A departmental level branch of the General Conference, headed by a secretary and associate and assistant secretaries. It endeavors through its professional journal, Ministry , conventions, institutes, and evangelistic field schools to elevate the spiritual experience of, and increase the efficiency of, ministerial, evangelistic, and other gospel workers. In the 1970s there was a new emphasis on including health professionals as part of the “blended ministry” team.
The Ministerial Association is represented in each division of the world field by a division Ministerial Association secretary and has wide representation on union and local conference levels.
Action to establish a Ministerial Commission was taken at the General Conference session of May 1922. A. G. Daniells, who for 21 years had been the president of the General Conference, was asked to head the new commission. He had a deep conviction that ministers should rise above their routine responsibilities, deepen their personal consecration, and broaden their preaching. He felt strongly that ministers should emphasize not only the distinctive doctrines of Seventh-day Adventists but also the basic fundamentals of faith and life, and especially righteousness by faith as presented in the Minneapolis General Conference session of 1888.
The commission, organized on Sept. 25, 1922, soon came to be known as the Ministerial Association, with a field constituency of “ministers, licentiates, Bible workers, editors of denominational papers, medical heads of sanitariums and superintendents of nurses’ training schools, heads of senior and junior colleges and academies” ( Actions of the Autumn Council [1923], p. 6).
Between 1923 and 1925 the commission conducted many ministerial institutes throughout the United States. During a Southern Union institute held in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1926, the conclusion was reached that additional help was needed not only for the conducting of institutes but for the preparation of reading materials for ministers. As a result L. E. Froom, editor of the Watchman, was called to assist A. G. Daniells in 1926 and was associated with him until Daniells’ death in 1935. At the Milwaukee General Conference session that same year, nine outstanding leaders presented papers with a view to strengthening the ministry. Among these were W. W. Prescott, O. Montgomery, E. K. Slade, C. B. Haynes, I. H. Evans, as well as Daniells and Froom. Their presentations were later published in leaflet form and sent to ministers far and wide.
In 1928 a monthly periodical, Ministry , was launched. It carried in its first editorial column a discussion of righteousness by faith. Some of its regular features were headed “Forward and Upward,” “Around the World Circle,” “Delving Into the World,” “Kindly Correctives,” “Bible Workers’ Exchange,” and “The Minister’s Books,” and there was also a forum on methods. First issued in digest size, it was later enlarged and printed in 8½" x 11" (22 cm. x 28 cm.) size.
By this time the Ministerial Association was well under way. It was not a department but rather an association, embracing all the ministers and denominational workers throughout the world. Its objectives were to serve all workers by endeavoring to help in the development of Christian character and especially to encourage deeper spirituality.
Upon the resignation of Daniells in 1931, I. H. Evans was appointed the Ministerial Association secretary, and Meade McGuire was added to the staff. During the 1930s the Ministerial Association assumed an increasingly influential role in the denomination.
In the 1941 session the General Conference passed several recommendations, framed by the ministerial council preceding the conference. These recommendations called for more field participation in greater evangelism, and recommended that one of the secretaries of the Ministerial Association be “an experienced, successful evangelist,” who would assist in evangelistic institutes and foster the training of evangelists for metropolitan areas, and that another be “a qualified, experienced Bible worker” to foster the work of the Bible instructors and develop advanced training courses. For this purpose, R. Allan Anderson was called as associate secretary and Louise C. Kleuser as assistant (later an associate). Through the years association secretaries have taught many courses in the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary and in continuing education programs throughout the world field.
In recent years such programs as Continuing Education seminars and self-study courses, PREACH (Project Reaching Every Active Clergy Home) magazine subscriptions and seminars, One Thousand Days of Reaping, Harvest 90, Project 27, Ministerial Supply Center, and a specialized ministry to local church elders have been developed and fostered by the Ministerial Association.
In 1983 an intentional ministry to pastoral wives was initiated by Marie Spangler. This entity, Shepherdess International, was regularized as part of the Ministerial Association in 1985. Ellen Bresee served as coordinator from 1985 to 1992, after which Sharon Cress assumed the responsibility.
Secretaries: A. G. Daniells, 1922–1931; I. H. Evans, 1931–1941; L. E. Froom, 1941–1950; R. A. Anderson, 1950–1966; N. R. Dower, 1966–1980; J. Robert Spangler, 1980–1985; Floyd Bresee, 1985–1992; James A. Cress, 1992– .