Value of the Missionary Volunteer Work to the Conference
By Mrs. R. W. McMahan
THE primary object of Missionary Volunteer work is the salvation and development of our young people as workers in the cause of God. It is a training-school in which those who are young and inexperienced may become laborers together with God for the salvation of souls. With the love of Christ constraining them, our young people are being taught to labor not only for those not of our faith, but also for those who profess to be Sabbath-keepers. “With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world.” One part of the Missionary Volunteer work is to seek out the young people in the conference, and help them to qualify for service where they are. Instead of feeling that they must wait for a training in one of our schools before entering the work of the Lord, they are encouraged to consecrate themselves to God, and begin at once their training in service, by laboring for those around them. Thus they are entering upon the successive steps that lead toward the place that awaits them when they are fitted for it. Helpful Reading Courses are provided for them, that their minds may be developed along right lines, and strengthened for the greater problems of life. The young people who are taking advantage of their opportunities for self-culture, are having their minds prepared for a broader education in our academies and colleges. The Morning Watch Calendar, as an aid to systematic, personal Bible study and prayer, is cultivating in them a commendable spirit of devotion and consecration. The organization of the Missionary Volunteer Department has created a training-school in which to enlist the young people where they are, in the army of the Lord, and give them an elementary training in his service. These young people are being inspired by a great purpose, that will enable them to “endure hardness as good soldiers” in carrying the message of truth to all the world in this generation. This work reaches, then, the real base of supplies,—the young people where they are. Relative to this we have the following instruction:— “That which is needed now for the upbuilding of our churches is the nice work of wise laborers to discern and develop talent in the church,—talent that can be educated for the Master’s service. Those who shall labor in visiting the churches should give the brethren and sisters instruction in practical methods of doing missionary work. Let there be a class for the training of the youth as well. Young men and women should be educated to become workers at home, in their own neighborhoods, and in the church.”—Stewardship Series, No. 1, page 8. As conference laborers co-operate with the Missionary Volunteer Department in carrying out this instruction, we shall see a mighty impetus given to the work everywhere; and in this local missionary work, our young people will receive a training that will fit them for broader fields of service. The value of this department of work to the conference is apparent. Our young people are the greatest asset of this denomination. They must be sought out where they are, and their minds and talents directed from the worldly influences which surround them, to the idea of devoting their lives to the upbuilding of this cause. But this work can not be done by the Missionary Volunteer Department alone. It can not be done by the secretary and his assistants. It can not be done by the young people themselves. This work needs the earnest co-operation of all our ministers, conference officers, and our brethren and sisters in all our churches. As our young people recognize the great fact that God has a work for each one to do in giving this message to the world, they are led to give themselves and their talents to his service. In every department of our work there is opportunity for strong, God-fearing young men and women to render valuable service to this cause. In the great missionary campaigns with the special Harvest Ingathering number of the REVIEW, our Missionary Volunteers have gone forth with youthful zeal and energy, to circulate the “gospel of the kingdom,” and solicit offerings from those not of our faith. In the home tract and missionary work the Missionary Volunteers may be depended upon to act their part in scattering the message-filled literature “as the leaves of autumn.” Thus in every kind of work that is inaugurated by our conferences for the advancement of the cause of God, our young people are being trained to take their places as soldiers of Christ in the army of the Lord. It is estimated that ninety-five per cent of the conversions and baptisms at our camp-meetings are from the young people. Here, too, they render helpful service according to their ability. In prayer bands and personal effort for other young people they exercise talents that will develop evangelistic workers in the near future. The value of this kind of work was manifested in the carrying out of well-laid plans for helping the young people at our last camp-meeting. The Indiana Missionary Volunteers have made a beginning in some branches of work, which, if faithfully carried out, will bring good results, and hasten the work of giving the message in this State. They are placing the INSTRUCTOR in the public libraries, and sending Liberty to the young people’s societies of other denominations. The holding of short Missionary Volunteer conventions, in connection with the general meetings, has been of value to the conference, in that an increasing interest in this important branch of the work has been created, both among our laborers and among our lay brethren and sisters. They see in our young people an army of workers, from whom laborers for every branch of the cause may soon be drawn. It is impossible to estimate the value that Missionary Volunteer work will be to our conferences when all our churches awake to their responsibility to train and develop the young people among us. May the Lord help us, as stewards who must give account, to take hold of this work in earnest, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”