How Your Church Works
Part 3
Understanding its unity, structure, and authority
By Ted N. C. Wilson
This three-part series addresses how unity, structure, and authority work together for mission in the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. For the convenience of readers who may not have had opportunity to read Parts 1 and 2, we briefly summarize them below.—Editors.
God led in the establishment and organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although the movement began with a small group of believers who “searched for the truth as for hidden treasure,”1 it quickly grew to several thousand by the time the General Conference was officially organized in 1863. As the church continued growing, so did the church structure, with the goal that “order and harmonious action might be maintained.”2
The church’s organization was not quickly cobbled together, but was thoughtfully and prayerfully constructed, as God provided wisdom and guidance through Scripture and the prophetic gift.
Our church organization exists as a system of service, maintaining order and harmonious action as the church moves ahead in its God-given mission of proclaiming His truth as revealed in His Word for these last days. It is a representative system where no one leader, or group of leaders, dictates the policies, actions, and activities of the church.
Because each level of the church works in harmony with all other levels, initiatives may come from any level and are processed through committees. Sometimes initiatives begin at the grassroots level and become part of policy. Ours is a dynamic system. Every church member has a voice in this organization.
Importance of the Local Church
The role of the local church is absolutely crucial. It nurtures us, and helps in guarding our teaching and practice. A solid local church is key to the solid platform of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. If you have concerns, don’t just look to the General Conference, thinking, They’ll make sure everything’s OK. Fidelity to our message and mission begins at the local church. By God’s grace, participate in the life and mission of your home church.
One of your first responsibilities is to pray for your local church: your pastor, the locally elected leaders, and for your church’s mission outreach. Be part of the process and be active. Be involved. Keep in mind that it’s not just in public meetings where things can be influenced; it’s in personal meetings with key leaders. If you have a burden, talk with your pastor or head elder; talk to the Sabbath school superintendent; talk with those who are involved in making things happen.
Follow a careful, methodical line of approach. If you aren’t satisfied at one level, go to the next level. Everyone must be part of the process. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, at any level, is not a top-down authoritarian arrangement, where just a few people decide what’s going to happen.
As you talk, unburdening your heart in a simple, one-to-one setting, the Holy Spirit can help to influence a leader. Never think that an e-mail you send, or a simple conversation doesn’t have some effect on the person to whom you are speaking. I know they do. Many times the e-mails I receive and the personal conversations with others have an effect on me.
"The purpose for organization is given to us as a safeguard, so that no one person, or small group may have undue influence upon God’s church and its mission."
A Harmonious Whole
Work in a spirit of prayer, Bible study, and counsel from the Spirit of Prophecy. Remember that as much as possible, our church works on a consensus basis. There’s no reason we ought to set up sides and always fight each other; that’s not the way God wants the church to work. Sometimes we have to vote to find out how the entire group is lining up, but generally speaking, the best way to approach challenges is on our knees, in intense Bible study, asking the Holy Spirit to help us. Voting comes under God’s guidance when a decision has to be made. We use that system effectively within the church.
Some people may criticize the structure of the church as being duplicated at different levels and unnecessary in this age of flat administrative approaches.
When I served as president in the Euro-Asia Division, I saw the great value, as any division president will tell you, of our church organizational structure, where local problems are solved at the local conference level. Items of larger consequence are taken to a regional level—the union conference or union mission. Larger items are brought to the division, and sometimes passed on to the General Conference. Ultimately, questions of a global nature are taken to the General Conference session, where more than 2,000 church representatives from around the world discuss and vote on these questions.
We take this representative form of church governance very seriously, and are told that “when, in a General Conference [session], the judgment of the brethren assembled from all parts of the field is exercised, private independence and private judgment must not be stubbornly maintained, but surrendered. . . . God has ordained that the representatives of His church from all parts of the earth, when assembled in a General Conference [session], shall have authority. The error that some are in danger of committing is in giving to the mind and judgment of one man, or of a small group of men, the full measure of authority and influence that God has vested in His church in the judgment and voice of the General Conference assembled to plan for the prosperity and advancement of His work.”3
The purpose for organization is given to us as a safeguard, so that no one person or small group may have undue influence upon God’s church and its mission. It provides a way that all members may have a voice and influence in the mission of the church, so that “all things [may] be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40).
The Bible is replete with principles of interpersonal relationships, of organization, management, and instruction in carrying out God’s mission. Echoing this theme, most of the Spirit of Prophecy is counsel of how to carry out the mission of the church. As we come together, following God’s beautiful plan of organization and unity within His church, we will go forward united in finishing the mission He has given us to do. n
Ted N. C. Wilson is
president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
1 Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1923), p. 24.
2 Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. 92.
3 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), vol. 9, pp. 260, 261. (Italics supplied.)
