A service developed to provide fund-raising counseling and direction to local Seventh-day Adventist churches throughout North America. The first such service was established in 1957 by the Southwestern Union Conference. William J. Hubert, with background experience in professional fund-raising, served as the director. The success of this program in aiding church and school construction led the General Conference Committee to establish such a service for the churches throughout the North American Division. Hubert was called to the General Conference to direct the training of personnel in the various local and union conferences for the establishment of this plan.
During the 1959 spring meeting the General Conference Committee adopted the title “Seventh-day Adventist Church Development Service” for this fund-raising service. An intensive training program was begun, and by the 1962 General Conference session 21 Church Development Service directors in union and local conferences of the North American Division had conducted every-member canvasses that raised more than $15 million for local conference and academy building projects.
In such a “directed” canvass the local church was provided with a director from the union or local conference office for a period of two to five weeks, depending on the size of the church. He was a denominational worker trained in counseling churches in approved methods to raise funds for capital improvement. The director, who was responsible for the supervision and management of the canvass, trained the lay leaders and the pastor in spiritual methods of fund-raising through the preparation, organization, education, and solicitation phases of an every-member-canvass program. To assure the successful collection of pledged funds, the director also maintained a close contact with the church through a follow-up service.
The Church Development Service not only helped the churches raise funds for building projects but also, through emphasis on education in stewardship, promoted increased interest in the general church program. Surveys revealed that such increased giving most often brought an increase in other offerings of the church.
The Church Development Service no longer exists, but the work is carried on by stewardship directors.