The plan of God for His church, as revealed in Ephesians 4:1–16, demands a general coordination, an international and worldwide interdependence. The church is compared to a human body. There is no room for the idea that in every place or in every country the believers should be left to develop the work on a local basis, to the best of their ability, without any connection with other parts of the world. Those who have tried to organize and conduct an independent work, excusing themselves with the argument that they do not want to be controlled and exploited by other people, are usually found doing the very things they purport to be fighting against. Contrary to their opinion, their own experience should prove to them that organizational and administrative oneness is as important for the church as it is for an army in the battlefield. This is one of the reasons why we must have periodical gatherings at every level of the work—local church business meetings, state conference sessions, union conference sessions, and General Conference sessions. General Conference sessions are held for different purposes:

When Paul and Barnabas and other church leaders came to Jerusalem for the first general assembly for consultation and decision on an important issue which was threatening to divide the church, “they declared all things that God had done with them” (Acts 15:4). First of all, the delegates at a conference want to hear official reports about the development of the work.

Keeping accurate records and giving systematic reports is a well-established practice. The local churches send their reports to the state conference, the state conferences submit their reports to the union conference, and the union conferences forward their reports to the General Conference. Also the regional secretaries and GC departmental secretaries send their reports to the GC office and to the GC Council on a regular basis. When a GC session is near, the GC officers prepare their reports covering a four-year period, from the last conference to the forthcoming conference. In this line, the GC secretary seems to have the hardest job, because he must present a global statistical report including all the unions, fields, and missions. This report must show, not only the present membership, but also the number of new souls added since the previous session, as well as any decreases in membership resulting from death or apostasy. The number of ministers, workers, colporteurs, and church employees, as well as church properties and institutions, must also be reported to the GC delegation in session. This shows how important it is for the unions, fields, and missions to send in their quarterly reports regularly.

The first general assembly held at Jerusalem (a.d. 51) contains a lesson combined with a warning. “Not all . . . were pleased with the decision [of the Council]; there was a faction of ambitious and self-confident brethren who disagreed with it. These men assumed to engage in the work on their own responsibility. They indulged in much murmuring and faultfinding, proposing new plans and seeking to pull down the work of the men whom God had ordained to teach the gospel message.”1

Their teaching to those converted from among the Gentiles was: “Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved’ (Acts 15:1).

Indeed, there have always been some discordant believers in the church. Even today there may be some who, out of some nonessential burden, want to formulate an additional test of fellowship and point of salvation; who consider as apostatized those who do not support their personal views; who put their own conclusions above the decisions of the general council of believers. “From the first the church has had such obstacles to meet and ever will have till the close of time.”2 Let us heed the warning.

“The word of God does not give license for one man to set up his judgment in opposition to the judgment of the church, neither is he allowed to urge his opinions against the opinions of the church. If there were no church discipline and government, the church would go to fragments; it could not hold together as a body. There have ever been individuals of independent minds who have claimed that they were right, that God had especially taught, impressed, and led them. Each has a theory of his own, views peculiar to himself, and each claims that his views are in accordance with the word of God.”3

“In the church at Antioch the consideration of the question of circumcision resulted in much discussion and contention. Finally, the members of the church, fearing that a division among them would be the outcome of continued discussion, decided to send Paul and Barnabas, with some responsible men from the church, to Jerusalem to lay the matter before the apostles and elders. There they were to meet delegates from the different churches. . . . Meanwhile all controversy was to cease until a final decision should be given in general council. This decision was then to be universally accepted by the different churches throughout the country.”4

“The broad and far-reaching decisions of the general council brought confidence into the ranks of the Gentile believers, and the cause of God prospered.”5

“When dissension arose in a local church, . . . and the believers were unable to come to an agreement among themselves, such matters were not permitted to create a division in the church, but were referred to a general council of the entire body of believers, made up of appointed delegates from the various local churches, with the apostles and elders in positions of leading responsibility. Thus the efforts of Satan to attack the church in isolated places were met by concerted action on the part of all…. [God] requires that order and system be observed in the conduct of church affairs today no less than in the days of old. He desires His work to be carried forward with thoroughness and exactness so that He may place upon it the seal of His approval. Christian is to be united with Christian, church with church, the human instrumentality cooperating with the divine, every agency subordinate to the Holy Spirit, and all combined in giving to the world the good tidings of the grace of God.”6

In spite of the widespread availability of the Bible, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the Principles of Faith and Church Order based upon them, old and new questions are always coming up. Easy matters can be settled together among the members of a local church with the help of the minister. Other matters may require the help of the state conference or union conference. Matters that cannot be solved by the union conference are referred to the General Conference office during the quadrennium, and from there they may be sent on to the Ministerial Working Committee, the Doctrinal Council, or the GC Council. In many cases, questions can be answered straight from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. Others can be addressed according to the way these inspired writings have led in our previous GC decisions. Delegates do not bring questions directly to the GC session; the union conferences and those fields and missions directly attached to the GC send in all their questions well in advance. This is the only way to ensure that any point which should rightfully be considered at the GC delegation in session will indeed go to the session.

Certain subjects may be brought up before the GC delegation in session, not because the elected GC Committees or Councils do not have the answer, but because all the unions, fields, and missions must necessarily be involved, sharing responsibility in whatever solution may be adopted.

The apostle Paul says that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning” (Romans 15:4). Therefore, we should learn lessons also from the yearly gatherings of Israel.

“At these yearly assemblies the hearts of old and young would be encouraged in the service of God, while the association of the people from the different quarters of the land would strengthen the ties that bound them to God and to one another. Well would it be for the people of God at the present time to have a Feast of Tabernacles—a joyous commemoration of the blessings of God to them. . . . We sustain a loss when we neglect the privilege of associating together to strengthen and encourage one another in the service of God. The truths of His word lose their vividness and importance in our minds. Our hearts cease to be enlightened and aroused by the sanctifying influence, and we decline in spirituality. In our intercourse as Christians we lose much by lack of sympathy with one another. He who shuts himself up to himself is not filling the position that God designed he should. We are all children of one Father, dependent upon one another for happiness. The claims of God and of humanity are upon us. It is the proper cultivation of the social elements of our nature that brings us into sympathy with our brethren and affords us happiness in our efforts to bless others.”7

“The greater the responsibilities placed upon the human agent, and the larger his opportunities to dictate and control, the more harm he is sure to do if he does not carefully follow the way of the Lord and labor in harmony with the decisions arrived at by the general body of believers in united council.”8

A General Conference delegation session is the most appropriate time and place for the representatives of the church to acquaint one another with the problems, needs, and possibilities existing in each area. This enables them to adopt both local and general plans for the advancement of the work and to secure mutual cooperation.

“God has not set any kingly power in the Seventh-day Adventist Church to control the whole body or to control any branch of the work. He has not provided that the burden of leadership shall rest upon a few men. Responsibilities are distributed among a large number of competent men.

“Every member of the church has a voice in choosing officers of the church. The church chooses the officers of the state conferences. Delegates chosen by the state conferences choose the officers of the union conferences and delegates chosen by the union conferences choose the officers of the General Conference.”9

The choosing of a place for a GC delegation session is not an easy matter. A final decision can be made by the GC Council, and the place can be announced worldwide, only after the Council has found answers to a number of questions, such as: where and who?

The GC Council suggests one, two, or three tentative areas—for example, Europe, North America, South America—and asks which union or field would be willing and able to host the delegation. No union or field will extend an invitation without first considering: whether they can secure a suitable place (we repeat: a suitable place) for the session well in advance; whether they can obtain competent personnel and organize adequate services to handle the delegation for three weeks; whether they can finance the cost (food, lodging, and local transportation). Of course, the neighboring unions and fields are expected to help. While, on the one hand, these unions and fields incur heavy expenses with the entertaining of a GC delegation session, on the other hand they save a considerable amount of money by not having to buy expensive airline tickets for their delegates.

The union or field serving as a host may overlook certain questions which may be important to the GC Council and to the delegates in general. For example: What will be the total cost of transportation for the delegation—if the session is held in Nortn America? In South America? Are visas required, and how troublesome and expensive is it to obtain these visas? Are there easy telephone connections to and from the place of the conference? How are the postal services of the country in question? How about its political and economic stability? These and other questions come up when the prospective place of a forthcoming GC session is under discussion.

When preparations are made for the holding of a GC session, much more than human wisdom, technical arrangements, and personal experience are needed. At every step the plans for such a session are placed before the Lord in prayer. And when the circular letter announcing the place and time of the conference is sent out, many of our brethren and sisters are requested to mention this important event every day in their prayers, entreating the Lord to bless the preparations, to protect the delegates on their trip there and back, and to take the work of the delegation into His own hands, so that everything may be done according to His will.

“It is now that we are to learn this lesson of prevailing prayer, of unyielding faith. The greatest victories of the church of Christ or to the individual Christian are not those that are gained by talent or education, by wealth or the favor of men. They are those victories that are gained in the audience chamber with God, when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power.”10