In the early Seventh-day Adventist Church period, beginning about 1861, periodic meetings were held (about once in three months) at which the members of the local church and the surrounding area met for mutual encouragement, transaction of any church business, and the celebration of the ordinances of foot washing and the Lord’s Supper. Usually a minister (at times a member of the conference committee) presided at such a gathering. In the early period, it seems, members of more than one church gathered together, or perhaps of more than one locality.
After the church had grown and had become better organized, the General Conference Committee in 1877 recommended a plan for regular quarterly meetings: “At each of these quarterly meetings business should be done in the following order:
“1. Sabbath morning, when the church has assembled, let the clerk read each name on the church record. When a name is read, if the person is present, call upon him to relate his present condition, feelings, etc. If any members are unavoidably absent, they should send a letter to be read at that meeting. If they are not present, neither have written, then let the officers of the church inquire after them and immediately either write or visit them. Thus every member of the church will be personally heard from and inquired after every three months. This will save many a soul from apostasy and will keep the record clean.
“2. Then let every church which has an ordained elder celebrate the ordinances. Don’t put it off till the minister comes, nor wait till everything is in perfect order, but attend to it then and there. This would be a happy thought, to know that all our people throughout the world were celebrating these holy ordinances at the same time. Surely the Lord would be pleased with such a sight.
“3. On the next day or [in the] evening after the Sabbath, let all come together and pay their S.B. pledges and the one third [ see Systematic Benevolence ] for the past quarter. If any fail to do so, the treasurer should immediately see them or write them about it. Much depends upon the promptness of the treasurer in this matter.
“4. At the same time have a meeting of the Tract Society for that church, in which each member shall read his or her report for the last quarter, and hand it to the librarian [lay activities/personal ministries secretary]. If any fail to do so, the librarian should see them or write them immediately.
“5. At the close of the meeting let each S.B. treasurer prepare his report to be sent with his money to the state treasurer and secretary the next day, Monday. Also, let the librarian make out his report that day ready to be sent Monday to his director. Thus, every item of business in that church and Tract Society will be regularly attended to at a definite time once a quarter” ( Review and Herald 49:180, June 7, 1877).
In the late 1890s the plan apparently fell into disuse.
Apart from the quarterly meetings of the church, there were also quarterly meetings of the Tract and Missionary societies, district and state.
The quarterly celebration of the ordinances has continued to the present, as has the holding of quarterly church business meetings in some churches; however, individual public reporting on personal standing at these meetings has long since fallen into disuse.