Tension and harmony, debate and consensus, discord and melody, strong words and soft words, marked the fifty-fourth session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Just as the Bible comprises human and divine elements, a General Conference session exhibits both. Only a divine miracle enables so many diverse groups and cultures to work together with such unity.

The divine was evident from the start. In his opening address, President Neal C. Wilson reviewed how God has blessed this church. At the time of the 1909 General Conference, there were fewer than 100,000 Adventists in all the world. Now church membership stands in excess of 4-5 million. Tithe receipts for the year 1909 totaled approximately $1 million. Today they exceed $400 million. Then Wilson asked perhaps the most critical question of the whole session: Is the spiritual power of the church greater than it was in 1909? Have we been more faithful in addressing ourselves to the challenge of evangelizing the cities?

He continued: "From night to night you will be hearing the expanded story. You will be reading chapters from the modern book of Chronicles and the twentieth-century book of Acts. When you hear these reports and see these stones, you should tell your children and everyone you meet how the Lord has led His people during these past five years and how He has dried up turbulent waters and helped us to overcome the obstacles put in the way by Satan. The greatest days of soul winning are just ahead. I believe this fifty-fourth General Conference session will place us in a relationship with our Lord and with one another so that the Holy Spirit working through us can fill the earth with the glory of God. "

With this introduction, the General Conference session got under way. Spend a few minutes with us on the floor of the Superdome and listen to the cut and thrust of the discussion. In many ways there is more freedom to debate at a General Conference session than at a local church business meeting. At this session much of the interaction between delegates reminded us of the Jerusalem council described in Acts 15.

Role and Function report

The major document to come before the delegates was the recommendation from the 1984 Annual Council concerning the Role and Function Com mission report on church structure. Discussion of this document occupied five of the General Conference's fifteen business sessions, beginning Friday afternoon and concluding Monday afternoon.

Here is a taste of the questions from the floor and the response from the chairman. In this case Elder Francis Wernick was answering questions, since he had chaired the commission that prepared the report.

Section I of the document is titled "Preserving the Unity of Church and Message." It names eleven points as essential for unity, point number five being "faithful obedience [modified by vote to "adherence"] to the Church Manual, applicable throughout the world." A delegate asked whether number five was now a test of fellowship. Wernick replied No, but that it was a test for leaders. Those who lead the church should be willing to follow and uphold its policies.

The delegates voted on the report section by section. Most sections quickly received a majority vote, but so few of the delegates were voting that Elder Wilson interrupted the process. He said that this was one of the most significant documents to come before a General Conference and he wanted the delegates to give it serious consideration, taking several days to discuss it if necessary. He wanted the church to be united when they were finished.

The first major discussion came on a seemingly insignificant point. One of the General Conference's functions is to prepare the various Sabbath school lessons. Twenty minutes of debate resulted in a motion that the General Conference should prepare only out lines, leaving the divisions to prepare the content. This motion was eventually defeated.

One phrase of the report evoked some heated discussion: "from everywhere to everywhere. " A number of the African delegation felt that this was inaccurate. The church sends Americans to Africa, but not many African workers to America. Some of the delegates added that many of the missionaries sent are unsuitable for that work, and they felt that higher levels of the organization did not want to allow Africans more authority.

Wilson's answer came with consider able tact. He said that the General Conference tries to screen people very carefully before sending them overseas. It now uses personality testing in selecting mission appointees and provides them with comprehensive instruction as to how to work in various cultures. All mission appointees must attend the Institute of World Mission conducted by Andrews University. Wilson agreed that the General Conference has been embarrassed by people who did not fit into a different culture. At times local people could have done a better job. His gracious reply calmed the troubled waters.

The section stating that our church administrative structures were to follow the committee rather than the presidential system was voted without comment. Section IV, B, 2, b brought the most debate, heated at times. This section mandates combining the Lay Activities, Sabbath School, Stewardship and Development, and Youth departments and the Home and Family Service into one "Church Ministries" department. Delegate after delegate from the Eastern Africa Division rose to speak against this proposal, and Inter-American Division delegates soon added their objections.

One delegate stated that he opposed the proposal because the present system worked well at the local church level. Wemick responded that the proposed change would extend only from the General Conference through the local conference levels. The local church would not be changed.

Another delegate moved to refer the whole report for further study. Wilson urged that this motion be voted down, and it was defeated.

Father and son disagree

During this debate an interesting exchange occurred between Neal Wilson and his son Ted, who serves in the Africa-Indian Ocean Division. Ted rose to speak against the proposed combination of departments. He observed that in Africa the current arrangement functioned very well and did not need to be changed. And he said he feared the consolidation might stifle creativity.

A few minutes later his father responded by saying, "Fellow delegates, you can see that my son and I do not always agree. He is simply following a Wilson tradition. My father and I also disagreed at times." [His father had served as vice president for the North American Division.] "However," Wilson continued, "time shows that the father is usually correct." This brought the house down!

Some of those speaking to the Role and Function report sounded as if they planned to preach until midnight. One speaker after another droned on until one of the editors of MINISTRY leaned over to a delegate standing at the microphone and said, "If you want to be the most popular man at this session today, please move to limit speaking to one minute."

The good brother moved this suggestion, it was overwhelmingly approved, and business really speeded up. Speeches became crisp and to the point. Some fried to extend their time, but the chairman now had a control that he exercised freely over the debate.

An exchange between Wernick and Elder Howard Rampton, the retiring chairman of the Sabbath School Department, reveals the intensity of the debate this proposal engendered. And it shows the human and divine elements that characterized this session.

Rampton argued that combining the departments would lead to Congregationalism. He agreed that there was need for greater coordination between the departments, but combining them would make that coordination more difficult to achieve, not easier. It would not be possible to wholly eliminate overlapping.

He pointed to the recent merger of the Health and Temperance departments, saying that in his opinion it has not worked well—it hasn't saved money. He then moved that a secret ballot be taken on this section.

Wernick replied that Rampton was incorrect on the Health-Temperance merger. He had chaired the committee that worked on the merger, and things had gone very well. A few minutes later Wemick was back at the microphone, apologizing to Rampton for the tone in which he had responded to him. He still felt that Rampton was incorrect on the Health-Temperence merger, but he wanted the delegates to know that he had the highest regard for Rampton's Christian character. A little of the human had shown through, as it once did between Paul and Barnabas, but the divine had ultimately won out. Throughout the General Conference session, floor debates that looked like they might lead to acrimony always ended like this one, in conciliation.

Gradually the tide began to turn. Delegates from North America and other divisions began to speak in favor of this proposal. When the vote was finally taken, it passed with a more than two to one—some thought a three to one— majority. And late on Monday afternoon the whole report was voted with only some editorial changes.

Business proceedings

At intervals reports from the nominating committee punctuated the business sessions. These reports were noted for their tedium. There were, however, two notable exceptions. When the delegates were voting on the vice presidents, several of the East African brethren asked for more black representation. They presented their request so force fully that Wilson himself responded, saying that they would indeed be getting their representation. Subsequently an African was elected president of the Africa-Indian Ocean Division, and another was elected to serve as a general field secretary.

During another nominating commit tee report, Lenard D. Jaecks, secretary of the Washington Conference, requested that a sentence or two of background information on each individual nominated be given. For some reason, this request was ignored. It was strange to see the delegates passively voting into office individuals about whom they knew nothing. On the division level this could be more readily understood, as representatives of the delegates from each division recommended their own leaders. But surely the delegates ought to know something concerning the people they are electing to serve on the General Conference staff in Washington.

In general, the discussion moved along well, but there was confusion at times as to what parliamentary procedures were being followed. In reply to a question from the floor, Wernick stated that the session did not follow Robert's Rules of Order. At times the chairman seemed to make up the rules as he went along. In such a large assembly, tremendous power resides in the chair if the rules are not clear to everyone.

One close vote highlighted the lack of clear rules. Elder John Stevens from the Pacific Union wanted to delete the term hospitals from a list of institutions that a proposed Church Manual amendment named as fulfilling a major role in the mission of the church. He suggested that hospitals be listed in another section as "assisting" in the church's mission. When he moved this and the vote was taken, the show of hands for and against was so even that the chairman did not know how to call it.

For several minutes confusion reigned as those conducting the session sought a way out of the dilemma. Eventually they had the delegates vote by standing. They appointed several people to walk up and down the rows, counting the votes. With almost two thousand voters, that was quite a task. Because the end of that session was upon them, they had to interrupt the proceedings to receive the nominating committee report. The matter was not resolved until the next session, when the delegates voted the amendment down. The delegates then passed a motion requesting the General Conference Committee "to compile and publish rules of procedure to be followed in conducting the business meetings of a General Conference session." They also voted a motion requesting the General Conference Committee "to consider the possibility and practicability of appointing a parliamentarian for the business meetings of future General Conference sessions."

On one occasion the delegates exercised their power from the floor, A proposed revision in the General Conference constitution would have brought a major change in the way church officials would determine the number of delegates each field could send to a future General Conference session.

Under the old system "each local conference or local mission directly attached to divisions or to the General Conference, as has been or shall be properly organized and accepted by vote of the General Conference in session, shall be entitled to one delegate without regard to number, and an additional delegate for each 4,300, or major fraction thereof, of the membership of the local conference or mission."

The problem was that under this system the continual growth of the church meant a continual and ever increasing number of delegates and a corresponding rise in expenses for each General Conference session. Previous General Conference sessions had dealt with this simply by voting a change in the membership figure entitling a field to a delegate (e.g., from 4,000 to 4,300 between 1980 and 1985). This, how ever, was always a temporary solution and required changing this part of the constitution with every session.

The proposed change was an attempt to deal with the problem once and for all. It set a cap on the total number of delegates to General Conference sessions. Each field would still automatically be entitled to one delegate, but its portion of the remaining delegates would be determined by membership. Thus while a field's total number of delegates might decrease, its proportional representation would remain the same (if their membership kept pace with overall church growth).

The proposed change read: "Each union conference, union mission, and attached field described in Section 5a and 5b shall be entitled to additional delegates based upon its proportion of the world church membership. The total delegates under this provision shall not exceed 1,000" (this wording to replace the "an additional delegate for each 4,300, or major fraction thereof).

This proposal brought spirited resistance from the floor, to the extent that it was referred back to committee. When it came back to the floor the old provisions had reappeared and the proposed change was gone. Again the membership figure was simply increased, the new figure being 5,000 instead of 4,300. This question will not disappear as the church continues to grow, if for no other reason than because of the great expense of bringing people together from all parts of the globe. 

Neal Wilson's statesmanship was nowhere more evident than at the close of the last business meeting of the session. When 4:00 P.M. arrived, the delegates were to begin discussing the union and conference model constitutions the General Conference officers were proposing. If these models were accepted, unions and conferences would be expected to adhere very closely to them. Wilson made two points: one, the Sabbath would soon begin; and two, not enough time remained to debate these items adequately. Fifteen microphones were scattered through the delegate section, making it possible for the delegates to discuss the items brought before them. People had lined up behind all fifteen when this item came up. Obviously this would be no short session.

Wilson said this item afforded tremendous potential for friction and dissension, and he did not want to end a General Conference session on a discordant note or go into the Sabbath hours with tempers frayed. So he recommended that the delegates table this proposal until the 1990 General Conference. In the meantime these constitutions would be circulated to all divisions, unions, and conferences for discussion and input. There was a collective sigh of relief from the delegates; they immediately seconded and voted Wilson's suggestion.

Sabbath highlights

The two Sabbaths were high points for delegates and guests alike. On the first the newly reelected secretary of the General Conference, G. Ralph Thompson, preached a vigorous sermon entitled "The Hour and the End." One of his illustrations stands out: During World War II, Col. Warren J. dear's superior officer asked him to leave Corregidor just before it fell. He was to board a submarine at midnight. His orders included these words: "Be ready to go aboard. No persona! baggage." Thompson drew out the point—when we embark for heaven we can bring no personal baggage, only the righteousness of Christ.

That afternoon saw the climax of the One Thousand Days of Reaping. A superb production directed by Elder and Mrs. Franklin Hudgins dramatized in pageant form events in the struggle for men's souls, beginning with the Garden of Eden and running through scriptural and Adventist history right into the One Thousand Days of Reaping. Division after division reported its baptismal total, and finally W. B. Quigley, coordinator for the One Thousand Days, gave the grand total—1,171,390.

The first Sabbath program not only celebrated the successes of the past thousand days; it looked forward as well. The pageant concluded by introducing Harvest '90 and the goals the church has set for the next five years. Like the One Thousand Days of Reaping, Harvest '90 intends to keep the church focused on its reason for being—winning converts from the kingdom of darkness. (The adjacent box lists the goals Harvest '90 encompasses.)

In a stirring sermon delivered the second Sabbath, Neal Wilson called the church to refuse compromise with the world. He was especially concerned that our great institutions not lose their distinctiveness. Our church is caught by the dilemma on which other churches have come to grief: How do we continue to grow while maintaining our original fervor and uniqueness?

That afternoon's glorious mission pageant ended with the Hallelujah Chorus, presented by a five-hundred-voice choir and full symphony orchestra. In some what of an anticlimax, the division presidents and the General Conference officers ended the day with another report and challenge.

The spirit at the meetings bordered on the charismatic. People clapped for everything, even some of the prayers. This grated on the nerves of some, and at times individuals made motions deploring the clapping. Fortunately, these motions were ignored. It was important to allow the different cultures to make their presence known. Some pointed out that the Bible speaks approvingly of clapping: "Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy" (Ps. 47:1, N.I.V.).

The music performed at this General Conference provided some of the most stirring parts of the whole event. One of the unique groups was the steel band from the Caribbean. Playing classical as well as religious music, they drew the most melodious sounds from full-sized to small quarter-sized steel drums. And listening to the choirs from around the earth gave us a foretaste of heaven's music.

One of the marvelous things about a General Conference session is the fellowship. You see people you have not seen for years. The exhibits all around the plaza level of the Superdome provided plenty of opportunities for meeting old friends and making new ones. This became a problem, however, because the exhibits could not be shut off from the arena, and especially on Sabbath, the conversations taking place detracted from the main program.

Improvements needed

There is much more to a General Conference than the business sessions on the floor. During the ten days of the session approximately ninety-four hours were scheduled for meetings. While the business sessions took up 35 percent of the time, spiritual meetings took up 46 percent. The other 19 percent was divided between committee sessions and video reports.

Considering the amount of time and money invested in the various video reports, the returns in terms of audience viewing were minimal. Almost an hour of one business session was given to a succession of reports. But during that time the vast majority of the delegates were visiting with their friends and ignoring completely the video presentations.

Much of the business session time was spent debating words and phrases and making editorial changes. One individual remarked privately that it reminded him of the story of the Russian Orthodox Church debating the color of the priests' vestments while the revolution raged in the street outside. It seems imperative that all delegates learn the function of a General Conference session and the purpose of discussion. Perhaps some were simply frustrated because they knew the real power lay not on the floor but in the nominating committee and in the other subcommittees that brought the recommendations. No name brought to the floor was defeated. Wilson's leadership was evident throughout the session. Some felt he played too strong a part, especially on the nominating commit tee. However, it takes a strong leader to keep a world church together. And Wilson combined that leadership with a tact born of the Holy Spirit. When the proceedings tended to bog down, the chairman for the session would turn to Elder Wilson, and in most cases his comments helped to resolve the situation.

Other General Conference actions of interest to pastors:

1. The delegates discussed a document on Sabbath observance. Curiously, they were asked not to make this an official document by voting on it, though some wanted to. Leadership did not want it included in the Church Manual because it would cause difficulties for some of our believers, especially those in Communist lands. In some areas, because their children may be taken away if they don't, Adventists allow their children to go to school on Sabbath. (MINISTRY intends to report on this more fully in the future.)

2. The recommendations from the special commission on the ordination of women to the gospel ministry were also brought to the session. Although the delegates did not spend a lot of time discussing them, some of the recommendations voted were highly significant. In essence, the recommendations provide for ongoing study of this issue. The next major event in the church's consideration of women's ordination will be the 1989 Annual Council, which will review the further studies made. Two of the recommendations are of particular significance: "Recommended, To institute a reformation in the church's ordination practices for the purpose of limiting ordination only to those performing direct pastoral, evangelistic, ecclesiastical, and other clearly ministerial duties." Clearly, it is a reform whose time has come.

While the delegates did not endorse the idea of ordaining women, they did urge "an 'affirmative action' plan for the involvement of women in the work of the church to be a priority with church leadership, and to request leaders to use their executive influence to open to women all aspects of ministry in the church that do not require ordination."

3. The Health and Temperance departments were formally merged. Their previous association together had been on a trial basis for five years. Now they are one.

At the 1984 Annual Council an observer asked Elder Wilson how much the upcoming General Conference session would cost and whether it was worth that expense. He replied that no one had ever tried to figure the total cost, but the church needs to get together to discuss its business and take corporate actions. After observing the session in New Orleans, we have no doubt about the value of a General Conference session. A worldwide church cannot be administered only from Washington. The spiritual sharing, the fellowship, the discussions, the rubbing of shoulders with diverse groups from all over the world, is absolutely necessary for the unity and health of the church. Church leaders are aware of the huge costs involved and are searching for sites that will moderate the expense of future sessions.

These words from Ellen White best summarize the fifty-fourth General Conference session: "Unity existing among the followers of Christ is an evidence that the Father has sent His Son to save sinners. It is a witness to His power; for nothing short of the miraculous power of God can bring human beings with their different temperaments together in harmonious action, their one aim being to speak the truth in love."—Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1948), vol. 9, p. 194.