Madison School inspiration for other self-supporting institutions

Madison Missionary School was established under divine guidance. Its beginnings were marked by a deep desire to follow God’s blueprint for Christian education. The school failed because later on its leaders diverged from the blueprint. From the whole history of Madison School we can learn many lessons, both from their faithfulness and from their failures.

While Madison School was still functioning, some other institutions were established with a similar desire to follow God’s blueprint for education. One of these institutions was  Wildwood Lifestyle Center. It was founded in 1942, soon after the Pearl Harbor disaster. It was a very difficult period because of the war, the building materials were scare, the economical situation was tough. More details about the history of this institution you can read on the the page Wildwood story.  Wildwood offers medical missionary courses. Another program developed by them is L.I.G.H.T. (The Lay Institute for Global Health Training), which offers short term medical missionary courses for lay members, seminaries and online studies.

Wildwood Lifestyle Center is at the origins of OCI (Outpost Centers International). In the early 1980’s, Warren Wilson, who was then the president of Wildwood Lifestyle Center and Hospital, recognized the need to form an organization that could serve as counselor and encourager to many of the new self-supporting institutions. This organization could facilitate the growth of self-supporting work, network existing projects, and help train and strengthen leaders. Thus, in 1983, Outpost Centers was incorporated.

To see a complete list of self-supporting institutions from North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Europe visit the OCI website. At this time there are 82 self-supporting institutions.

Madison School and ASI

ASI’s history is rooted in Madison College, an Adventist self-supporting institution established in 1904 near Nashville, Tennessee by E.A. Sutherland and Percy Magan. As Madison expanded it began to plant satellite schools and institutions around the country. In 1947 these self-supporting entities formed the Association of Seventh-day Adventist Self-Supporting Institutions, or ASI.

At the time, ASI members were educational or health outfits. Over the years however, ASI membership began to include businesses and Adventist entrepreneurs and professionals. Thus in 1979, to better reflect ASI’s diverse membership, the organization’s name was changed to Adventist-laymen’s Services & Industries (ASI).