John burden

John Burden was a visionary Seventh-day Adventist pastor who was instrumental in the establishment of multiple sanitariums and the College of Medical Evangelists (now Loma Linda University Health).

Converted to the Adventist faith partly through reading the writings of Adventist church co-founder Ellen G. White, John Burden would eventually partner with her in the establishment of several sanitariums and other health enterprises (e.g. vegetarian restaurant and health food factory).

Over the course of his productive life, John Burden would help found and serve as the administrator of various Adventist sanitariums including:

  • St. Helena sanitarium

  • Glendale sanitarium

  • Sydney sanitarium

  • Loma Linda sanitarium


Most notably, Pastor Burden would also be Ellen White’s point-person in the establishment of the College of Medical Evangelists.

WHy is the college named after john burden?

The original vision that Pastor John Burden and Ellen White had for the College of Medical Evangelists was to train Adventist young people primarily in natural and lifestyle medicine and send these graduates across the world as medical missionaries. John Burden College seeks to fulfill this vision.

enduring ideals and principles

John Burden exemplified some of the ideals and principles that we hope to foster in our students.

  1. Vision for Adventist health institutions: John Burden was a visionary who dedicated much of his career to the establishment of Adventist sanitariums. John Burden College hopes to cast a vision for our graduates: to see Adventist health institutions (lifestyle centres and clinics) located in every province of Canada, outside every major Canadian city. We also hope many will go overseas to establish health institutions around the world.

  2. Commitment to natural therapies: In alignment with Ellen White’s clear and unequivocal counsel to train Adventist health professionals in lifestyle medicine and natural therapies, Pastor Burden strongly advocated for these modalities to be the primary modalities taught at the College of Medical Evangelists. Consistent with this example, John Burden College teaches lifestyle and natural medicine as primary modalities.

  3. Sacrificial entrepreneurship: Whether it was putting down his own money to purchase the Loma Linda property when other church leaders were too afraid to, or leaving his home country (the United States) to serve oversees to start up sanitariums, Pastor Burden was very enterprising and willing to make sacrifices and take risks for God’s cause. John Burden College’s students will go out to staff and start up Adventist health institutions across the world and sacrifice to fulfill their God-given vision.

  4. Commitment to the Spirit of Prophecy: When Ellen White gave counsel to Pastor John, he listened. His vision for Adventist healthcare was born out of a conviction that Ellen White’s writings contain an authoritative blueprint for health ministry. John Burden College instills within our students a respect for the writings of Ellen G White as an inspired guide to conducting medical evangelism.