Departmental Organization.—There is close similarity in the various functions of the several units of organization making up the Seventh-day Adventist Church body. Throughout the entire system, from the local church to the General Conference, this similarity of activities is marked. In each organization is found the executive, the statistical or recording, the financial or treasury, section, the Sabbath school, educational, home missionary, and other departments, which, through their representatives and agents, supervise the various denominational endeavors.
Each church has its elder, who is its chief director, as is a president of a conference, a union conference, or the General Conference, each in his sphere. The church clerk, the local conference secretary, the union, division, and General Conference secretaries, operate in a similar capacity in their respective jurisdictions. Likewise, the treasury department is represented throughout the whole denominational plan. Money for the general work passes through the hands of the local church treasurer, goes to the conference, and on through the union, division, and General Conference financial treasurers.
The major promotional and inspirational departments which largely direct the work of the churches are also more or less completely represented in each organization. For example, missionary endeavor is fostered in the local church by the missionary secretary or librarian; in the local and union conference by the home missionary secretaries; and in the General Conference by the home missionary department, with assistants in the division fields.
Because the needs of all the departments are not immediately apparent, or because their interests are cared for in other ways, a few departments are not fully organized in all units of organization. Thus the religious liberty work, for example, does not usually have specific representation in the churches, although it may be adequately featured in the local, union, and General Conference organization. The Sabbath school, although strong in the church, local conference, and General Conference, does not have departmental organization in all the unions. The Negro work has departmental secretaries in the union and General Conference, but not in the local. The Medical Department, represented in the General Conference, is working toward its objective of having secretaries in all the local and union conferences, but has no definite organization in the local churches. Legal corporations in the churches are not favored and are few in number, but corporate associations for the holding of property, securing legacies, and caring for other legal aspects of the work are formed in many local and union conferences, in the General Conference, and in some of its divisions.
The executive, secretarial, and treasury sections handle the administrative phases of denominational work, while the Sabbath school, publishing, educational, and other phases, are considered departmental activities, without executive powers. In the General, union, and local conferences, and in the divisions, these departmental features are promotional and advisory, and the plans matured in departmental councils are put into effect in the institutions, conferences, and churches only after having been duly authorized by the responsible executive committees and boards.
The Sabbath school and the young people's Missionary Volunteer departments come to the fruition of their plans in the local churches. The publishing department, in cooperation with the publishing houses that prepare the literature, concentrate their effort to a considerable extent in developing the colporteur and organized literature work in the local conferences and the distributing depositories. The educational department activities, in addition to promotional features, are consistently employed in putting into effect the agreed plans and policies in every unit of the organization from the General Conference on through to the local constituency,—the medical college and seminary work fostered by the General Conference, the senior and junior colleges in the unions and divisions, the academies in the conferences, and the elementary church schools in the churches. The medical work is largely developed through sanitariums, hospitals, and dispensaries in local and union conferences and mission fields, and through various associations and agencies that foster the promotion and application of health principles for the benefit of church members and others who are in physical need.
In the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, the executive committee or board duly elected by each unit of organization constitutes the responsible authority of the conference or constituency while the full body is not in session. This committee or board has active direction of every function of that particular organization's work, and supervises its officers, departmental interests, and agents. No individual, without the sanction of his board, is empowered to transact business for the organization with which he is connected. Although expected to counsel over matters pertaining to the interests of the work in any part of the field, even the officers of the General Conference do not commit the General Conference to a line of action without securing the authorization or approval of their committee.
This system of committee or board control has been consistently developed throughout the various units of organization of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. The church has its board, consisting of the officers (elders, deacons, etc.) and others in charge of its different interests. A church board, however, is not vested with executive authority. The conference committee takes full responsibility for the development of the work in its territory, and the president and other officers as its agents direct its interests, under its supervision. In the union conference and the General Conference, with its divisions, the same principle holds. Institutions, representing the important branches of publishing, educational, and medical interests, have their governing boards, which are the final authority under their several constituencies.
This system of committee control, while at times seemingly slow and cumbersome, protects the individual officers as well as the interests of the cause, and follows the Bible injunction that "in the multitude of counselors there is safety." Thus, able committee work is the essence of effective administration.
Every line of executive and departmental work fits harmoniously into the denominational plan and bears its part in carrying the everlasting gospel "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people," that our Lord may soon return.