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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 26.

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Conference Work

By Wm. Covert.

CONFERENCE organization is necessary in order to facilitate gospel work. All the inhabitants living in territory bounded by conference lines should have a chance to receive the gospel of Christ through the ministry of those directed by that conference. The talent, the means, and the energies of all members in our churches should be devoted to the accomplishment of this work. We should systematize our work and adopt effective plans in order to reach the whole field and teach all the people in it. The gospel as preached through the great threefold message is for every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, and conferences ought to realize their obligation to do this work thoroughly in the fields where they operate. The words of Christ declare that the gospel should be given to every creature. To do our full duty for this time, the message must be taught in the various languages spoken within the geographical limits of the conference.
In carrying out the plans laid by the committee, it is highly essential that the members of the committee see eye to eye, and work together shoulder to shoulder. There should be time given by them for full counsel. “Without counsel, purposes are disappointed, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.” It is an excellent idea to get counsel from others besides the committee, because the Lord says, “In themultitude of counselors there is safety.” One distinguishing title of Christ, upon whose shoulders the government of the church and the conference rests, is that of Counselor. If our people are consulted in regard to important enterprises, their co-operation can be had in carrying them out.
No member of the conference committee can successfully work independently of the advice of the other members of the committee. If the committee is composed of seven men, then the mind and consent of all the seven should be obtained on every important matter before action is taken upon that point. It may sometimes become necessary to wait, or even to defer a matter altogether, in order to maintain the bonds of official fellowship and unity in a conference.
Many questions are submitted to a conference president for decision, yet it is not best for him to decide upon these questions without the counsel of his brethren on the committee.

The President

The successful conference president is a very busy man; however, he should take time to listen to the brethren and sisters when they wish to counsel with him, and he should answer their letters when they write to him. He must not have favorites, nor encourage favoritism in others. He should give as much attention to the poor as to the rich, and help the distressed and the lowly after the example set by his divine Lord.
The growth and efficiency of a conference depends largely upon the fostering care given to the development of laborers for the Master’s cause. The president should therefore most kindly encourage earnest young men and women, that they may be qualified early in life for service in the vineyard of the Lord.
It is his business and his blessed duty to keep in close touch with every department and every worker in the conference. To do this, it will be necessary for him to maintain a regular correspondence with all the workers employed, that he may know what they are doing, and give them counsel and encouragement. Indeed, he should be so vigilant, so kind, and so helpful that his course will be a matter of favorable remark by the people in the conference where he presides. All the qualifications set forth in the Scriptures as being essential in an elder should be manifested in a large degree by the conference president in his work. He should possess the wisdom from above which “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

The Committee

Let the members of the conference committee be selected with reference to their disposition and ability to give wise counsel. These men, though varied in their ages and temperaments, should be sound upon every point of truth, and so deeply interested in its progress that they will devote their influence and their money to promulgating it. The influence that they will cast in the conference should be well considered in selecting them for the place.
No one should ever become a member of a conference committee who has not had a rich Christian experience; he should love the cause of God more than he loves his money, his ease, or even his own life. The qualifications asked for in the seven deacons should be sought for in selecting a conference committee. “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.” Acts 6:3.

Mutual Responsibilities of Officers and Laborers

Paul said that accepting salvation through Christ had made him a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise, so that he was ready to preach the gospel either in the palace at Rome or among the ignorant savages in heathen lands.
When a person accepts official responsibility in this cause, or becomes a certified laborer in a conference, that person in so doing covenants with the Lord and with his people to devote his life to the sacred work of saving sinners. Officers and laborers in a conference are mutually bound together in a solemn compact to push forward to build up the cause of Christ in the earth to the full extent of their capabilities. Though they have a special field which by common consent of many conferences is bounded by certain geographical limits, yet their interests and their work reach out into all the world, and embrace every region where the children of men dwell. The spirit which prompts them to labor and which unites them to the Lord, also fills their souls with a burning desire to carry the message to the ends of the earth.
Fellowship and loyalty should extend beyond the officers and workers in a conference so as to embrace all the members of the churches, in order to reach the ideal standard. Proper attention and help must be given the whole people. Let the gospel order be followed in organizing its churches and in training them for labor. A conference to be strong and abide under the shadow of the Almighty must carry forward all departments, and do valiant service in all essential lines. That conference will look after the children and youth, and train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It is from our own young people that the strongest workers are being raised up. Many of those who have been trained up in the truth are becoming strong pillars in the cause. To these, dedicated to God from their childhood, and taught how to pray and how to trust in God, we may look with fond hope to see the banner of the cross carried into the very citadel of the enemy.
Through this active fellowship of paternal and fraternal love we trust soon to realize our most sanguine desires, even to see the great controversy ended, and the redeemed at home with the Redeemer in the glorified state.
Wm. COVERT.