Setting Apart for the Ministry:
Theory and Practice in Seventh-day Adventism (1850-1920)
Denis Kaiser
SDA Theological Seminary
Andrews University
Andrews University
Introduction
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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