Principles for Christian Leaders

Chapter 8 - Board and Committee Members

Meeting with God

Let those who attend committee meetings remember that they are meeting with God, who has given them their work. Let them come together with reverence and consecration of heart. They meet to consider important matters connected with the Lord’s cause. In every particular their actions are to show that they are desirous of understanding His will in regard to the plans to be laid for the advancement of His work.—7T 256 (1902) PCL 187.1

Let everyone who sits in council and committee meetings write in his heart the words: I am working for time and for eternity, and I am accountable to God for the motives that prompt me to action. Let this be his motto. Let the prayer of the psalmist be his prayer: PCL 187.2

“Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil thing.” Psalm 141:3, 4. —7T 258, 259 (1902) PCL 187.3

If there were more prayer in the councils of those bearing responsibilities, more humbling of the heart before God, we should see abundant evidence of divine leadership, and our work would make rapid progress.—8T 238 (1904) PCL 187.4

Seek wisdom from above—Everyone that serves in the board meetings needs to seek most earnestly the wisdom from above. The influence of the Spirit of Christ upon their hearts will then place a right mold upon the work. The transforming grace of Christ should transform every board meeting. It will be able to quell tumultuous actions and charm away the unhallowed effects of business, worldly policy which makes them sharp, critical men, ready to accuse and make them overbearing. There will have to be most earnest reformation in the characters of men who are now connected with our important institutions. There is most valuable talent in some respects which these men possess, while in other respects they must bring into their character a different mold after the divine character of Christ. Every one of them must remember they have not yet attained, that the work of character building is not yet finished. If they will improve every ray of light that God has given, and walk in this light, then they will be learning lessons from Christ. They will compare their lives with Christ’s life and character, they will discern where they have failed to meet the requirements of God’s holy law, and will seek to make themselves perfect in their sphere even as God in heaven is perfect in His sphere.—Letter 34, 1886 (March 1) PCL 188.1

A new board of directors should be formed, of men who give evidence that they will not deviate from the way of righteousness. A change must be made. Things must be so ordered that Christ will be recognized in every movement made. Those who occupy positions on boards or committees should be men who seek the Lord with their whole heart, men who preserve the humility found by seeking counsel from God.—MS 10, 1900 (January 29) PCL 188.2

Satan will control if God does not—The board of directors should ever act as under the divine eye, and with a continual sense that they are only finite men, and are liable to make mistakes in judgment and in decisions and plans, unless they are closely connected with God. As they are only weak and erring men themselves, they should feel kindness and pity for others who may err. The divine standard must be met. You should take the Lord with you into every one of your councils. If you sense that God is in your assemblies, every transaction will be conscientiously, carefully, and prayerfully considered. . . . PCL 188.3

And if these men are not in communication with God, Satan will just as surely be one in their council and take advantage of their unconsecrated state in their decisions. There will be acts of injustice because God was not presiding in their councils. The Spirit of Christ must be an abiding, controlling power over the heart and mind.—Letter 34, 1886 (March 1) PCL 189.1

Men entrusted with positions of responsibility, when sitting in council meetings and deliberating as committeemen, must bear in mind that if the One mighty in counsel is not welcomed in their meetings, there is present one who will work with a will to suggest unwise plans, and they will not have discernment to perceive the speciousness of the arguments presented and will move in accordance with unjust, unwise principles. PCL 189.2

I can but have freshly brought to my mind the view of the time when Satan, standing in a high position in heaven, began with crafty reasoning to induce the loyal angels to assent to his theories and accept them as truth. In his interviews with other angels, after succeeding in finding sympathizers, he arranged his arguments and presented them as if they were sentiments that had originated in the minds of those whom he first led astray. PCL 189.3

Today Satan works as he has always worked in the past. Unless the men in the office of publication who know so little of the deep movings of the Spirit of God shall lay aside their self-confidence, their self-will, their natural stubbornness—a stubbornness that has been greatly strengthened by constant resistance of the Spirit of God, constant rejection of light, constant determination to walk in accordance with their own wisdom— they will have a bitter harvest to garner. They do not see this harvest now.—MS 23, 1891 (March 19) PCL 189.4