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The Church Missionary Secretary

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 10, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 50.

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The Church Missionary Secretary

By E. M. GRAHAM

THE office of the church missionary secretary [heretofore called the librarian] is one of almost unlimited possibilities. The greatest care should therefore be taken in the selection of the person to fill this office. The first essential qualification is whole-hearted consecration to God. Without this, the work of this officer will surely be a failure. If there is among the church-members one who is a true follower of Christ, an active missionary worker, young enough to have strength and energy, and old enough to have influence, and who has some organizing and managing ability, let that person be selected to act as church missionary secretary. If no individual in the church has all these qualifications, select the one best fitted for the place. The duties and responsibilities of this office are heavy, and the missionary secretary will need the co-operation of all other church officers and of the members, if the work is to be carried forward in a manner that will please God.
The missionary secretary is the connecting link between the conference and the church. Plans for missionary work are usually communicated from the conference to the church through the State tract society secretary, who is expected to keep up a regular and frequent correspondence with every church missionary secretary in the conference.
When the missionary secretary receives from the tract society secretary a request for co-operation in some plan of missionary work, such as the circulation of a special number of one of our periodicals, the distribution of tracts on a religious-liberty issue, or a campaign with health literature, it is his duty first to place the communication before the other church officers, that they may together study it and become intelligent as to the needs of the situation, so that when the plan is presented to the church, and all the officers may be prepared to support it with the enthusiasm that it deserves. Generally when this is done, the members enter heartily into the plan, and make it a success. Our people are easily led, but are very hard to drive.
In addition to receiving communications from the State secretary, the missionary secretary should write regularly to the office, telling of the work of the church, of its successes, and of its failures. This will enable the State secretary to give intelligent counsel with regard to any difficulties that may arise.
The missionary secretary is the business agent of the church in the literature circulation department. He should understand how to keep the books correctly, and do everything in an orderly and proper manner. If an individual is appointed to this office who does not understand this part of his duties, he should make it his business to obtain the necessary instruction from the tract society secretary or from some other conference worker. A missionary secretary who rightly appreciates the responsibilities of his office will not be satisfied to keep his accounts in a loose, slipshod manner, but will endeavor to do all his work in the most perfect manner possible.
A church missionary secretary should never allow his church to get into debt to the tract society. If close watch is kept over the accounts, and the members are encouraged to work on the cash plan, there will be no debts.
Besides giving attention to collecting the accounts, it is the duty of the church missionary secretary to see that collections are taken up and donations solicited from absent members to provide literature for free distribution. Every church should have a fund, replenished as rapidly as used, for use in providing literature for free distribution to meet the five issues that are constantly arising.
E. M. GRAHAM, Secretary of the Australasian Union Conference.