Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7

Co-operation

Let every department of our work, every institution connected with our cause, be conducted on considerate, generous lines. Let every branch of the work, while maintaining its own distinctive character, seek to protect, strengthen, and build up every other branch. Men of varied abilities and characteristics are employed for carrying forward the various branches of the work. This has always been the Lord's plan. Each worker must give his own branch special effort; but it is the privilege of each to study and labor for the health and welfare of the whole body of which he is a member. 7T 174.2

Not consolidation, not rivalry or criticism, but co-operation, is God's plan for His institutions, that “the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,” may make “increase of the body unto the edifying [building up] of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:16. 7T 174.3