Missionary Volunteer Institutes by M. E. K.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 5, 1911

Missionary Volunteer Institutes

By M. E. K.

A CERTAIN church is said to have had this motto:—

“Every Member a Christian; Every Christian a Missionary; Every Missionary Trained.”

That is the aim of the Young People’s Society of Missionary Volunteers. As one means to that end, the General Conference has arranged for a series of union conference missionary volunteer institutes to be held this winter. It is hoped that these institutes will result in a deepening of the spiritual life of our youth, and in greater missionary activity. The Missionary Volunteer report for the year ending Sept. 30, 1910, is almost equal to that for the two preceding years. While this is very encouraging, we realize that with greater efficiency, better organization, and deeper consecration, a far greater work can be done.

We give below a general outline of the purpose and plan of these institutes:—

Suggestions for Union Conference Missionary Volunteer Institutes

I—Duration

About ten days.

II—Places

Probably in the union conference training-school.

III—Who Should Attend

Union and local conference Missionary Volunteer secretaries.
Delegates from each Missionary Volunteer society in the union, and from as many other churches as possible.
Young people of the training-school.
Union and local conference presidents and other conference and church workers who are especially interested.

IV—Purpose

General—To make our Missionary Volunteer work more effective throughout the field.
Specific:—

(a) To increase the efficiency of Missionary Volunteer secretaries by instruction and counsel. Our young people’s work is comparatively new. The mere appointment of secretaries does not bring results. There are frequent changes, so that we have very many secretaries who have had no experience. Perhaps few of us realize the great possibilities in this work. (b) Instruction of the Missionary Volunteer officers and other young people from the local societies and churches. (c) Instruction of students, workers, and others who attend, in Missionary Volunteer work. (d) Training of new leaders, conference and local, from the classes spoken of above. (e) Interesting the young people of the union conference in education and in the work of their training-school.

V—General Plan of Work

1. Chapel Exercises: Talks on such topics as— (a) Young People and Missions. (b) Price of Leadership. (c) Work of the Missionary Volunteer Secretary. (d) The Missionary Volunteer Movement the World Over. (e) Organization and Work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (f) The Call for Bible Workers and Ministers. (g) Reasons for Our Hope (Standard of Attainment). (h) Alone With God (Morning Watch). (i) The Value of Good Literature (Reading Courses). (j) Series of Short Biographical Sketches of Missionaries. (k) The Spirit of Prophecy and the Remnant Church.

2. Afternoon Classes and Round Table Discussions:— (a) Missionary Volunteer Plans and Methods of Work: (1) Organization; (2) Duties of Officers; (3) Membership; (4) Relation to Other Church Activities; (5) Personal Work; (6) Literature Work; (7) Christian Help Work; (8) Giving; (9) Temperance and Other Reforms; (10) Junior Work; (11) Programs; (12) Camp-meeting Work; (13) Social Activities. (b) Educational Features and Missionary Problems: (1) Standard of Attainment; (2) Reading Courses; (3) Youth’s Instructor; (4) Libraries; (5) Institutes and Conventions; (6) Spiritual, Intellectual, and Practical Qualifications of Missionaries; (7) The Foreign Mission Seminary and Its Work; (8) Detailed description of the work of one or more of our missions; (9) Unentered Fields.

3. Evening Services:— (a) Reception, with Program on Social Life. (b) Stereopticon on Christ, the Great Missionary. (c) The Home as the Foundation of the Young People’s Work. (d) News From the Mission Fields. (e) The Blessed Hope. (f) The Work of the Holy Spirit. (g) Example of the Believers. (h) Reports from Conference Missionary Volunteer Secretaries. (i) Consecration for Service.

4. One or two meetings, with young men and young women separate, on social purity subjects.

5. Secretaries’ councils.

VI—General Conference Workers

Meade MacGuire, H. R. Salisbury, and Matilda Erickson.

These institutes will really be schools of Missionary Volunteer methods. In the union conferences which are fortunate enough to have one of these institutes this season, the churches, and especially the young people, should make an earnest effort to receive its benefits.

M. E. K.