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Verse:“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” —Deuteronomy 6:6, 7
Christian education means to make disciples who carry on Christ’s model of redemptive service to humanity. This model should characterize each Adventist teacher and every Adventist educational institution.
Few educational institutions developed the ideal of self-sacrificing service as effectively as the Nashville Agricultural and Normal School (renamed Madison College in 1937) in Madison, Tennessee. Ellen White had a special burden for the work in the southern states of the United States. So, in 1904, following Mrs. White’s advice, E. A. Sutherland and Percy T. Magan resigned their posts at Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) and moved to Nashville.
They bought a four-hundred-acre farm to establish a self-supporting educational enterprise. In the August 18, 1904, issue of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Mrs. White urged, “As these brethren go to the South to take hold of pioneer work in a difficult field, we ask our people to make their work as effective as possible by assisting them in the establishment of the new school near Nashville.” The whole Madison educational system was based on self-sacrifice, a strict and persistent economy, one major study plan, and self-government, with the study of the Bible being a leading feature.
As a large family-like community, teachers and students worked together and studied together. As stated in its Bulletin No. 1, the institution aimed to “train missionary teachers (using the word in its broadest sense) to be self-supporting.”37 The leaders wanted students to go out from Madison College and start their own smaller replicas of Madison. The training they received was so efficient and inspiring that graduates of Madison established some forty other small self-supporting schools in some of the poor communities of the southern United States.
Times have changed, and today many are more interested in their own rights and privileges than in sacrificing themselves for God’s cause.
Altruistic service is a universal Christian principle.
What a difference we could make if we restored the spirit of simplicity and service that characterized the golden years of Madison College!