The forerunner was Church Development Service, headed by W. J. Hubert, which provided fund-raising counseling and direction to local Seventh-day Adventist churches throughout North America.
During the General Conference session of 1966 a department was organized under the name of Church Development Service. At the Annual Council session of 1967 Stewardship and Development became the official name of the department. At the Annual Council in 1971 provision was made for church stewardship secretaries, and at the Annual Council in 1972 the duties of the church stewardship secretaries were adopted.
The principles and concepts of Christian stewardship were studied and developed by the stewardship secretaries of the Columbia Union Conference, among whom were M. E. Rees, S. M. Young, Merle E. Moore, Glenn E. Smith, Gale L. Gabbert, Paul G. Smith, and Walter M. Starks. This study led to a rediscovery of the fundamental spiritual principles that relate to the giving response and the conclusion that the key to life and its resources is the full and complete conversion of the human heart, which leads to the total commitment of life, the experience of conversion being exclusively the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit ( John 6:63 ). Revival and reformation become the foundational principle and the keynote of the stewardship work.
Secretary ( until 1974 ): W. M. Starks, 1966–1974. Directors: W. M. Starks, 1975–1978; Paul Smith, 1979–1980. By an action of the General Conference session in 1980, the Stewardship and Development was connected with the Ministerial Association, where it remained until it became part of the Church Ministries Department in 1985.