Important Resolutions Adopted at the Recent General Conference Committee Council
By Arthur G. Daniells
OWING to the great importance of some of the questions to be dealt with at the fall council of the General Conference Committee, and the effect the decisions regarding these questions would have upon our work, the executive officers of the General Conference Committee were authorized to request the union conference presidents to invite as many of their local conference presidents and leading ministers as they thought best to attend this meeting. Ninety-four persons were registered as representatives to the council. Twenty-three were members of the General Conference Committee, and came from all parts of the States and Canada. These included all the presidents of union conferences in North America. Thirty-two presidents of local conferences were present. Twenty-five ministers came to the meeting, mainly in the interests of the city work, which was to receive special attention. The remaining fourteen were nearly all representatives of different lines of departmental work. Thus it will be seen that the council was not only large, but very representative of both the field and the work. This was what was needed and desired. It was plain to all, as soon as the character and scope of the work to be done were outlined, that we were surely called to much earnest prayer and hard work. There was a general feeling that we had come to a crisis in the onward march of our cause, and that the decisions arrived at in the council would have a far-reaching influence. With this conviction, the brethren gave themselves to earnest, prayerful endeavor for the cause to which they are devoting their lives. The results of their work, as far as recommendations may express them, will be published in the REVIEW. These recommendations will bear careful study. In this article I wish to call special attention to the recommendations for providing the necessary funds for the support of home and foreign missions. Number two reads as follows:— 2. That urgent and very active effort in all conferences be made to bring up mission offerings for this and every succeeding year, to an average of at least ten cents a week a member. This recommendation, as defined, discussed, and adopted by the whole body, means much to the cause. The plan of raising ten cents a week for each member was fully adopted at the last session of the General Conference, and the appropriations for our world-wide work were made on the understanding that every conference in North America would raise its full share of the whole amount provided for by this plan. With this understanding the Mission Board proceeded to carry out the forward policy of the General Conference. But many of the conferences failed to raise the ten cents a week for each member; consequently the General Conference treasury ran out of funds, and not only the Mission Board, but every field receiving appropriations, was thrown into great perplexity and trouble. The treasurer was instructed to borrow, but the pressure became so great that he could send to the mission fields only half the18regular funds they had been receiving. This put our missionaries in a very hard place. Some were brought into serious perplexities. Of course, all plans for hastening recruits from the home field had to be called off. This, very briefly and mildly expressed, was the situation when the council convened. The Mission Board, having passed through a number of financial crises, did not become panic-stricken, but the members did feel that something should be done to save the denomination from such painful, injurious, and almost perilous experiences. So, when the council opened, one of the important questions that came to the front for final settlement was this: Is it the duty of each conference to raise the full amount of its share of the ten-cent-a-week fund, or will any amount it may chance to raise meet the full measure of its actual responsibility? The answer finally given by the whole body of representatives present, was that every conference should each year raise and send to the General Conference treasury its full amount of ten cents a week for every member in the conference. It was agreed by all that only on this basis could there possibly be any certainty of financial support to either the Mission Board or the home and foreign fields. Only on this understanding can any definite plans be laid with assurance that they will be carried out. For instance, the amount due from the ten-cent-a-week plan for the year 1910 is $329,898.40. More than that sum is called for by the fields. At the beginning of the year the Mission Board planned for the expenditure of that full amount, and nearly $75,000 more to be paid by conferences from their tithes. But during the first nine months of the present year the conferences fell short $47,650.15 in the ten-cent-a-week offerings. This compelled the Board to borrow that amount, or change its plans when it was too late to do so without great loss and disappointment. Therefore, after a most earnest and thorough study of the whole question, and a free, full discussion in the open council, it was agreed by all that hereafter it should be understood by every conference that the raising of its full amount of ten cents a week for every member is a sacred obligation, that can not be set aside nor neglected without bringing great perplexity and serious loss to both home and foreign fields. It was with this understanding that number five of the recommendations was adopted. The provision made by that part of the resolution was this:— 5. That we request all conferences in North America receiving a tithe of less than ten thousand dollars, to pay, beginning Jan. 1, 1911, from five per cent to ten per cent of their tithe, according to their ability, to the General Conference for mission fields; and all conferences receiving ten thousand dollars and more, to pay from ten per cent to twenty-five per cent, according to their ability; and that this plan be regarded as a permanent arrangement, upon which the General Conference may depend for the prosecution of its work. The arrangement made by this provision for the conferences of North America receiving a liberal tithe to share this with mission fields, is not the first suggestion of this kind. A resolution was passed at the last session of the General Conference requesting our conferences which could do so to share from one fourth to one third of their tithes with the mission fields. But this has not been done to any large extent the past year or more. A few have cheerfully shared what God has given them. What the council felt was necessary was to make some arrangement by which every conference would pay something, so that the Mission Board would be as sure of an income as the conferences themselves are. This provision does not fix a definite total amount to be paid by all the conferences, and therefore does not give an exact, definite basis upon which to plan. But it does give assurance that something will be paid by every conference, and by basing our reckoning on the minimum amount to be paid, we shall be able to make appropriations with safety. As already stated, both of these recommendations were passed with the fullest understanding that it is absolutely necessary for such definite arrangements to be made and carried out by all the conferences, in order to carry on the extensive missionary enterprises of the denomination. All the organized conferences have a sure, regular income upon which to base their expenditures. Why should it not be the same with the Mission Board in maintaining and enlarging its missionary operations? It should be so, and it must be so in order to do a strong work, and to save frequent financial crises. And now it is to be so, by the carrying out of these two provisions adopted at this recent council. This is an advance step, for which every lover of this cause will be profoundly grateful. It will rejoice the heart of every missionary in both home and foreign fields.