Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.
Without counsel plans fall short and are liable to fail, but when many counsellors unite they are made firm, strengthened, and carried out more safely and successfully. To take counsel together is to test every plan and weigh each step through several minds, which guards against deception and against hasty and ill-advised action. Refusing such counsel brings confusion, division, and defeat, while united counsel brings strength, unity of action, and prosperity. Purposes are truly established only by seeking wisdom from God at every step, looking to His higher counsel through the Bible, prayer, and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit until duty is clear. For this reason no great interest, and no work of God's cause, is to be controlled by one man's mind and judgment alone, which is fallible and easily biased, but by the united judgment of several capable and experienced counsellors.
Wisdom of Many Counsellors
Without counsel purposes are disappointed and liable to fail, but in the multitude of counsellors they are established, strengthened, made safer, and more soundly and successfully carried out. Plans considered by several minds together are more safely established than plans formed alone. Counsel together means examining plans more closely and studying each proposed step more carefully through several minds. This close scrutiny tests plans, guards against deception, and reduces the danger of hasty, rash, and ill-advised decisions.
Rejecting this counsel brings confusion, perplexity, difficulty, failure, defeat, variance, discord, and harm to the work. United counsel brings strength, unity, union of action, and prosperity, while working with brethren in harmony is itself a source of strength. Seeking counsel counters selfish independence and independent judgment. Division brings weakness and defeat.
Establishing purposes requires seeking wisdom from God at every step, for His counsel is higher and understanding His way requires His wisdom and the Holy Spirit's enlightenment. This means seeking the Bible and prayer for divine guidance, as in choosing a marriage partner where older and more experienced people are also to be consulted before a lifelong commitment. It means proceeding only when duty is clear and He has given light, and not devising plans in one's own wisdom for entering important new fields. It includes decisions about investments, where large sums are more soundly carried out when several wise advisers help guide them, warn against placing money under one man's control, direct its investment, and seek God for wisdom rather than trusting one person's judgment alone.
Shared Counsel in Leadership
Matters belonging to God's cause must not be controlled, moulded, or ruled by one man's mind and judgment alone, but by the united judgment of several capable, wise, and experienced counsellors. No one man composes the conference, and no one man's mind and judgment must rule it, nor is any one man in an institution to have sole controlling power or to make any decided move without consulting together with others. One person's judgment is fallible and is not to be trusted with interests so great, for it is not free from human frailties and errors, wrong motives, viewing things from a wrong standpoint, and bias by feeling. In managing the sanitarium capable and wise counsellors are to work with the superintendent, because the united judgment of several is safer in most matters than one person's judgment alone.
Those bearing responsibility are to consult experienced and faithful fellow workers, advise and counsel with them, and give respect to the judgment of brethren. A leader must walk humbly with God as a learner who admits his opinions are not faultless, and must have confidence in his ministering brethren because commission, experience, and instruction in plans of work have been given to them and all wisdom to control the labor has not been given to one man. A leader who will not respect and heed counsel will be removed from his position of trust. He must counsel together with his brethren rather than require workers to consult him on every detail of how they shall work, rather than ordering men here and there on his own authority, and rather than cutting wages without consulting them and learning their situation.
In institutions the responsible workers are to set apart time every day to counsel together, freely talk over matters essential for prosperity, consider whether more help is needed, correct wrong courses among helpers, make known the mind of all, and move in union of action in hiring and discharging helpers. In assigning people to positions and in managing institutions, counsel from those with relevant experience provides safety, while acting independently can harm both the work and those responsible for it. Following this direction brings prosperity and union, while discarding and rejecting it brings variance and discord.
The same principle governs particular decisions about means and new work. Funds must not be placed under one man's control nor their use decided by one judgment alone, but counsellors should warn against it and, after seeking God for wisdom, direct investment. One or two people must not devise plans in their own wisdom for entering important new fields, but must seek counsel from brethren and proceed only when duty is clear and light has been given. In choosing a marriage partner older and more experienced people are to be consulted before a lifelong commitment is made. Personal feelings, special preferences, likes and dislikes must not control actions and decisions, since trusting too much to one's own judgment, which is liable to be biased by feeling, imperils souls, hurts men by unduly exalting or humiliating them, and mars the work; safety lies in caution in words that neither praises and exalts any man nor censures and humiliates any man.
Without counsel plans fall short and are liable to fail, but when many counsellors unite they are made firm, strengthened, and carried out more safely and successfully. To take counsel together is to test every plan and weigh each step through several minds, which guards against deception and against hasty and ill-advised action. Refusing such counsel brings confusion, division, and defeat, while united counsel brings strength, unity of action, and prosperity. Purposes are truly established only by seeking wisdom from God at every step, looking to His higher counsel through the Bible, prayer, and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit until duty is clear. For this reason no great interest, and no work of God's cause, is to be controlled by one man's mind and judgment alone, which is fallible and easily biased, but by the united judgment of several capable and experienced counsellors.
Wisdom of Many Counsellors
Without counsel purposes are disappointed and liable to fail, but in the multitude of counsellors they are established, strengthened, made safer, and more soundly and successfully carried out. Plans considered by several minds together are more safely established than plans formed alone. Counsel together means examining plans more closely and studying each proposed step more carefully through several minds. This close scrutiny tests plans, guards against deception, and reduces the danger of hasty, rash, and ill-advised decisions.
Rejecting this counsel brings confusion, perplexity, difficulty, failure, defeat, variance, discord, and harm to the work. United counsel brings strength, unity, union of action, and prosperity, while working with brethren in harmony is itself a source of strength. Seeking counsel counters selfish independence and independent judgment. Division brings weakness and defeat.
Establishing purposes requires seeking wisdom from God at every step, for His counsel is higher and understanding His way requires His wisdom and the Holy Spirit's enlightenment. This means seeking the Bible and prayer for divine guidance, as in choosing a marriage partner where older and more experienced people are also to be consulted before a lifelong commitment. It means proceeding only when duty is clear and He has given light, and not devising plans in one's own wisdom for entering important new fields. It includes decisions about investments, where large sums are more soundly carried out when several wise advisers help guide them, warn against placing money under one man's control, direct its investment, and seek God for wisdom rather than trusting one person's judgment alone.
Shared Counsel in Leadership
Matters belonging to God's cause must not be controlled, moulded, or ruled by one man's mind and judgment alone, but by the united judgment of several capable, wise, and experienced counsellors. No one man composes the conference, and no one man's mind and judgment must rule it, nor is any one man in an institution to have sole controlling power or to make any decided move without consulting together with others. One person's judgment is fallible and is not to be trusted with interests so great, for it is not free from human frailties and errors, wrong motives, viewing things from a wrong standpoint, and bias by feeling. In managing the sanitarium capable and wise counsellors are to work with the superintendent, because the united judgment of several is safer in most matters than one person's judgment alone.
Those bearing responsibility are to consult experienced and faithful fellow workers, advise and counsel with them, and give respect to the judgment of brethren. A leader must walk humbly with God as a learner who admits his opinions are not faultless, and must have confidence in his ministering brethren because commission, experience, and instruction in plans of work have been given to them and all wisdom to control the labor has not been given to one man. A leader who will not respect and heed counsel will be removed from his position of trust. He must counsel together with his brethren rather than require workers to consult him on every detail of how they shall work, rather than ordering men here and there on his own authority, and rather than cutting wages without consulting them and learning their situation.
In institutions the responsible workers are to set apart time every day to counsel together, freely talk over matters essential for prosperity, consider whether more help is needed, correct wrong courses among helpers, make known the mind of all, and move in union of action in hiring and discharging helpers. In assigning people to positions and in managing institutions, counsel from those with relevant experience provides safety, while acting independently can harm both the work and those responsible for it. Following this direction brings prosperity and union, while discarding and rejecting it brings variance and discord.
The same principle governs particular decisions about means and new work. Funds must not be placed under one man's control nor their use decided by one judgment alone, but counsellors should warn against it and, after seeking God for wisdom, direct investment. One or two people must not devise plans in their own wisdom for entering important new fields, but must seek counsel from brethren and proceed only when duty is clear and light has been given. In choosing a marriage partner older and more experienced people are to be consulted before a lifelong commitment is made. Personal feelings, special preferences, likes and dislikes must not control actions and decisions, since trusting too much to one's own judgment, which is liable to be biased by feeling, imperils souls, hurts men by unduly exalting or humiliating them, and mars the work; safety lies in caution in words that neither praises and exalts any man nor censures and humiliates any man.