Outline of Plans for the General Conference Session
By Arthur G. Daniells
MANY assurances are given us that the coming conference will be an occasion of great blessing to the people and cause of God. One of the strongest of these evidences is the unusual interest our people everywhere feel in this meeting. Letters come to us from all over the world, telling that the writers are praying for the coming conference, and that their faith is claiming God's promise to answer their prayers. I take this opportunity of expressing to the thousands of our loyal people the deep gratitude we all feel for these assurances of interest in this meeting. The full measure of the value of the prayers and intercessions of God's people in the great and glorious work being carried on in the world, will never be known until revealed in the judgment of the great day. Before the conference convenes, it may be helpful to our brethren and sisters to have a general outline of the plans for the conference. As we have already announced, the conference will be held in camp; that is to say, the meetings will be held in a large tent, and many of the delegates will live in tents. The camp will be located on the grounds of the Washington Training College. This will make it possible for us to entertain a large number of the delegates in the dormitories of the school, and to make use of the dining hall, heating facilities, and bath-rooms. It will also enable us to operate an inexpensive lunch-counter, and thus aid our people in economizing in the expenses of living. The meetings of the session will be held in a large pavilion. Evening services will be held in three or four different places in the District of Columbia. One large tent will be pitched not far from the railway station in Takoma Park. This meeting will be attended by the majority of our people attending the conference, and we hope to secure an attendance of the citizens of Takoma Park. Two or three other tents will be pitched in different parts of the city of Washington, and we earnestly hope that the meetings carried on during the conference will be the beginning of a good, steady effort during the summer. Our daily program will open at 5:45 A. M., with a devotional service. From 8 to 9 all the department committees, such as the educational, Sabbath-school, publishing, religious liberty, and medical committees will meet in separate tents for heart-to-heart talks and discussions regarding the special work committed to them. At the same time, the standing committees appointed by the conference will have an opportunity to do their work. The first business meeting of the conference will begin at 9:30 A. M. Eleven o'clock of each day has been set apart as the time for a ministerial institute, to be conducted throughout the entire conference. The leading topics to be presented are the following: “Our Message,” “The High Calling and Importance of the Gospel Ministry,” “Fundamental Requirements for a Successful Ministry,” “The Ministry in Its Relation to the Church,” “How the Message Came to Us, and Its Development,” “The Improvement of the Ministry,” “The Ministry and the Field; Inspiring the People to ‘Finish the Work’ in Both Home and Foreign Fields,” “The Ministry and Its Relation to New Fields at Home and Abroad,” “The Tithe,” “The Support of the Work in Mission Fields,” “The Ministry and Our Denominational Literature,” “The Place of Institutional Work in Our Message,” “Camp-meeting Work,” “How to Save and Utilize Our Young People.” These subjects will be presented by different ministers of experience in the special lines assigned to them. The afternoon will be devoted to business proceedings, and as already stated, the evenings will be given to public services for the people. It has been decided to give each of the different departments of the General Conference a day of the session. These days will be known as “Educational day,” “Religious Liberty day,” “Medical day,” etc. The most thorough work is being done to make every needed preparation for this conference. The department committees are at work preparing reports, recommendations, etc., relating to their special work. Nothing that we understand to be vital to the success of this work will be left undone in our preparations. While we shall deal with many fields and many questions, it may be said that the two leading features of the entire conference will be, first, the work to be done throughout the world, and, second, the preparation required to do it in the quickest possible time. The situation demands that the coming conference shall be one of great value to those who attend, to our brethren and sisters who can not come, and to the great, perishing world, to whom God has sent us with his last message. I am sure that if our delegates could7all speak to our brethren and sisters, they would join in an earnest request that fervent prayer be offered by all our people throughout the session of this conference, that the Lord himself will take charge of the meeting, and direct in all that shall be done. It is too late now for the Lord's people to be in confusion and miss their way. It is too late to make mistakes and blunders in forming and developing our plans. The Lord God of Israel must be Leader. For this let us all make earnest supplications, and it shall be even so.