CHRISTIAN BUSINESS PRACTICES

One valuable piece of advice that the Executive Committee received from the Trans-European Division was the reminder that the Church is not a business—so we are not to behave like one.

       – EXCOM administrators, Námufréttir – Mining news, 1 February 2022.

 

When it comes to running operations, the Seventh-day Adventist Church mainly runs institutions and companies directly related to its mission, e.g., educational institutions, health institutions, and book stores. To this there are some exceptions. These usually come up when the denomination unexpectedly acquires assets or estates—such as the mines on Breiðabólstaður property.  

It is probable that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has formed some kind of a business policy in its Working Policy. It should also be pointed out that business is taught at many Adventist institutions of higher education. One assumes that the students there are taught something concerning the interface of business and Christianity.

In Adventist theological writings, much is to be found concerning business. One must also mention the Bible and also the writings of Ellen G. White. In her writings, for instance, are found admonitions against forming close business ties with people outside the denomination. The reasons given for such admonitions are as follows:

  • The values Adventists want to honor in business are unlike what is often tolerated in the business world. As Christian individuals, Adventists are to demonstrate impeccable integrity and honesty and fairness in all their dealings and to avoid all gray areas that are “immoral but not against the law,” etc. It is hard to follow such a perspective if one owns a company with or has business ties to a party that does not see things the same way[1]

  • In this context, White emphasizes the observance of the Sabbath in particular[2]

  • The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not a company or a business. Business and running companies may divert its attention from its own activities[3] 

In the Church Manual of the Seventh-day Adventist Church there is a list of problematic issues that must be dealt with if they arise. The list includes for instance “willful and habitual falsehood” and “fraud or willful misrepresentations in business.”[4] This again illustrates how Adventists emphasize honest and Christian business dealings.

 

Discourse within the IC about the Business Policy of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

In light of the fact that in their theological writings, Adventists emphasize honest and Christlike business dealings, it would be appropriate for the EXCOM, which has been increasingly involved in business and enterprises over the last decades, to inform church members about what the Adventist views on the theological aspect of business are, and what the IC policy in such matters should be. No such dialogue has taken place. Besides, the 2012 Session abolished its right to shape the future vision of the denomination by abolishing the Suggestion Committee, thereby entrusting it to the EXCOM to be completely responsible for shaping the future vision and policy. Is that what the church members of the IC still wish for?


[1] “Even in business relations we cannot, without involving principle, connect ourselves with those who are not loyal to God. What the one party feels that conscience forbids, the other allows. And this not merely in regard to religious matters, but in business transactions. The one acts from selfish motives, regardless of God’s law or the salvation of the soul; and if the other sincerely loves God and the truth, there must be either a sacrifice of principle or frequent and painful differences. It will require a continual struggle to resist the worldly influence and example of his ungodly associate.” Ellen G. White, „Notes of Travel“, in Historical Sketches of the Foreign Mission of the Seventh-day Adventists (Basel: Imprimerie Polyglotte, 1886), pp. 215–16.

[2] Some church members “enter into partnership with men who have no respect for God’s holy day. A Sabbathkeeper cannot allow men in his employ, paid by his money, to work on the Sabbath. If, for the sake of gain, he allows the business in which he has an interest to be carried on on the Sabbath by his unbelieving partner, he is equally guilty with the unbeliever; and it is his duty to dissolve the relation, however much he may lose by so doing.” Ellen G. White, “A Sabbath Reform Needed,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 18 March 1884.

[3] God’s people “are not to engage in speculation, neither are they to enter into business enterprises with unbelievers; for this would hinder them in their God-given work.” Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Oakland, CA: Pacific Press, 1885–1909), 9:19. The EXCOM has given a similar reason for why the discourse about the mining case should cease. But when the EXCOM references this reason it does not mean that the denomination should not conduct business with parties outside the Church—according to the EXCOM, this reason means that one should not criticize the business dealings of the IC at all.

[4] Church Manual, pp. 61, 62.