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Freedom From Structure Is
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May 14  Freedom From Structure Is Not Freedom From Problems

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As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. 1Tim. 1:3, RSV.

The earliest Christians may have had little formal structure, but they probably felt no need of it. After all, Jesus would return soon.

But Jesus didn't come as soon as they expected. That resulted in problem in the church that needed to be cared for. Thus by the time Paul wrote his Pastoral Epistles (1Timothy, 2Timothy, and Titus) he had to deal with creating mechnisms for maintaining order tin the congregations.

Adventism went through a similar experience. As early as September 1849 we find James White arguing for financial support for the movement's traveling preachers and the necessity to "suspend" one woman "from fellowship." Then in March 1850, in the context of remarks concerning an indivisual whom he believed God had not called to be an itinerant preacher, James wrote of the need to move in "gospel order."

His wife's concerns seem to have paralleled his. In December 1850 she wrote: "I saw that everything in heaven was in perfect order. Said the angel, 'Look ye; Christ is the head; move in order, move in order. Have a meaning to everything.' Said the angel, 'Behold ye, and know how perfect, how beautiful the order in heaven; follow it.'" She went on to speak of fanaticism and of those who had been disfellowshipped because of their improper behavior. Near the conclusion she noted that "if Israel [i.e., the church] moved steadily along, going according to Bible order, they would be terrible as an army with banner"(MS 11 1850).

James and Ellen White's early concerns regarding organization seem to be essentially the same. Both feared disorderly, fanatical, and unauthorized representatives within the budding Sabbatarian movement. Then again, the early 1850s saw rapid growth in the number of individuals attracted by the logic of the Sabbatarians' preaching. In three short years the movement's adherents had zoomed from about 100 to more than 2,000 in 1852.

While that growth was good, it also brought with it new problems and challenges. With no structure above the congregational leve, for example, the scattered groups of Sabbatarians became easy prey to fanatics and unauthorized preachers.

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Help us, Father, to learn to appreciate the value of structure in Your work, just as we do in our personal lives.
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