What the General Conference Session Meant to Me

Each General Conference session is a dem­onstration to a wrangling, power-obsessed world that it is possible for men from all na­tions to be united on the basis of belief in the Bible, without loss of individuality or loss of freedom of -choice—two of God's most sacred gifts to mankind.

The General Conference session is beyond value to the Bible instructor, the minister, the layman, and those in administrative positions.

Often the Bible instructor is able to meet with only a few hundred Adventists, and this may be but once a year. Human nature is much the same under any skin color, and personal work is not easy anywhere. However, at the General Conference one can look into the faces of thousands and thousands of Adventists and realize that each one is there only because some­one, somewhere, at some time did personal work for him. Maybe a Bible instructor, a min­ister, a teacher, a parent, or an over-the-fence neighbor was the drawing influence. But per­sonal work was necessary. What worker could fail to be stimulated and encouraged to con­tinue in this great system of religious "math­ematics" where every addition is an inexpress­ible joy and every subtraction a lasting sorrow?

What an encouragement, too, are the reports heard at the session of successful work on the part of persevering laymen. Here they find a reassurance of their understanding that world evangelism is teamwork in the fullest sense.

Here is evidence of sound support for the min­istry—thousands doing their witnessing and not saying: "Let the ministry do the soul winning. Why not? We pay them to do it. I'm busy with my accounts, my garden, or my chickens." Here is evidence that God's Holy Spirit is active, as promised in Joel, and that Sister White penned real truth concerning the soul-stirring power of simple messages and plainly stated texts from hearts glowing with a love for Jesus. We also see evidence that men and women are in train­ing for God though college campuses may never have felt their feet. This can only soundly and vigorously build up the number of qualified and skillful soul winners throughout the de­nomination. Here is the solution to cutting the working time short in order to meet the dead­line of world destiny.

Before one attends the General Conference the world divisions are lines traced on maps, reports in the church papers, and pleas in the Missions Quarterly, but once one has seen the leaders and talked with some of the workers a different relationship is established. One shares in their hopes and plans, their problems, their personal experiences. They show slides and films of their work, maybe of their families, and the link of mere lines, facts, and figures is replaced by warmer, stronger links of faces, shared prayers, and sympathies.

After the session a number of the delegates went touring together, visiting the homes of the pioneers, the early churches, and the institu­tions to be found in the New England and New York States. While on the tour, a pastor from Vietnam shared with us his experiences, his joys, his sorrows, his dangers as pastor of six churches. He showed us slides of his country, and Vietnam became "alive" to us instead of just letters and colors on map paper, and in our prayers we can now pray specifically for him, his dear wife, and his family. We can pray for the work in that country with more understanding, for now we know what it means to be a Seventh-day Adventist there. Also on the tour was a brother from Korea who is lead­ing out in orphanage work. A film showed us the children under his care, he himself check­ing their progress and encouraging them in the Lord. Now we can pray for the work in Korea with more understanding, and remember this brother particularly.

This very tour, run by the White Publica­tions is an anvil on which other links are formed. One can gain an excellent knowledge of the history of our movement from the de­tailed books carefully written by those who be­lieve "that he who knows no history is as a fly buzzing on the window pane," yet no book can form the link with the yesterdays of Ad­ventism as can a visit to the sites of the coun­cils and revelations of the pioneers. One could not help feeling that he knew William Miller better after having walked over the veranda on which he sat on that day of disappointment, after standing in the room where so many of the Advent truths dawned upon his mind as he studied and prayed, or after walking in the maple grove where he made his decision to preach if approached. As one stands out on the "ascension" rock a few yards from the grove, one catches a fellow feeling with the Advent­ists who so longingly traced the changing pat­tern of the sky, looking for a small white cloud of unusual significance. As we stood there for prayer a message seemed to ring down to us: "Behold, I come quickly."

As one stands on the ruins of the approach to the bridge over the river at Fairhaven one can almost hear the echo of Joseph Bates's reply: "The news is that the seventh day is the Sabbath." We catch anew the importance of making that answer echo not only across Fair­haven but to the uttermost fringes of civiliza­tion.

From the writings of and about Ellen G. White one forms a link with this friendly, dedi­cated woman, but what can bring deeper realiza­tion of her sacred calling than to stand by the bed where she was often awakened by an angel to hear the messages of Heaven. To stand where angel feet have rested awakens emotions and brings impressions one does not forget. Cer­tainly these places are visited other than at General Conference times. Yet at no other time are they so much the focus of attention.

Who can forget J. N. Andrews at the time of the mission pageant in the arena? Who can forget J. N. Loughborough when the evangelists report? Was he not the first one to hold a Seventh-day Adventist tent meeting and preach on Daniel 2, on June 10, 1854? Was he not also the first one to open up the work in the West? How thrilled he would be if he could see thousands of Adventists from the Western States gathered at the session. Who can forget Hiram Edson when the solemn warnings of the investigative judgment are sounded to a last people in the last portion of time?

At the General Conference session one reaches the pinnacles in the feeling of belonging, in assurance that we are following Heaven-appointed torch bearers, doing God's work in lifting up the hearts and heads of those caught in sorrowful or low contemplations, and filling their hands with work that will bring a sense of fulfillment.

Because of personal contact, interest in the movement as a whole receives tremendous impetus, appreciation of problems facing the de­nominational field expands, rejoicing at de­nominational triumphs is enlivened and en­riched, and it is easier to talk convincingly about the quality work we do.

Here at the General Conference is an unparalleled opportunity to inspire young men and women to enter the branch of the work of God for which they are most fitted. I feel that more use could have been made of this period to inspire young women to become Bible in­structors. Unless this calling is kept before them, many young women will not be stirred and will be inclined to think it a back-room appointment of not too much importance.

The General Conference is the place to be inspired by men and women who have more interest in messages than in missiles, in prayer than politics, in helping others to distinguish between earthly wants and heavenly needs-men and women who are more interested in baptismal figures than finance.