Testimonies to the Church Regarding The Strengthening of Our Institutions and Training Centers

Chapter 2—Centers of Influence and Training

The third angel's message is to be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. The entire world is to be warned. There are still many new fields to open. There are many cities to be worked. We stand before the world as God's denominated people; and we must do our appointed work. We are not to obey the principles of the world; we are not to conform to its customs; we are to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works. SpTB08 7.1

In establishing institutions where many young men and young women are to be trained for service, we have often sought to secure land, where our workers can have buildings of their own. The formation of the people of God into visible societies gives them marked power. We do not design to make large, conspicuous centers. But as God's standard-bearers we are gathering together, and the work is going on. Sanitariums must be established, schools started, and meeting-houses built. SpTB08 7.2

Wherever we center our forces to establish memorials for God, the light of truth is to shine forth in clear, bright rays. It is essential that light be added to light, to accomplish the object that God desires to have accomplished. When believers are gathered together in church capacity, they are placed on vantage-ground, where they stand independent of the world. SpTB08 7.3

Repeatedly the Lord has instructed us that we are to work the cities from outpost-centers. In these cities we are to have houses of worship, as memorials for God; but the institutions for the publication of our literature, for the healing of the sick, and for the training of workers, are to be established outside the cities. Especially is it important that our youth be shielded from the temptations of city life. SpTB08 7.4

It is in harmony with this instruction, that meeting-houses have been purchased and rededicated in Washington and in Nashville, while the publishing-houses and the sanitariums at these centers have been established away from the congested heart of the cities, as outpost-centers. This is the plan that has been followed in the removal of other publishing houses and sanitariums into the country, and that is now being followed in Great Britain with regard to the London publishing house and also the training-school there. We are now given opportunity to advance in the opening providences of God by helping our brethren in these and many other important centers to establish the work on a firm basis, in order that it may be carried forward solidly. The Lord is calling upon us to “strengthen the hands of the builders” in many parts of the world. SpTB08 8.1

Much light has been given regarding the rapid development of institutional work in connection with the proclamation of the third angel's message. In Testimonies for the Church, Volumes 6 and 7, the necessity of establishing many missionary agencies throughout the world, is clearly outlined. SpTB08 8.2

“Our publishing houses are God's appointed centers, and through them is to be accomplished a work the magnitude of which is yet unrealized. There are lines of effort and influence as yet by them almost untouched, in which God is calling for their cooperation. SpTB08 8.3

“As the message of truth advances into new fields, it is God's purpose that the work of establishing new centers shall be constantly going forward. Throughout the world His people are to raise memorials of His Sabbath,—the sign between Him and them that He is the One who sanctifies them. At various points in missionary lands publishing houses must be established. To give character to the work, to be centers of effort and influence, to attract the attention of the people, to develop the talents and capabilities of the believers, to unify the new churches, and to second the efforts of the workers, giving them facilities for more ready communication with the churches and more rapid dissemination of the message,—all these and many other considerations plead for the establishment of publishing centers in missionary fields. SpTB08 8.4