By Dr. Kimberly Azelton, MD
Today’s surrender to God’s will is tomorrow’s path for success. This is particularly true in ministry that is to produce revival and a system of selfless service. “When the cities are worked as God would have them, the result will be the setting in operation of a mighty movement such as we have not yet witnessed. God calls for self-sacrificing men, converted to the truth, to let their light shine forth in clear, distinct rays.”1 Such was the case for arguably the most influential physicians in all of organized Adventist church history. And no, I am not talking about Dr. Kellogg.
In February 1886, Daniel Kress was deeply convicted to quit tobacco by one of the evangelists that C.T. Spurgeon had sent to Michigan — and the evangelist hadn’t even spoken on nicotine. Daniel prayed through the withdrawal and never touched tobacco again. He had no idea this difficult personal battle was paving the way for him to help thousands quit tobacco in his later life as a physician. After this, he and his wife Lauretta promptly joined the First Baptist Church. With single-minded sacrifice, Daniel gave up his trade as a brushmaker to become a licensed minister of the First Baptist Church that same year. This type of surrender allows the sanctification process so the Kresses could begin to experience 1 Thessalonians 5:23 which says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”22 True surrender and preparation for ministry never uncouples physical, spiritual and mental wholeness.
This call to wholeness is always followed by a call to service as the very next verse states, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”3 While the Kresses pastored in Davisonville, MI,4 Lauretta began fearfully studying with a Seventh-day Adventist, Ms Emma Ferry. She was fearful because Daniel said he would leave her if she ever became an Adventist. The timing of her conversion was faith-building; they had a toddler and she was pregnant with their second child. Regardless of the consequences, Lauretta began keeping the Sabbath. The morning Daniel found out she had disregarded his wishes, he silently left. Lauretta’s conscience was held captive to the Word of God. For an entire year Lauretta kept the Sabbath at home with the agreement that she would not read Seventh-day Adventist literature or go to their meetings. Unbeknownst to her, an evangelist, Elmer Harris, had asked Daniel to help him answer a believer’s question regarding the Sabbath. On Friday, August 27, 1887 Daniel told Lauretta he was going to keep the Sabbath with her. His surrender to God was complete and steadfast. He refused to follow the Baptists’ suggestion of finishing his contract with their current Baptist church in silence about his new beliefs. They, in turn, refused to pay him for any of his contract—even the portion he had completed. They only had enough money for one train ticket. Daniel Kress walked to Flint, MI while Lauretta, the children and their belongings went via train.
Surrender to selfless service is the personal sanctifying work to prepare for the final message.Penniless, but full of faith, the Kresses quickly started ministering in the Seventh-day Adventist Church just as hard as they had in the Baptist Church. They worked across Michigan with an experienced minister who took them under his wing.
They were among those who heard the 1888 righteousness by faith message of Jones and Waggoner, which is the thirds’ angels message in verity.5 There was widespread revival and reformation among many Seventh-day Adventists at this time and the Kresses were among those who accepted the message and were rebaptized. It was during this time of total surrender and personal revival that Daniel and Lauretta Kress had a growing conviction to attend medical school. While simply helping people with any need in a Christlike manner is medical missionary work,6 God had called them to a leadership role in this very sacred and special line of God’s work. This next leap of faith took them to medical school in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
We understand that surrender leads to selfless service on a personal level. But do we understand the power of selfless service in a body of believers working together? The Kresses exemplified this when they not only housed fellow medical students during their time in medical school but also formed the students into three Christian Help Bands to do good among the less fortunate of the community. The teams also held Bible studies among all classes of people. From the synergy of these efforts, a vibrant church plant formed. The revival that gripped the Kresses’ souls and manifested itself in selfless service spread to the Christian Help Bands and to the creation of a new church by this team approach to selfless service. Little did the Kresses realize as they graduated from medical school in 1889 how far that system of selfless service would spread.
Fast forward to the peak of their medical evangelistic career. As the medical directors for the Australasian Union, they expanded the work from one small sanitarium to four vibrant sanitarium centers along with a multitude of treatment rooms in various cities. Willie White, the Kresses and other leaders were part of catalyzing groups of workers in every area to systematically do selfless service for all classes. Food factory workers did cooking demonstrations and taught health principles in order to connect with people and win their confidence.7 Canvassers sold books and did hydrotherapy treatments as the need arose.8 Evangelists and physicians educated and ministered to the crowds as well as individuals.9 This harmonious action extended even to the Union’s large institutions such as conferences, publishing houses, schools, and sanitariums, which is a feat only accomplished by true revival. Revival is so much more than personal surrender. The prophet had said, “If the Lord has spoken by me, He speaks when I say that the workers engaged in educational lines, in ministerial lines, and in medical missionary lines must stand as a unit, all laboring under the supervision of God, one helping the other, each blessing each.”10 When surrender and service are flowing through an entire church that is meeting physical, mental and spiritual needs with its organizations: God’s blessings can flow. Revival is a display of the character of God in individuals as well as all the church organizations. This practical demonstration of the love of God gains access to hearts no matter what century you live in.
At this successful juncture in the Australasian Union, the Kresses received a call to lead a deeper and broader initiative in selfless service. Ellen White advised the General Conference to call them to lead the church’s attempt to “do it right” in the United States. In the wake of Dr. Kellogg’s and the ministers’ attempts at control, centralization and apostasy, Ellen White had called the General Conference to move out of Battle Creek and reorganize the entire church. Washington D.C. was chosen for the new headquarters. This new chapter for the Seventh-day
Adventist Church would not be complete without a demonstration of the full Gospel, which brings physical, mental and spiritual wholeness.11
What does a system of selfless service look like? The Takoma Park Sanitarium work started with small groups ministering to people’s needs in the city itself and then developed into “treatment rooms”12 just like almost every other early Adventist effort. As pastors and canvassers led integrated developments in their lines of work, who better than the experienced Kress physicians to lead the medical work to the next level? The Kress doctors had to surrender what God had done through them in Australia in order to follow God’s call for selfless service back in the United States and start their ministry from scratch again. Just as soon as the Kress doctors felt like the principles of selfless service were systematically underway in Takoma Park Sanitarium and the surrounding cities, Ellen White called them to take blended evangelism (that meets physical, mental and spiritual needs) with Elder Starr in the New England Conference while still maintaining leadership in Washington D.C.13 Practically figuring out how to be in two places at once seemed impossible. But the faith of the Kress doctors had been strengthened by years of surrendering to the Lord’s will in both small and large things. Blended evangelism in new fields was exactly what the system of revival the Kress doctors had established in Takoma Park needed in order to grow. Spreading their influence to New England allowed other leaders to develop at Takoma Park in their absence while at the same time allowing the gospel work to start in new areas. This ensured that the churches did not become dependent upon pastors or physicians to do soul winning. Otherwise, opportunities for surrender, service, and revival would have been taken away from the churches. Instead, this arrangement gave the churches in both New England and Washington D.C. the best chance for widespread revival.
In the 1800s, the Seventh-day Adventist church began to experience true revival. The more the church embraced personal selfless service at every level, the more true revival, reformation and evangelism was seen. At the juncture of surrender and service is the sanctifying work of medical missionary work that will then catalyze the mightiest movement the world has ever seen.1,14 “I cannot too strongly urge all our church members, all who are true missionaries, all who believe the third angel’s message…to consider…the work of beneficence…[as it] is the work that God requires His people to do at this time…Combine medical missionary work with the proclamation of the third angel’s message…See if the breath of life will not then come into your churches. A new element needs to be brought into the work. God’s people must realize their great need and peril and take up the work that lies nearest to them.”14 Will we put God’s Word to the test both personally and corporately? Will we revive this system today that is promised to bring “the breath of life into the churches”?14
Footnotes:
- EllenG.White,Vol.24.LettersandManuscripts(Washington,D.C.:June9, 1909), Letter 47 ↩︎
- 1Thess 5:23 ↩︎
- 1Thess 5:24 ↩︎
- ThecityofDavisonvilleisnowcalledAtlas ↩︎
- Ellen G. White, Review and Herald (Washington D.C.: Review and HeraldPublishing Association, April 1, 1890) ↩︎
- EllenG.White,Vol.13.ManuscriptReleases(Washington,D.C.:December 1893), No. 1029. page 211. ↩︎
- Morse,G.W.“SanitariumHealthFoodCompany’sTrainingSchool”Union Conference Record. January 15, 1899. Volume 2, Number 1. ↩︎
- Fiedler,David.“D’sozo.”(Coldwater,MI:RemnantPublications,2012)pages 107-114 ↩︎
- Forexample,Starr,G.B.“TheNewcastleCampandTentMeetings.”Union Conference Record. January 15, 1899. Volume 2, Number 1. ↩︎
- Ellen G. White, Vol. 9. Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1948), 169. ↩︎
- Ellen G. White, Review and Herald (Washington D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, March 4, 1902). ↩︎
- “Treatment rooms” are what E.G. White uses to refer to small centers in cities in association with the local church which provide basic health and wellness education. Modern day examples are sometimes called “Better Living Centers.” ↩︎
- Ellen G. White, The Kress Collection (Napa County, CA). November 18, 1909. 14.Ellen G. White, Vol. 6. Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1948), 267 ↩︎
- This article is based on parts of: Kress, L. E., & Kress, D. H. (1941). Under the guiding hand: Life experiences of the doctors Kress. College Press. ↩︎
