Organizational Refinements

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ORGANIZATIONAL

REFINEMENTS



In 1901 the General Conference had made several

substantial structural changes in an effort to ensure two

major reforms:

The decentralization of decision making,administrative responsibility, and direction of church work through the establishment of

union conferences,

The integration of a growing variety of churchprograms through activity departments

represented on conference executivecommittees at all levels.



DIVISIONAL ORGANIZATION AND V ICE

PRESIDENT

1903 the GC elected L.R. Condari as a second vice

president with the responsibility for the European field.

1909 the GC elected I.H. Evans to be the 3rd vice president

to supervise church activities in Asia.

1913 the leaders of the European branches urged the GC toorganize all the European unions into a new unit called a

division conference.

1918 GC voted to discontinue divisions organized with the

authority of conferences, but to retain the concept of

divisional organization. Church leaders also agreed to electsubtreasurers and assistant departmental secretaries for

each division, with these persons holding membership on

the General Conference Committee.



DIVISIONAL ORGANIZATION AND V ICE PRESIDENT

In the same year the GC provided vice presidents for

North America, South America, East Asia, andSouthern Asia. It·s only in 1919 they added an

African division.

Some problems came along, during the World War I

when a part of Europe was separated from the GC.Conradi was isolated, and had a degree of autonomy

that many church leaders thought it was harmful to

the unity of the denomination.

In 1920 L.H Christian became the associate vice

president for Europe. This arrangement ended in

1922 when Conradi became the field secretary for the

World Church and Christian became the vice

president for Europe.



DIVISIONAL ORGANIZATION AND V ICE PRESIDENT

1922 ² the 1918 plan was inserted in the

denomination·s constitution and bylaws.

The Inter-American Division was created

1928- Creation of 3 divisions in Europe:Northern, Central and Southern

European Divisions with each including

missions in the developing world, mainly

in Africa.



1901-1922 Daniells led the General Conferenceas President. He was clear thinking, consistent,and won the confidence of thousands of Adventists around the world. But as a human, he

made mistakes and was rebuked by Ellen Whitewhich he accepted gracefully. But many leadersin the church chafed under him and wanted achange.

He was changed in 1922 by Spicer, and he was

hurt by that decision, but he was concerned morewith the future of the church than with his ownfeelings. He continued serving in the GC as thesecretary until 1926.

THE D ANIELLS AND SPICER

PRESIDENCIES



THE D ANIELLS AND SPICER PRESIDENCIES

1922-1930 W.A Spicer was firstserving as the GC Secretary then hebecame the President in 1922. He wasreluctant at first, but he agreed to

this new call to duty. He was similarto Daniells in his commitment tomissions, his consistency, and hiswillingness to travel widely. Hishumility endeared him to the church.Him and Daniells complemented eachother well. He retired at the age of 65because he felt that a younger mancould better carry the heavyresponsibilities of the office





GENERAL CONFERENCE DEPARTMENTS

* Education Department

Adventists were operating schools from

elementary through College at that time. The

leaders were Dr. Kellogg and W.W. Prescottare chairmen, and 3 other men responsible for its

promotion and area of interests: Frederick

Griggs, H.R. Salisbury, and W.E Howell.

Christian Education later Home and School

was a journal published at that time by the

department as a distinctive Adventist textbook.




*Home Commission

Personnel from Education, Sabbath school, Home

missionary, Medical, Young People·s Dept were

involved in developing the Commission but thedriving force was A.W. Spalding. In

collaboration with Dr. Belle Wood-Comstock,

he prepared the five- volume ´ Christian Home

Seriesµ . It functions until 1941 before changing

its name to Parent and Home Education Department.




* Young People·s Missionary Volunteer

Founded in 1907 with the early convention which

spelled out 3 aims: to develop devotional life,

missionary endeavor and educational activities.It was led by M. E. Kern. T he Youth

Instructor , was its official magazine.




*North American Foreign Dept

and North American Negro

Dept.

The North American Foreign Deptwas founded in 1905 and had O.

A. Olsen as its secretary.

The North American N e gro Dept,

was set up in 1909. Its first black

secretary was William H. Green

in 1918. After his death at the age

of 57, G. E. Peters replaced him,

followed by Frank L. Peterson.




*Sabbath School Dept

Its goal was ´every church member a

Sabbath school memberµ and its

motto was ´the Church at studyµ.1922 two basic series (one for adults

and adapted version for youth and

the second for younger children)

were available. The leading force

was L. Flora who joined the Dept in1901 as corresponding secretary and

held the post of dept secretary from

1913-1936.



S YSTEMATIC FUNDING OF A GLOBAL WORK

Membership increases and an expanding

world mission program called for a

systematic plan for church revenues and

their distribution. In 1912 the 13th

Sabbath offering was born. The 1st

offering ($7,700) went to India. In 1919 J.

N. Loughborough advocated that adults

should also bring birthday and thankoffering as Ellen has commented about

children earlier.




1922 Flora Plummer organized the 1st

´Investmentµ plan and the first inMichigan. After 1918, one program for

fund-raising developed almost by accidentknown as ´Harvest Ingatheringµ whichwas shortened to Ingathering after 1940.Its founder was Jasper Wayne.

1908 the GC endorsed Wayne·s plan anddesignated the last week in November forsuch program.




1913- Denomination·s workers were given

an allowance called ´living wageµ

1911- a pension fund for aged or

physically incapacitated church employees

was set aside.



ORGANIZATION IN RETROSPECT

Initial organizational reform in 1901

and subsequent refinements

demonstrated that the church hadbuilt an elastic administrative

system that could expand, shrink, or

bend to meet the needs of a growing

church. Decentralization was part of the motivation for reform, but

centralization was also at work.

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