Relation to the Church

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 11, 1913

Relation to the Church

Duties of the Church Missionary Secretary—No. 2

Relation to the Church

To Encourage Individual Effort

THE missionary secretary should not only study the plans submitted by those in the conference office, or by others representing various phases of our work, but he should also study the individual members, so that he may be able to enlist the coöperation of each one in the kind of work for which he is best adapted.

If the missionary secretary would have a working church,—a church in which all the members are engaged in personal effort for others,—he must put forth earnest personal effort for the members, becoming acquainted with the situation and capabilities of each one, and encouraging, instructing, and providing suitable work for all.

There is no work that will yield greater returns; for in addition to the work done in the extension of the third angel's message, the workers will themselves be built up and blessed, and the whole church strengthened. Many, through lack of confidence or interest, are standing idle in the market-place. These should be set to work. Let the motto be, “Something for each one to do.” Some can do a variety of things, but all can do something, for God has given “to every man his work.”

The timid and retiring should be induced to take up some simple line of work for which they are best adapted, until confidence is established and they are prepared to launch out into broader fields. Those needing instruction should be so taught that they can act some part, and those who have not the interest to put forth the effort for themselves should be labored with until they catch the inspiration to join the ranks of the workers.

It has been our observation that where we have a good, energetic, wide-awake, thoroughgoing missionary secretary, and a church elder who will coöperate with the missionary secretary in the missionary work, there we have a church that is accomplishing something for the advancement of the truth. A missionary secretary should never sit down and mourn because more is not being accomplished, and because this brother or that sister is not doing something in the missionary work, but he should be ready—

To Suggest Plans of Work

going from individual to individual, and laboring with them until they are all at work. The missionary secretary should also bear in mind that when the members have been set to work, his responsibility has just begun. It is very important that he keep in the closest touch with the workers and their work, and be prepared to encourage, direct, and instruct wherever necessary.

In our larger churches, where the work of the missionary secretary is more than one individual can carry, it is an excellent plan to have a missionary committee of three or five members, including the missionary secretary, appointed by the church, to have the special care and oversight of the missionary meetings and work. This missionary committee should hold a regular weekly council to plan for the missionary meetings, and for the aggressive missionary work in the church. Each member of this committee represents some special line of work, such as missionary correspondence, local work with our tracts and periodicals, canvassing for our smaller books, cottage meetings, hospital work, etc. Their aim is to get all the members to take up work in some one or more of these lines, those representing these different phases leading out and instructing in the work.

Untiring efforts should be made to induce the brethren and sisters to work, and to keep a record of what they do. Faithful reports, carefully prepared, glorify God, become a source of encouragement to others, and, therefore, a potent factor in the upbuilding of the church work. They are also absolutely necessary as a matter of business, that the church may know what use is made of the tracts, etc., with which it supplies its members, and that the tract society may be able to compile correct quarterly and yearly statistical reports, from which the activity of the churches and the progress of the work may be determined. God commands us to be “not slothful in business,” and when the officers of a church request the members to make a note of the number of tracts given away and of other work performed, it becomes the duty of each to regard the request. These principles should be impressed upon the mind of each worker. Each Sabbath morning the missionary secretary should supply the members with blanks for reporting, collecting these the following Sabbath.

It would be an excellent plan for every member to secure a copy of the Morning Watch Calendar and use the report blank in keeping a record of all work done. It would then be an easy matter to fill out the report blank supplied by the secretary each week.

When the blanks are all collected, the items should be added together and entered in a book provided for that purpose, under the headings to which they belong. Each week's work should be entered on one line. Each week a summary of the work of the young people should be obtained from the church Missionary Volunteer secretary and entered on the line below that on which the work of the older people is entered. At the

close of the quarter all should be added up, and totals filled out on the blank sent by the conference tract society for that purpose. This report should be sent to the tract society secretary not later than the seventh day of the month following the close of the quarter.

The missionary secretary should obtain a list of the members of the church, with their addresses, and see that this is kept up to date. This is essential for reference in ascertaining whether every member is a working member.