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The General Conference
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May 31  The General Conference

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There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. Eph. 4:4.

While the formation of state conferences was helpful, they did not solve all of the administrative problems. Who, for example, would coordinate their work or assign ministers to different area? J. H. Waggoner raised that issue to consciousness in a forceful manner in June 1862. "I do not believe," he wrote, "that we shall ever fully realize the benefits of organization till this matter" of a general or umbrella conference "is acted upon." Several readers of the Review responded to Waggoner's proposition with hearty affirmations during the summer of 1862.

Without a general overarching structure to represent the whole body of believers, J. N. Andrews argued, "we shall be thrown into confusion every time that concert of action is especially necessary. The work of organization, wherever it has been entered into a proper manner, has borne good fruit; and hence I desire to see it completed in such a manner as shall secure its full benefits, not only to each church, but to the whole body of brethren and to the cause of truth."

B. F. Snook noted that already sectional feelings had developed in the young denomination and that the only way to bring unity into the movement was through a "general conference."

James White, as you might guess, enthused with such talk. As he saw it, the proposed General Conference must be "the great regulator" of the state conferences if they were to secure "united, systematic action in the entire body of believers." The duty of the General Conference would be "to mark out the general course to be pursued by the State Conferences." Thus "if General Conference is not higher in authority than State Conferences, we see but little use for it." Its function would be to coordinate the work of the church across its entire geographic range.

The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists organized at a meeting called for that purpose in Battle Creek from May 20 to may 23, 1863. That momentous step opened the way for a unified church to eventually take the message of the three angels of Revelation 14 to the far corners of the earth. The extent of the Adventist mission program could never have been accomplished by a collection of disjointed churches or conferences each with its own goals.

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Thank You, Lord, for the unity and strength that comes  from organization.
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