Maintaining church unity

If, as the previous chapter has suggested, the church has always been concerned to protect itself against external threat, it has also sought to minimize the danger posed by internal divisions. In this it has been very successful; although there have been groups of disenchanted members who have hived themselves off at various times from the main body, Adventism has suffered no major schism in its 120-year history.

Seventh-day Adventism is a world-wide organization drawing its membership of well over 4 million from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. Unity is ensured through a number of mechanisms. Perhaps the most important is, as Wilson has observed, that an Adventist's religious affiliation ‘is the single most significant fact about him’. Such a strong religious commitment serves as a powerful, internal regulator of behaviour. In addition, the denomination employs a full-time ministry which nurtures and catechizes the local church membership, and is highly esteemed by it. Representatives from each of the administrative levels of the denomination maintain regular contact with the churches. Still more significant, perhaps, is the denominational emphasis on creating institutions; employing, as it does, such a high proportion of its members, the church has been able to maintain a relatively clear consensus on standards of moral comportment among them. The situation is not, however, without its dangers. Centralized authority may stifle the moral imagination. The central organization of religion is a movement, albeit unconscious, in the direction of secularization.