It is but natural in the development of any organization, whether governmental, business, or religious, that as the work makes progress and becomes enlarged in its scope, there should be not only a distribution of responsibilities but the forming of subsidiary yet related organizations. This is what took place in the work in Israel in the days of Moses. The cause of God grew rapidly, and Moses was encumbered with many cares. His father-in-law, Jethro, when on a visit to him on one occasion, after beholding the range of Moses’ activities, counseled him to share his burdens with others and also to form smaller organizations that could be responsible to the main governing body. This counsel is recorded in Exodus 18:21. There the plan is clearly outlined. There were to be organizations known as tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands. Each of these had a leader. This meant, of course, many leaders in the organization of a thousand. In the first place, there was a ruler over that organization, but there were ten organizations of one hundred in that thousand, each with its own ruler. That meant eleven. In addition there were fifties, of which there were twenty in each organization of a thousand, and each of these had its leader. Still further, there were the tens, each with its leader. Of these there were one hundred in the organization of the thousand. Hence we have in that organization no less than 131 leaders, each in charge of an organization, the tens responsible to the fifties, the fifties responsible to the hundreds, and the hundreds responsible to the thousands.BSPC 160.1

The same principle obtained in the organization of the early church, in both the development of organizations and the formation of departments for carrying forward the rapidly expanding work.BSPC 160.2

We have already seen that there were local churches, and that these individual churches were grouped into organizations known as the churches of Achaia, and “the churches of Galatia,” et cetera. This development meant the formation of organizations of churches, doubtless following the provincial lines or boundaries of the Roman Empire. Just what the names of these organizations were we do not know, except as we have terms used in the Scripture similar to those just mentioned, such as “the churches of Asia,” “the churches of God which are in Judea,” et cetera. In addition to the provinces, some of the island fields were evidently formed into similar organizations, for we read of the churches in Crete with Titus in general charge. (Titus 1:5.)BSPC 160.3

This principle of uniting individuals into the membership of the local church and then uniting churches to form a group of churches is in accordance with God’s divine plan.BSPC 161.1

“Later in the history of the early church, when in various parts of the world many groups of believers had been formed into churches, the organization of the church was further perfected, so that order and harmonious action might be maintained.”—The Acts of the Apostles, 91, 92.BSPC 161.2

“The Lord in His wisdom has arranged that by means of the close relationship that should be maintained by all believers, Christian shall be united to Christian, and church to church. Thus the human instrumentality will be enabled to co-operate with the divine. Every agency will he subordinate to the Holy Spirit, and all the believers will be united in an organized and well-directed effort to give to the world the glad tidings of the grace of God.”—The Acts of the Apostles, 164.BSPC 161.3

Another development that became necessary was the formation of certain departments, with leaders giving special attention to specific branches of the work. It was not long before the leaders in apostolic days became overburdened with the large and growing work, and in order not to be hindered in their primary task of preaching the gospel, they formed departments for carrying forward certain phases of the work. There arose a situation in which the Grecian widows were in dire need. A department was formed to meet that and similar needs.BSPC 161.4

Then the message broke beyond the bounds of Jewry. Openings came among the Gentiles, and urgent calls were heard on every hand. This led the brethren to put a leader in charge of the work for the Jews and another in charge of the work for the Gentiles. To use modern terminology, we might call these organizations the Department of Home Missions and the Department of Foreign, or Overseas, Missions. We read of this in Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia, where he mentions that “the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter.” Galatians 2:7. Our own work in the Advent cause has followed similar lines. We read:BSPC 161.5

“The church was continually enlarging, and this growth in membership brought increasingly heavy burdens upon those in charge. No one man, or even one set of men, could continue to bear these burdens alone, without imperiling the future prosperity of the church. There was necessity for a further distribution of the responsibilities which had been borne so faithfully by a few during the earlier days of the church. The apostles must now take an important step in the perfecting of gospel order in the church, by laying upon others some of the burdens thus far borne by themselves.”—The Acts of the Apostles, 88, 89.BSPC 162.1

“As our numbers increased, it was evident that without some form of organization there would be great confusion, and the work would not be carried forward successfully. To provide for the support of the ministry, for carrying the work in new fields, for protecting both the churches and the ministry from unworthy members, for holding church property, for the publication of the truth through the press, and for many other objects, organization was indispensable.”—Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 26.BSPC 162.2

We began with a few individual churches. As the churches increased, however, it became necessary to form conferences of churches. As the work still further developed, even conferences were organized into unions of conferences; a still further step became necessary as the work took on worldwide proportions, and that was the formation of divisions of the General Conference, which incorporated the unions into divisional organization.BSPC 162.3

It seems significant, but certainly with no plan that it should be so, that the arrangement in Israel, which followed the counsel of Jethro, seems duplicated in our own work. Israel had the tens, we have the churches; they had the fifties, we have the conferences; they had the hundreds, we have the unions; they had the thousands, which made up the general organization of Israel, we have the divisions, which together constitute the General Conference. The conferences and unions are regularly organized conferences, each with its own delegated constituency; the divisions, however, are not conferences; they are divisions of the General Conference; in other words, a division operating in any given area is the General Conference operating in that area.BSPC 162.4

Order in the Days of Israel

The Business of the Church