The Reorganization of 1901, and the Battle Creek Fires of 1902

The Reorganization of 1901

The 1901 General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church readied the denomination to respond more quickly to circumstances that might arise at home and abroad. This was accomplished by delegating what had hitherto been decisions that could only be made “at the top” to layers of authority that were lower down in the hierarchy. The next four sentences come straight from the Church Heritage Manual, and list the basics; 1: The General Conference Committee was enlarged, and made more representative. 2: The Union conferences/missions and local conferences/missions became the pattern of organization. 3: The conferences were to share their tithes and offerings with the missions. 4: Various independent organizations, representing various interests of the denomination, became departments of the General Conference. The “reorganization of 1901” laid a good foundation, enabling the church to enjoy a remarkable growth rate in the next 115 years of its history (initially at home, and subsequently, as in today, abroad).

 

The 1901 GC was held in Battle Creek. It was an organizational triumph, but a personal letter describing the conference, written by Ellen White two years late, reveals that she considered it a spiritual defeat. She was focused on issues that were more significant than charts and departments: The result of the last General Conference has been the greatest, the most terrible sorrow of my life. No change was made. The spirit that should have been brought into the whole work as the result of that meeting, was not brought in because men did not receive the testimonies of the Spirit of God.” This analysis by the most “significant” of Adventist pioneers represents a pretty “significant” feature of the 1901 conference. To paraphrase Dickens, it must have been both the best and worst of times for the denomination. But the creation of conferences at the Union and local level, and the delegation of a measure of authority to these “lesser lights” (lesser that the GC, at any rate) was a wise move. Current Master Guides, and any aspiring Master Guides that lurk about Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church in Atlanta, GA, are inhabitants of the “Kingdom” of the General Conference, the “Phylum” of the North American Division, the “Class” of the Southern Union Conference, the “Order” of the South Atlantic Conference, and the “Family” of Berean Seventh-day Adventists.

Battle Creek Fires of 1902

Ellen White had warned (not her words exactly, but redolent of her meaning) that the denomination was dangerously “putting their eggs in the same basket.” In the era before stringent building codes were extant, most buildings were like disasters waiting to happen. In 1871, over 300 people perished when the Great Fire overtook Chicago. In February of 1902, the main Sanitarium (or “hospital,” in modern parlance) in Battle Creek burned up. This tragic start of the year was mirrored at its end when the Herald and Review factory was destroyed by fire in December. Here is a concise and informative statement from the Church Heritage Manual revealing the fallout from all of this catastrophe: In 1903, Ellen White’s advice to move the headquarters east was heeded, and property was purchased near the national capitol, Washington DC.