Why Should We Move?

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 30, 1908

Why Should We Move?

WM. COVERT

Probably no people in civilized lands move more than do Seventh-day Adventists. Many churches are weakened, and some broken up each year, because of this moving spirit. Large sums of money are expended in this way every season in transportation. Much time is also consumed, and business given up, because of their moving. Household goods and other belongings are injured, or sold at a sacrifice in every exchange of the family home. Our churches and conferences are frequently discouraged and embarrassed by this unsettled spirit. But it is urged that our people should get out of the cities with their families, and establish schools in the country. This is correct; still the cities are not to be abandoned by us; for there are thousands living in them who must yet be reached, and saved by the everlasting gospel that is to be brought to them through the preaching of the third angel's message. Nothing in the Testimonies is more emphatically urged than the importance of laboring now for the people in the large cities of America. The whole situation should be weighed, and all the Testimonies bearing on the subject studied together.

The object of our schools is to provide laborers for the gospel field, and advanced students while attending these schools are to do evangelistic work for the people in the cities. Moving is necessary in order that laborers be properly distributed in different parts of the great harvest-field; but such moving should be directed by churches, conferences, and mission boards, so that qualified persons may be placed in the various fields according to their needs. Divine wisdom is required for such appointments, and they should by all means be made in harmony with the gospel plan of organization and with wise counsel.

Abraham was separated from relatives, and moved out of his native country, but the Lord gave special directions about it. The children of Israel were moved from Egypt to Canaan, but God planned the Exodus and led in the moving.

Present truth must now be given by messengers preaching it unto all the world; but the question still to be asked is, “How shall they preach except they be sent?” The sending should be done by proper authority. The membership of the early church at Jerusalem was allowed to be scattered because it became congested, and was too local in its operations; but the Lord kept his hand upon the situation, and took care of the result, so as to bring good to his cause out of it; those who “were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.” In our own times, and connected with our own work, there has been some well-advised moving for the betterment of the cause. The Battle Creek College was moved from Battle Creek to Berrien Springs, but the Lord gave specific directions both as to the moving and the location. The Review and Herald publishing interests and the General Conference headquarters were moved from Battle Creek to Washington, D. C.; but the Lord through his Spirit gave definite counsel, which was followed by his servants who had that work in charge. Scores of missions have been established, and hundreds of laborers have gone abroad, but plans have been followed, and system has been observed, in doing these things. The burden of moving workers should and will continue, but the best interests of the cause can not be well served by irregularities in this matter. The Lord may sometimes bless an independent move because of his supreme goodness and for the truth's sake, which at times is carried in this manner; but order and harmony is the Lord's established way, and it is better at all times to follow God's order.

The Testimonies advise moving some members when churches become congested, or when one has imbibed the habit of criticizing others, yet it would be better for all concerned to follow kind counsel in all such cases. “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” “Without counsel purposes fail.”

But aside from all the moving which is after the Lord's regulations, there is a much larger volume of it done by the people without counsel. And here is where the injury is seen. Some move to a far-off place, where but few people live, because cheap land can be secured in such places. In this way many are leaving densely populated districts where there are multitudes who should hear the truth, and are locating where they can have but little opportunity in the way of giving the message. They read some glowing advertisement written by hired experts about lands which are described as exceedingly fertile, with a climate all that mortals could wish.

These lands are usually said to be so rich, and the seasons so favorable, that several bountiful crops can be grown from the same acreage in one season. Then the price on the produce yielded is fabulous, because the few inhabitants now living in this desirable country are too indolent to till the soil that they may grow crops to supply the great market demand which is said to exist locally at that place.

These questionable circulars find customers among our people who claim to be advancing the interests of the third angel's message when they move from our small churches, where their help is needed, to take up their abode in these out-of-the-way places.

It is difficult to trace a missionary motive in some of these moves. Some leave conferences where the membership is small, and the population great, and move into other conferences where the membership is large, and the population comparatively small, thereby taking support away from where it is greatly needed, and placing it where the cause is already strong. One conference president told me a little while ago that he had recently organized a church of forty members who had moved into that locality from eight conferences east of his territory, and that not one of the number had embraced the truth in the place where the church was organized.

There are conferences in the United States composed of only a few hundred members; and yet from these same conferences more than a thousand members have moved into the boundaries of other conferences, and probably in the great majority of cases the moving has been done without counsel or appointment, simply for social or commercial considerations. Should not this matter of moving, which tends to unbalance the work in our cause, have serious consideration?

Chicago, Ill.