Preface
For over half a century Ellen White worked shoulder to shoulder
with ministers of the gospel, and shared with them inspired counsel.
She held a high view of their calling, as is clear from statements such
as the following: “The gospel minister is engaged in a very solemn,
sacred work” (EV 184); “The minister stands as God’s mouthpiece to
the people, and in thought, in word, in act, he is to represent his Lord”
(
Gospel Workers, 20
).
From the rich treasury of her writings, the compilers of this book
have brought together a selection of inspired counsels that apply most
directly to the life and work of the local church pastor. Research was
done by the General Conference Ministerial Association using the
CD-ROM, 1990 edition, of The Published Ellen G. White Writings.
It was discovered that Mrs. White used some derivative of the word
Clergy 114 times, Minister 10,762 times, Pastor 385 times, Preacher
735 times, and Shepherd 1,540 times. Research focused especially on
these quotes. The goal was to be complete, but not exhaustive; that is,
to include material on every area of pastoral ministry, but not to quote
every statement she made on each. Thus the principles are set forth,
but not repeated unnecessarily
.
Quotations usually include full paragraphs. If a paragraph is inter-
rupted and continued later, this is indicated. In each case, the source
is given, so the reader may search out and study the quotation in its
original context. As a rule, quotation marks are not used around se-
lections from the inspired writings, inasmuch as all text not in bold
face, enclosed in brackets, or otherwise noted, is from Ellen White.
Subheadings have been supplied by the compilers, and appear in bold
type. In general, these include words or phrases borrowed from the
quotations they introduce
.
A large portion of Mrs. White’s writings are anecdotal; that is,
they are accounts of events that happened in her life, the life of another
person, or the history of the church. Principles are set forth, but often
indirectly. To find these principle requires more effort on the part of
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