General Conference Bulletin, vol. 2

SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY

L. A. HOOPES

WE should like to call the attention of the readers of the BULLETIN to some remarks made in the General Conference Committee, by Elder A. T. Jones. He said: “The Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association work seems somewhat out of proportion to other branches; but it is not too large; other departments of our missionary work are too small. If the Benevolent Association has two hundred students in preparation, the Mission Board and General Conference ought to have five hundred in preparation for the ministry. The Sanitarium employs the young people who have received a training by it; the General Conference and Mission Board must employ those who have made preparation for work in the cause of God. There is no danger of qualifying too many workers. If necessary support is not provided for the workers, it is because of the defects in the work that is being done. Every minister who does not bring in more than his own salary should either become an efficient worker in the ministry or else engage in another work. Put the ministers into new fields to increase our membership. An increased constituency will solve the problem of support of our work. When young men in preparation for the work of God are given to understand that their employment is doubtful, we can not expect to see them enter the ministry. The conference must not carry any man, but each man must do what he can to help carry the conference. The system in vogue in some places, of carrying men, must be discontinued. Every man is expected to find work, and to do it. It is written that ‘They which preach the gospel, should live of the gospel.’ And it is not a misreading of this Scripture to read it that they shall live of the gospel which they preach; and not of the gospel which other men preach.” GCB July 1, 1897, page 88.1

The same thing is true, to a large extent, in our State conferences. No laborer should feel that he should throw himself upon the conference. In the early history of the cause, before they had auditing committees to settle the accounts of the laborers, every man was supposed to go out and raise up companies, not expecting a remuneration in the way of a salary; and a little later on in the history of the work it was considered one of the qualifications of a laborer to be able to bring into the truth persons that would more than supply their wages, by the tithe. GCB July 1, 1897, page 88.2

This we think will solve the question that has arisen in the minds of some of the officers of conferences, how they can meet the present indebtedness of the conferences and tract societies, and still retain the laborers in the field. In response to this it was suggested by the Committee that the conference laborers enter new fields, and increase the constituency, thus making it unnecessary to depend upon outside assistance for support. GCB July 1, 1897, page 88.3