Recruiting and Training Volunteers
149
There is an abundance of talent in the church that should be
put to use—But in every department of the cause of God there are
plenty of openings for those who will work in the spirit of humility
that characterized the Master. From every direction voices are calling
to us for help. Ministers alone can never do this work. There is an
abundance of talent in the church that should be put to use. There are
men and women who have ability, and whom God would accept as
laborers in his cause; but they are shirking responsibilities under the
plea of unfitness for the work. Ladies who in the parlor can engage in
conversation with wonderful tact and earnestness, shrink from pointing
the sinner to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,
and then kneeling in prayer, pleading that light may shine into the
mind and heart of this precious one for whom Christ died. Oh! there
is so much work for God and souls that is left undone because it is a
cross, and because each seeks his own amusement, and works for his
own selfish interest.—
The Review and Herald, October 7, 1884
.
All can minister—All may not be preachers, but all can minister,
showing others how to be tidy and hopeful. This is like medicine to
body and soul. Thus we may add grace to grace, and be all the time
fitting ourselves for heaven. I send this that you may read it to the
church.—
Letter 106, 1898
(
The Paulson Collection of Ellen G. White
Letters, 49
).
Members with no burden for souls will be continually back-
sliding—Those who profess to believe the truth, but feel no burden for
the souls of others, will be continually backsliding, and it will require
time and strength on the part of the minister to keep them from making
shipwreck of faith, when they should be laboring with all their might
to present the way of life and salvation to their friends and neighbors.
Hundreds of men and women who at the present time are professedly
engaged in the work of God, are not doing one-tenth that they might
do if they would only improve all the powers God has given them.
Some are doing literally nothing for the truth, and by their example of
indifference are bringing others into the same position of uselessness,
and thus are scattering from Christ. This latter class includes by far the
greater number. They are thinking and planning only for themselves.
Fathers and mothers with their little ones around them make their little
circle their world. Every power of their being is centered on “me and
mine,” and they are becoming narrower and more circumscribed every