{"id":462,"date":"2014-09-01T08:49:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T08:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2014\/09\/01\/spring-meeting-in-battle-creek-marks-church-s-150th-anniversary\/"},"modified":"2014-09-01T08:49:13","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T08:49:13","slug":"spring-meeting-in-battle-creek-marks-church-s-150th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/spring-meeting-in-battle-creek-marks-church-s-150th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Meeting, in Battle Creek, Marks Church\u2019s 150th Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

13 April 2013 Battle Creek, Michigan, United States [Elizabeth Lechleitner\/ANN]<\/span>\u00a0In a replica of the meeting house where Seventh-day Adventist Church pioneer and prophet Ellen G. White once spoke for 10 hours on the Great Controversy, world church leaders met yesterday to commemorate the church\u2019s 150th anniversary.<\/p>\n

The Second Meeting House is located on the campus of the Adventist Historic Village here in Battle Creek, the birthplace of the Adventist Church and the site of this year\u2019s Spring Meeting, a biannual business session of the church\u2019s Executive Committee, its top governing body.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>Delegates received a crash course in Adventist History 101, with a side of some of the more obscure events surrounding the church\u2019s early formation, a strong urging to learn lessons from the past and, above all, a call to rekindle the enthusiasm early Adventists felt for the Second Coming of Christ.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must never lose the sense that [Jesus\u2019 Second Coming] is soon,\u201d Adventist historian Jim Nix told delegates. \u201cThis is what our pioneers fervently believed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nix, director of the Ellen G. White Estate, explored the church\u2019s early roots in Battle Creek during a morning presentation. When church pioneer Joseph Bates first arrived in the rural Michigan town, Nix said, he asked the local postmaster for \u201cthe most honest man in town,\u201d in hopes that man would be open to the emerging Adventist message. The man was David \u201cPenny\u201d Hewitt, a peddler so honest that if he unknowingly cheated a customer so much as a penny, he felt compelled to make immediate amends, Nix said.<\/p>\n

After a \u201cmorning worship\u201d by Bates extended well into the evening, Hewitt and his wife, Olive, were convinced of the seventh-day Sabbath and the sanctuary doctrine. The couple became Battle Creek\u2019s first Sabbath-keeping Adventists. In 1860, David would suggest naming the growing denomination the \u201cSeventh-day Adventist Church,\u201d three years before it was officially established.<\/p>\n

Delegates also learned about some of what Adventist historian Merlin Burt called \u201cspiritual detours in leadership\u201d during the church\u2019s early formation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bible doesn\u2019t hide the weaknesses of people of faith, and nor should we tell an incomplete story of our pioneers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Burt, who directs the Center of Adventist Research at church-owned Andrews University in nearby Berrien Springs, Michigan, took the opportunity to defend the reputation of a man many Adventists have viewed unfavorably as an authoritative legalist.<\/p>\n

That man, George Ide Butler, was embroiled in a heated debate with other early Adventist leaders regarding the doctrine of righteousness by faith. Butler rejected the notion, claiming it slackened the reins of God\u2019s law.<\/p>\n

By 1888, Butler\u2019s health had collapsed. He had been \u201cthrust\u201d into leadership of the Ohio Conference after two dissenters, Snook and Brinkerhoff, questioned Ellen White\u2019s prophetic authority and unexpectedly left the church, Nix said. Butler would later serve two terms as Adventist Church president.<\/p>\n

He retired to a rural citrus farm in Florida, where he cared for orange groves and his wife, Lentha, who had suffered a debilitating stroke. Years later, in a letter, Butler said the setting gave him ample \u201copportunities for meditation,\u201d and admitted that his mistakes were \u201cmanifold.\u201d Mellowed by quiet reflection, Butler fully accepted the doctrine of righteousness by faith and returned to church administration, mentoring A. G. Daniels and other young members.<\/p>\n

Calling the story \u201credemptive,\u201d Burt urged delegates to apply its lessons to their own leadership.
\u201cEven when God works and changes our own lives, our limitations still remain,\u201d Burt said. \u201cHopefully, though, when we\u2019re dependent upon God we can be more humble in our opinions, more charitable to others, less critical, and try to understand and care for others. When we are aware of the mercy of God, it makes us more merciful and able to be more effective leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a mid-day break, delegates witnessed the groundbreaking of two new buildings on the campus of the Adventist Historic Village \u2014 replicas of the church\u2019s first publishing house and first health reform institute in Battle Creek.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Adventist world church president Ted N. C. Wilson, flanked by presidents of the church\u2019s 13 world divisions, raised bright blue shovels into the air for a photo opp, a stark contrast to the gray drizzle that clouded the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay this be a reminder of the importance of transferring truth through the spoken word, and the written word,\u201d Wilson said, referring to the future publishing house.<\/p>\n

During an afternoon presentation, Adventist world church Vice President Delbert Baker explored how the early church\u2019s outreach method put it at the leading edge of advocacy for equality.<\/p>\n

Early Adventists, Baker said, grappled with slavery, equality and other \u201cdefining issues\u201d of the mid-19th Century. The church was officially established two years before the end of the Civil War, which pitted the northern and southern U.S. states against each other in a bloody battle over slavery, states\u2019 rights and the preservation of the Union.<\/p>\n

Ellen White counseled early Adventists to let \u201ctimeless biblical principles\u201d guide their approach to race relations. Using Luke 4 as what Baker called an \u201coutreach blueprint,\u201d Adventists were \u201cunequivocal\u201d in their belief that the Bible prompted ministry to all people and compelled Christians to \u201cset the oppressed free.\u201d
Indeed, Baker said, early Adventists were a diverse group, well representing gender, age and ethnicity. A former slave named Charles Kinney became the church\u2019s first black minister. Missionary Anna Knight was the first black woman to do outreach in India.<\/p>\n

Progress, however, \u201cwas not accidental\u201d or, at times, even \u201ceasy,\u201d Baker reminded delegates. It often required the \u201cprodding of members\u201d and the \u201cconfrontation of Ellen White.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early Adventists also struggled over whether to formally organize as a church, a subject Barry Oliver, president of the church\u2019s South Pacific Division, explored. Early pioneers such as James White were fervent in their call to \u201ccome out of Babylon,\u201d which they first interpreted as a challenge to leave organized religion and return to gospel simplicity.<\/p>\n

But financial collapse and an urgent need to fund outreach led the Adventist Church to embrace formal organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe development of mission was a clear impetus for organization,\u201d Oliver said, adding that early leaders were equally clear in cautioning that \u201cwhen structure inhibited mission, it should be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formal organization led to burgeoning church growth worldwide. When the church was officially established in 1863, there were 3,500 Adventists. By the turn of the century, there were 75,000 church members worldwide in America, Europe, the South Pacific and other so-called \u201cmission fields.\u201d
During a question-and-answer period, one delegate asked Oliver whether he feared current tension between world church headquarters and local regions would jeopardize the church\u2019s unity. Some administrative units of the church have lately challenged the world church on the issue of women\u2019s ordination.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re asking me to be a prophet,\u201d Oliver said, eliciting laughter from the delegates. He thought for a moment, then recommended a healthy \u201cbalance\u201d between the church\u2019s world headquarters and regional administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are resilient as a church, but unity must be guarded appropriately,\u201d he said. [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted-adventist.org
Website: www.ted-adventist.org<\/p>\n

ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify ted<\/em>NEWS whenever you publish these materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 April 2013 Battle Creek, Michigan, United States [Elizabeth Lechleitner\/ANN]<\/span>\u00a0In a replica of the meeting house where Seventh-day Adventist Church pioneer and prophet Ellen G. White once spoke for 10 hours on the Great Controversy, world church leaders met yesterday to commemorate the church\u2019s 150th anniversary.<\/p>\n

The Second Meeting House is located on the campus of the Adventist Historic Village here in Battle Creek, the birthplace of the Adventist Church and the site of this year\u2019s Spring Meeting, a biannual business session of the church\u2019s Executive Committee, its top governing body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1576,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership-development","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}