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Rethinking Church Organization-6
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Nov. 28 - Rethinking Church Organization-6

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Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Heb. 13:14, ESV.

This earth is not our home. That underlying motif and the necessity of mission drove the winning faction at the 1901 General Conference session. G. A. Irwin, the president, opened the meetings by recognizing the strength of Ellen White's plea for reform, but he stopped at generalities.

At that point A. G. Daniells took charge and moved that "the usual rules and procedures for arranging and transacting the business of the conference be suspended" and that they appoint a general committee to develop recommendations related to reorganization of the denomination and other topics of concern. His motion carried.

The officers appointed Daniells chair of the reorganization committee. And he and W. C. White were the leading voices in the reorganization, even though the Jones and Waggoner coalition sought to shift the process in their direction.

When Daniells spoke of reorganizing the church, he meant restructuring its administration for more successful mission outreach. He made his point clear on the second morning of the 1901 se'ssion when he told the delegates that unless something definite was done "it will take a millennium to give this message to the world."

The 1901 General Conference session resulted in some of the greatest changes in the history of the denomination. The most important organizationally were five in number: (1) the creation of union conferences and union missions that had supervision of local conferences and missions and thereby dispersed the administrative authority of the General Conference officers; (2) the discontinuance of most of the auxiliary organizations and the adoption of the departmental system; (3) the General Conference Committee increased to 25 members; (4) ownership and management of most institutions shifted from the General Conference to the union conferences; (5) and the General Conference would have no president, only a chairperson whom the executive committee could remove at any time it desired.

The church had made major changes based on the mission experience of Daniells and W. C. White. And leadership had made a difference. God still works through people, both collectively and individually, to guide His church.

 

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For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Phil. 2:12, 13. God does not bid you fear that He will fail to fulfill His promises, that His patience will weary, or His compassion be found wanting. Fear lest your will shall not be held in subjection to Christ's will, lest your hereditary and cultivated traits of character shall control your life(COL 160).

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