An Aspect of the Church Manual
by Pr Grant Lottering
I have been privileged to attend church organizing services on two occasions. The first was at Rosemoor Seventh-day Adventist Church in George when Parkdene Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized. The second was at Bethal Seventh-day Adventist Church (Chigonjetsu-Malawian District) when the Great Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized. These are grand services and certainly a high and exciting Sabbath for the church members of the newly organized church.
The organizing service is carefully outlined in the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual. Churches are organized by ordained pastors at the recommendation of the conference executive committee. The church should invite the conference president to be present. This was the case during the organizing of Parkdene Church when Pr Leonard Mbaza attended the auspicious occasion. At times, the conference president might designate someone to attend on his behalf such as the occasion of Great Hope when Pr Patrick Stander who was the Western Region Departmental Director officiated the service on behalf of Dr Jongimpi Papu who was the president of the Cape Conference at the time.
The officiating pastor should give an overview of the Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church during the service. The presiding officer (the president or his designee) should then call those members who will comprise the new church to come forward. Those members would usually have membership at an already existing church and therefore the officiating pastor should read their names for their transfer to the newly organized church. The transferring members make up the nucleus of the church and they may proceed to vote others who are not transferring from an already existing church into members.
Once the nucleus has accepted everyone desirous of uniting with that church into membership, the company is officially organized as a church and may proceed to elect officers via an appointed nominating committee. Once the newly elected elders and deacons have been ordained (except if they were ordained before), the church is considered fully organized and ready for service. At the conclusion of the service, all the members should pass a motion to request the conference to receive the newly organized church into the sisterhood of churches at the next conference session.
