Global unity of the church, its mission, and the best use of resources to achieve that mission, were identified as three "big issues" to be considered by the Commission on Ministries, Services and Structures, established by the Seventh-day Adventist Church's leadership in October 2005.

Explaining the rationale for the commission's appointment, Pastor Jan Paulsen, Adventist world church president, said these three "big concerns will drive [the commission's] considerations."

Paulsen, who is also chair of the commission, added, "whatever comes out of the work of this commission, it would probably be good to see it as a chapter in the book of our church -- a book which will not be completed until the journey is over, for the church is a living organism and life is dynamic."

The underlying purpose of the commission, according to Lowell C. Cooper, a general vice president of the church, and commission vice-chairman, is to examine ways in which ministries, services and structures can be most effective and efficient in accomplishing the church's two most prominent values of mission and unity.

Referring to the structures of the church, which "have served us well for a century," Paulsen said that these [structures] were set up "when our world membership was at 75,000 and were scattered thinly internationally, and we were vastly dependent on resources and ideas coming from the Western developed world."

"Is this adequate for us to go into the 21st century with 25 million or 50 million members?" he asked.

Though referring primarily to organizational structures, Paulsen recognized this issue affects ministries, departments and services of the global church as they flow from the organizational setup of the church.

Among the issues for the commission's consideration Paulsen identified an increased need for better, reciprocal communication in the church "between local membership and global leadership in order to obtain and sustain a sense of involvement and partnership in the global life of the church."

During its initial and primarily organizational session of the 100-member commission meeting in Loma Linda, California (USA), on April 10, four presentations were considered as a background of the future deliberations. These included: "Reasons for Considering Adjustments to Seventh-day Adventist Church Ministries, Services and Structures" by Lowell C. Cooper; "Ecclesiology and Reorganization: The Oneness of the Church" by Angel Manuel Rodriguez; "Organizing for Mission: the Development of Seventh-day Adventist Organizational Structure" by George R. Knight; and "The Flow of Ministries" by Vernon B. Parmenter.

The presentations, together with the rationale and reasons for the commission's task, brought together a theological understanding of the church and its organization, the history of the church's organization and principles upon which it developed, and options for possible reconfiguration of departmental services that are focused on the ministry of the local church.

Unity and mission of the church featured as two paramount values in all presentations. Rodriguez, who chairs the church's Biblical Research Institute (BRI), spoke about the scriptural foundation of Adventist ecclesiology, and said "we should always keep in mind that the main function of ecclesiastical organization is to allow the catholicity of the church to express itself as one, to coordinate in a global, unifying, and effective way the fulfilment of its mission, and to preserve doctrinal and theological unity within the universal life of the church."

Knight, a retired professor of church history at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, presented an organizational journey of the church, and its wide spectrum of approaches to organization. "The movement began aggressively anti-organizational, but today it is the most highly structured church in the history of Christianity," Knight stated.

Knight referred to the passionate discussions among the pioneers of the movement and to the unifying role played by the church's founding pioneer, Ellen G. White. "The time moves on and Adventism in 2006 exists in a world unimagined in 1901. It faces new challenges and possibilities," he concluded.

Paulsen challenged the commission members that "as we approach our task our minds must be open, engaged in prayer for God's guidance, and ... we must, in a way, try to be set 'free from ourselves' and the specific role we may now fill in the church so that we can go into this assignment with pure hearts concerned only for the good of the church."

In its first action, the commission decided to focus on two topics for its deliberation and presentation at the next meeting in October, prior to the church's Annual Council, namely, the concept of flexibility in denominational structure -- what are its boundaries and how could it operate, and; the place of Unions of Churches in denominational structures.

Unions of Churches are currently considered irregular structures necessitated by various geopolitical constraints. Standard denominational structure has five levels: local church, local mission/conference, union mission/conference, division of the General Conference, and General Conference. A Union of Churches omits the local mission/conference level of structure. However, Unions of Churches, of which there are six currently in existence, are not represented in the same manner as union missions/conferences at the General Conference Executive Committee.

These topics will be considered by two, 15-member committees, chaired by Michael L. Ryan, general vice president of the church, and Cooper. Both were asked to prepare papers for presentation and consideration in October.

The commission is made up of representatives from the world church and local church regions, as well as pastors and lay members. It follows an earlier, smaller commission which was set up in 2004, and charged to study and outline a strategy for organizational change to better serve the church from its world headquarters in the United States. [Editor: Rajmund Dabrowski for ANN/APD]