Philosophy of Weimar Center

General Principles

Weimar Center is conducting a work which is harmonious with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Both in its expressed attitudes and formal relationships, the Center will be loyal to, and supportive of, the beliefs, mission, and leadership of the Church. It is a positive ministry, known by what it is rather than by what it is against.

Weimar Center believes that the Bible and writings of Ellen G. White provide for us the highest, the most relevant, the most reliable authority for conducting our work. We hold that our security is found in being loyal to these revealed principles and ideals.
Weimar Center will include but not be limited to an educational ministry based upon high academic standards, a balanced work/study program, each student being involved in a community outreach activity; a medical ministry based upon God’s eight natural remedies; a spiritual ministry emphasizing a metropolitan ministry program for church laymen; and a center for Seventh-day Adventist retirees who desire to be active in some phase of Weimar’s ministry.

The educational, medical, and spiritual ministries of Weimar will work together to a spirit of mutual benefit. This team concept must begin at the point of integrated planning for all phases, and express itself by an equality of authority and of remuneration. We seek to avoid domination by any one phase of the ministry, or neglect the needs of any.

The staff of the Center will encourage each other in regular involvement in witnessing and outreach to the surrounding communities. In order to preserve for its students and staff the learning experience of helpful involvement in the life of a small community church, the Center will not establish a church on the campus.

In all internal relationships among Weimar’s staff, we will seek to reflect heaven’s order and plan of government. The dignity of accountability of individual freedom will be preserved. We seek to establish an environment in which each person can grow to embrace the highest possible internalized Christian standards. We believe this happens best with a minimum number of policies governing personal behavior and by pointing each other to Christ in a setting of love and freedom.

Weimar Center will not receive specific financial aid from any government sources, nor from any relationships with other private organizations or individuals which will in any way compromise our freedom to operate within our principles.

Our Medical Guests

One of the primary goals of the Center will be to exalt the wisdom and beauty of God’s natural healing agencies; pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest exercise, proper diet, the use of water, and trust in divine power (MH 127). This goal will not only guide our communication with the guests, but will call forth much careful research and documentation so that this mater of therapy can be made credible to the professional community.

The therapy at Weimar must maintain a balance, tying together all eight of God’s natural remedies. It will avoid the exclusive emphasis of only one or two treatment modalities. The use of “natural remedies” which are not specially encouraged or allowed by the writings of Ellen White will not be encouraged.

Every person who comes for treatment, whether on a live-in basis, or for a short out-patient visit, will be thoughtfully introduced to the need to bring his life into harmony with the health-producing laws of his being. Intelligent lifestyle change will be the basis of therapy. It is not envisioned that an acute care licensing will be sought.

The spiritual aspect of the program will not be forced upon guests, nor made to be a condition of therapy. However, patients will be openly encouraged to rely upon the transforming power of God in order to accomplish the needed lifestyle changes.

The therapy at Weimar will not rely on drugs. This does not mean, however, that some beneficial drug therapies may not be indicated. The ideal is a quick return to a natural state of being in which the body’s own healing powers can fight disease.

The style of treatment at Weimar must be ‘exportable’, that is, it must be capable of being repeated elsewhere or even in a physician’s private practice. Far from being exclusive, Weimar will establish programs aimed at fostering its concepts in other locations.

Our Students

The educational objective at Weimar College and Academy is to “restore in man the image of his Maker, bring him back to the perfection in which he was created to promote the development of body, mind, and soul…” Ed. pp 15,15.

All students will be involved (approximately 20 hours per week) in useful work, in close cooperation with skilled instructors who can teach proper work skills and attitudes. In their final two years, they are expected to achieve proficiency in one work skill area.

Competitive games will not have a part in the curriculum; students will obtain their needed physical exercise by useful labor out of doors, and supplemented by aerobic-type activities as necessary. The goal of optimum health is recognized as an essential part of education.

The curriculum will emphasize mastery of the essentials, rather than a broad enrichment in many less essential areas. We consider learning to work and to witness as among the essentials.

Motivation for learning and mastering the educational objectives will be provided by uplifting and intrinsic rewards of loving service, rather than by relying on competitive grading, or the offering of public honors or extrinsic enticements.

The faculty and students at Weimar will strive together for academic excellence, believing God’s promises that this type of balanced education will produce an excellent product, capable of meeting the high requirements necessary for the task for which they have been called. In the area of principles which we hold sacred, compromise for the sake of secular approval is never seen as necessary.

Agriculture will fill a central role in the life of the campus as a means of imparting many practical and needed skills and attitudes. Agriculture will also help the campus to become economically self-sustaining.

The curriculum in the college at Weimar will be explicitly service-oriented and all students will engage in individually-adapted community service as a nonoptional part of their educational program.

The school will be closely connected with a health conditioning center which will provide for the students job and witnessing/service opportunities, as well as giving them an exposure to practical medical-missionary work during their undergraduate training.

Weimar Center will not at any time become involved in accepting funds from federal, state, or any other sources which would involve undesirable restrictions or controls.

A combination of student industry, agriculture, and affiliation with the health conditioning center will give the college at Weimar a strong financial base.

The college at Weimar will remain small. When student enrollment begins to approach 250, plans will be set in operation to begin growth at another location.