Seventh-Day Adventism (1850-1920) .

Setting Apart for the Ministry:
Theory and Practice in Seventh-day Adventism (1850–1920)

Denis Kaiser
Berrien Springs, Michigan
Introduction
Sabbatarian Adventism1 emerged in a milieu that was strongly antagonistic toward
established religious bodies and any organizational form going beyond local church structures.2
Their anti-organizational attitude was based on the belief that elaborate organizational structures
were markers of apostate churches. Since this attitude was common to all groups stemming from the
Millerite movement3, it comes as a surprise that James and Ellen White as early as 1850 began
calling believers to adhere to “gospel order,” a principle illustrated in the order in heaven, among
1
The term “Sabbatarian Adventism” refers to Seventh-day Adventism before the formal organization of the
church in 1863. Although the name “Seventh-day Adventists” had been used already since 1853, it was not applied
unanimously to the body of believers until 1861. See S. T. Cranson to James White, 20 March 1853, printed in idem,
“From Bro. Cranson,” Review and Herald, 14 April 1853, 191. That is why in this paper the first term is used for
Seventh-day Adventists before 1863 and the second term is employed for the church after 1863.
2
This antagonism grew out of the events in 1843, when the Millerites shifted their focus to the time aspect of
the prophecies, which resulted in tensions with the denominational leadership and subsequent expulsions of church
members and dismissals of ministers. Charles Fitch interpreted these measures as a rejection of the Advent truth,
indicating the transformation of the religious bodies into the apocalyptic Babylon. Thereupon George Storrs started a
vigorous anti-organizational campaign. Cf. Ellen G. White, “Dear Brethren of the General Conference,” General
Conference Daily Bulletin, 29 January 1893, 22; David Tallmadge Arthur, “Come out of Babylon: A Study of Millerite
Separatism and Denominationalism, 1840-1865” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Rochester, 1970); Clyde E. Hewitt,
Midnight and Morning: An Account of the Adventist Awakening and the Founding of the Advent Christian
Denomination, 1831-1860 (Charlotte, N.C.: Venture Books, 1983), 264-287; Andrew G. Mustard, James White and
SDA Organization: Historical Development, 1844-1881, Andrews University Seminary Doctoral Dissertation Series,
vol. 12 (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1987), 114, 118; Don Neufeld, ed., Seventh-day Adventist
Encyclopedia, M-Z, 2nd rev. ed., Commentary Reference Series, vol. 11 (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 1996),
254; George R. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” in Women for God: Historical,
Biblical, and Theological Resources for Decision-making, ed. Nancy Jean Vyhmeister (Berrien Springs, Mich.:
Andrews University Press, 1998), 100; George R. Knight, William Miller and the Rise of Adventism (Nampa, Idaho:
Pacific Press, 2010), 132, 234, 235.
3
Ellen G. White, “Dear Brethren of the General Conference,” 22; J. N. Loughborough, The Church: Its
Organization, Order and Discipline (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1907), 89, 90.
1
Christ’s disciples, and in the early NT church.4 Although it took some time for other members of the
movement to warm to this recommendation, by the early 1860s, the anti-organizational attitude
among members of the movement as a whole had dissipated enough for Sabbatarian Adventism to
formally establish itself as a church. Over the years, the ecclesiastical structure of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church underwent various changes and developments, as may be seen in the
establishment of publishing, health, and educational institutions, as well as in the creation of unions
and divisions and in the integration of numerous associations and societies into the church structure
as departments.5 These changes from rudimentary local structures to highly complex global
structures were paralleled by changes in the distribution of work, responsibilities, and authority
within the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
As the ecclesiastical organization of the movement grew and developed, so too did the
movement’s understanding and implementation of the act of ordination. In the beginning, when
4
James White, “The State of the Cause,” Present Truth, May 1850, 80; idem, “Our Visit to Vermont,” Review
and Herald, February 1851, 45; idem, “Publications,” Review and Herald, March 1851, 54; idem, “Oswego
Conference,” Review and Herald, 16 September 1851, 32; idem, “On Our Tour East,” Review and Herald, 25
November 1851, 52; idem, “[Note],” Review and Herald, 17 February 1852, 96; idem, “[Note on Pultney Meeting],”
Review and Herald, 19 August 1852, 64; idem, “[Note on Pultney Meeting],” Review and Herald, 2 September 1852,
72; idem, “[Reply to S. W. Rhodes’ Communication],” Review and Herald, 14 October 1852, 93; idem, “Western
Tour,” Review and Herald, 7 July 1853, 28; idem, “Eastern Tour,” Review and Herald, 18 October 1853, 117; idem,
“Eastern Tour,” Review and Herald, 8 November 1853, 140; Horace W. Lawrence, “From Bro. Lawrence,” Review and
Herald, 8 November 1853, 142; James White, “Gospel Order,” Review and Herald, 6 December 1853, 173; idem,
“Gospel Order,” Review and Herald, 13 December 1853, 180; idem, “Gospel Order,” Review and Herald, 20 December
1853, 188-190; idem, “Gospel Order,” Review and Herald, 27 December 1853, 196-198; H. S. Gurney, “From Bro.
Gurney,” Review and Herald, 27 December 1853, 199; Ellen G. White, Supplement to the Christian Experience and
Views of Ellen G. White (Rochester, N.Y.: James White, 1854), 12, 15; Joseph Bates, “Church Order,” Review and
Herald, 29 August 1854, 22, 23; J. B. Frisbie, “Church Order,” Review and Herald, 9 January 1855, 154; R. F. Cottrell,
“What are the Duties of Church Officers?,” Review and Herald, 2 October 1856, 173. Articles and communications on
the topic continued to appear until the formal organization of the church in 1863.
5
See, e.g., Mustard, James White and SDA Organization, 143-278; Barry David Oliver, SDA Organizational
Structure: Past, Present and Future, Andrews University Seminary Doctoral Dissertation Series, vol. 15 (Berrien
Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1989), 40-322; George R. Knight, Organizing to Beat the Devil: The
Development of Adventist Church Structure, Adventist Heritage Series (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 2001),
48-151.
2
Sabbatarian Adventists first united themselves around the beliefs of “present truth”6 in the late
1840s, there was no formal process of ordination. The majority of the leading persons were
ministers who had been previously ordained in their former denominations,7 and they undertook the
responsibility of sharing their beliefs with other former Millerites and drawing new members for the
Sabbatarian Adventist movement through a traveling ministry. A problem soon developed,
however: Other travelling preachers who had not embraced the Sabbatarian Adventist message
followed the same procedure, frequently promoting erroneous and heretical views, and it became
difficult to distinguish between authentic Sabbatarian Adventist leaders and other travelling
ministers who represented alternative doctrines. Problems arose not only from outside but also from
within, as several self-appointed and self-confident preachers inside the Sabbatarian Adventist
movement began to generate “confusion and disunion.” Thus Ellen and James White suggested that
such persons were “not called by God,” lacked judgment and wisdom, were “unqualified to preach
the present truth,” and had not been “acknowledged by the church or [the] brethren generally.”8
6
Initially the term “present truth” referred to recently discovered theological truths such as the extended
atonement ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, the seventh-day Sabbath, the third angel’s message, and the
sealing message. It was later enlarged as Adventists made new discoveries.
7
Thus James White and Joseph Bates had been ordained to the gospel ministry in the Christian Connection.
Frederick Wheeler and John Byington had been set apart to the ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and A. S.
Hutchins as a minister in the Freewill Baptist Church. See James White, Life Incidents: Connection With the Great
Advent Movement, as Illustrated by the Three Angels of Revelation XIV. Volume One. (Battle Creek, Mich.: Steam Press
of the Seventh-day Adventist Publ. Assn., 1868), 104; idem, Life Sketches: Ancestry, Early Life, Christian Experience,
and Extensive Labors, of Elder James White, and His Wife, Mrs. Ellen G. White (Battle Creek, Mich.: Steam Press of
the Seventh-day Adventist Publ. Assn., 1880), 79; License to preach for John Byington, issued by the Methodist
Episcopal Church, West Potsdam, 25 May 1840, Center for Adventist Research, Andrews University, Berrien Springs,
Mich. [hereafter referred to as CAR]; S. B. Whitney, “Life Sketch of Elder Frederick Wheeler,” Review and Herald, 24
November 1910, 24; Arthur W. Spalding, Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.:
Review and Herald, 1961), 295. Cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 103; Malcolm
Bull and Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, 2nd ed. (Bloomington,
Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2007), 290; Gary Land, The A to Z of the Seventh-day Adventists, The A to Z Guide
Series, no. 43 (Lanham et al: Scarecrow, 2009), 218.
8
Ellen G. White, Supplement to the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, 15-18; James White,
“Church Order,” Review and Herald, 23 January 1855, 164; cf. Lewis H. Christian, The Fruitage of Spiritual Gifts: The
Influence and Guidance of Ellen G. White in the Advent Movement (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1947), 118.
3
For this reason, Sabbatarian Adventists began to see the need to apply the principle of
“gospel order” and develop some way of certifying acknowledged leaders of the group in order to
protect the believers from “false brethren.”9 This objective was accomplished through the
establishment of a procedure for the ordination, or “setting apart,” of individuals for the ministry.
The present paper builds upon previous historical studies to discuss various elements and
developments of this process of ordination in the Sabbatarian Adventist movement and in the
Seventh-day Adventist Church from the early 1850s to the early 1920s.10
The Rationale for and Objectives of

the Practice of Ordination
The first step toward a process of certification was made when those who were well known
among Sabbatarian Adventists began to issue recommendation cards to trustworthy ministers. Thus,
in January 1853, James White and Joseph Bates signed a card and handed it over to J. N.
9
Knight, Organizing to Beat the Devil, 34, 35, 37, 38; Land, The A to Z of the Seventh-day Adventists, 218. In
1853, the first offshoot, the Messenger party, caused Sabbatarian Adventists considerable trouble. See Theodore N.
Levterov, “The Development of the Seventh-day Adventist Understanding of Ellen G. White’s Prophetic Gift, 1844-
1889” (Ph.D. dissertation, Andrews University, 2011), 81-83.
10
H. Eugene Miller, “The Development of the Ordination of Ministers in the Seventh-day Adventist Church”
(Term paper, Andrews University, 1964); Bob Hunter, “A Study of the Qualifications for Ordination to the Gospel
Ministry During the Years 1853–1861 and 1902–1903” (Term paper, Andrews University, 1972); Carlos E. Garbutt,
“Rite and Recognition, Rite or Recognition: The Early Development of the Theology of Ordination of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church” (Term paper, Andrews University, 1991); Gerald T. du Preez, “A Survey of Selected Aspects of the
Practice of Ecclesiastical Appointment in the New Testament, Early Christian, and Seventh-day Adventist Church”
(M.Div. thesis, Andrews University, 1994); Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 99-
113; Denis Fortin, “The Concept of Ordination in the Writings of Ellen G. White,” in Women for God: Historical,
Biblical, and Theological Resources for Decision-making, ed. Nancy Jean Vyhmeister (Berrien Springs, Mich.:
Andrews University Press, 1998), 114-132; Jerry Moon, “A Power That Exceeds That of Men: Ellen G. White on
Women in Ministry,” in Women in Ministry: Biblical & Historical Perspective, ed. Nancy Jean Vyhmeister (Berrien
Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1998), 187-209; William Fagal, “Ellen G. White and Women in Ministry,”
in Prove All Things: A Response to Women in Ministry, ed. Mercedes H. Dyer (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Adventists
Affirm, 2000), 273-286; Theodore N. Levterov, “Principles of Ordination in the Early Seventh-day Adventist Church,
1844-1900” (Paper presented at the meetings of the Adventist Society for Religious Studies in Chicago, IL, 16
November 2012); David J. B. Trim, “Ordination in Seventh-day Adventist History” (Unpublished manuscript, Silver
Spring, Md., [2013]).
4
Loughborough.11 A second step was taken in the late fall of that year when the leaders of the
Sabbatarian Adventist movement began “setting [people] apart to the ministry.”12 From the
beginning they used this phrase interchangeably with the terms “ordain” and “ordination.”13
Although a first ordination had admittedly occurred already in July 1851, it was not until 1853 that
the leaders of the movement instituted a proper and intentional practice of ordaining people for the
ministry.14
A Biblical Rationale for the Practice
In the 1850s Sabbatarian Adventist literature did not indicate the use of any sources “beyond
the Bible” in justifying “the developing position on ordination.”15 During that time it was
11
Loughborough, The Church, 101; Everett N. Dick, Founders of the Message (Washington, D.C.: Review and
Herald, 1938), 183; Mustard, James White and SDA Organization., 124; du Preez, “A Survey of Selected Aspects,” 55-
59; Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 105; idem, Organizing to Beat the Devil, 37.
12
James White, “Eastern Tour,” Review and Herald, 20 September 1853, 83; idem, “Eastern Tour,” Review and
Herald, 15 November 1853, 148.
13
See, e.g., ibid., 148; N. Fuller, “The Cause in Souther N.Y., & PA,” Review and Herald, 17 September 1861,
126.
14
Washington Morse had been encouraged by James White “to engage in public labor in preaching the
message.” See G. W. Morse and Lizzie J. Morse, “A Pioneer Gone to Rest,” Review and Herald, 23 December 1909,
17. Thus, in July 1851, G. W. Holt discretely set him apart “by the laying on of hands, to the administration of the
ordinances of God’s house.” See F. M. Shimper, “From Sister Shimper,” Review and Herald, 19 August 1851, 15.
While the report itself remains ambiguous as to whether he was ordained to the ministry or as an elder, a later account
suggests that it was in 1851 that he began working as a minister. See Washington Morse, “From Bro. Morse,” Review
and Herald, 4 October 1853, 103; cf. Neufeld, Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 254; Knight, Organizing to Beat
the Devil, 35, 36. The 1888 recollection that dates his ordination to the summer of 1853 is most likely a slip of memory
because the contemporary sources point to 1851 and the 1888 report also contains other dating problems. See
Washington Morse, “Items of Advent Experience During the Past Fifty Years, No. 4,” Review and Herald, 16 October
1888, 643; Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 104. Loughborough later claimed that
his ordination was the first of its kind, yet there is no contemporary evidence. He joined the church in 1852 and was not
ordained until 1854. See J. N. Loughborough, Miracles in My Life, comp. by Adriel Chilson (Payson, Ariz.: Leaves-of-
Autumn Books, 1987), 39; Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 104.
15
Ibid., 102.
5
consistently emphasized that ministers had to be ordained according to the NT pattern, for they
considered the practice an application of the principle of “gospel order.”16
James White saw the precedence for ordination in Jesus’ commissioning the twelve disciples
to preach, teach, and baptize believers in his name (Matt 28:19-20). Then he referred to such
biblical texts as Mark 3:14; 1 Tim 4:11-16; 2 Tim 1:6; Titus 1:5, 7; and 1 Pet 2:25, suggesting that
those “who are called of God to teach and baptize, should be ordained, or set apart to the work of
the ministry by the laying on of hands.” Further, he argued that Eph 4:11-16 showed the
continuance of the offices of preaching and evangelism in the church until the end of time.17 Ellen
White described the situation of the NT church even more. As the church was assailed by false
teachers, the practice of setting apart ministers by the laying on of hands was God’s solution to that
problem.18 Shortly afterwards J. B. Frisbie pointed to three NT examples: the choosing of an apostle
to replace Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:20-26); the setting apart of Paul and Barnabas for the ministry
(Acts 13:1-4); and the subsequent ordaining of other people for the cause of Christ by Paul and
other early Christian leaders.19 Since the Holy Spirit was the causative power in all three examples,
he argued that “the power and authority to ordain elders or bishops in the church came” not by
human invention but “from the Holy Spirit of God” (Acts 13:2).20
16
James White, “Gospel Order,” Review and Herald, 20 December 1853, 188, 189; Frisbie, “Church Order,” 9
January 1855, 153-155; James White, “Re-Ordination,” Review and Herald, 6 August 1867, 120; J. H. Waggoner, The
Church: Its Organization, Ordinances, and Discipline (Oakland, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1886), 15, 16; Loughborough,
The Church, 66-71; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 102.
17
James White, “Gospel Order,” 20 December 1853, 189; idem, “Eastern Tour,” 15 November 1853, 148; cf.
Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 102, 103.
18
Ellen G. White, Supplement to the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, 19.
19
J. B. Frisbie, “Gospel Order,” Review and Herald, 19 June 1855, 62, 63; idem, “Church Order,” Review and
Herald, 26 June 1856, 70, 71; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 102.
20
Frisbie, “Church Order,” 26 June 1856, 70.
6
In later years Ellen White made several further reaching remarks about ordination in her
writings about biblical themes and events, indicating her belief in the biblical origin of the basic
practice. The earliest example she provides for an ordination is found in God calling,
commissioning, and ordaining Moses “to his great work.” She emphasized Moses’ “deep sense” of
his “own weakness and unworthiness” when God called him.21 Ellen White saw the next example in
Jesus’ ordination of his disciples, yet the example she cited was not the giving of the gospel
commission in Matt 28, to which James White had referred, but an ordination that came earlier in
Jesus’ ministry, after his initial calling of the disciples and his early instruction to them about the
duties and responsibilities of their mission. It was during this time that Judas Iscariot pressed self-
confidently into the group of disciples, exemplifying an attitude very different from that of Moses
and the disciples. Then Jesus gathered them around him, bowed in their midst, laid “his hands on
their heads, offered a prayer, dedicating them to this sacred work. Thus,” she stated, “were the
Lord’s disciples ordained to the gospel ministry.”22 Later she termed the initial calling of the
disciples “ordination” and an “appointment to the work of the gospel ministry,” thus suggesting an
initial ordination at the calling and a formal ordination after their instruction.23 A third reference to a
biblical precedent for ordination is found in her description of the “ordination of Paul and
21
Ellen G. White, “The Call of Moses,” Signs of the Times, 26 February 1880, 85.
22
Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy: The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan. Life, Teachings,
and Miracles of Our Lord Jesus Christ, vol. 2 (Battle Creek, Mich.: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Assn., 1877),
203; idem, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1898), 293, 294, 296, 298; idem, Education
(Oakland, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1903), 93; idem to E. S. Ballenger and E. R. Palmer, Sanitarium, Calif., 2 February 1905
(Letter 53, 1905), Ellen G. White Estate, Silver Spring, Md. [hereafter referred to as EGWE]; idem, “The Selection of
the First Ministers of Apostolic Times,” Review and Herald, 11 January 1912, 19.
23
Ellen G. White to Ballenger and Palmer, 2 February 1905; idem, “The Regions Beyond,” Pacific Union
Recorder, 4 December 1902, 1.
7
Barnabas,” covering an entire chapter in Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 3, in 1878.24 Ellen White remarked
that the leaders of the church in Jerusalem and Antioch ordained Paul and Barnabas only after they
had been “made thoroughly acquainted” with the details of their divine calling and the mission
given to them by the Holy Spirit. Thus the ordination of Paul and Barnabas was an “open
recognition” that the two had been truly chosen by the Holy Spirit for this special mission. When
the elders of Antioch laid their hands on them, they asked God to bless them in the work assigned to
them by the Spirit. Ellen White spotted the original pattern for the practice of the laying on of hands
in the OT—a father laying his hands on his children to bless them and a priest laying his hands on
the head of a sacrificial animal. In the NT it became an “acknowledged form of designation to an
appointed office.”25
Interestingly, in all three references she emphasized that it was God who had called and set
apart, explicitly equating the terms “commission” and “ordination.”26 In the context of the
ordination of the disciples and that of Paul and Barnabas she suggested that the “ordination from
above precedes [a formal] ordination by the church.”27 She described Paul’s ordination by human
hands as a “formal ordination.”28 Like Ellen, James White also denied the idea that the church had
the power to call people into the ministry or that its act of ordination made them ministers of Christ.
24
Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy: The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan. The Death,
Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, vol. 3 (Battle Creek, Mich.: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing
Assn., 1878), chap. 27; idem, Sketches from the Life of Paul (Battle Creek, Mich.: Review and Herald, 1883), chap. 4.
25
Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, 3:348, 349; idem, Sketches from the Life of Paul, 43, 44; cf. idem,
Acts of the Apostles in the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1911),
160, 161; idem, “Separated Unto the Gospel,” Review and Herald, 11 May 1911, 4; idem, “Lessons from Paul’s
Ministry,” 27 July 1903 (Manuscript 74, 1903), EGWE; idem, “Proclaiming the Truth Under Difficulties,” Review and
Herald, 18 May 1911, 5.
26
Ellen G. White, “The Call of Moses,” 85.
27
Fortin, “The Concept of Ordination in the Writings of Ellen G. White,” 116.
28
Ellen G. White, “Separated Unto the Gospel,” 4.
8
Rather, the church was to ordain those who had already been called into the ministry by God.29 This
aspect is significant when we begin to discuss the authority and power of ordained ministers.
The Benefits and Objectives of the Practice
If God was ultimately the one who called and set apart, this raised the question of why a
formal ordination by the church was necessary at all. Responding to this question, James White
pointed to three objectives of the practice: (a) The candidate receives confirmation of the approval
and sympathy of both his colleagues and the church. (b) By the laying on of hands the church shows
its united agreement with the ordination of the respective individual, thereby producing and
securing union in the church. (c) Ordination solved the urgent need for some kind of authentication.
This third objective received the bulk of James’s attention, and he explained at length how
ordination would prevent the influence of false teachers who brought reproach on the present truth
and the cause of God.30 Similarly, Ellen White remarked that the application of this NT practice
would signify “the approving voice of the church” and “secure the peace, harmony, and union of the
flock.”31 Interestingly, even those who opposed the establishment of any formal church structure,
such as R. F. Cottrell, affirmed the practical need for and biblical foundation of the ordination of
ministers.32 Joseph Bates added that the NT depicted ordination as a means of choosing or
appointing a person to an office, an aspect that was basically also supported by Ellen White.33
29
James White, “Gospel Order,” 20 December 1853, 189.
30
Ibid.; idem, “Eastern Tour,” 15 November 1853, 148; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and
Ordination, 1844-1863,” 102, 103.
31
32
Cottrell, “What are the Duties of Church Officers?,” 173; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and
Ordination, 1844-1863,” 102.
33
Bates, “Church Order,” 22. Bates supported this conclusion with John 15:16; Luke 6:13; Mark 3:13, 14; Acts
1:20-24; 2 Cor 8:19; Acts 6:3-6; 14:23; 2 Tim 2:3, 4; Titus 1:5. Cf. Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, 3:348, 349;
idem, Sketches from the Life of Paul, 43, 44.
9
The Qualifications of the Candidate
The above biblical considerations served as the theoretical basis for developing practical
criteria for the qualification of a candidate for the ordination to the ministry. These criteria were
developed further over the years as practical circumstances called for additional refinements and
clarifications.
A Calling of God
When Sabbatarian Adventists began setting people apart for the ministry, they emphasized
that a divine calling to preach was one of the most important prerequisites for ordination. This idea
was derived from the biblical examples shown above and supported with such texts as Luke 6:13;
Mark 3:14; Matt 10:16; 28:16-20; Gal 1:11, 12; 1 Cor 10:2; and Eph 4:11-16. James White
suggested that these texts were still applicable in the present time because “the church has never
arrived at the state of unity and perfection” predicted in these passages.34 The need for a divine
calling was repeatedly emphasized in subsequent years.35 James White asked churches to recognize
the responsibility that God had laid upon one of their members and to urge that person into the field
of labor.36 After these individuals had proven to have “received their commission of God,” the
church was, said Ellen White, to acknowledge the divine calling by setting them apart.37 Almost
34
James White, “Gospel Order,” 20 December 1853, 188, 189.
35
See, e.g., James White, “Re-Ordination,” 120; Uriah Smith, “To Correspondents,” Review and Herald, 27
June 1878, 4; G. I. Butler, “Ordination,” Review and Herald, 13 February 1879, 50, 51; J. H. Waggoner, The Church,
19; Uriah Smith, “In the Question Chair,” Review and Herald, 20 October 1891, 648; F. M. Wilcox, “Ordination to the
Gospel Ministry,” Review and Herald, 9 July 1925, 10.
36
37
10
four decades later the General Conference stated that candidates had to be sure about their call of
God to the work of the ministry.38
Evangelistic / Ministerial Experience
The most feasible way to prove one’s calling was by entering new fields where the present
truth was still unknown, and thus a period of “labor[ing] publicly in the cause of God”39 became a
second prerequisite for ordination. This period of labor, sometimes called a time of “improving,”
was usually marked by missionary activities in untrodden fields, often lasting one or two years, so
that the church could recognize the candidate’s calling and ordain him.40 Ellen White compared this
time of “improving” to the Waldensian practice of holding off on “ordination to the sacred office”
until the candidates had completed a three-year missionary experience in the outside world. The
rationale was that being accompanied, trained, and mentored by an experienced minister taught
candidates how to deny themselves, sacrifice, preserve the truth in its purity, and let their light shine
in darkness.41
38
“General Conference Proceedings: Eighteenth Meeting,” General Conference Daily Bulletin, 6 March 1893,
483.
39
James White, “Eastern Tour,” 15 November 1853, 149.
40
James White, “The Ministry, No. 3,” Review and Herald, 1 August 1865, 68; Smith, “To Correspondents,” 4;
W. H. Littlejohn, “The Church Manual,” Review and Herald, 11 September 1883, 586; F. M. Wilcox to W. C. White,
Battle Creek, Mich., 10 January 1895, EGWE; cf. W. W. Prescott, “The Calling and Work of the Ministry,” General
Conference Daily Bulletin, 24 March 1891, 221, 222, 226; Wilcox, “Ordination to the Gospel Ministry,” 10. Yet, in the
mission field there occurred exceptions to this guideline as, e.g., G. H. Baber’s ordination of a newly baptized former
Methodist preacher out of sheer necessity because other people would “soon require baptism, and the distance” was
“too great” for Baber “to be made often.” See G. H. Baber, “Progress of the Cause: Chile,” Review and Herald, 9
February 1897, 89. Similarly, Louis C. Sheafe’s ordination in 1899 was an exception to the rule since the former
successful African-American Baptist minister had just recently converted to the Adventist faith. See “Another Glorious
Day,” General Conference Bulletin, 5 March 1899, 145.
41
Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy: The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan from the
Destruction of Jerusalem to the End of the Controversy, vol. 4 (Battle Creek, Mich.: Steam Press of the Seventh-day
Adventist Publ. Assn., 1883), 76; idem, The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan During the Christian
Dispensation (Battle Creek, Mich.: Review and Herald, 1888), 70, 71; idem, The Great Controversy Between Christ
and Satan: The Conflict of the Ages in the Christian Dispensation (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1911), 70, 71.
11
After the official organization of the General Conference, it was decided that individuals
who wanted to engage in evangelistic work and prove their divine calling should receive licenses
which would certify their status as Adventist “messengers or preachers.”42 Later, in 1886, it was
recommended to the General Conference Committee that the Committee prepare and publish
standards of “attainment to be required of those who receive a license,” as well as establish “a
course of study to be pursued by licentiates before [their] ordination,” and “a course of study in our
schools, not to exceed two years, especially adapted to ministers and workers.”43 This indicates that
the licentiate could be considered an apprentice who tried to improve his knowledge, skills, and
faculties to prove worthy to be given a position of trust within the church.44 Yet, prior to their
ordination licentiates were not authorized “to celebrate the ordinances, to administer baptism, or to
organize a church.”45
Beliefs and Actions in Harmony with the Main Body
A third prerequisite for ordination emphasized by a variety of early Adventist leaders was
that candidates adhere to sound biblical doctrine. For example, James White suggested that “gospel
order” required teachers of the Bible to be “in union in sentiment and in their course of action” to
avoid divisions and confusion among church members.46 Shortly afterwards Frisbie emphasized that
the NT provided the basis for the “theoretical and doctrinal qualification” of a candidate for the
42
John Byington and Uriah Smith, “Report of General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,” Review and
Herald, 26 May 1863, 205.
43
G. I. Butler and Uriah Smith, “Twenty-Fifth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists:
Fourteenth Meeting, December 6, 1886,” Battle Creek, Mich., GCA.
44
Cf. Trim, “Ordination in Seventh-day Adventist History,” 19, 20. That was probably the reason why James
White suggested to give them a license that they may “improve their gift” by laboring for the salvation of souls. See
James White, “The Ministry, No. 4,” Review and Herald, 8 August 1865, 76.
45
G. I. Butler and Uriah Smith, “Twenty-Fourth General Conference Session, General Conference of Seventh-
day Adventists: Fourteenth Meeting, December 2, 1885, 9:30 a.m.,” Battle Creek, Mich., GCA.
46
12
ministry.47 James Sawyer promoted a similar view when he referred to 1 Tim 4:12, 15 and stressed
the need for ministry candidates to be an example in word, in spirit, and in faith.48 In 1878, church
leaders resolved to grant licenses to those who want “to preach the third angel’s message” only after
they were examined as to “their doctrinal and educational qualifications.”49 In the mid-1880s the
General Conference saw the need to respond to the problem of several ordained ministers leaving
the ministry by recommending to ordain only those persons that were both willing and able to
devote their time to the work of the ministry and “sound in faith and practice upon all Bible
doctrines as held by Seventh-day Adventists.”50 This was of considerable importance because
ordained ministers filled “offices of trust in God’s work.”51 In the early 1890s the General
Conference resolved that the committee would require satisfactory evidence for the candidate’s
standing on “various points of present truth, especially in regard to Spiritual [sic] gifts, tithing,
health reform, or any other distinctive feature of our faith or of our work.”52 The repeated emphasis
of this aspect may be indicative of a specific need among Adventist ministers.
Intellectual and Spiritual Fitness
Closely related to the emphasis on sound biblical doctrine was the stress laid on intellectual
and spiritual fitness as a prerequisite for ordination, based on the criteria laid down for church
47
Frisbie, “Gospel Order,” 19 June 1855, 62, 63.
48
James Sawyer, “Counsel from Paul,” Review and Herald, 26 July 1864, 66.
49
James White and Uriah Smith, “Seventeenth Annual Session of the General Conference of Seventh-day
Adventists: Seventh Meeting, October 11, 1878, 8:30 a.m.,” Battle Creek, Mich., GCA.
50
G. I. Butler and Uriah Smith, “Twenty-Fourth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day
Adventists: Seventh Meeting, November 23, 1885, 9:30 a.m.,” Battle Creek, Mich., GCA; cf. James White, Life
Sketches, 406, 407.
51
Butler and Smith, “Twenty-Fourth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,” GCA;
cf. James White, Life Sketches, 406, 407.
52
“General Conference Proceedings,” 6 March 1893, 483.
13
leaders in the NT. James White adopted the NT criteria for “elders” and “bishops” and applied them
as qualifications for modern ministers.53 Ellen White similarly sought to apply these NT criteria,
thus urging leaders to see if the candidates were able to rule well their own family and preserve its
order, and if they “could enlighten those who were in darkness.”54 She stated further that those
whose judgment and intellect had been weakened through their involvement in such errors as
perfectionism and spiritualism were unfit for the ministry because they were unable to bear
opposition, to avoid getting excited, and to remove objections with calmness and meekness.55 She
added that the church should examine the lives, qualifications, and the general course of the
ministerial candidates to see if God had truly called them to the ministry.56 In 1881, the General
Conference resolved to examine all candidates for license and ordination “with reference to their
intellectual and spiritual fitness” for the successful performance of the duties.57
A Sense of One’s Own Weakness and Incompetence
In 1853, James White mentioned yet another criterion for ordination, though this criterion
reappeared only seldom in later years. He suggested that the candidate should feel his own frailty
and incompetence for the work,58 an aspect that reminds of Ellen White’s later remarks about
53
James White, “Gospel Order,” 20 December 1853, 189, 190. He referred to such texts as 1 Tim 3:1-7; Hebr
13:17; Matt 5:10, 11; 1 Pet 4:14, 15; 3:14-16; 2:12, 19, 20; Tit 1:7-9.
54
55
Ibid., 20.
56
Ibid., 18, 19; cf. idem, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press,
1923), 171, 172; idem, Pastoral Ministry (Silver Spring, Md.: Ministerial Association of the General Conference of
Seventh-day Adventists, 1995), 42.
57
Haskell and Smith, “General Conference,” 20 December 1881, 392; cf. O. A. Olsen to W. C. White, Battle
Creek, Mich., 21 September 1891, EGWE.
58
14
Moses’ deep sense of his own weakness and frailty that stood in stark contrast to Judas Iscariot’s
self-confidence and pride.59
A Special Circumstance: The Question of Women in Ministry

and Ordination for Women
Although the criteria enumerated above established some basic prerequisites for ordination,
a major question remained: were women eligible for ordination to gospel ministry? The church’s
handling of this subject was somewhat complex: Ordination to gospel ministry was reserved for
men, yet women were still invited to participate in preaching and evangelism. Indeed, when James
White announced the establishment of the “Minister’s Lecture Association” in 1871, he invited both
men and women to become members of the association and to enroll in a four-week term of
lectures.60 With the establishment of Battle Creek College in 1874, both young men and young
women began receiving educational and professional training to be able to work for the church in
various lines.
Although the church allowed both men and women61 as “licentiates,” they did not practice
the ordination of the latter. However, there was at least some support for the idea of setting apart
59
Ellen G. White, “The Call of Moses,” 85; idem, The Spirit of Prophecy, 2:203.
60
James White, “Minister’s Lecture Association,” Review and Herald, 10 January 1871, 32.
61
The first female that received a ministerial license was Sarah A. Lindsey in 1869. See E. B. Saunders,
“Report of the N.Y. and PA. Conference,” Review and Herald, 12 October 1869, 126. In 1861, Uriah Smith
commended a letter on female preaching and teaching that appeared originally in a newspaper. See J. A. Mowatt,
“Women as Preachers and Lecturers,” Review and Herald, 30 July 1861, 65, 66. For lists of females holding ministerial
and missionary licenses, see “Women Licenses as Ministers, 1878-1975,” Spectrum, August 1985, 60; “Exhibits
Relating to the Ordination of Women: From the Lifetime and Experience of Ellen G. White,” Ellen G. White Estate
Shelf Document, Washington, D.C., 1990, 4; Josephine Benton, Called by God: Stories of Seventh-day Adventist
Women Ministers (Smithsburg, Md.: Blackberry Hill Publishers, 1990), 154-165, 229-233; Patricia A. Habada and
Rebecca Frost Brillhart, eds., The Welcome Table: Setting a Place for Ordained Women (Langley Park, Md.: TEAM,
1995), 359-363; Michael Bernoi, “Nineteenth-Century Women in Adventist Ministry Against the Backdrop of Their
Times,” in Women in Ministry: Biblical & Historical Perspective, ed. Nancy Jean Vyhmeister (Berrien Springs, Mich.:
Andrews University Press, 1998), 225-229; Fagal, “Ellen G. White and Women in Ministry,” 279, 280; Ginger Hanks
Harwood and Beverly Beem, “A Work for All to Do: Nineteenth-Century Adventism and Women in Ministry” (Paper
presented at the meeting of the Adventist Society for Religious Studies at Chicago, Ill., 16 November 2012, Chicago,
Ill., 2012), [25], [40]. Sometimes they were even referred to or listed among the “ministers.” See N. Battin, “Minnesota:
15
females for the ministry, as shown by the resolution at the 1881 General Conference session “that
females possessing the necessary qualifications to fill that position, may with perfectly propriety, be
set aside by ordination to the work of the Christian ministry.”62 The proposal was referred to the
General Conference executive committee but obviously no further actions were taken in this
regard.63 The initial move may have been a response to Ellen White’s call in early 1879 for meek
and humble women to engage in instructing church members in matters of personal piety and home
religion, to make up for the deficiency left by the debating-style method of the itinerant Adventist
Oronoco, Sept. 16,” Review and Herald, 25 September 1879, 110. Regarding Minnie Sype, Lulu Wightman, and Ellen
Lane Fagal stated that they “functioned effectively as public evangelists.” See Fagal, “Ellen G. White and Women in
Ministry,” 279. Regarding female preaching during the Millerite movement, see Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers &
Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845, Gender & American Culture (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of
North Carolina Press, 1998), 307-335.
62
S. N. Haskell and Uriah Smith, “General Conference,” Review and Herald, 20 December 1881, 392.
63
Roger W. Coon, “Ellen G. White’s View of the Role of Women in the SDA Church” (Ellen G. White Estate
Shelf Document, Washington, D.C., 1986), 8; Emmett K. VandeVere, “Years of Expansion, 1865-1885,” in Adventism
in America: A History, ed. Gary Land, Rev. ed. (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1998), 54; Bull and
Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary, 270. The explanations as to why the resolution was referred to the General Conference
Committee have been highly diverse. See Bernoi, “Nineteenth-Century Women in Adventist Ministry Against the
Backdrop of Their Times,” 224; Randal R. Wisbey, “SDA Women in Ministry, 1970-1998,” in Women in Ministry:
Biblical & Historical Perspective, ed. Nancy Jean Vyhmeister (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press,
1998), 235; Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, “Are Those Things So?—Part II: A Summary and Evaluation of Key Historical
and Theological Arguments of Women in Ministry,” in Prove All Things: A Response to Women in Ministry, ed.
Mercedes H. Dyer (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Adventists Affirm, 2000), 293, 294. While other resolutions at this session
were “adopted,” this one was apparently not. Yet, the report of the business proceedings in the Signs of the Times
creates some ambiguity for it suggests that the resolution was “adopted” without any further discussion and revision.
Strangely enough, the Signs did not print a correction regarding this resolution in subsequent issues. See “General
Conference,” Signs of the Times, 5 January 1882, 8. Referring matters to the General Conference Committee had
usually the purpose of delegating the decision about the implementation and application of a resolution to that
committee. See S. N. Haskell and Maria L. Huntley, “Fourth General Session of the General Tract and Missionary
Society,” Review and Herald, 11 December 1879, 185; James White and Uriah Smith, “General Conference,” Review
and Herald, 11 December 1879, 190; James White and Uriah Smith, “General Conference of S. D. Adventists: Business
Proceedings,” Review and Herald, 21 October 1880, 268; G. I. Butler and A. B. Oyen, “General Conference
Proceedings: Twenty-Second Annual Session,” Review and Herald, 20 November 1883., 733; G. I. Butler, “Changes in
the Field of Labor,” Review and Herald, 27 November 1883, 752. If the delegates were not satisfied with a resolution or
desired a reformulation of a specific resolution, it was customary to refer it back to the Committee on Resolutions. See
D. M. Canright and Uriah Smith, “Business Proceedings of the Fourth Special Session of the General Conference of S.
D. Adventists,” Review and Herald, 24 April 1879, 132; Haskell and Smith, “General Conference,” 392; G. I. Butler
and Uriah Smith, “General Conference Proceedings: Twenty-Fourth Annual Session,” Review and Herald, 24
November 1885, 729. This could indicate that the resolution was referred to the General Conference Committee to
develop some ways of implementing or applying the resolution. If that was indeed to the case is, however, uncertain.
16
ministry.64 She had argued that Mary Magdalene was the “first” that “preached a risen Jesus,”
adding, “If there were twenty women where now there is one, who would make this holy mission
their cherished work, we should see many more converted to the truth.”65 In the 1880s and 1890s,
Adventist periodicals sometimes reported about other denominations ordaining women as ministers,
often without providing an evaluation or opinion.66 Some Adventist writers explicitly expressed
their disapproval of these procedures in other denominations, suggesting that it was one of the
infidel goals of the women’s rights movement.67
64
Ellen G. White, “Address and Appeal, Setting Forth the Importance of Missionary Work,” Review and
Herald, 2 January 1879, 1; idem to S. N. Haskell, Denison, Tex., 27 January 1879 (Letter 1, 1879), EGWE; cf. idem,
“Women as Christian Laborers,” Signs of the Times, 16 September 1886, 561-562; idem, “Work for the Church,”
Review and Herald, 15 May 1888, 305-306. Interestingly, it was during that time that several Adventist writers
discussed the involvement of women in public labor. See, e.g., James White, “Women in the Church,” Review and
Herald, 29 May 1879, 172; “Women in the Bible,” Signs of the Times, 30 October 1879, 324; S. N. Haskell, “Mrs.
Wesley Outside of Her Family,” Signs of the Times, 25 November 1880, 524; W. M. Healey, “Women as Teachers,”
Signs of the Times, 10 February 1881, 67; W. M. Glenn, “Woman’s Position in the Church,” Signs of the Times, 24
February 1881, 91; N. J. Bowers, “May Women Publicly Labor in the Cause of Christ,” Review and Herald, 14 June
1881, 372, 373. Cf. Beverly G. Beem and Ginger Hanks Harwood, “Your Daughters Shall Prophesy: James White,
Uriah Smith, and the ‘Triumphant Vindication of the Right of the Sisters’ to Preach,” Andrews University Seminary
Studies 43, no. 1 (2005): 41-58; Ginger Hanks Harwood and Beverly G. Beem, “It was Mary that First Preached a Risen
Jesus: Early Seventh-day Adventist Answers to Objections to Women as Public Spiritual Leaders,” Andrews University
Seminary Studies 45, no. 2 (2007): 221-245.
65
Ellen G. White, “Address and Appeal, Setting Forth the Importance of Missionary Work,” 1.
66
“News and Notes: Religious,” Signs of the Times, 11 September 1884, 558; “News of the Week: Religious,”
Review and Herald, 28 February 1893, 143.
67
E. J. Waggoner, “Back Page,” Signs of the Times, 8 June 1888, 358; idem, “How Readest Thou?,” Signs of
the Times, 29 December 1890, 602, 603. Although J. H. Waggoner supported the commitment of females in “exercises
purely religious,” he stressed that they “cannot occupy the position of a pastor or a ruling elder.” Thus while females
could engage in “the work of the gospel,” exhort, comfort, prophesy, pray in public, they were not to conduct “the
duties of business meetings, . . . ruling elders, and pastors.” If females would engage in these duties, it “would be looked
upon as usurping authority over the man,” which is prohibited in 1 Tim 2:12 and Eph 5:23. See J. H. Waggoner,
“Woman’s Place in the Gospel,” Signs of the Times, 19 December 1878, 380. Similarly, his answer to the question if a
sister could act as presiding officer in the business meeting of a certain church in case that church did not have an elder
was revealing. He argued it would probably be better to choose a male member “to preside for the time, as moderator of
that meeting,” since it may otherwise raise questions “which would be liable to lead to unpleasant results.” See idem,
The Church, 124, 125 (emphasis in original). When invited to join the women’s suffrage movement, which sought to
legalize the right of women to vote and to become political office holders, Ellen White declined because she believed
that all of the church’s resources were to be employed for “the promotion of the kingdom of God and the hastening of
Christ’s second coming.” See Coon, “Ellen G. White’s View of the Role of Women in the SDA Church,” 12. Cf. Ellen
White to James White, Battle Creek, Mich., 10 July 1874 (Letter 40a, 1874), EGWE. In the early and mid-1860s Ellen
White suggested that spiritualists had associated themselves closely with the American costume and the women’s rights
movement. Adopting that dress would have destroyed all influence for good because the public would then link
17
Although women in the Seventh-day Adventist church were generally excluded from
ministerial ordination, the cases of Ellen White and Lulu Wightman may be mentioned at this point,
since both constitute partial exceptions to that rule. Although neither was ever set apart by the
laying on of hands, both nevertheless received ministerial credentials. Indeed, the Michigan
Conference granted Ellen White the credential of ordained minister in 1871.68 In subsequent years
she was listed among the conference’s ordained ministers and later on received ministerial
credentials from the General Conference as well.69 After the death of her husband in 1881, she
received the salary of an ordained minister until she passed away in 1915.70 The church obviously
had confidence in her work and recognized her divine commission and ordination.71 She herself
Adventists to spiritualists. See idem, Testimony for the Church, no. 10 (Battle Creek, Mich.: Steam Press of the
Seventh-day Adventist Publ. Assn., 1864), 30; idem, Testimonies for the Church, 9 vols. (Mountain View, Calif.:
Pacific Press, 1948), 1:421. For the influence of spiritualism within the 19th century women’s rights movement, see
Laurel Ann Nelson, “Attending Spirits” (Research paper, Andrews University, 1975); Ann Braude, Radical Spirits:
Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America (Boston, Mass.: Beacon, 1989); Barbara Goldsmith,
Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull, 1st ed. (New York: Harper
Perennial, 1998); Laurel Damsteegt, “Spiritualism and Women: Then and Now,” in Prove All Things: A Response to
Women in Ministry, ed. Mercedes H. Dyer (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Adventists Affirm, 2000), 251-271.
68
Uriah Smith and Isaac D. van Horn, “Michigan Conference of S. D. Adventists: Eleventh Annual Meeting,”
Review and Herald, 14 February 1871, 69. Cf. D. E. Robinson to LeRoy Edwin Froom, 17 November 1935, EGWE;
Arthur L. White to H. T. Elliot, n.d. [c. 1936-1937], EGWE; idem to C. A. Lashley, 1 October 1936, EGWE; idem to
Herman Bauman, 13 December 1956, EGWE; idem to Edwin R. Thiele, 18 December 1956, EGWE.
69
See, e.g., Uriah Smith and J. R. Trembley, “Michigan Conference of S. D. Adventists: Twelfth Annual
Session,” Review and Herald, 10 September 1872, 102; Ministerial credentials of Ellen G. White, issued by the
Michigan Conference, Battle Creek, Mich., 1 October 1883, EGWE; G. I. Butler and A. B. Oyen, “Twenty-Second
Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists: Twelfth and Thirteenth Meetings, November 19,
1883,” Battle Creek, Mich., 1883, General Conference Archives, Silver Spring, Md. [hereafter referred to as GCA];
Ministerial credentials of Ellen G. White, issued by the General Conference, Battle Creek, Mich., 6 December 1885,
EGWE; Ministerial credentials of Ellen G. White, issued by the General Conference, Battle Creek, Mich., 27 December
1887, EGWE; Ministerial credentials of Ellen G. White, issued by the General Conference, Battle Creek, Mich., 7
March 1889, EGWE; L. T. Nicola, “Nineteenth Meeting of the Conference,” General Conference Bulletin, January-
March 1897, no. 1, 65; Ministerial credentials of Ellen G. White, issued by the General Conference, 14 June 1909,
EGWE; Ministerial credentials of Ellen G. White, issued by the General Conference, 12 June 1913, EGWE.
70
D. A. Delafield to Kit Watts, Washington, D.C., 25 August 1971, EGWE; Coon, “Ellen G. White’s View of
the Role of Women in the SDA Church,” 7.
71
Arthur L. White suggested that denominational leaders considered her ordination to be of a higher character
and that it would have appeared anticlimactic for them to ordain her for the Lord’s service although God himself had
already proven beyond any doubt that he had called her and set her apart for his service. See Arthur L. White to
Lashley, 1 October 1936; idem to Bauman, 13 December 1956; idem to Thiele, 18 December 1956; cf. A Critique of the
18
stated that “the Lord ordained” her “as his messenger” in late 184472, and it was he who had put her
“into the ministry,” quoting the words of 1 Tim 1:12.73 However, while she sometimes gave the
prayer at ordination services, it does not seem that she ever performed other functions of ordained
ministers.74
The other exception to the rule was Mrs. Lulu Wightman, who was reportedly the most
successful minister in the New York Conference. In 1901, R. A. Underwood, president of the
Atlantic Union Conference, stated his opinion in favor of her ordination. Yet, it was decided to
refrain from ordaining Wightman because A. G. Daniells, then president of the General Conference,
expressed his doubts about whether a woman could “properly be ordained, just now at least.” The
conference nevertheless voted to pay her the salary of an ordained minister because they considered
her work as “that of an ordained minister unquestionably.”75
Lateral Entry of Ministers Previously Ordained

in Other Denominations
Book Prophetess of Health (Washington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1976), 93; Fagal, “Ellen G. White and Women in
Ministry,” 279.
72
Ellen G. White, “Brethren and Sisters / An Appeal,” St. Helena, Calif., 19 October 1909 (Letter 138, 1909),
EGWE; idem, “An Appeal to Our Churches Throughout the United States,” Review and Herald, 18 May 1911, 3; cf. ;
Arthur L. White, Ellen G. White: The Early Years, 1827-1862, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1985),
234; idem, Ellen G. White: The Later Elmshaven Years, 1905-1915, vol. 6 (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald,
1982), 211.
73
Ellen G. White, “A Messenger,” Review and Herald, 26 July 1906, 9.
74
Ellen G. White to W. C. White, Mary K. White, and S. N. Haskell, Buffalo, N.Y., 16 September 1880 (Letter
41, 1880), EGWE; Arthur L. White to Elliot, n.d.; idem to Lashley, 1 October 1936; idem to Bauman, 13 December
1956; idem to Thiele, 18 December 1956; Coon, “Ellen G. White’s View of the Role of Women in the SDA Church,” 7.
75
G. B. Thompson to John Wightman, 13 August 1901, GCA; John S. Wightman to S. H. Lane, Avon, N.Y., 2
September 1904, GCA. Cf. Bert Haloviak, “The Adventist Heritage Calls for Ordination of Women,” Spectrum, August
1985, 52-60; Coon, “Ellen G. White’s View of the Role of Women in the SDA Church,” 3; Interview of Roger W. Coon
with Armina L. Glascock [age 93], St. Helena, Calif., 4 June 1986; Benton, Called by God, 219-222; Bert Haloviak, “A
Place at the Table: Women and the Early Years,” in The Welcome Table: Setting a Place for Ordained Women, eds.
Patricia A. Habada and Rebecca Frost Brillhart (Langley Park, Md.: TEAM, 1995), 28, 30, 31.
19
In the early years, Adventists took no issue with admitting people to the ministry who had
been previously ordained in their former denominations. While Sabbatarian Adventist ministers
considered the denominations they had left in the mid-1840s part of Babylon, they did not renounce
the ecclesiastical authority of these churches by seeking re-ordination, as the early Puritan ministers
(who had previously been ordained by the Church of England) had done after their arrival in New
England.76 Thus for several years, ministers of other denominations transferred into the Adventist
ministry without having to be re-ordained. By 1862, however, the Michigan Conference no longer
recognized these ordinations and began requiring re-ordination for ministers who wanted to join the
Seventh-day Adventist Church and to continue working as ministers. It was recommended that
other conferences follow the same procedure, and by 1863 re-ordination became General
Conference policy.77 In 1867, James White argued that the ordination was invalid if not performed
by the proper person. Referring to the Jewish priesthood in NT times, he suggested that even priests
who, like Paul, might convert to the Christian faith were ordained again by the apostles for the new
work, even though they were only taking a step “from light to greater light.” Yet some ministers,
James White argued, turned “from error to truth” when they joined the Seventh-day Adventist
76
See Nathaniel Morton, New England's Memorial, 6th ed. (1669; reprint, Boston, Mass.: Congregational
Board of Publication, 1855), 96-99, 419; du Preez, “A Survey of Selected Aspects,” 58, fn. 2. In this context, it appears
odd when J. N. Andrews remarked that the Protestant Reformers were unfortunately satisfied with their former
“ordination as Catholic priests” and saw no need to be “set apart to the holy ministry by converted men.” See John N.
Andrews, The Three Messages of Revelation 14:6-12: Particularly the Third Angel's Message, and Two-Horned Beast
(Battle Creek, Mich.: Review and Herald, 1892), 69, 70.
77
James White, “The Rise and Progress of Adventism,” Review and Herald, 29 May 1856, 43; Joseph Bates
and Uriah Smith, “Business Proceedings of the Michigan State Conference,” Review and Herald, 14 October 1862, 157;
Joseph Bates and Uriah Smith, “Michigan Annual Conference,” Review and Herald, 24 October 1862, 157; “Remarks
on: To The Brethren in Ohio,” Review and Herald, 30 December 1862, 37; Byington and Smith, “Report of General
Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,” 205; James White, “Re-Ordination,” 120; idem, “Report from Bro. White,”
Review and Herald, 13 August 1867, 136; Smith and Trembley, “Michigan Conference of S. D. Adventists,” 102; cf. S.
N. Haskell to Ellen G. White, Boston, Mass., 30 March 1887, EGWE; Francis D. Nichol, Ellen G. White and Her
Critics (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1951), 559. Thus it is interesting to see that, in 1863, Frederick Wheeler
was recommended for ordination and reception into the N.Y. Conference although he had been previously ordained in
the Methodist Episcopal Church and worked among Sabbatarian Adventists since 1850. See A. Lanpear and J. M.
Aldrich, “New York Conference Report,” Review and Herald, 1 December 1863, 3.
20
Church, which is why it was necessary for them to cast away the errors and “be set apart anew to
the sacred work of the closing message.” He was also stated that an ordination was no longer
considered valid after a minister apostatized.78
The Ordination Ceremony
The early ceremonies in which candidates were set apart for the gospel ministry were simple
and stark, but these initial rites gradually developed into more elaborate and formal ceremonies.
Initially, ordinations were often accompanied by manifestations of the Holy Spirit, though this
changed over time. There were also gradual changes over time in regard to who was permitted to
participate in the ordination ceremony and how the action of the laying on of hands was understood.
Elements of the Ordination Ceremony
Initially, the action of setting an individual apart for the ministry usually involved a prayer79
and the laying on of hands80. Later, the ordination ceremony grew more elaborate and came to
involve an ordination sermon, the laying on of hands, a prayer, a charge, a “holy kiss,” and
78
James White, “Re-Ordination,” 120.
79
Shimper, “From Sister Shimper,” 15; James White, “Eastern Tour,” 15 November 1853, 148; A. S. Hutchins,
“Report of Meetings,” Review and Herald, 25 June 1861, 40; James White, “Re-Ordination,” 120; Uriah Smith,
“Editorial Correspondence, No. 3,” Review and Herald, 8 October 1867, 264; “Ordination,” Review and Herald, 1
October 1872, 128; Uriah Smith, “Ordination and Baptism,” Review and Herald, 4 May 1876, 144; idem, “The
Conference,” Review and Herald, 17 October 1878, 124; E. J. Waggoner, “General Meeting in Oakland,” Signs of the
Times, 8 May 1884, 281; “Ordination,” Review and Herald, 12 November 1889, 720; J. N. Loughborough, “Ordination
Service,” Review and Herald, 24 October 1893, 676; J. H. Durland, “Ordination Service,” Review and Herald, 5
December 1893, 772; Ellen G. White, “The Brighton Camp Meeting,” Middle Brighton, Vic., Australia, 21 January
1894 (Manuscript 3, 1894), EGWE; “Another Glorious Day,” 145; cf. Roger W. Coon, The Great Visions of Ellen G.
White (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 1992), 66. For a later example of an ordination prayer, see “Missionary
Farewell Service,” General Conference Bulletin, 25 April 1901, extra no. 20, 472.
80
Shimper, “From Sister Shimper,” 15; James White, “Eastern Tour,” 20 September 1853, 85; idem, “Eastern
Tour,” 15 November 1853, 148; Hutchins, “Report of Meetings,” 40; James White, “Re-Ordination,” 120; Smith,
“Editorial Correspondence, No. 3,” 264; “Ordination,” 1 October 1872, 128; Smith, “The Conference,” 17 October
1878, 124; E. J. Waggoner, “General Meeting in Oakland,” 281; A. T. Jones, “The Camp Meeting: The New Lecture
Course,” Topeka Daily Capital, 16 May 1889, 3; “Ordination,” 12 November 1889, 720; Loughborough, “Ordination
Service,” 676; Durland, “Ordination Service,” 772; cf. Coon, The Great Visions of Ellen G. White, 66.
21
extension of the right hand of fellowship.81 However, even the later, more elaborate version of the
ordination rite was still understood to be a “simple but impressive New Testament ceremony.”82 It
certainly contained some elements—sermon, prayer, laying on of hands, and charge—that were also
present in the ordination ceremonies of the mid-19th century Methodist Episcopal Church, yet it did
not reflect the high church elements found in the strongly liturgical Methodist rite.83
Manifestations of the Holy Spirit
Initially, ordination ceremonies were accompanied by highly emotional manifestations of
the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Thus it was frequently stated that “the blessing of the
Lord rested upon us,”84 “a very tender, precious influence affected the hearts of all,”85 and “the
Holy Spirit fell sweetly and powerfully upon us.”86 Visible signs of the Spirit’s moving were the
81
James White, “The Conference,” Review and Herald, 24 May 1864, 204; Uriah Smith, “Editorial
Correspondence, no. 2,” Review and Herald, 1 October 1867, 248; Uriah Smith, “Editorial Correspondence, no. 3,”
Review and Herald, 8 October 1867, 264; D. T. Bourdeau, “The Vermont Conference,” Review and Herald, 2
November 1869, 150; “Ordination,” 1 October 1872, 128; Smith, “Ordination and Baptism,” 144; Ellen G. White to W.
C. White and Mary K. White, to Rome, N.Y., 15 August 1876 (Letter 37, 1876), EGWE; Smith, “The Conference,”
124; W. H. Littlejohn, “The Church Manual,” Review and Herald, 17 July 1883, 458; A. T. Jones, “The Kansas Camp-
Meeting,” Signs of the Times, 9 June 1887, 344; idem, “North Pacific Camp-Meeting,” Signs of the Times, 29 June
1888, 392; O. A. Olsen to W. C. White, Battle Creek, Mich., 21 September 1891, EGWE; idem, “Edwards, W. H.:
General Conference Proceedings, Twentieth Meeting,” General Conference Daily Bulletin, 7 March 1893, 493;
Durland, “Ordination Service,” 772; Ellen G. White, “The Brighton Camp Meeting,” 21 January 1894; J. H. Durland
and F. M. Wilcox, Records of the Foreign Mission Board from July 27, 1892 to November 2, 1896, vol. 2 (Battle Creek,
Mich., n.d), 191; “Another Glorious Day,” 145; “Missionary Farewell Service,” 471, 472.
82
“Ordination,” 12 November 1889, 720.
83
Cf. Matthew Simpson, ed., Cyclopedia of Methodism: Embracing Sketches of Its Rise, Progress, and Present
Condition, with Biographical Notes and Numerous Illustrations (Philadelphia, Penn.: Everts & Stewart, 1878), 682.
84
S. H. Lane, “Indiana,” Review and Herald, 4 March 1875, 78; cf. James White, “Eastern Tour,” 15 November
1853, 148; C. Kelsey and F. W. Morse, “Report of Conference at Ashland, Minn.,” Review and Herald, 15 October
1861, 160; “Ordination,” 1 October 1872, 128; E. J. Waggoner, “General Meeting in Oakland,” 281; Durland,
“Ordination Service,” 772; Wm Covert, “An Ordination,” Review and Herald, 6 November 1900, 718.
85
G. I. Butler, “The Nebraska-Camp Meeting,” Review and Herald, 11 October 1881, 239; cf. idem to James
White and Ellen G. White, Lincoln, Nebr., 28 September 1880, EGWE; James White, “Eastern Tour,” 15 November
1853, 148.
86
Hutchins, “Report of Meetings,” 40; cf. Ellen G. White to W. C. White and Mary K. White, Malvern, Kans.,
28 May 1876 (Letter 30, 1876), EGWE; Butler to James White and Ellen G. White, 28 September 1880; S. N. Haskell
22
gift of tongues, weeping, encouragement and rejoicing, and mutual testifying of the participants’
love for the truth.87 These signs and results were regarded as a distinct divine approval “of the
solemn and important step”, as a “signet” placed by the Lord upon the work, and as a blessing upon
the candidate.88 However, such manifestations vanished in later years.
Participants in the Ceremony
An important aspect of the ordination was the question of who was authorized to set a
person apart for the ministry. Ellen White briefly and succinctly summarized the principles guiding
the action as follows:
Brethren of experience, and of a sound mind, should assemble, and follow the word of God, and
with fervent prayer, and by the sanction of the Spirit of God, should lay hands upon those who
have given full proof that they have received their commission of God, and set them apart to
devote themselves entirely to the work.89
Frisbie suggested that it was the presbytery (Luke 23:66; Acts 22:5; 1 Tim 4:4, 14) that had
the authority to ordain elders or bishops. He added that this group of elders had been ordained or
appointed by the church through a “vote taken by the lifting up of hands, according to the direction
of the Lord.”90 Initially, those that were both known to most church members and ordained in their
previous churches were responsible for ordaining new ministers, but later ordinations were often
to Ellen G. White, Christiana, Norway, 17 June 1894, EGWE; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and
Ordination, 1844-1863,” 106.
87
Shimper, “From Sister Shimper,” 15; James White, “Eastern Tour,” 15 November 1853, 148; G. I. Butler to
Signs of the Times, Newton, Iowa, 5 June 1874, EGWE; Lane, “Indiana,” 78; Butler, “The Nebraska-Camp Meeting,”
239; Haskell to Ellen G. White, 17 June 1894.
88
Hutchins, “Report of Meetings,” 40; Fuller, “The Cause in Souther N.Y., & PA,” 126; Lane, “Indiana,” 78;
Ellen G. White, “Indiana Camp-Meeting,” Review and Herald, 23 August 1877, 69; Butler, “The Nebraska-Camp
Meeting,” 239.
89
90
Frisbie, “Church Order,” 26 June 1856, 70; cf. A. T. Jones, “Church Officers,” Signs of the Times, 24 August
1888, 519.
23
performed by officers of the conferences or the General Conference.91 While in the early years
ordination usually occurred in local churches with the members being present at this occasion92,
later ordination ceremonies were often integrated as a part of the annual sessions and camp
meetings of the state conferences and the General Conference.93 Thus all ministers present at the
meeting frequently joined in the laying on of hands.94
It was customary to lay hands only on the minister that was to be ordained. Yet, in 1867,
James White remarked that he had included the wife of a minister into the ordination “to the sacred
office of the holy ministry by prayer and the laying on of hands” because he thought that “the
minister’s wife stands in so close a relation to the work of God, a relation which so affects him for
better or worse, that she should, in the ordination prayer, be set apart as his helper.”95 It does not
seem, however, that this procedure became a general practice in the church.
Symbolic Action vs. Sacerdotal Rite
91
James White, “Eastern Tour,” 15 November 1853, 148; “Ordination,” Review and Herald, 6 June 1865, 8; G.
I. Butler to James White, Battle Creek, Mich., 15 October 1872, EGWE; “Ordination,” Review and Herald, 20 January
1876, 23; Smith, “The Conference,” 17 October 1878, 124; “Another Glorious Day,” 145; “Missionary Farewell
Service,” 471; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 106.
92
See, e.g., James White, “Eastern Tour,” 20 September 1853, 85; C. W. Sperry, “From Bro. Sperry,” Review
and Herald, 19 March 1857, 158; Isaac Sanborn, “Interesting Meeting in Illinois,” Review and Herald, 29 March 1864,
142.
93
A. S. Hutchins, “Our Visit to Canada,” Review and Herald, 13 November 1860, 205; N. Fuller and R. F.
Cottrell, “Fifth Annual Session of the N. Y. and Pa. Conference,” Review and Herald, 16 October 1866, 158; James
White, “Western Tour,” Review and Herald, 4 July 1871, 20; C. W. Stone, “The Wisconsin Camp-Meeting,” Signs of
the Times, 3 October 1878, 293; Jones, “The Kansas Camp-Meeting,”, 344; E. J. Waggoner, “General Meeting in
Oakland,” 281; idem, “Back Page,” Signs of the Times, 11 May 1888, 288; Jones, “North Pacific Camp-Meeting,” 392;
O. A. Olsen, “Report of the General Conference Districts, Nos. 1 and 4,” General Conference Daily Bulletin, 24
February 1893, 384; idem, “Edwards, W. H.,” 493; Loughborough, “Ordination Service,” 676; Ellen G. White to O. A.
Olsen and Wife, c. October 1896 (Letter 80, 1896), EGWE; Covert, “An Ordination,” 718; A. T. Jones, “The Upper
Columbia Conference Camp-Meeting,” Review and Herald, 18 June 1901, 399; idem, “The North Pacific Camp-
Meeting,” Review and Herald, 2 July 1901, 429; idem, “The California Camp-Meeting,” Pacific Union Recorder, 23
October 1902, 4, 5.
94
Bourdeau, “The Vermont Conference,” 150; Durland, “Ordination Service,” 772; cf. G. W. Holt and J.
Clarke, “Report of Business Meeting at Gilboa Conference,” Review and Herald, 13 November 1860, 206 [ordination
of a deacon].
95
James White, “Report from Bro. White,” 136.
24
Apparently almost from the beginning there existed two very different views as to the nature
and meaning of the laying on of hands. All understood that ordination meant assigning a mission to
the candidate or appointing the individual to an office, but there arose the question of whether the
laying on of hands was merely a symbolic action or whether the act itself might actually impart a
sort of mystical grace or power to the candidate. In the mid-1850s, Frisbie took the latter view and
defined the laying on of hands as “the separating act by which the grace of God was imparted.”96 In
the late 1860s G. I. Butler similarly expressed the idea that a person may be qualified and changed
through the act of ordination.97 In 1879, the General Conference suggested that the act of ordination
confers “spiritual blessings which God must impart to properly qualify him [the candidate] for that
position.”98 Representing a similar view, former General Conference president O. A. Olsen referred
to cases where leaders of companies had administered baptism and the Lord’s Supper even though
they had not been “consecrated to such service by prayer and the laying on of hands.” He remarked,
“That is wrong.” For in his opinion, “it brings the most sacred service of God and the most sacred
ordinances to the level of the common affairs of life,” which Olsen compared to Nadab and Abihu
offering strange fire in the tabernacle (Lev 10:1-3).99 It should be noted that the wrongdoing Olsen
pinpointed was not improper or irreverent administration of the ordinances, but rather the fact that
someone who had not been ordained unduly claimed authority to baptize people or administer the
Lord’s Supper. This reveals a view that attributes sacred qualities to both the ordination and the
ordinances.
96
97
G. I. Butler to James White and Ellen G. White, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, 15 March 1869, EGWE.
98
G. I. Butler, “Eighteenth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists: Twelfth Meeting,
November 24, 1879, 7 p.m.,” Battle Creek, Mich., GCA.
99
O. A. Olsen, “Qualifications, Duties, and Responsibilities of Elders and Deacons of the Local Church—No.
6,” Church Officer’s Gazette, October 1914, 1 (emphasis added).
25
Beginning in the late 1870s, however, Ellen White began making statements that seemed to
reject the above ideas. Thus she wrote that in post-apostolic times the ordination act was “greatly
abused” by attaching “unwarrantable importance” to the laying on of hands, as if the act would
transmit special power, virtue, and qualification. She emphasized rather that the act “added no new
grace or virtual qualification.”100 In the same vein Uriah Smith emphasized in the early 1890s that if
a minister has no divine call, “he has no authority to preach the gospel, no matter how many hands
have been laid upon him, nor how pompous the ceremony of ordination performed over him.”
Hence the laying on of hands does not bring along a certain power, grace, or authority ex opera
operatum. Rather the authority of the minister to preach “rests upon a divine call to the work.”101
Similarly, Ellen White argued that “one may receive ordination for the ministry . . . but this does not
give him the oil of grace whereby he may feed his lamp that it shall send forth clear rays of
light.”102
Authority and Responsibilities of Ordained Ministers
Once the Sabbatarian Adventists had developed a system for identifying qualified candidates
and setting them apart for gospel ministry, questions arose as to the responsibilities and duties of an
ordained minister. Among the questions were these: Which duties and responsibilities should be
reserved for ordained ministers alone, and which positions and responsibilities were open to
individuals who were not ordained? In what area was an ordained minister licensed to work? And
100
Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, 3:348, 349; idem, Sketches from the Life of Paul, 43, 44; cf. idem,
Acts of the Apostles, 160, 161; idem, “Separated Unto the Gospel,” 4; idem, “Lessons from Paul’s Ministry,” EGWE;
idem, “Proclaiming the Truth Under Difficulties,” 5. Talking about Christianity in the second century, E. J. Waggoner
stated that the church introduced “mysterious forms of ordination,” connected them “with the Old Testament
priesthood,” and attached to them “external tokens of peculiar sanctity.” See E. J. Waggoner, “The Church—True and
False,” Present Truth, 14 December 1893, 582.
101
Smith, “In the Question Chair,” 648.
102
Ellen G. White to Byron Belden, Wellington, New Zealand, 23 April 1893 (Letter 6a, 1893), EGWE.
26
finally, was ordination the sole door of entrance into leadership positions? In each case, the answers
morphed over time, demonstrating that the Seventh-day Adventist understanding of the nature and
responsibility of ecclesiastical and administrational office was not static, but rather developed in
response to changing circumstances.
Basic Responsibilities of Ordained Ministers
From early on it was suggested that those whom Christ called to teach had specific
responsibilities and tasks (Matt 28:18).103 Among the tasks and responsibilities of an ordained
minister were (1) administering “the ordinances of God’s house,” referring to the Lord’s Supper and
the baptism of those who repent and believe104; (2) keeping members from backsliding105; (3)
preaching the Word of God, evangelizing, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with all long-
suffering and doctrine106; (4) giving himself wholly and entirely to the work107; and (5) establishing
churches and ordaining local church officers (elders and deacons)108. These functions of the
minister were considered an implementation of “gospel order.”109
103
104
Shimper, “From Sister Shimper,” 15; James White, “Eastern Tour,” 20 September 1853, 85; idem, “Eastern
Tour,” 15 November 1853, 148; idem, “Gospel Order,” 20 December 1853, 189; Ellen G. White, Supplement to the
Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, 19; Frisbie, “Gospel Order,” 19 June 1855, 62; Uriah Smith,
“Business Items [to D. W. Emerson],” Review and Herald, 8 July 1858, 64; Hutchins, “Our Visit to Canada,” 205;
Baber, “Progress of the Cause,” 89.
105
106
James White, “Eastern Tour,” 20 September 1853, 85; idem, “Gospel Order,”20 December 1853, 190. He
referred to 2 Tim 4:1-5; Tit 2:6-8; Acts 20:28; Hebr 13:7, 17; 1 Pet 5:1-4. Cf. Frisbie, “Gospel Order,” 19 June 1855,
62; “Selections: The Sporting Clergy,” Review and Herald, 9 January 1855, 160; Frisbie, “Church Order,” 26 June
1856, 70, 71; E. S. Lane, “Church Trials,” Review and Herald, 1 March 1860, 119; Hutchins, “Our Visit to Canada,”
205.
107
Ellen G. White, Supplement to the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, 19; “Selections,” 9
January 1855, 160.
108
Frisbie, “Church Order,” 26 June 1856, 70; Cottrell, “What are the Duties of Church Officers?,” 173.
109
27
Refinements Required by the Developing Organization
and Growing Mission Work
When the churches in Michigan organized themselves as the Michigan Conference in 1861,
they took the opportunity to more clearly define the duties and authority of ordained ministers. In
particular, it was decided that (1) those holding lower offices could not perform tasks of a higher
office unless they were ordained to that office, yet those holding higher offices could perform all
tasks of the lower offices (minister, local elder, deacon); and (2) travelling ministers had to receive
letters of recommendation from their local congregations to prevent “false brethren” and “strangers”
from troubling the churches, which suggests that churches were still being disturbed by strange
travelling preachers. It was also decided to issue to ministers “certificates of ordination and
credentials to be signed by the officers of the conference,” which were “to be renewed annually.”110
Later, church entities turned from issuing these ministerial credentials annually to issuing them only
quadrennially.111 In 1862, the Michigan Conference resolved to assign specific fields to every
minister, changing the previous custom of ministers going wherever they thought they might be
needed, which had resulted in some churches being continually neglected and other churches having
more ministers than needed. Now, the conference also required ministers to provide work reports
enumerating their activities of the past year at the annual meeting.112 The policies and procedures of
110
Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 108. See J. N. Loughborough, Moses
Hull, and M. E. Cornell, “Conference Address,” Review and Herald, 15 October 1861, 156, 157; Joseph Bates and
Uriah Smith, “Michigan General Conference,” Review and Herald, 8 October 1861, 148, 149; James White,
“Organization,” Review and Herald, 30 September 1862, 140; J. T. Mitchell and M. B. Smith, “Doings of the Iowa
State Conference,” Review and Herald, February 17, 1863, 91; J. N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent
Movement: Its Rise and Progress (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1905), 353; cf. H. C. Whitney and R. S.
Patterson, “Southern Iowa Conference,” Review and Herald, 1 April 1862, 142.
111
See, e.g, Ministerial Credentials of John N. Loughborough, issued by the General Conference of Seventh-
day Adventists, June 1, 1922, CAR.
112
Bates and Smith, “Business Proceedings of the Michigan State Conference,” 157; Knight, “Early Seventh-
day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 109.
28
the Michigan Conference were subsequently adopted by other state conferences.113 Yet, it seems
that, by the early 1880s, the wants of the churches were still not met systematically, which is why it
was again recommended to allocate a certain area to each “ordained minister” for a specific period
so that he could assist church members in their spiritual growth before he would again enter new
fields.114
Authority to Administer Ordinances
In late 1853 James White insisted that only those called to teach God’s Word “should
administer this ordinance,” supporting this principle by referring to Matt 28:18; Acts 2:28, 41; 8:12,
26-40; 9; 16:13-15.115 Similarly, Uriah Smith suggested in 1858 that “it is contrary to both the
practice and views of the church, that any one should administer the ordinance of baptism who has
not been regularly set apart to the work by the laying on of hands.”116 A side benefit of ordination
was the fact that it qualified Adventist ministers to legally marry couples and, at least theoretically,
to visit Adventist inmates in prisons.117 Yet, it seems that until the late 1870s there still existed some
diversity among the conferences as to “who is authorized to baptize and administer the other
ordinances.” To secure unity of action among the conferences and ministers, the 1879 General
Conference resolved that “none but those who are Scripturally [sic] ordained are properly qualified
113
John Byington and Uriah Smith, “Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,” Review and
Herald, 26 May 1863, 204-206; Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 109.
114
S. N. Haskell and Uriah Smith, “Twentieth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists:
Eighth Meeting, December 9, 1881, 2 p.m.,” Battle Creek, Mich., GCA.
115
116
Smith, “Business Items [to D. W. Emerson],” 64; cf. Bates and Smith, “Michigan Annual Conference,” 157.
117
G. I. Butler to James White, Johnstown Center, Wisc., 7 January 1873, EGWE; “Worse than Tennessee,”
American Sentinel, 12 September 1895, 282, 283.
29
to administer baptism and other ordinances.”118 In 1896, Ellen White made a statement in the
context of foreign missions that was seemingly contrary to that resolution from the late 1870s.
Another thing I want to tell you that I know from the light as given me: it has been a great
mistake that men go out, knowing they are children of God, like Brother Tay, [who] went to
Pitcairn as a missionary to do work, [but] that man did not feel at liberty to baptize because he
had not been ordained. That is not any of God’s arrangements; it is man’s fixing. When men go
out with the burden of the work and to bring souls into the truth, those men are ordained of God,
[even] if [they] never have a touch of ceremony of ordination. To say [they] shall not baptize
when there is nobody else, [is wrong]. If there is a minister in reach, all right, then they should
seek for the ordained minister to do the baptizing, but when the Lord works with a man to bring
out a soul here and there, and they know not when the opportunity will come that these precious
souls can be baptized, why he should not question about the matter, he should baptize these
souls.119
Then she added that “Philip was not an ordained minister,” but he opened the Bible to the eunuch
and did not see any hindrance to baptize him, again implying that ordination was not a prerequisite
to conduct a baptism.120 Ellen White obviously considered it a legitimate human application of the
divine principle of “gospel order” to limit certain tasks to the ordained ministry for the purpose of
ensuring order and unity, yet in the above remarks she also emphasized that it would be wrong to
conclude that these human applications constitute a divine imperative and that no person other than
an ordained minister was allowed to perform the ordinances.
Positions of Leadership and Administration
Initially, ordination was not a prerequisite for holding positions of leadership in areas such
as publishing, education, and church administration, since individuals in these areas were not
understood to be directly engaged in gospel ministry. Somewhat paradoxically, however, those who
served in positions of leadership and administration and thereby demonstrated their fitness for that
118
Butler, “Eighteenth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.”
119
Ellen G. White, “Remarks Concerning the Foreign Mission Work,” n.p., 12 November [1896] (Manuscript
75, 1896), EGWE (emphasis supplied).
120
Ibid.
30
work were often subsequently ordained as a way of recognizing their calling from God to work in
that particular position, and eventually ordination became a prerequisite for holding positions of
leadership and administration in the higher levels of the church organization.
As has been shown above, Ellen White is a prime example of one who received ministerial
credentials without having been formally ordained. Up until the late 1870s, she was probably the
only individual to be credentialed without ordination, but a certain piece of advice that the General
Conference gave to its conferences in 1879 may be indicative of the existence of additional cases by
that date. Namely, the General Conference suggested to its constituent conferences that they refrain
from granting “credentials to individuals to occupy official positions among our people, who have
never been ordained or set apart by our people,” which suggests that such credentialing of
unordained individuals was indeed occurring up to that point.121 Six years later the discussion
resurfaced when the committee on resolutions suggested that credentials be given only to those who
were willing and able to devote all of their time to the work of the gospel ministry. The resolution
was revised and it was eventually decided that “exceptions to this rule” were possible but should be
made “very carefully.”122 So then, it appears that credentials were usually given only in conjunction
with ordination, which was in turn a setting apart for the ministry or, in other words, an
acknowledgement of a calling to the “work of the gospel ministry,”123 yet there were apparently
121
Butler, “Eighteenth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.”
122
Butler and Smith, “Twenty-Fourth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,” 23
November 1885; G. I. Butler and Uriah Smith, “Twenty-Fourth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day
Adventists: Eighth Meeting, November 24, 1885, 9:30 a.m.,” Battle Creek, Mich., GCA.
123
See, e.g., James White, “The Age to Come,” Review and Herald, 24 July 1856, 96; “Ordination,” 1 October
1872, 128; “Ordination,” 20 January 1872, 23; E. J. Waggoner, “General Meeting in Oakland,” 281; Jones, “The Kansas
Camp-Meeting,” 344; E. J. Waggoner, “Back Page,” 288; Jones, “North Pacific Camp-Meeting,” 29 June 1888, 392;
Olsen, “Report of the General Conference Districts, Nos. 1 and 4,” 384; Loughborough, “Ordination Service,” 676;
Durland, “Ordination Service,” 772; A. J. Breed, “General Conference District No. 6,” General Conference Daily
Bulletin, 2 March 1897, 217; idem, “District 6,” General Conference Daily Bulletin, 17 February 1899, 19; idem, “The
Wisconsin Camp-Meeting,” Review and Herald, 11 July 1899, 448; Jones, “The Upper Columbia Conference Camp-
31
occasions on which credentials were given apart from ordination and the work in the gospel
ministry.
To explain why this was so, it is worth remembering, as others have pointed out previously,
that Ellen White employed the general words “minister” and “ministry” in three ways: sometimes to
refer to a work that all believers should engage in; sometimes to refer to diverse ministries that
augment the ministry of the Word; and sometimes to refer specifically to the gospel ministry of the
Word commonly reserved for ordained ministers.124 The distinction between ministers of the gospel
and ministers of other ministries that merely augmented this primary ministry explains why those
who had never worked in ministerial lines but who served in publishing, administrational, medical,
or educational lines were usually not ordained—they were not regarded as ministers in the “work of
the gospel ministry,” and therefore ordination was not needed.
A few examples may suffice to illustrate this fact. To begin with, prior to his ordination in
1874125, Uriah Smith served many years as editor of the Review (1855-1861, 1864-1869, 1870-
1873, 1874) and for several periods as secretary of the General Conference (1863-1874). Since he
had never worked as an itinerant minister, church leaders considered it unnecessary to ordain him
for a number of years. There was a recommendation on at least three occasions that he “be set apart
Meeting,” 399; idem, “The North Pacific Camp-Meeting,” 2 July 1901, 429; idem, “The California Camp-Meeting,” 5;
cf. Dick, Founders of the Message, 273; Coon, The Great Visions of Ellen G. White, 66.
124
See Moon, “A Power That Exceeds That of Men,” 188, 189. As a result of his study, Moon concluded that
Ellen White used the term “ministry” to designate the work of women in all three categories. See, e.g., Ellen G. White,
“The Reward of Faithful Toil,” Bible Echo, December 2, 1901, 776; idem to Teachers in Emmanuel Missionary
College, St. Helena, Calif., 21 September 1903 (Letter 210, 1903), EGWE; idem, “The Laborer Is Worthy of His Hire,”
22 March 1898 (Manuscript 43a, 1898), EGWE. Thus she stated, e.g., that “Sister Robinson [is] doing the work of
ministering, fully as valuable as any ordained minister,” which did not mean that she was performing the exact same
functions but that her work of ministry (“visiting and giving Bible readings”) was as valuable as his. See idem, Diary
entry for 21 May 1898 (Manuscript 182, 1898), Sunnyside Cooranbong, Australia, EGWE.
125
Uriah Smith, “Camp-Meeting Notings,” Review and Herald, 18 August 1874, 68.
32
for the work of the ministry,” but it was not executed.126 Instead, in 1868, Smith was “granted a
license to improve” his “gift in preaching.”127
A second example of a church administrator serving without being ordained is G. I. Butler,
who in 1865 began serving as president of the Iowa Conference, even though he had “no experience
as a preacher.” It was not until June 6, 1867, that he received a ministerial license, and it was not
until September 28 of that year that he received ordination.128 Interestingly, even after he had been
elected conference president, the church saw no need to hurry his ordination, as they apparently did
not see it as necessary prior to him beginning his service as president..
Besides these examples, it may be mentioned that a number of women served in various
administrational, educational, and medical positions on the conference, union, and General
Conference level, without having been ordained or holding ministerial credentials. Thus some
served as secretaries and/or treasurers of these entities or associated societies (later departments).129
126
Uriah Smith and E. S. Walker, “Fourth Annual Meeting of the Michigan State Conference,” Review and
Herald, 31 May 1864, 2; J. N. Loughborough and Isaac D. van Horn, “The Michigan State Conference: Its Eighth
Annual Session,” Review and Herald, 26 May 1868, 357; Smith and van Horn, “Michigan Conference of S. D.
Adventists,” 69.
127
Ibid., 69.
128
G. I. Butler and H. E. Carver, “Business Proceedings of the Iowa State Conference Held at Pilot Grove,
Iowa, July 3, 1865,” Review and Herald, 1 August 1865, 70; G. I. Butler and A. A. Fairfield, “The Iowa Conference:
Fifth Annual Meeting,” Review and Herald, 25 June 1867, 21; Smith, “Editorial Correspondence, No. 3,” 264;
“Conference Proceedings: Twenty-Sixth Meeting,” General Conference Bulletin, 2 June 1913, 230. Cf. Emmett K.
VandeVere, Rugged Heart: The Story of George I. Butler (Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Publishing Assn., 1979), 19;
Mustard, James White and SDA Organization, 166; James R. Nix, Early Advent Singing, 2nd ed. (Hagerstown, Md.:
Review and Herald, 2000), 79; Gerald Wheeler, James White: Innovator and Overcomer, Adventist Pioneer Series
(Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 2003), 161; Knight, Organizing to Beat the Devil, 68; Land, The A to Z of the
Seventh-day Adventists, 50.
129
Various books and articles have been published dealing with this question. Just a few individuals may be
mentioned at this point. Allie Guthrie was the secretary and treasurer of the North Missouri Conference as well as for
the Tract Society of said conference (1910-1912). See 1910 Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination
(Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1910), 35; H. E. Rogers, ed., 1911 Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist
Denomination (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1911), 26; idem, ed., 1912 Year Book of the Seventh-day
Adventist Denomination (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1912), 26. Mrs. A. F. Harrison was the secretary and
treasurer of the Sabbath School Association in the Southern District No. 2 in 1897. See L. A. Hoopes, “Mission Fields,”
General Conference Bulletin, July-September 1897, no. 3, 110. L. Flora Plummer became the “organizing secretary” of
33
Although ordination was not a prerequisite for service in leadership and administration
positions, somewhat ironically, individuals who demonstrated capable service in such positions
were often ordained, even if they had no prior experience in the gospel ministry of the Word and
were not preparing for such ministry. An illustration of this point is G. I Butler, who, as mentioned
just above, had not been ordained at the time he was elected conference president, but was
subsequently ordained two years later when his calling and fitness for the work became clear.
Likewise, in 1889, the General Conference ordained W. W. Prescott, then president of Battle Creek
College and education secretary of the General Conference, even though he had never served in
ministerial lines. Witnessing the fruits of his educational work and his powerful preaching abilities,
church leaders were more than convinced of his divine calling. “If he could serve the cause of God
any better in receiving ordination and credentials,” Ellen White surmised, “it would be best” for him
to be ordained.130
Despite the fact that ordination was not initially a prerequisite for leadership positions in
ministries not directly related to the ministry of the Word, the situation gradually changed, and soon
ordination became a requirement for such positions. In the 1920s, for example, church leaders
began to insist that leadership positions of the home missionary and missionary volunteer
departments be filled “preferably” with ordained ministers and that educational departments be
filled with those who had “practical experience in teaching and in soul-winning work.” The
rationale behind this decision was to counter the increasing local church pastorates and to foster the
the General Conference Sabbath School Department at its establishment in 1901 and was the secretary / director of that
department from 1913 to 1936. See Coon, “Ellen G. White’s View of the Role of Women in the SDA Church,” 3.
Adelia P. Patten-Van Horn and Minerva Jane Loughborough-Chapman served as treasurers of the General Conference.
See ibid., 2.
130
Ellen G. White, “Diary entry,” 3 November 1889; “Ordination,” 12 November 1889, 720; cf. Seventh-day
Adventist Year Book of Statistics for 1889 (Battle Creek, Mich.: Review and Herald, 1889), 25, 31, 42, 62; The Seventh-
day Adventist Year Book (Battle Creek, Mich.: Review and Herald, 1887), 113; Gilbert M. Valentine, W.W. Prescott:
Forgotten Giant of Adventism's Second Generation, rev. ed., Adventist Pioneer Series (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and
Herald, 2005), 47-67, 80, 81.
34
idea that all departments are “soul winning agencies.” At the same time, the document The Work of
the Minister was approved, which recommended to “every minister, whether resident pastor or a
departmental secretary, [to] make it his objective to engage in aggressive effort to win new members to
the faith.”131 Since all ministries, even those not previously understood to be directly engaged in the
ministry of the Word, were now encouraged to view themselves as active evangelists engaged in the
ministry of the Word, ordination was increasingly thought appropriate even for leaders working in such
areas as publishing, education, and administration. One significant result was that women, who were
not eligible for ordination as gospel ministers, were therefore no longer able to fill such leadership
positions. While women were still eligible to be church missionary secretaries on the local church level,
they gradually disappeared from such positions at the conference, union, division, and General
Conference level as ordination became an entrance requirement for these positions.132
In sum, the early practice of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was to allow unordained
individuals, both male and female, to serve in leadership positions in publishing industries, church
administration, and education. However, as such leaders demonstrated their calling and fitness for their
work, their call was often recognized and confirmed by ordination, even if they had never served in
pastoral ministry. Since ordination was not initially required for service in these non-ministerial
leadership positions, women initially often filled these roles, but this practice changed over time and
such positions became restricted solely to those who had been previously ordained as ministers.
131
“General Conference Committee Meetings for 1923: One Hundred Eighty-Fifth Meeting, Milwaukee, Wis.,
Oct. 10, 1923, 8:00 a.m.,” Milwaukee, Wis., 447, GCA; cf. Bert Haloviak, “Adventism’s Lost Generations: The Decline
of Leadership Positions for SDA Women,” Unpublished manuscript, Silver Spring, Md., 1990, 2; Kit Watts, “Moving
Away from the Table: A Survey of Historical Factors Affecting Women Leaders,” in The Welcome Table: Setting a
Place for Ordained Women, eds. Patricia A. Habada and Rebecca Frost Brillhart (Langley Park, Md.: TEAM, 1995),
54; Bull and Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary, 270. In 1927, LeRoy Edwin Froom complained, “The Home Missionary
Department was originally founded to lead the laity into service, but it has so far been absorbed by the financial
endeavors of the movement that it has become really an adjunct to the treasury. We must emphasize anew the call of
God upon consecrated men and women to witness for Him.” Quoted in Haloviak, “Adventism’s Lost Generations,” 5.
132
Ibid., 2; Watts, “Moving Away from the Table,” 54; Bull and Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary, 270.
35
Diversity of Ministries
Early Sabbatarian Adventists understood ordination to be particularly significant for the
setting apart of preachers and evangelists, yet they also saw that preachers and evangelists were not
the only individuals in the NT who were ordained by laying on of hands. Indeed, the apostles also
began ordaining individuals to serve as elders and deacons in order to address specific needs that
arose in their first-century communities. As the Sabbatarian Adventists perceived similar needs
arising in their own communities, they followed the NT model and likewise began ordaining elders
and deacons. Later on, as the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church necessitated the creation
of new offices and the further expansion of organizational structures, the church’s understanding of
which offices merited ordination likewise adapted. By the 1890s, for example, Ellen White was
suggesting a broadened view of ordination that would allow for the setting apart and ordaining of
individuals for a variety of lines of ministry, not just for the ministry of preaching. Thus, ordination
came to be understood as an act that was not limited solely to the setting apart of clergy, but an act
which could also be used to set apart individuals in other ministries as well, including those serving
in the roles of deaconess, missionary, or medical physician.
Deacons and Deaconesses
In late December 1853, H. S. Gurney reported that churches had begun to set apart deacons
“as denominated in the Bible” because ministers had been “called to travel” with no one left in the
churches to fully maintain “gospel order.”133 Six months later Joseph Bates suggested the setting
133
Gurney, “From Bro. Gurney,” 199. Cf. Neufeld, Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 254; Knight,
Organizing to Beat the Devil, 37; Land, The A to Z of the Seventh-day Adventists, 218. It should be noted too that it was
no until the 1920s that Adventist ministry changed from an itinerant-type ministry to a local church pastor pattern. See
S. N. Haskell, “Present Duty in Reference to Our Periodicals,” True Missionary, January 1874, 5; idem, “Our
Periodicals,” Signs of the Times, 22 April 1880, 188; A. G. Daniells (1912), quoted in Russell Burrill, Revolution in the
Church (Fallbrook, Calif.: Hart Research Center, 1993), 41; Harwood and Beem, “A Work for All to Do,” [18]; Knight,
“Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 106.
36
apart of individuals as deacons “by prayer and the laying on of hands,” a practice that was founded
on such texts as Acts 6:1-6; Titus 1:5, 6; and 1 Tim 3:8-13.134 He later emphasized that the apostles
set apart deacons in answer to a real and practical need.135 In early 1855 John Byington wrote to
James White asking how the distraction and discouragement of the churches could be solved; he
wondered if “every church” should appoint deacons and elders, and, if so, who should perform the
setting apart. In response, James White stressed that the scriptural testimony was to be the
foundation for any decision in this “subject of such vast importance.” The problems would be
solved if the churches would adopt “the all-powerful and perfect system of order, set forth in the
New Testament.” Thus those that had been called by God and approved by the church to preach the
Word and to set things in order in the churches should be the ones to set apart church officers. The
qualifications of deacons were laid down in such passages as Acts 14:21-23 and Titus 1:5-16.136 At
the same time, J. B. Frisbie, in outlining the offices of the NT church, pointed out that deacons were
to take care of the “temporal affairs of the church [that were] essential to its prosperity.”137 One and
a half years later, he added, quoting from Adam Clarke’s commentary, that the early church also
had deaconesses that “were ordained to their office by the imposition of the hands of the bishop.”138
Yet, the church did not accept his argumentation and avoided the setting apart of deaconesses.
134
Joseph Bates, “Communication from Bro. Bates,” Review and Herald, 30 May 1854, 148.
135
Bates, “Church Order,” 22.
136
James White, “Church Order,” 23 January 1855, 164.
137
Frisbie, “Church Order,” 9 January 1855, 155.
138
J. B. Frisbie, “Deacons,” Review and Herald, 31 July 1856, 101, 102; cf. Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible,
containing the Old and New Testaments, vol. 4 (Cincinnati, Ohio: Applegate, 1856), 167; Knight, “Early Seventh-day
Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 107.
37
In 1874, G. I. Butler found the biblical basis for deacons in 1 Tim 3:8-10 and Acts 6,
indicating that they were responsible for the care of the church’s “temporal matters.”139 A decade
later, W. H. Littlejohn remarked that some Seventh-day Adventist churches elected “one or more
women to fill a position similar to that which it is supposed that Phebe and others occupied in her
day,” yet he admitted that it was not the general “custom with us to ordain such women.” He
underlined, however, that it was “highly probable” that the apostolic church had deaconesses.140
Ellen White, meanwhile, encouraged the installation of deaconesses, suggesting while in Australia
that “women who are willing to consecrate some of their time to the service of the Lord should be
appointed to visit the sick, look after the young, and minister to the necessities of the poor. They
should be set apart to this work by prayer and laying on of hands.” She suggested that this would be
“another means of strengthening and building up the church,” emphasizing that the church needs “to
branch out more” in its “methods of labor,” indicative of her idea of a diversity of ministries.141
Subsequently a number of women were set apart in Australia and New Zealand in response to this
advice.142 Yet, this phenomenon did not become an established practice within the Adventist
Church, instead disappearing after a few years.
139
G. I. Butler, “Thoughts on Church Government—No. 5 [b],” Review and Herald, 8 September 1874, 92.
140
W. H. Littlejohn, “The Church Manual,” Review and Herald, 3 July 1883, 426; idem, “The Duties of Local
Church Officers,” Review and Herald, 22 November 1887, 730.
141
Ellen G. White, “The Duty of the Minister and the People,” Review and Herald, 9 July 1895, 434 (emphasis
supplied); Coon, “Ellen G. White’s View of the Role of Women in the SDA Church,” 8; Clarence C. Crisler to Mrs. L.
E. Cox, Sanitarium, Calif., 22 March 1916, EGWE; cf. Fortin, “The Concept of Ordination in the Writings of Ellen G.
White,” 126, 127.
142
About a month later J. O. Corliss and Bro. McCullagh “set apart . . . deaconesses by prayer and the laying on
of hands.” See Report of nominating committee, Ashfield Seventh-day Adventist Church, August 10, 1895, quoted in
Arthur N. Patrick, “The Ordination of Deaconesses,” Adventist Review, 16 January 1986, 18; Coon, “Ellen G. White’s
View of the Role of Women in the SDA Church,” 8. In 1896, Bertha Larwood was ordained deaconess by J. O. Corliss
to her duties in the church at Perth, Western Australia. See W. C. White to Members of the [Australasian] Union
Conference Committee, Cooranbong, N.S.W., Australia, July 15, 1896, CAR. Three and half years later, on January 6,
1900, W. C. White ordained Mrs. Brannyrane and Patchin as deaconesses at the Ashfield Seventh-day Adventist
Church. See Ashfield Seventh-day Adventist Church Minutes, entry for 7 January 1900, and W. C. White, Diary entry
38
Later Ellen White pointed out that the ordination of the seven deacons in the NT church was
a “step in the perfecting of gospel order in the church,” in that it developed a “plan for the better
organization of all the working forces of the church.” While she suggested that the church in
Jerusalem served as a model church, she added that in the later history of the early church “the
organization of the church was further perfected” to maintain “order and harmonious action,”
implying that additions or modifications to the NT leadership structure were both appropriate and
necessary.143 She also spoke of the further perfecting of gospel order and organization in her current
context.144 Other Adventist writers had expressed the idea of perfecting the organization already
since the 1860s;145 likewise, James White moved from his early insistence on an organizational
structure that did not go beyond the NT model146 toward recommending a developing organizational
for 6 January 1900, both published in Patrick, “The Ordination of Deaconesses,” 18, 19; Coon, “Ellen G. White’s View
of the Role of Women in the SDA Church,” 8. For an example on the ordination of deaconesses in North America, see
Douglas Morgan, Lewis C. Sheafe: Apostle to Black America, Adventist Pioneer Series (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and
Herald, 2010), 276. Cf. Haloviak, “A Place at the Table,” 35.
143
Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles, 88, 89, 91, 92; cf. idem to the Leading Ministers in California, St.
Helena, Calif., 6 December 1909 (Letter 178, 1909), EGWE.
144
Ellen G. White, Christian Education (Battle Creek, Mich.: International Tract Society, 1893), 135; quotation
in “Council Meeting, No. 2: Organization,” General Conference Daily Bulletin, 29 January 1893, 21; Loughborough,
The Church, 91; idem, Heavenly Visions, compiled by Leah Schmitke (Mentone, Calif.: Compiler, 1984), 13.
145
H. J. Bonifield, “From Bro. Bonifield,” Review and Herald, 11 March 1862, 119; J. H. Waggoner, “Report
from Bro. Waggoner,” Review and Herald, 24 June 1862, 28; Uriah Smith, “The Conference,” Review and Herald, 26
May 1863, 204; Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists: With Reports of the
European Missionary Councils of 1883, 1884, and 1885, and a Narrative by Mrs. E. G. White of Her Visit and Labors
in These Missions (Basel: Imprimerie Polyglotte, 1886), 110; “The Council Meeting,” General Conference Bulletin,
Extra, no. 6, 17 February 1895, 185; G. A. Irwin and L. A. Hoopes, “Statement Concerning Auditor’s Report,” General
Conference Bulletin, Extra, no. 6, 9 April 1901, 139; O. A. Olsen and L. A. Hoopes, “General Conference Proceedings:
Ninth Meeting, April 9, 10:30 a.m.,” General Conference Bulletin, Extra, no. 7, 10 April 1901, 169, 170; “Summary of
Proceedings of General Conference: On Organization,” General Conference Bulletin, no. 2, April-June 1901, 501; M.
E. Kern, “Report of the Young People’s Missionary Volunteer Department,” General Conference Bulletin, no. 2, 6 June
1909, 327. The official establishment of the Seventh-day Adventist Church had “the purpose of securing unity and
efficiency in labor, and promoting the general interests of the cause of present truth, and of perfecting the organization
of the Seventh-day Adventists.” See Byington and Smith, “Report of General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,”
204, 205.
146
James White, “Church Order,” 23 January 1855, 164.
39
system “which is not opposed by the Bible, and is approved by sound sense.”147 It seems that the
structure and the offices of the church could be developed, expanded, and adapted to ensure order,
unity, harmony, and efficiency as the church labored for the fulfillment of its mission, the
proclamation of the message of salvation.
Elders
In 1855, about a year after some local churches began setting apart deacons, Frisbie
expressed his opinion on the overlapping nature of the NT roles of bishops (episkopoi) and elders
(presbyteroi). In his understanding, both were more or less elders, but he perceived “two classes of
preaching elders” in the NT, namely “evangelical or travelling elders or bishops” and “local elders.”
The first class of elders functioned as supervisors over several churches whereas the second class
“had the pastoral care and oversight of one church.” Distinguishing the local elders from the
deacon, Frisbie stated that the local elders had “the oversight of the spiritual” while deacons took
care of the temporal affairs.148 Frisbie argued that specific people were called by God and
afterwards “chosen by the church and set apart by the laying on of hands of . . . elders and
bishops.”149 He added that the “churches chose, ordained or appointed by holding up their hands in
voting their choice who should be messengers of the churches.”150 The primary biblical passages
used in support for these arguments were Acts 13:1-4; 14:23; 20:28; 1 Cor 12:28; 2 Cor 8:19; and
147
James White, “Yearly Meetings,” Review and Herald, 21 July 1859, 68, also reprinted in idem, “Yearly
Meetings,” Review and Herald, 5 May 1863, 180; cf. Mustard, James White and SDA Organization, 131, 134, 171, 172,
221, 222, 231, 232; Fortin, “The Concept of Ordination in the Writings of Ellen G. White,” 120, 121.
148
Frisbie, “Church Order,” 9 January 1855, 155; idem, “Church Order,” 26 June 1856, 70; Cottrell, “What are
the Duties of Church Officers?,” 173; cf. Jones, “Church Officers,” 518, 519; E. J. Waggoner, “The Office of Bishop,”
Present Truth, 1 June 1893, 165.
149
150
Ibid., 70.
40
Eph 5:11.151 Sabbatarian Adventists saw the need to set apart elders because some churches had not
celebrated the Lord’s Supper for numerous weeks or even years due to the lack of visiting
ministers.152 By 1856, the setting apart of elders seems to have become a regular practice.153 In early
October of that year Cottrell added that elders had to perform all the duties of the ordained minister
(“travelling elder or evangelist”) in the latter’s absence, duties such as administering the Lord’s
Supper, baptizing new converts, receiving them into membership, building up the church and
preaching the truth.154 Ellen White basically agreed with Frisbie’s distinction of local and travelling
elders, yet, like Cottrell, she added that it was the duty of the local elders “to administer baptism . . .
[and] to attend to the ordinances of the Lord’s house” if it were necessary and if the minister were
absent. Both had been “appointed by the church and by the Lord” to oversee the spiritual concerns
of the church. It seems that, in 1861, the Michigan Conference officially adopted Ellen White’s
position of the overlapping duties of these two offices.155 Interestingly, elders and deacons were
frequently set apart by the laying on of hands at the same service, especially during the
establishment of new churches.156
151
Ibid., 70.
152
Cf. S. N. Haskell to Ellen G. White, South Lancaster, Mass., 27 January 1887, EGWE.
153
J. N. Loughborough, “Oswego Conference,” Review and Herald, 27 December 1855, 101; S. N. Haskell to
Ellen G. White, South Lancaster, Mass., 20 March 1887, EGWE; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and
Ordination, 1844-1863,” 107, 112.
154
Cottrell, “What are the Duties of Church Officers?,” 173.
155
Ellen G. White to Lewis Bean, n.p., c. September 1859 (Letter 20, 1859), EGWE; idem to Bro and Sr. Scott,
Battle Creek, Mich., 6 July 1863 (Letter 5, 1863), EGWE; Loughborough, Hull, and Cornell, “Conference Address,”
157; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 107, 108.
156
See, e.g., R. F. Cottrell, “A Short Tour Among the Saints,” Review and Herald, 25 November 1858, 4; Wm.
S. Ingraham, “From Bro. Ingraham,” Review and Herald, 27 October 1859, 184; John Bostwick, “Conference in
Lynxville, Wis.,” Review and Herald, 19 June 1860, 37; James White, “Western Tour,” Review and Herald, 6
November 1860, 196; cf. Knight, “Early Seventh-day Adventists and Ordination, 1844-1863,” 108.
41
In the mid-1870s Butler added that a candidate for elder should be selected by a committee
consisting of an ordained minister and two persons chosen by him, with the church accepting or
rejecting this nomination. The elder was supposed to be set apart by an ordained minister, which
allowed him to baptize, administer the ordinances, and perform all duties to be done “by those in
offices lower than” himself in the church. It was his task to feed the church spiritually so that “the
graces of the Spirit” (Phil 4:8) might become visible in them.157 Accordingly, he had “a measure of
authority superior to that of the private members of the church.”158
At the 1885 General Conference session delegates discussed whether an elder had to be re-
ordained in the new church after moving from one place to another one. The matter was eventually
referred to another committee.159 The committee saw the value of confining the ordination of an
elder to the church which elected him, but also saw the value of permitting the elder to act “as
unrestricted as a minister.” The dilemma of which course to take led them to propose a sort of
compromise between the two alternatives. The committee stated, “All agree that it is to be regarded
as purely a matter of church discipline, and we believe there is truth in both positions which may be
combined into one consistent system.” Thus it gave the following recommendations to the
conferences: (a) The authority of an elder is confined to the church “which elected him as elder,”
except if the conference committee “under special circumstances” thought it advisable to send him
to another churches. (b) An elder should not be re-ordained if he is properly elected or re-elected in
another church. (c) An elder should be considered a normal member upon his removal to another
church or conference, and his qualifications should be evaluated just as if he had never been an
157
G. I. Butler, “Thoughts on Church Government—No. 5,” Review and Herald, 1 September 1874, 85.
158
Ibid., 92.
159
G. I. Butler and Uriah Smith, “Twenty-Fourth Annual Session, General Conference of Seventh-day
Adventists: Fifth Meeting, November 20, 1885, 9:30 a.m.,” Battle Creek, Mich., GCA.
42
elder before. (d) A ministerial license does not enlarge the sphere of an elder beyond his local
church. (e) Although the ordination of an elder is valid “for all time, except in case of apostasy,” he
cannot act as an elder beyond his allotted time, “unless he is re-elected, or elected by another
church.” It was argued that the conferences’ failure to conform to these recommendations “will
open the way to disorder and confusion in our churches.”160
Missionaries to Foreign Countries
In the 1890s the General Conference began setting apart individuals by the laying on of
hands when the delegates decided to call these persons to a foreign mission field. The wives of
these missionaries then received missionary licenses. Even if the missionary was to serve primarily
in educational, publishing, or medical lines, he was still ordained on the grounds that it was quite
possible that he might need to engage sometimes in ministerial activities, especially in the mission
field.161 Three examples may suffice to illustrate this procedure. The General Conference decided to
send A. B. Oyen as a missionary to Norway to “labor in connection with the publishing work there
and to obtain all the help possible in translating the important works . . . into the Danish language.”
At the same occasion he was “ordained.”162 Another example is the ordination of Percy T. Magan.
Although the General Conference committee initially decided to ordain Magan, “it was deemed
160
Butler and Smith, “Twenty-Fourth General Conference Session.”
161
Butler, “Changes in the Field of Labor,” 752; O. A. Olsen and L. T. Nicola, “Minutes of the General
Conference Committee, Spring Session, 1893: Tenth Meeting, March 16, 1893, 10 a.m.,” 19; Loughborough,
“Ordination Service,” 676; Durland, “Ordination Service,” 772; L. A. Hoopes, “Proceedings of the Foreign Mission
Board,” General Conference Bulletin, July-September 1897, no. 3, 96; Z. G. Baharian, “Progress of the Cause: Turkey,”
Review and Herald, 18 April 1899, 252; A. G. Daniells and W. A. Spicer, “One Hundred and Thiryt-First Meeting
General Conference Committee: October 11, 1906, 2 p.m.,” 216; A. G. Daniells and W. A. Spicer, “Two Hundred and
Twenty-Fourth Meeting General Conference Committee: December 12, 1907,” 392; A. G. Daniells and W. A. Spicer,
“Three Hundred and Forty-Second Meeting General Conference Committee: February 23, 1909,” 595; A. G. Daniells
and H. R. Salisbury, “One Hundred and Thirty-Sixth Meeting General Conference Committee: Loma Linda, Calif., May
10, 1910,” Loma Linda, Calif., 238; A. G. Daniells and W. A. Spicer, “Fifty-Sixth Meeting General Conference
Committee: September 14 [1911],” 83; A. G. Daniells and W. A. Spicer, “One Hundred Twenty-Seventh Meeting
General Conference Committee: July 31, 1912,” 234; Cf. Trim, “Ordination in Seventh-day Adventist History,” 22, 23.
162
Butler, “Changes in the Field of Labor,” 752.
43
expedient to leave the matter for the time being” “when he was connected with the school work.”
After he had worked as head of the Bible and History department at Battle Creek College for about
six years (1891-1897), the General Conference Committee decided again to ordain him in case he
“be accepted by the Foreign Mission Board as its secretary.”163 Since Magan never assumed that
position, it was decided not to follow through with the decision. Two years later, in 1899, he was
ordained anyway, even though he was still not engaged in missionary work.164 Another example is
the ordination of Walter K. Ising in 1908. For three years Ising had been the secretary of the
German Union Conference, which included Russia, Austria, Hungary, and the Balkan countries. He
was also editor of the German paper Zionswächter and other papers in Hungary, Russia, and
Estonia. He was still regarded as “rather young and inexperienced in evangelical work.” But he
believed that God had called him into that work and he was willing to commit himself entirely to
“the work of the gospel missionary in Syria.” Thus the leading brethren acknowledged his divine
calling and ordained him on March 4, 1908.165 These examples reveal that church leaders did not
consider it necessary for workers in administrational and educational positions to be ordained. It
was only when these workers wanted to enter foreign missionary work that the church deemed it
important to set them apart for the gospel ministry.
163
G. A. Irwin and L. A. Hoopes, “Minutes General Conference Committee: Battle Creek, Mich., June 17,
1897,” Battle Creek, Mich., 4; cf. Trim, “Ordination in Seventh-day Adventist History,” 23.
164
E. A. Sutherland, “[Obituary] Dr. Percy Tilson Magan,” Review and Herald, 29 January 1948, 20. Although
some writers have claimed that Magan “was ordained to the gospel ministry” by either E. A. Sutherland or W. C. White
on July 27, 1897, it may be questioned why then Sutherland himself suggested that Magan was, in fact, ordained by G.
A. Irwin in 1899. See Merlin N. Neff, For God and C. M. E.: A Biography of Percy Tilson Magan Upon the Historical
Background of the Educational and Medical Work of the Seventh-day Adventists (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press,
1964), 64; Ira Gish and Harry Christman, Madison, God’s Beautiful Farm: The E. A. Sutherland Story (Mountain View,
Calif.: Pacific Press, 1979), 64.
165
“[Obituary] Walter Konrad Wilhelm Ising,” Review and Herald, 26 October 1950, 20; L. R. Conradi and
Guy Dail, “Two Hundred and Forty-First Meeting General Conference Committee in Europe: Hamburg, March 4, 1908,
A.M.,” Hamburg, Germany, 419, 420; L. R. Conradi and Guy Dail, “Two Hundred and Forty-Second Meeting General
Conference Committee in Europe: Hamburg, March 4, 1908, P.M.,” Hamburg, Germany, 423; cf. Trim, “Ordination in
Seventh-day Adventist History,” 23.
44
Medical Missionaries
In 1893, Ellen White used the Holy Spirit’s call to set apart Paul and Barnabas for their
specific mission as the biblical precedent for ordaining both men and women as medical
missionaries.
May the voice from the living oracles of God, the startling movings of providence, speak in clear
language to the church, “separate unto me Paul and Barnabas.” Holy and devout men are wanted
now to cultivate their mental and physical powers and their piety to the uttermost, and to be
ordained to go forth as medical missionaries, both men and women. Every effort should be made
to send forth intelligent workers. The same grace that came from Jesus Christ to Paul and
Apollos, that distinguished them for spiritual excellencies can be reproduced and brought into
working order in many devoted missionaries.166
Interestingly, she used the same text and argumentation commonly employed to support the
ordination of ministers, namely the ordination of Paul and Barnabas. Similarly, Ellen White made
an interesting statement in regard to the ordination of “missionary physicians” in 1908, when the
medical work at the three sanitariums in California was still in its infancy:
The work of the true medical missionary is largely a spiritual work. It includes prayer and the
laying on of hands; he therefore should be as sacredly set apart for his work as is the minister of
the gospel. Those who are selected to act the part of missionary physicians, are to be set apart as
such. This will strengthen them against the temptation to withdraw from the sanitarium work to
engage in private practice.167
Obviously she had a broader understanding of ordination that allowed a specific setting apart with
prayer and the laying on of hands for diverse ministries and not merely for the gospel ministry.
While the ordination of a missionary physician for his work was comparable to the ordination of a
minister for the gospel ministry, it did not make the physician a minister. Also, the setting apart of
medical workers as missionary physicians was a tool to keep them spiritually and missionary
166
Ellen G. White to J. H. Kellogg and Wife, 19 February 1893 (Letter 35, 1893), EGWE, printed in idem,
Manuscript Releases, vol. 6 (Silver Spring, Md.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1990), 226 (emphasis added).
167
Ellen G. White, “True Medical Missionary Work,” n.p., 23 February 1908 (Manuscript 5, 1908), EGWE,
published in idem, Evangelism (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1946), 546 (emphasis added); cf. Ron Graybill
to Robert H. Pierson, Washington, D.C., 7 February 1973, EGWE; Fagal, “Ellen G. White and Women in Ministry,”
274, 275.
45
minded in their work. In talking about the commission given by Christ to the first disciples, Ellen
White suggested that both “men and women,” if they yield to the consecrating influence of the Holy
Spirit, are “ordained of God to bring salvation to human hearts and minds,” confirming her view
that ordination sets apart the ordained individual for a spiritual purpose, which apparently applied
even to those primarily engaged in medical work.168
Every Believer a “Minister”
With the growing missionary perspective of Seventh-day Adventists came also an
understanding of the necessary involvement of every believer in the missionary work. Similar to
Ellen White’s threefold view of “ministry,” A. T Jones remarked that the word “ministry” in 2 Cor
6:3 does not merely refer to the “ordained ministry of the pulpit” but to everyone who received
God’s grace. Based on 1 Pet 4:10 he suggested that it was the task of every believer to participate in
this ministry of grace.169 Later he seemed to emphasize that “ordained and licensed workers”
mutually engage in missionary work, but when these workers leave an established church to enter a
new field, it is up to the remaining, unordained church members, men and women, to engage in
various lines of ministry in order to continue what the paid workers started in their community.170 In
1894, S. N. Haskell wrote about an ordained minister from Russia who was frequently ordered to
the leave the country after making new converts in a certain area. Then his wife would return to the
place because the authorities were not used to women missionaries and did not act against them as
168
Ellen G. White, “Notes of Travel,” Review and Herald, 11 March 1909, 8.
169
A. T. Jones, “The Third Angel’s Message, no. 3,” General Conference Bulletin, 8 February 1895, 50, 51;
idem, “Receive Not the Grace of God in Vain,” Review and Herald, 22 September 1896, 605; idem, “Receive Not the
Grace of God in Vain,” Present Truth, 12 November 1896, 726.
170
A. T. Jones, “To the People of the California S. D. A. Conference,” Pacific Union Recorder, 13 March 1902,
4; idem, “The California Conference,” Pacific Union Recorder, 27 March 1902, 12; idem, “Self-Government Means
Self-Support,” Review and Herald, 3 June 1902, 10.
46
they did against men. After she took the place of her husband, Haskell stated, she made “more
converts than he [did].”171
Although Ellen White suggested that ordained ministers should act as representatives of God
on earth, she also emphasized that every believer is Christ’s representative.172 It should also be
noted that Ellen White employed the term “pastor” not as an equivalent for ordained ministers but
rather to refer to a person who does the personal, spiritual work and care that is often neglected by
the ministers. In her view, women were especially suited to the role of pastor.173 She pointed out
that many are “laborers together with God” that are not discerned by leaders and members because
they have never been formally ordained for the work, yet they carry Christ’s yoke and exert a
saving influence.174 Also, she repeatedly encouraged people to actively engage in the cause and
mission of the church and stressed that “ordination” was not a prerequisite for such work.175 If
willing individuals asked God in faith, trusted in Christ’s merits, and depended upon Christ in a
consecrated, self-denying, and self-sacrificing spirit, God would fit them for that work and give
171
S. N. Haskell to W. C. White, Kopenhagen, Denmark, 5 June 1894, EGWE.
172
Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles, 359-371; idem, “A Preparation for the Coming of the Lord,” Review
and Herald, 24 November 1904, 7; cf. Fortin, “The Concept of Ordination in the Writings of Ellen G. White,” 115, 128,
129.
173
Ellen G. White, “The Work of the Church,” Adelaide, South Australia, 11 October 1892 (Manuscript 7,
1892), EGWE; idem, Testimonies for the Church, 5:723; idem, Gospel Workers: Instruction for All Who Are “Laborers
Together with God” (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1915), 337; cf. Fagal, “Ellen G. White and Women in
Ministry,” 276, 277.
174
Ellen G. White, “Testimony to the Battle Creek Church,” 3 August 1894 (Manuscript 33, 1894), published
in idem, Special Testimonies to Ministers and Workers, Series A, no. 3 (N.p.: n.p., 1895), 12, 13; idem, “The Need of
Home Religion,” Review and Herald, 29 June 1905, 8; idem, Acts of the Apostles, 355; idem, Daughters of God:
Messages Especially for Women (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 1998), 75.
175
Ellen G. White, “Our Obligation to Improve Our Talents,” Signs of the Times, 23 January 1893, 183; idem to
J. H. Kellogg, 14 January 1899 (Letter 10, 1899), EGWE; idem, “Faithfulness in Service,” Youth’s Instructor, 6
February 1902, 43; idem, “A Preparation for the Coming of the Lord,” Review and Herald, 24 November 1904, 7; idem,
“The Great Commission, a Call to Service,” Review and Herald, 24 March 1910, 3; idem, “Work in the South,” Field
Tidings, 8 June 1910, 1; idem, “Work for the Master,” Bible Training School, 1 March 1912, 194.
47
them the Holy Spirit.176 Many souls would be saved “as a result of men looking to Jesus for their
ordination and orders.”177
She suggested that a minister’s wife who “devotes her time and strength to visiting”
families, “opening the Scriptures to them, although the hands of ordination have not been laid upon
her,” could accomplish a work in the line of ministry. Accordingly, she should be paid a salary
proportionate to the time spent. Ellen White argued that God regarded it an injustice for such a
woman to be treated as another minister’s wife who did not engage in the work at all.178 While the
church used tithe money only for the support of the ministers179, she recommended that wives who
actively supported their minister-husbands and women who engaged in missionary work should
also receive a wage from the tithe.180 It seems that her concept as described above is in harmony
with the Protestant idea of the priesthood of all believers.181 Thus it seems reasonable when she
says, “All who are ordained unto the life of Christ are ordained to work for the salvation of their
fellow-men.”182 The gospel commission is therefore not only addressed to the twelve initial
176
Ellen G. White to Kellogg, 14 January 1899; idem, “Faithfulness in Service,” 43; idem, Acts of the Apostles,
40; idem, “Work for the Master,” 194.
177
Ellen G. White, “Consumers, But Not Producers,” 25 April 1901 (Manuscript 35, 1901), EGWE.
178
Ellen G. White, “The Laborer Is Worthy of His Hire,” published in idem, Manuscript Releases, vol. 5
(Silver Spring, Md.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1990), 29, 30, 323, 324; idem, Daughters of God, 110, 111; cf. idem, “A
Collection of Manuscripts on Auditing,” n.p., c. 1903 (Manuscript 142, 1903), EGWE; idem, Gospel Workers, 452,
453.
179
See, e.g., Breed, “General Conference District No. 6,” 217; idem, “District 6,” 19.
180
Ellen G. White to G. A. Irwin, I. H. Evans, U. Smith, and A. T. Jones, Stanmore, Australia, 21 April 1898
(Letter 137, 1898), EGWE; idem, “I was instructed in America,” Cooranbong, Australia, 24 October 1899 (Manuscript
149, 1899), EGWE; Cf. Fagal, “Ellen G. White and Women in Ministry,” 282.
181
This was pointed out in Fortin, “The Concept of Ordination in the Writings of Ellen G. White,” 115, 116. Cf.
Ellen G. White to Bro. and Sr. Maxson, Adelaide, South Australia, 12 October 1896 (Letter 73, 1896); idem,
Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 212, 213, 441; idem, Testimonies for the Church, 2:169 [1868]; 6:123,
274 [1900]. She repeatedly quoted and alluded to 1 Pet 2:9 and John 15:16.
182
Ellen G. White, “Our Work,” Signs of the Times, 25 August 1898, 2. In this quotation different shades of
meaning of the word “ordain” become visible. While she used the term in referring to the appointment of someone to an
48
disciples but to all believers, even though they may not have been set apart with human hands.183
They may nevertheless look “to Jesus for their ordination and order,” knowing that he “has laid his
hands” upon them.184
Summary
When Sabbatarian Adventists began setting apart people for the gospel ministry in the early
1850s, they supported that practice primarily from the NT. They saw the need to apply NT passages
regarding ordination or the laying on of hands in order to create order, unity, and harmony among
the believers and to prevent the influence of false teachers. While early on they did not want to go
beyond the pattern outlined in the NT, they later modified this position and began to allow for
adaptation of NT patterns in order to accommodate changing circumstances, insisting merely that
all new developments be in harmony with the Bible even if they were not an exact reflection of
biblical precedents. Practical necessities, the growing mission of the church, and its increasing
organizational structures lead them to create new offices, positions, and ministries. Often new
regulations were not supported by any biblical passages, but they were justified on the grounds that
the new regulations and refinements were not so much biblical prescriptions but valid human
applications of the principle of gospel order to ensure unity, order, and harmony in the church.
Reflecting this openness to development, the ordination ceremony itself, which was initially very
simple, gradually became more elaborate and came to reflect some basic elements present in the
Methodist Episcopal ordination rite.
office/mission or the practice of laying on of hands, she also used it to mean “to command or decree” and “to order or
organize.” See Fortin, “The Concept of Ordination in the Writings of Ellen G. White,” 117, 118.
183
Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles, 110; idem, “A Preparation for the Coming of the Lord,” 7.
184
Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, 6:444 [1900]; idem, “Words to Our Workers,” Review and
Herald, 21 April 1903, 7.
49
Though some individuals suggested that baptism was a sacred ordinance that could be
conducted only by an ordained minister, Ellen White argued against this. Although she agreed that
church members should, for the sake of order, allow the minister to perform the baptism, it was not
wrong for them to do it in case of his absence.
While Seventh-day Adventists generally followed the practice of ordaining only those
individuals for the ministry that had proven their divine call in evangelistic or ministerial field
work, they sometimes also ordained individuals that did not have an experience in these lines of the
work. When these individuals had proven their abilities and skills in other lines of the work
(educational, administrational, etc.), the church frequently decided to set them apart too.
Interestingly, although ordination eventually became a requirement for serving in administrative or
educational leadership positions, ordination was not initially a prerequisite for these positions,
because these were distinguished from the gospel ministry. Seventh-day Adventists were generally
open to the engagement of women in various lines of ministry, yet it was not their practice to ordain
them for the gospel ministry. In earlier years they practiced only the ordination of ministers, elders,
and deacons, yet by the 1890s Ellen White recommended the ordination of people, both male and
female, for various lines of ministry. Thus she emphasized that ordination was not an act linked
solely to the clergy but she envisioned ordination as a practice that set apart and committed people
to various specific lines of ministry such as deaconesses, missionaries, medical physicians, etc.
Setting people apart for a specific ministry did not automatically turn that person into an ordained
minister. Although the church began to implement some of these recommendations, it seems that it
never really effectuated them entirely.
50
In summary, the general Seventh-day Adventist practice of ordination was specifically based
on NT passages, yet the practice and its implications developed over time and were influenced by
external necessities and the growth of the church structure and the mission of the church.
51

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Setting Apart for the Ministry:

Theory and Practice in Seventh-day Adventism (1850–1920)

Sabbatarian Adventism1 emerged in a milieu that was strongly antagonistic toward

within the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Sabbatarian Adventist movement through a traveling ministry. A problem soon developed,

The Rationale for and Objectives of

A Biblical Rationale for the Practice

considered the practice an application of the principle of “gospel order.”16

the head of a sacrificial animal. In the NT it became an “acknowledged form of designation to an

The Benefits and Objectives of the Practice

God to the work of the ministry.38

Evangelistic / Ministerial Experience

standards of “attainment to be required of those who receive a license,” as well as establish “a

Beliefs and Actions in Harmony with the Main Body

doctrines as held by Seventh-day Adventists.”50 This was of considerable importance because

of this aspect may be indicative of a specific need among Adventist ministers.

Intellectual and Spiritual Fitness

A Sense of One’s Own Weakness and Incompetence

self-confidence and pride.59

A Special Circumstance: The Question of Women in Ministry

infidel goals of the women’s rights movement.67

her work as “that of an ordained minister unquestionably.”75

Lateral Entry of Ministers Previously Ordained

considered valid after a minister apostatized.78

The Ordination Ceremony

Elements of the Ordination Ceremony

Manifestations of the Holy Spirit

Initially, ordination ceremonies were accompanied by highly emotional manifestations of

the candidate.88 However, such manifestations vanished in later years.

Participants in the Ceremony

the action as follows:

meeting frequently joined in the laying on of hands.94

Symbolic Action vs. Sacerdotal Rite

Authority and Responsibilities of Ordained Ministers

response to changing circumstances.

Basic Responsibilities of Ordained Ministers

minister were considered an implementation of “gospel order.”109

Authority to Administer Ordinances

an ordained minister was allowed to perform the ordinances.

Positions of Leadership and Administration

leadership and administration in the higher levels of the church organization.

the gospel ministry,” and therefore ordination was not needed.

license to improve” his “gift in preaching.”127

A second example of a church administrator serving without being ordained is G. I. Butler,

not see it as necessary prior to him beginning his service as president..

Conference level as ordination became an entrance requirement for these positions.132

Early Sabbatarian Adventists understood ordination to be particularly significant for the

in the roles of deaconess, missionary, or medical physician.

Deacons and Deaconesses

Church, instead disappearing after a few years.

proclamation of the message of salvation.

establishment of new churches.156

authority superior to that of the private members of the church.”158

open the way to disorder and confusion in our churches.”160

Missionaries to Foreign Countries

consider it necessary for workers in administrational and educational positions to be ordained. It

important to set them apart for the gospel ministry.

even to those primarily engaged in medical work.168