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Historical Foreword
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evangelistic, institutional, and missions program, approached the
turn of the century
.
The General Conference of 1901
Ellen G. White, just back in the United States after a nine-year
sojourn in Australia, was invited to attend the General Conference
session of 1901, held in Battle Creek. It was the first session she
had attended in a ten-year period. The president of the General
Conference, G. A. Irwin, made his opening address. Then Ellen
White pressed to the front of the assembly, desirous of speaking.
Earnestly she addressed the conference, pointing out the manner
in which the work of God had been circumscribed as a few men in
Battle Creek carried the responsibility of a work far beyond their
grasp. She testified that these men and the cause were injured as they
encouraged others to look to them for guidance in every phase of
the work. She pointed out that there were some men in responsible
places who had lost the spirit of consecration so essential to their
work. At that meeting she cried out, “What we want now is a
reorganization. We want to begin at the foundation and build on
a different principle.”—
The General Conference Bulletin, April 3,
1901
.
[xxxiii]
What took place in the ensuing three weeks is a thrilling story.
The message was heeded. Carefully the brethren went to work.
Union conferences were formed, binding local conferences together
in smaller units, with the responsibilities carried by men in the
field. The several associations which represented the branches of
general church activity, such as the Sabbath school work and the
home-missionary work, took steps to become departments of the
general conference. The General Conference Committee, consisting
of thirteen men, was enlarged to twenty-five. In 1903 the committee
was further enlarged to include those connected with the newly
organized departments of the General Conference. Within a few
years’ time, five hundred men were carrying the responsibilities
that prior to the General Conference of 1901 had been carried by a
handful of men
.
Through this reorganization, provision was made for those who
were in local fields to make decisions relating to the work in hand.