The Second Great Advance in Church Order

The advent hope unites. It is in its nature to foster a true brotherhood of spirit among sincere believers. The organization plan as outlined above was not an intricate affair. It consisted of only three links—local church, local conference, and General Conference. This simple plan was all the advent movement had for nearly thirty years. As the movement grew, however, and became a round-the-world church, and as institutions and new lines of activity, or departments, came into being, the need for a larger and more adequate organization became more and more insistent. We have briefly described the first decade of organizational development, that is, 185363; we must now point to another such decade, 1897-1907, when larger problems of organization were earnestly and at times bitterly discussed pro and con. Our church had greatly increased in membership, and our missionary activities were extending not only into Europe, Australia, and Africa but into large mission fields like India and China. The church plans and order that sufficed for a small work in America were totally inadequate for a mission endeavor in all the earth. Part of the difficulties encountered were no doubt “growing pains,” but there was also the question as to whether the advent movement should be nonsectarian, as some advocated, or a full-fledged and well-ordered church organization.FSG 122.1

During the General Conference session at Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1897 these problems reached a crisis. No one who attended that session will ever forget those days. There was sharp division of opinion as to what course to choose, but there was a unity of heart and a fervor of spirit that were most refreshing. Some meetings continued all day without even a recess for dinner. But in all these long, lively discussions there seemed to be no personal bitterness and no struggle for office or for supremacy. Indeed, one strong leader who had been chosen for a prominent position arose during the election and asked to be relieved in order that he might give himself to evangelistic work in the British Isles. His request was granted. All felt cheered by the open mission doors everywhere. The whole world seemed hungry for the advent message. Earnest calls for missionaries came from all the earth. But the treasury was empty, and there was no concerted plan for a world-wide mission advance. Our brethren spent many hours in prayer and Bible study to find the way. About that time a whole series of testimonies came from the Lord’s messenger, who was then in Australia. This same experience was repeated at the next session of the General Conference in South Lancaster in 1899; and again increasingly at the sessions in 1901, 1903, and 1905.FSG 122.2

These messages from the Lord called for a reform and a change from the ground up. They did not specify in detail what plans to adopt, but they laid down principles which when adopted gave the plans of themselves. Some who were leaning to pantheistic error and a few others opposed the light of the Lord, but the large majority of the General Conference and of our ministers and members accepted the instruction willingly and began to carry it out. just what the Spirit of prophecy taught is clearly told in quotations from the Testimonies found in a booklet by Elder A. G. Daniells entitled A Statement, pages 20-22:FSG 123.1

“We here give a brief but complete summary of the counsel given to the General Conference, and the changes made in response thereto. The following are the changes called for:FSG 123.2

“1. ‘What we want now is a reorganization.’FSG 123.3

“2. ‘We want to begin at the foundation, and to build upon a different principle.’FSG 123.4

“3. ‘This work must be carried on in a very different manner to what it has been in the past years.’FSG 124.1

“4. ‘God has not put any kingly power in our ranks to control this or that branch of the work. The work has been greatly retarded by the efforts to control it in every line. ’FSG 124.2

“5. ‘There are to be more than one or two or three men to consider the whole vast field. The work is great, and there is no one human mind that can plan for the work which needs to be done.’FSG 124.3

“6. ‘Greater strength must be brought into the managing force of the Conference.’FSG 124.4

“7. ‘Men who are standing at the head of our various institutions, of the educational interests, and of the conferences’ in different localities and in different States,’ are to ‘stand as representative men, to have a voice in molding and fashioning the plans that shall be carried out.’FSG 124.5

“8. ‘When we first met in conference, it was thought that the General Conference should extend over the whole world. But this is not God’s order. Conferences must be organized in different localities, and it will be for the health of the different conferences to have it thus.’FSG 124.6

“9. ‘This does not mean that we are to cut ourselves apart from one another, and be as separate atoms. Every conference is to touch every other conference, and be in harmony with every other conference.’FSG 124.7

“10. ‘New conferences must be formed. It was in the order of God that the Union Conference was organized in Australasia. The Lord God of Israel will link us all together. The organizing of new conferences is not to separate us; it is to bind us together.’”FSG 124.8

Anyone who will read the presentation above and compare it with the organization then adopted and now followed will see what decisive relief and benefits came to the Adventist Church as the result of this light on organization from the Spirit of prophecy. These messages, involving some of the most intricate and far-reaching problems of church government, came from a woman who never held any office and had never studied the history or development of ecclesiastical polity and policy. Many have asked whether the Adventist worldwide church organization is congregational, presbyterian, or episcopal. We have heard some teachers assert that it was presbyterian, whereas others claim it is episcopal. But while it has similarities with other churches, it is really different and an organism by itself. It came as a fruitage of the creative ideas of the advent message guided by God through the Spirit of prophecy. The Adventist Church is a church with a task, and the Lord gave it a body to fit the task.FSG 124.9