On April 16, 1889, Frederick Carnes Gilbert was baptized as one of the first Jewish-Adventists in the US. At his baptism, Gilbert was 23 years old, and he devoted the rest of his life to Jewish work in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. From book-canvassing to preaching, from public service to book publishing, from local organizing to church administration, F.C. Gilbert helped to lay the foundations for Jewish-Adventist ministry as we know it.
“during the past year nearly four million pages of literature have been circulated . . . bringing light to the thousands of Jews in Boston, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Union Conference”
(“The Jewish Mission,” 134).
Starting in the Boston area, Gilbert’s outreach grew, in part because of his ability to connect people with the hope and help they needed. Meeting these needs inspired gratitude, discipleship, and teambuilding. Conference and lay people wanted to get involved, and Gilbert’s ambitious outreach needed workers and donors. In a 1906 article, E.W. Farnsworth estimates that
Gilbert’s work put him in contact with the church leaders of his day, including Ellen G. White who expressed her support for Jewish-Adventist ministry. Between 1907 and 1918, Jewish work was organized into church administration, initially as the Jewish Department and later the Jewish Advisory Committee, which Gilbert served on, along with many other committees at all levels during the formative phases of organization.
During his 57 years of service (1889-1946), Gilbert’s preaching, publishing, and administrative efforts, helped to establish the work that we continue today.
