Ministerial Institutes

Against a background of minimal training for our ministers, and the controversy that boiled over at Minneapolis, Prescott designed a five-month ministerial institute for ministers. The first began in October of 1889, with 157 attendees. Prescott, Uriah Smith, and E. J. Waggoner were instructors.DHF 5.2

In spite of Ellen White’s strong endorsement, Waggoner’s views were actively opposed by Smith, and led to her personally joining some of the early morning dialogues. Her letters, manuscripts, and diary entries written during the institute provide essential insights into what God was attempting to accomplish in these settings to prepare a people for Christ’s coming. [The reader is encouraged to read the chronological collection of her writings on these issues in The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials.]DHF 5.3

These institutes continued until 1896, by which time the col-leges had developed more complete ministerial training courses. However, Ellen White lamented to the GC President in November of 1892 that ministers were not being benefited as they ought to have been by these gatherings. She said they either haggled over the truth, or having assented to it, kept it in “the outer court,” not letting it permeate their lives in the “little things,” particularly in the home setting (PH002:25, 26). She again spoke to the delegates at the GC Session in 1901 of the assent to this truth with no change in life or ministry. This counterfeit “faith” actually masked a deep-seated rebellion, which later that year she said might cause God’s people to remain in this world “many more years.” (1888 Materials, p. 1743; SpM202) (Ibid., p. 5).DHF 6.1