there will be a hearty response to the efforts to revive the fourth Sabbath missionary meetings. When I was a boy, and attended our little country church, we used to have the fourth Sabbath missionary meetings, and they were usually good meetings; but for a number of years I have noticed that in the larger churches with which I have been acquainted, the missionary meetings have been simply crowded out. In fact, at the church business meeting in one of our larger churches, I recently joined in an appeal for the revival of the fourth Sabbath missionary service. What we lay members need most of all, is to be set to work, and to be shown how to work. ”

In harmony with these pertinent remarks, will be found the following quotations from Volume VII of the Testimonies:—

Teach Them to Work

“So long as church-members make no effort to give to others the help given them, great spiritual feebleness must result. The greatest help that can be given our people is to teach them to work for God, and to depend on him, not on the ministers. Let them learn to work as Christ worked. Let them join his army of workers, and do faithful service for him.”—Page 19.

“It is not the Lord’s purpose that ministers should be left to do the greatest part of the work of sowing the seeds of truth. Men who are not called to the ministry are to be encouraged to labor for the Master according to their several ability. Hundreds of men and women now idle could do acceptable service. By carrying the truth into the homes of their friends and neighbors, they could do a great work for the Master.”—Page 21.

Workers From the Common Walks of Life

“In the future, men in the common walks of life will be impressed by the Spirit of the Lord to leave their ordinary employment, and go forth to proclaim the last message of mercy. As rapidly as possible, they are to be prepared for labor, that success may crown their efforts.”—Page 27.

Among the chief contents of the Home Missionary Leaflet No. 3, are the following:— “Six Home Missionary Societies,” “The Individual Tract and Missionary Society,” “The Home Tract and Missionary Society,” “The Church Tract and Missionary Society” (its officers and their duties), “The Isolated Missionary Society,” “The Conference Tract Society,” “The Union Conference Missionary Committee,” “The General Conference Missionary and Publishing Department,” “The Home Missionary Reporting System,” “Permanent Missionary Records,” “Duties of Church Missionary Secretaries (Librarians),” “Duties of Local Conference Missionary Secretaries,” “Our Periodical Work,” “Discount Schedule on Books and Tracts,” “Financial Policy,” “Strengthening the Conference Tract Society Organization,” “Union Conference Missionary Secretaries: Their Duties, Relation to the Work, Headquarters,” etc.

Will every church officer and isolated Sabbath-keeper secure a copy of this leaflet as soon as possible, in order to be fully informed upon the great home missionary effort that is shortly to be inaugurated throughout the field?

Let us remember that the consecrated individual Christian is the basis of all our missionary organizations and missionary work.

No charge is made for the leaflet. Address your conference tract society office. A. J. S. B.