The act by which the church sets apart an individual for a special function in the church by prayer and the laying on of hands. Three categories of church workers are ordained—ministers, church elders, and deacons ( see Church Elder ; Deacon ; Minister ).
Ministers. Candidates for ordination must be male and church members who not only live consistent Christian lives but also are experienced in church work and have demonstrated confidence in the leadership of the church. Women also serve as ministers, but without ordination. At the 1990 session the General Conference stated that “we do not approve ordination of women to the gospel ministry,” but did allow women to continue serving as pastors according to division policy.
The North American Division reserves three functions for the ordained minister only: organizing a church; uniting churches; ordaining local elders and deacons ( NAD Working Policy [1994–1995], p. 313).
Before ordination there is a careful examination of the candidate, covering such features as the candidate’s present personal religious experience, the Scriptures, his acquaintance with and full acceptance of the fundamental teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and his attitude toward denominational organization. Three ministers are customarily chosen before the service to take the leading parts: the ordination prayer, the charge, and the welcome. If other ordained ministers are present at the meeting, they are invited to take part in the ordination.
After a brief sermon on the high calling and responsibilities of the minister, the conference president presents the candidate, referring briefly to his past service. The ministers present then kneel about the candidate while one of them offers the ordination prayer. As the one offering the prayer speaks of the laying on of hands, the kneeling ministers place their hands upon the candidate’s head.
After the prayer a charge, or declaration of the sacredness and responsibility of the work of the minister, is given, after which words of welcome are spoken to the candidate. The ordained minister performs many functions, among which are to: preach, baptize, conduct the Lord’s Supper, perform the marriage ceremony, organize churches, unite churches, and ordain local elders and deacons.
Local Elders and Deacons. Church elders (not to be confused with ordained ministers, to whom SDA s in the United States commonly apply the title of Elder) and deacons of local churches, elected by the local church, are usually ordained in a simple ceremony during the church service on Sabbath. An ordained minister must be in charge.
At the ordination the minister reads appropriate passages of Scripture (such as 1 Tim. 3:1–7 , for elders; 1 Tim. 3:8–13 , for deacons). The candidate and the minister then kneel, and the minister prays, asking God to approve the choice of the church in the election of the candidate, to accept the candidate’s consecration as the candidate is set apart to the work entrusted to him or her, and to make him or her a wise steward, a faithful leader, and a blessing and example to the community. As the minister speaks of consecration and the laying on of hands, he places his hands on the head of the candidate. After the prayer the minister clasps the candidate’s hand with a word of blessing.Once ordained, a local elder need not be reordained again upon reelection, or if he is subsequently chosen to be a deacon. Likewise, a deacon need not be reordained if he is reelected; however, if he is chosen to be an elder, he must be ordained as an elder. The 1975 Spring Meeting of the General Conference Committee voted “that the way be opened for women elected to serve as deaconesses in our churches to be ordained to this office and that the Church Manual Committee be requested to give study to a statement of the qualifications of deaconesses and suggestions in regard to a suitable ordination service” (p. 153). To date, however, the church has not seen fit to allow women to be ordained as deaconesses.
Ordination qualifies the local elder to conduct the Communion service in the church of which he or she is an elder. However, “in the absence of an ordained pastor, the elder shall request the president of the conference or local field to arrange for the administration of the rite of baptism to those desiring to unite with the church” ( Church Manual [1990], p. 59).
Development of SDA Practice. In the early days of the SDA Church there seems to have been little need for ordaining new ministers, since most of the congregations were small and most of the ministers had already been ordained in the churches to which they had formerly belonged. At first there was considerable opposition to any form of church organization ( see Organization ).
However, the need for some form of church organization, and especially for a ministry ordained by the church, became increasingly apparent when certain self-appointed preachers refused to cooperate with the responsible leaders of the movement, claiming “‘liberty to do as they pleased,’ to ‘preach what they pleased,’ and to ‘go when and where they pleased’” (J. N. Loughborough, The Church, Its Organization, Order, and Discipline , p. 101). To cope with this situation James White wrote an article entitled “Gospel Order,” which appeared in a series of installments in the Review and Herald in December 1853. This article advocated strongly “that men who are called of God to teach and baptize should be ordained or set apart to the work of the ministry by the laying on of hands” ( Review and Herald 4:189, Dec. 20, 1853), but it appears that even before it was published, White and some of the other leaders of the movement were already practicing ordination, for at a meeting held at New Haven, Vermont, in the autumn of 1853, “the wants of the cause were considered. And it was decided that there were those present that should be ordained to the work of the gospel ministry. . . . At 1 o’clock at night we adjourned to 8 o’clock in the morning, when the subject of ordination was again taken up. And it was the unanimous expression of all present that our dear Brn. J. N. Andrews, A. S. Hutchins, and C. W. Sperry should be set apart to the work of the ministry (that they might feel free to administer the ordinances of the church of God) by prayer and the laying on of hands” ( ibid. 4:148, Nov. 15, 1853).
Even before this, it appears, Washington Morse had been ordained by the church, although whether the ordination occurred in 1851 or 1852 is not quite clear from extant sources. According to the Review and Herald, July 1851, at a meeting held by G. W. Holt, “Bro. Morse,” presumably Washington Morse, was “set apart by the laying on of hands, to the administration of the ordinances of God’s house” ( ibid. 2:15, Aug. 19, 1851). It is not certain whether this ordination admitted him to the ministry or permitted him to function only in the administration of the Lord’s Supper. According to his own account, written some years later, he was ordained to the ministry in 1852 ( ibid. 65:643, Oct. 16, 1888). But it is possible that he had forgotten the precise date. The first ordination service for deacons among SDA s occurred a short time later. Frederick Wheeler, another prominent SDA leader, presented the subject of gospel order to the Dartmouth and Fairhaven, Massachusetts, SDA s, and laying on of hands, he proceeded to “set apart” “two brethren, one in Fairhaven and one in Dartmouth, to act the part of ‘deacons,’ as denominated in the Bible” ( ibid. 4:199, Dec. 27, 1853).
Early the next year ordination services for deacons were held at Sylan and Jackson, Michigan, and Metomen, Wisconsin, and before long the ordaining of deacons was an established practice in all SDA churches. But it soon became evident to the leaders of the SDA movement that someone would have to look after spiritual interests of the churches in the absence of an ordained minister. In August 1854, Joseph Bates, one of the most prominent leaders of the Sabbathkeeping Adventists, suggested local elders as the solution of this problem. An installment in an article by J. B. Frisbie in the Review and Herald of June 26, 1856, entitled “Church Order” outlines the duty of such elders, showing that the practice of ordaining local church elders was by then an established practice among SDA congregations.
The 1974 Annual Council of the General Conference Committee opened the way for women to be ordained as local elders: “To request the President’s Executive Advisory to also arrange for further study of the election of women to local church offices which require ordination and that division committees exercise discretion in any special cases that may arise before a definitive position has been adopted” ( Annual Council Actions [1974], p. 14).
Divisions then began cautiously allowing women to be ordained as local elders. A definitive position was voted at the 1984 Annual Council: “To advise each division that it is free to make provision as it may deem necessary for the election and ordination of women as local church elders” ( ibid . [1984], p. 56). More than 1,000 women serve as elders in the North American Division, and many more serve other divisions of the world.
Biblical Reasons for SDA Practice: The practice of setting individuals apart for a special work by the laying on of hands has a biblical basis. For example:
“The Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him; and set him before . . . all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight” ( Num. 27:18 , 19 ; cf. Num. 8:10 , 11 ).
And Luke records: “The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away” ( Acts 13:2 , 3 ; cf. Acts 6:6 ; 1 Tim. 4:14 ; 5:22 ; 2 Tim. 1:6 ; Titus 1:5 ).
The word “ordain” does not appear in the Greek New Testament. The word “ordain” that appears in the King James Version actually translates a number of Greek words, including poieoµ, “appointed” ( Mark 3:14 ); ginomai, “to become, select” ( Acts 1:22 ); titheµmi, “appointed, place, set” ( 1 Tim. 2:7 ); kathisteµmi, “cause to be, appoint” ( Titus 1:5 ); cheirotoneoµ, “stretch out the hand, appoint” ( Acts 14:23 ). The English word “ordain” has a latin root, ordinare, which derives from Roman law, which conveys the idea of a special status or a group distinct from ordinary people. That is why most modern versions do not use the word “ordain”-it does not give an accurate translation of the original meaning.
The doctrine of spiritual gifts (as taught in Rom. 12:4–8 ; 1 Cor. 12:1–28 ; Eph. 4:8 , 11–16 ; Acts 6:1–7 ; 1 Peter 4:10 , 11 ) teaches that God gives gifts for service to all without respect to race or gender. Included among those gifts are those of evangelist, prophet, teacher, and pastor.
In harmony with the New Testament custom, SDA s appoint ministers, who, like the apostles and evangelists of the early church, look after the general interests of the church; and elders (also called “presbyters,” or “bishops” in the New Testament) and deacons, who, like their New Testament prototypes, look, respectively, after the spiritual and temporal interests of the local congregation to which they belong.