21st General Conference Session
A number of recommendations from the temporary Medical Committee were considered by the session, including the following:
A Health Correspondence Course consisting of 12 lessons has been prepared, and it was agreed to forward this to the incoming Publications/Review Committee for approval and publishing.
The decision for permanent Regional Health Committees to be established in every region to oversee the medical missionary work was well received.
A decision was also made to provide educational materials on:
• Nutrition (providing information on the proper use of fats and oils, carbohydrates, calorie intake, omega 3 and vitamin B12 intake, and the detrimental effects of consuming soft drinks such as Coca Cola, coffee, and teas containing stimulants).
• Diseases (including information and health instruction regarding modern diseases which affect our church members such as arthritis, diabetes, stress, high cholesterol, and obesity).
• Electronic devices (including information regarding the health risks associated with the use of mobile phones and electronic devices on the body; as well as those associated with the use of TV, the Internet, and computer games).
• Lifestyle (the health risks involved in practicing poor sleeping habits, lack of regular exercise, living a sedentary lifestyle, and the wearing of high-heeled footwear).
All of our Missionary Schools are now to include some theoretical and practical training in medical missionary work within their compulsory curriculum and in the training of missionaries. This is in harmony with the following counsel: “I wish to tell you that soon there will be no work done in ministerial lines but medical missionary work.”1
It was also decided that suitably trained personnel within each region be selected to run training seminars for the ministers and workers of the region in the area of medical missionary work. “In new fields no work is so successful as medical missionary work. If our ministers would work earnestly to obtain an education in medical missionary lines, they would be far better fitted to do the work Christ did as a medical missionary.”2
In addition to the selection of regional trainers, it was decided that every union and General Conference Unit elect local medical missionary department officers to lead out in the medical missionary work within its units, and that each union/General Conference Unit should send its medical missionary reports regularly to the GC Medical Missionary Department.
The servant of the Lord has told us: “I wish to say that the medical missionary work is God’s work. The Lord wants every one of His ministers to come into line. Take hold of the medical missionary work, and it will give you access to the people. Their hearts will be touched as you minister to their necessities. As you relieve their sufferings, you will find opportunity to speak to them of the love of Jesus.”3
After considering the successful medical outreach programs conducted in the previous term, it was decided that medical teams continue to be organized to visit needy areas in order to conduct medical missionary outreach programs.
The temporary Medical Committee also presented its recommendations on IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatments and the health issues associated with various birth control methods. These recommendations have been forwarded to the incoming Doctrinal Committee for further consideration from an ethical perspective.
An appeal was also made for the support of the sanatoriums in Brazil and Romania.
As a result of the Plans Committee report, the following decisions were made:
• A Music subcommittee, functioning under the Youth Department, is to be created and charged with the task of preparing guideline materials that will be sent to all units of the General Conference.
• The Missionary Department should consider expanding evangelistic missionary projects in developing countries, as well as to focus missionary efforts in unreached areas for the salvation of souls.
• The preparation of suitable evangelistic materials, including Bible Study Guides, PowerPoint Presentations, and video materials such as “Treasures of Truth,” was given to the incoming Missionary Department Committee to implement them.
• It was agreed that in order to involve and empower lay members to do missionary work, every local church should organize small missionary teams.
The delegates considered further recommendations from the Finance Committee and Plans Committee. The main decisions included the following:
• It was clarified that a “new mission” should be self-supporting within a six-year period from the time of its initial development. In an effort to encourage the financial independence of new missions, the General Conference administration will assist these missions with the design and implementation of income-generating projects. The Stewardship Department will be responsible to raise welfare seed funds for these projects.
• The Sabbath School Department was urged to dedicate at least one quarterly during each four-year term of the Sabbath Bible Lessons to the subject of missionary work.
• The four-year cycles of Sabbath School lessons for teenagers (13–16) and juniors (9–12), which have some lessons still to be published for each cycle, are to be completed as soon as possible.
• The importance of the welfare work was recognized by the delegates, and a decision was taken that in order for the welfare work to function more efficiently and to be better organized, the GC Stewardship/Welfare Department will provide the necessary orientation and support to each unit in order to have this work registered wherever this department is not yet recognized by the government.
It was resolved that the ministry of the church take a firm position regarding the various aspects of worldliness in the areas of health, dress, and Sabbath reform as stated in our existing resolutions. We need to clearly implement the disciplinary process as found in Matthew 18:15–18 with the purpose of rescuing these souls from peril. This work is to begin with the ministers (Hosea 4:9; Proverbs 27:23; Evangelism, p. 272:1). We need to understand that personal ideas that are not clearly stated in the existing resolutions are not to be promoted by any worker.
The following work needs to be done:
• The most important work is that of self-examination, first for the ministry and then of the membership at large (2 Corinthians 13:5).
• Each minister needs to understand the principles found in Matthew 18 regarding the personal labor for souls in sacrificing his own self-dignity and even laying down his life for the salvation of the souls he is working with (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, pp. 128, 129). Individual ministers should not contact those in leadership roles for assistance until they have done their personal labor.
• There is further need to educate the churches at large to understand the clear biblical reasons underlying the principles of our church regarding the beliefs as found in the existing resolutions. The work of educating the churches must be combined with the presentation of the messages from the book of Revelation in connection with Christ as our personal Savior. “If our people were half awake, if they realized the nearness of the events portrayed in the Revelation, a reformation would be wrought in our churches, and many more would believe the message. . . . But whatever phase of the subject is presented, uplift Jesus as the center of all hope, ‘the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright and morning Star’(Revelation 22:16).”4
• The only way to succeed in the work of reformation is that each member must understand his or her need of a Saviour. “Before there could be any permanent reformation the people must be led to feel their utter inability in themselves to render obedience to God. They had broken His law, it condemned them as transgressors, and it provided no way of escape. While they trusted in their own strength and righteousness, it was impossible for them to secure the pardon of their sins; they could not meet the claims of God’s perfect law, and it was in vain that they pledged themselves to serve God. It was only by faith in Christ that they could secure pardon of sin and receive strength to obey God’s law. They must cease to rely upon their own efforts for salvation, they must trust wholly in the merits of the promised Saviour, if they would be accepted of God.”5
• After working with souls for a sufficient time, “All exhibitions of pride in dress, which is forbidden in the word of God, should be sufficient reason for church discipline.”6 This applies to all areas of worldliness, including intemperance in working, eating, drinking, dressing, and sleeping.7
• The workers and ministers who do not produce the fruit of their labors within twelve months need to evaluate their calling. “To those whom He calls to the work of the ministry, the Lord will give tact and skill and understanding. If after laboring for twelve months in evangelistic work, a man has no fruit to show for his efforts, if the people for whom he has labored are not benefited, if he has not lifted the standard in new places, and no souls are converted by his labors, that man should humble his heart before God, and endeavor to know if he has not mistaken his calling. The wages paid by the conference should be given to those who show fruit for their labor.”8
• “Jesus is coming; and will He find a people conformed to the world? and will He acknowledge these as His people that He has purified unto Himself? Oh, no. None but the pure and holy will He acknowledge as His. Those who have been purified and made white through suffering, and have kept themselves separate, unspotted from the world, He will own as His.”9 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).