The Work of the Washington Foreign Mission Seminary
By M. E. Kern
A Missionary People
THE thirty-eighth session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was a great missionary council. No one could have mingled with the delegates without getting the impression that this people are carrying forward a worldwide movement, that they have their faces set like a flint to compass the earth with this message.
While it takes strong faith to believe that this work will be accomplished in our day, it is not impractical sentiment that prompts us. By establishing a system of schools for the training of missionaries, at a cost of many hundreds of thousands of dollars; by giving of their means to foreign missions (many times more per capita than is given by any other body of Christians); and by sending to the mission field one out of every one hundred and eighty-two members, Seventh-day Adventists are proving their faith by their works, and demonstrating their belief that God uses means for the accomplishment of his purpose.
Special Missionary Training
A well-qualified worker can do much more for the cause than one who is not; and the strength of our work abroad depends on the efficiency of our missionary forces. While we have not set up the standards of scholastic training attempted by others, and have not always been able to reach the standard which we have set, it is gratifying to know that our students who have recently gone out to China and Japan have stood first in the language schools which they have attended, and that our young men and women everywhere by hard work and earnest consecration are getting results in the salvation of the heathen.
The inquiries received concerning the work of our Foreign Mission Seminary indicate a wide and deepening interest in a thorough preparation for foreign work. We shall endeavor in this article to set forth briefly the work of this school. While all classes of laborers are used in the foreign field, it is the need of evangelical workers that demands our first attention. The call for a vigorous evangelistic campaign in behalf of the great cities of America also emphasizes this need. So the Seminary specializes in the training of evangelistic workers,—ministers, Bible workers, medical missionaries, and colporteurs. The methods of training include the most thorough study of the message itself with the subjects that naturally go with it, a theoretical study of how to do the different lines of work, and the practical application of the truths and methods learned by doing active Christian work in the vicinity of the school.
BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS OF THE FOREIGN MISSION SEMINARY
Training for the Ministry
No one denies that those who enter the sacred work of the ministry should have a special training for that work. General education is very essential, but that alone does not necessarily prepare one for a specific line of work. It is said that only one college graduate in four who enters the work of the Young Men's Christian Association without a technical training remains in the work five years, while the graduates of the association's special training-school remain in the work on the average three times as long as others. If the facts were only known, doubtless we should see that many young men have either made third-rate preachers or dropped out entirely for lack of proper training before they began. Let our young men who aspire to the ministry not slacken their efforts in preparation until they have received a proper training for so sacred a calling. Doubtless we have fully reached the time spoken of in the spirit of prophecy several years ago: "In the future there will be more pressing need of men and women of literary qualifications than there has been in the past; for broad fields are opening before us white already for the harvest." Our training-schools are giving more and more attention to the training of ministers. The Bible teachers of all our training-schools in the United States have been together for special study this summer. Earnestly they have studied and prayed together that they may be well qualified for their work. Let many young men go to the schools this winter and receive a training for the ministry.
The Seminary is giving special attention to specific ministerial preparation. The class in pastoral training has included a study of the ideas of the ministry, the principles of sermon building, and the preparation and delivery of sermons. Next year we are to have a second year of pastoral training, which will include a study in exposition, the history of preaching, and further work in constructive homiletics.
Bible Workers' Training
It is very evident that the work of giving Bible readings from home to home is of equal importance with the ministry, and that those who engage in this personal and even more difficult work should have a special training for it. The same general plan of training mentioned above is followed, with the city of Washington as the field of operation for practical work. While the supply of those who have taken this course has been far below the demand, we feel that gratifying results have been seen, both in the development of workers and in the fruits of the work of the class.
Medical Missionary Training
The demand for medical missionaries at home and abroad, the large number of graduate nurses who desire Biblical and evangelical training, and the many evangelistic workers who desire some medical knowledge, has caused the Seminary to lay special plans for medical missionary instruction. We have a postgraduate missionary nurses' course, including advanced medical instruction, Bible, Bible work, history, and dispensary work. Our dispensary work has developed very encouragingly, and we have to figure closely to give all the postgraduates and mission students their time there. Ministerial, Bible work, and colporteur students take elementary work in nursing, and have some opportunity for observation and experience in the dispensary.
Colporteurs' Training
The General Conference Publishing Department takes a special interest in this work. Successful colporteurs are invited here for special study and preparation for the foreign work. Instruction is given, and practical field work is done. The city of Washington presents some difficult problems to the colporteur, so furnishes a good field for advanced study.
Special Missionary Training
There are four lines of work for special missionary training,—the history of missions, missionary methods and problems, study of special fields, and language. Aside from some work in Spanish and French, the Seminary offers a course in phonetics. It has been demonstrated that a careful study of the fundamental sounds that are used in all languages and a training in scientific methods of language study will greatly shorten the time necessary for the acquirement of a language after reaching the field. The Foreign Mission Boards of North America have indorsed the "phonetic inductive" method presented by Rev. Thomas F. Cummings. Our teacher of phonetics will spend some time studying with Mr. Cummings this summer, in order to obtain any special help that he may be able to render.14
Other Lines of Work
Of necessity the Seminary carries many of the regular academic and collegiate studies for the accommodation of those who take these special training courses. The English and the music work is especially strong, and some industrial subjects are given, principally printing, dressmaking, and millinery. Any one desiring a course here should write for full particulars. Address M. E. Kern, president, Takoma Park, D. C.
