Is There a Need of a German Training-School for Christian Workers?
By Ole Andres Olsen
THE above question is a practical one and deserving of careful thought. The answer will lie in the existing conditions and what these call for; therefore our first attention will be given to a study of the conditions and magnitude of the German field in this country. The population of the United States differs from that of any other country in the world in that it is composed of so many nationalities that have come and settled here in such large numbers. In the census of 1900 the government statistics give the entire foreign population to be 25,850,980—more than one third of the entire population of the country, which is given as 76,303,387. At the present time these figures are larger, but the proportion is about the same. This will give the reader some idea of the vast foreign population within our borders. Of the foreign nationalities in the United States the Germans number nearly ten millions. Second in number stand the Scandinavians, with a little more than two and one-half millions; and third, the Italians, with a little more than two and a quarter millions. Then follow others in less numbers. What can be the meaning of Providence in the gathering of so many nationalities to this country in this late day of our world's history? is a question well worth considering. Some may attach no meaning to it, but the thoughtful reader will hardly pass the matter by in that indifferent way. Looking at this matter from our own standpoint and from that of the work that is to be accomplished preparatory to the coming of the Lord and the end of this world's history, the matter has great significance. In the short period of one generation a warning message is to go to all the world, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people—a vast work indeed. In the first generation, when a great work was to be done, and when the Holy Spirit came upon the church, there was then dwelling in Jerusalem devout men, out of every nation under heaven. In the same chapter seventeen different nationalities are mentioned as hearing the truth spoken in their own tongues. See Acts 2: 5-12. Well might they all be amazed and ask the question, “What meaneth this?” Now, we have come to the last generation and the closing work of the gospel, and again it is to go to all the world with power. In the providence of God the third angel's message,—the last one of the threefold messages, and the one that carries the final warning, representing the last and finishing work of the gospel in the earth,—took its rise in America. This message was to go to all the world, and now, as in the early period of the gospel, the last message is launched in a country where all the nationalities of the world are largely represented. The object of this is so plain that every one can see it; namely, that these many nations and people should hear the message here and carry it back to the home country from which they came, and thus rapidly hasten the gospel warning to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples, the same as in the early time of the gospel. To accomplish this work, laborers are needed, and in a special manner should efforts be made to bring the truth to the attention of all these foreign nationalities in this country, that in turn they may take it to their own people in both this country and their home land. Already an encouraging beginning has been made among the Germans and the Scandinavians, and a little also among other nationalities. Now, among the Germans and Scandinavians we have a large number of children, and also of young people just maturing into manhood and womanhood. These ought to be encouraged to enter a training-school, for it is to this class that we must look for the supply of workers of which there is such great need everywhere. Church-schools are needed. A small beginning has been made, but many more church-schools should be started, and our churches are anxious to have them, but we can not start them because we have not the teachers. Therefore one of the first needs in the educational branch of the work is a training-school for the training of teachers to supply the call for church-school teachers. Again, not only church-schools are needed, but in such conferences as Oklahoma and Kansas, where there is such a large German constituency, there is a demand for intermediate schools. Before we can have these, we need properly qualified teachers to carry on that work successfully. Thus, again, the demand for a properly qualified and equipped training-school is the first great need. But it is not teachers only for church and intermediate schools that are needed, we need field laborers, Bible workers, and ministers. We are in a sad plight because of the lack of faithful, earnest, and efficient laborers to meet the Macedonian calls coming from so many places. Thus, from whichever standpoint you view the matter, the need of a centrally located, properly qualified training-school is of the first importance. Can not this need be supplied by our16schools already in operation? If it could, the problem would be easily solved. But how can an English school prepare teachers and laborers for the German work, or for the Scandinavian work? The fact is that it can not be done with success. Mere class recitations in German or some other language does not meet the demands for the development of workers. We would not discredit even the help that has come from this class of recitations in German and other languages, but we have come to a time when something more decisive is needed. We need a German school—a school where the German language is not only taught in the class room, but also spoken in the school home, at chapel exercises, and in the daily associations, that the students may acquire an easy and natural use of the German tongue. It is needful that the German workers should understand the English, and such a school would have some class work in the English, but it would be a German school with some needed class work in English instead of an English school with some German class work. The reader will readily see the difference in this. The demand for German laborers in various lines is most urgent. German church-school teachers are called for, and German intermediate schools also, but we lack the teachers. We also lack laborers for the field, Bible workers, and workers in the ministry. Here we have State after State, with hundreds of thousands of Germans, where we have not even a single German laborer of any kind. Surely such a condition presents a most urgent appeal for a properly constituted German training-school, to be established as quickly as possible. Such a school should also be centrally located, that it may command the united sympathy and interest of all our German believers and serve the whole German interest in this country to the fullest extent possible. We rejoice in the prospect that this need may soon be realized, and all our people will be deeply interested in this important move. The same facts and conditions that call for a German school also call for a like school in the Swedish and Danish-Norwegian, and we are glad that this need is to be filled. But the great preponderance of the German nationality in this country over the other nationalities makes the demand for the German school of first importance.