5. Church or Institutional Buildings
A church seating 1,500 people was erected in Oakland, California, in the 1880s. Total cost, including land and furnishings, was $36,000. A decade later indebtedness on the building had been reduced to $12,400, but for various reasons the members were having great difficulty in making the mortgage payments. On February 1, 1897, C. H. Jones wrote Ellen White:HUT 23.3
“We are in an emergency. There is great danger, unless this debt is lifted, that the church will be allowed to go by default, and the mortgage foreclosed....
“Would it be wrong, Sister White, under the circumstances, for the Oakland church to retain a portion of its tithe for a time, in order to liquidate the indebtedness—simply taking it as a loan to be paid back to the conference as soon as possible?
“If it is wrong, we do not want to do it; if it is right, it will be a great relief to the church.”
Responding in a general way, Ellen White declared:HUT 23.4
“There are exceptional cases, where poverty is so deep that in order to secure the humblest place of worship, it may be necessary to appropriate the tithes. But that place is not Battle Creek or Oakland.”—Ms 24, 1897; Manuscript Releases 1:191.
Then, in a letter to Jones under date of May 27, she more directly answered his question when she stated:HUT 23.5
“Every soul who is honored in being a steward of God is to carefully guard the tithe money. This is sacred means. The Lord will not sanction your borrowing this money for any other work. It will create evils you cannot now discern. It is not to be meddled with by the Oakland church, for there are missions to be sustained in other fields, where there are no churches and no tithes.”—Letter 81, 1897; Manuscript Releases 1:185.
In 1895-1896 the Boulder Sanitarium was erected at a cost of about $80,000. Of this amount, $60,000 was supplied from General Conference funds, which were basically tithe funds. Ellen White objected to this means of financing the construction costs of the institution. On June 19, 1899, she wrote:HUT 23.6
“The question has been asked me by letter, Have you any light for us in regard to the Boulder Sanitarium? ... The light which the Lord has been pleased to give me is that it was not right to build this sanitarium upon funds supplied by the General Conference.”—Letter 93, 1899.