Suman is a pastor’s wife—simple, little educated, but with a commitment to stand by her husband. When she accompanied her husband to the World Ministers’ Council in Pune, India, in 1997, a new world opened before her. At the council she learned that being a pastor’s wife is more than standing by her husband. It is also being an active participant in pastoral ministry. She went home to Jalna, a teeming sugarcane city, and decided to work for one class of women—prostitutes, the downtrodden castaways of society. Within a few months, through giving Bible studies, she had more than 40 climb out of the gutters of human greed and accept the true love of One who never forsakes.

When they were baptized, all these women found themselves unemployed and unemployable. What should Suman do? She wrote to Shepherdess International for counsel. Suman is a good seamstress. Why not, suggested Shepherdess International, start a tailoring center? Soon one was in operation. And soon the jobless new members of God’s family were learning a trade of their own. Through their witness, nearly 100 others were brought into the church in two years. Empowering one person enlarged God’s family in that distant city.

Empowering and affirming has been the task of the Ministerial Association of the General Conference ever since it was founded by action of the 1922 General Conference session. At that time the church had about 2,500 ministers, and the association’s founder-secretary, A. G. Daniells, with 21 years of experience as General Conference president, was determined to make the Seventh-day Adventist pastor well trained, suitably equipped and affirmed, spiritually nurtured, pastorally and evangelistically challenged. The task of the association 78 years later remains the same, but with a much wider purview. The pastor and the pastoral spouse form the focus of its ministry; evangelism and congregational nurture constitute its unrelenting pursuit. These tasks are done through the several entities of the association.

Ministry magazine is at the forefront of providing support to pastors around the world—providing a theological anchor to what we believe; extending practical support and strategies to the pastor’s personal, professional, and family life; and building a global ministerial family that will be aware of the cross-cultural currents of Adventism without losing the unifying factor of the Adventist family. In addition, the magazine goes to nearly 50,000 clergy of other denominations under the PREACH (Project Reaching Every Active Clergy Home) program, building bridges of understanding with these pastors and winning scores of them to a new appreciation of the Adventist message. The PREACH program took new wings recently when satellite presentations, with some 500 downlink centers in the Western Hemisphere, reached nearly 15,000 pastors from other churches.

Affirming the professional and pastoral life of the pastor is effectively done through the resources the association provides. Since the last General Conference session, the association has produced 75 books, 11 of them in Spanish, and 37 videos on a wide range of subjects to help pastors in their work. They cover theology, preaching, evangelism, interpersonal relations, counseling, marriage and family, training laity, and conflict resolution, to name a few. One unique feature of these resources: many of these books sell for $1, a special outreach to help pastors in economically challenged parts of the world field. In addition, the association has made it possible with special arrangements with Review and Herald Publishing Association to provide pastors in these areas with The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary for US$57. Because of these resources, pastors in all parts of the world now have access to pastoral books and sermon resources that they did not formerly have.

Then there is the Seminar in a Box—a unique attempt to provide professional seminars on 32 how to topics to pastors and church leaders through videos. Each seminar is complete in itself and when used with a study guide can provide excellent professional training to pastors and laity in local churches. Academic-level training at home is within the pastor’s reach!

In addition, Elder’s Digest, published each quarter, provides practical help for local church elders as they prepare sermons, conduct Bible studies, and care for various church services. In many parts of the world elders are increasingly taking on the responsibility of caring for the local churches, freeing the pastor for church planting and evangelistic activities.

Training of pastors and elders cannot be done by resources alone. Since the Utrecht General Conference session did not hold a World Ministers’ Council, the General Conference mandated that the council go to the ministers. As a result during 1995-2000, the Ministerial Association conducted 60-plus councils in all the world divisions. Some 16,000 pastoral workers—nearly 85 percent of the ministerial task force—and hundreds of spouses interfaced with world ministerial leaders, including experienced theologians, evangelists, pastoral leaders, and shepherdess coordinators.

Efficient pastoral training is a task that begins before the individual enters the ministry. During this quinquennium, in cooperation with the Education Department, the Ministerial Association has taken an active part in developing the profile of an Adventist pastor and in encouraging colleges and seminaries around the world to offer theological and pastoral education that fulfills the completion of that profile. The program to be coordinated and fostered by the International Board of Ministerial Training will ensure a more practical and responsive ministerial core.

Evangelism continues to remain the watchword of the association. The Ministerial Association staff is professionally capable, focused on the practical, oriented to pastoral realities, and culturally diverse. It is involved in direct evangelism, and also seeks to motivate and train evangelists and pastors around the world. From large metropolitan centers to simple villages, the “how” of evangelism is transmitted through training materials and seminars, and by the direct involvement of pastors and the Ministerial Association staff at every level. As a result, new dynamics have come to play in evangelism.

Recently, one such evangelistic effort in India providentially brought a pastor from a charismatic group to appreciate the uniqueness of our message. He invited our leaders to study with him and his fellow, independent pastors. Intensive studies led to the baptism of 60 pastors, and they in turn became instruments in bringing their congregations to an understanding of the three angels’ messages. What does the church do with 60 new pastors and congregations? The offering at the Toronto World Ministers’ Council will go toward training and establishing these pastors.

With such bold, altogether-unexpected happenings around the world, evangelism is spreading by leaps and bounds. The work of pastors, evangelists, teachers, lay witnesses, and Global Mission volunteers has added more than 800,000 members in 1998 alone. But how shall all these be cared for? The church cannot afford to have one pastor for one congregation; nor is it desirable, if we take into account the New Testament model of nurture. Intentional training and equipping of elders to care for local churches has been carried out by the Ministerial Association at every level from the General Conference to the local church. Such training includes empowering pastoral spouses as well.

Shepherdess International seeks to assist pastoral spouses to complement their spouses’ ministry. Shepherdess has come to be recognized around the world as an important part of the Ministerial Association. Every division has a program to equip and empower the pastoral spouse. Suman is just one small example. In the past few years pastoral spouses in the Philippines have undertaken evangelistic meetings, resulting in hundreds of baptisms. In India, pastoral spouses have carried on successful programs to bring healing to abused women and to present God’s Word to women in prisons. Evangelism by pastoral spouses in that country has led to 1,084 baptisms during the past five years. Pastoral spouses in Bangladesh are studying the Bible with women, while those in Czechoslovakia are teaching healthful cooking. These and other projects in other areas of the world are supported by the proceeds from several books published by the Ministerial Association: Seasoned With Love, part 1 and part 2, two cookbooks, and Seasoned With Laughter, a book recounting humorous happenings in pastoral life. To keep the shepherdesses together as a family, the organization publishes the Shepherdess International journal in English, Spanish, Russian, and French.

What of the future? For every trained pastor there are many more in need of training, motivation, and empowering. For every Suman there are scores of pastoral spouses who need to be challenged and enlisted in the pastoral work. For every church cared for by an elder there are hundreds who are in need of trained and committed laypersons to function as stewards of the gospel. So the work of the Ministerial Association is never complete. It is always part of a process of training, motivating, and empowering, as the entire church moves into the twenty-first century, almost home on its way to the eternal kingdom.