Most Adventist Church services are quiet, conservative meetings. Most (or all) of us would be horrified if people were shouting in our church services. But Ellen White's ideas on this are far different to ours.

Ellen White says that shouting is part of worship. "I saw," she said, that "singing to the glory of God often drove away the enemy, and shouting would beat him back and give us the victory" (Letter 8a, 1850).

Ellen attended one meeting where the volume was so great that the local sheriff arrived to arrest the meeting leader for disturbing the peace (Spiritual Gifts vol 2 pages 40-41). Yet Ellen Harmon, who was present, speaks favourably of what happened at that meeting and says "the power of God" was there (Spiritual Gifts vol 2 page 40).

However, while parts of meetings may be loud, Ellen did not approve of noise as such. In Testimonies 1 page 409 she talks against meetings which had "a noisy, rough, careless excitable spirit." She says this is "not of God."

Formal worship is evil

Ellen White opposed formal worship. She wrote: "The evil of formal worship cannot be too strongly depicted" (Testimonies vol 9 page 143). "Evil" is probably the strongest word in her vocabulary. And to make sure people understood how evil formal worship was, she wrote that it "cannot be too strongly depicted." Try to find stronger words in her writings!

Congregational involvement

Ellen White wanted everyone to speak during meetings. She wrote, "None of you should keep silent in your meetings" (Letter 30, 1850).

Long sermons

Ellen White wrote against lengthy sermons. "Ministers too often stand before the people and deliver lengthy discourses, which in order to do good, need to be divided into three parts" (Letter 95, 1896). In this age of television, people are taught to concentrate for ten minutes then have a commercial break. Our sermons would do much more good if they were "divided into three parts". Often 10 minutes would make more impact on a modern congregation than 30 minutes.

Ellen White wrote, "Do not hold the people in your discourses more than thirty minutes" (Manuscript Releases vol 10 page 130). Most Adventist ministers regard 30 minutes as the minimum length, but this comment makes it the maximum.

Note: Ellen White also writes about a limit of one-hour for discourses by ministers (Testimonies to Ministers page 256). However, while this may be referring to church services, the context seems more likely to be referring to public evangelistic campaigns. (See page 258, which refers to presenting "new and startling themes").

Attractive to outsiders

Ellen White wanted church services to be attractive to unbelievers. "It is the duty of those connected with the church to feel an individual responsibility to... make the meetings so interesting that outsiders or unbelievers will be attracted to your meetings" (EGW Manuscript 13, 1885 -- Manuscript Releases vol 3 page 1).

Most SDA church services are designed for regulars only — to the extent that they do not even announce what is about to happen. Instead of hymns being announced, the organ starts playing and the regulars stand — leaving the embarrassed visitor the only one sitting.

Energetic meetings

Ellen White said there should be "more energy" shown in SDA worship services. "I saw there was great necessity of more energy being manifested by the commandment keepers in their meetings" (EGW Manuscript 3, 1853 -- Manuscript Releases vol 5 page 424). Notice that this direction to have "more energy" was given at a time when services were the energetic services described earlier. If giving this direction to the SDA Church today, you would need to say "far more energy!"

Music

In the book Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions, Ellen White writes favourably about using guitars in church (page 195). She even requested guitar playing before one of her meetings. When most Westerners were teenagers, guitars were the predominant instrument in forming what became their adult music tastes. So the lack of guitars in church today is disastrous for evangelism in Western countries.

Note on organ and piano lessons: Ellen White appears critical of both piano and organ lessons. But she is not disapproving of these "for they are essential" (Counsels on Diet and Food page 263). She is merely saying they have lower priority than other learning.

Note on drums: Ellen White speaks unfavourably about a bass drum being played as the same time as a preacher spoke and others sang. Selected Messages, book 2, page 36. However, she does not speak unfavourably about drums as such. So an apparent conflict between her writings and the Bible's approval of drums is just that — apparent. See White Estate comment in 2SM 31.

Talking about God

Personal testimonies, short prayers, and members talking about God were the core of Ellen white's ideal church service. They "came together to honour and glorify [God], to speak of his glory and talk of His power.... All the time would be occupied by short, sweet, testimonies and prayers, that were to the point" (EGW Manuscript 3, 1853 -- Manuscript Releases vol 5 page 424).

Ellen White is supportive of the view that Malachi 3:16 is talking about meeting for testimonies. She quotes the verse then says, "[God] is represented as hearkening to those testimonies, while the angels write them in a book. God will remember those who have met together and thought upon his name" (Testimonies vol 4 page 107).

In Testimonies vol 2 page 579 Ellen White wrote of the impact of Adventists meeting together to "talk out their experience." "All who are pursuing the onward Christian course should have, and will have, an experience that is living, that is new and interesting. A living experience is made up of daily trials, conflicts, and temptations, strong efforts and victories, and great peace and joy gained through Jesus. A simple relation of such experiences gives light, strength, and knowledge that will aid in their advancement in the divine life. The worship of God should be both interesting and instructive to those who have any love for divine and heavenly things" (italics mine).

Many of Ellen White's references to giving testimonies in meetings seem to refer to non-Sabbath "social meetings." However, several references make it quite clear testimonies are to be part of the Sabbath worship service.

When writing a chapter on "How shall we keep the Sabbath?" she says, "It is necessary that the people of God assemble to talk of Him, [and] to interchange thoughts and ideas in regard to the truths contained in His word" (Testimonies vol 2 page 583).

She also writes: "The preaching at our Sabbath meetings should generally be short. Opportunity should be given for those who love God to express their gratitude and adoration. (Testimonies vol 6 page 361.

"When the church is without a minister... a short, interesting Bible reading will often be of greater benefit than a sermon. And this can be followed by a meeting for prayer and testimony" (Testimonies vol 6 page 361.

Notice that Ellen White suggests personal testimonies be part of the service, whether the pastor was present or not. However, testimonies were to become a larger part of the meeting when no minister was present. This advice, given in the 1890s, was at a time, I understand, when one minister had multiple churches to care for. Most Sabbaths the church would have been without a minister, so most Sabbaths would have had testimonies as the greater part of the worship service.

Today many churches have a minister every Sabbath. But should that changed circumstance rob laity of the opportunity to give their testimony? Surely, where a minister is at the same church every Sabbath, he or she should have most worship services predominantly testimonies (duplicating the frequency of the 1890s).

Vigilance required

Ellen White warned that vigilance was required to make sure we did not slip into false worship styles. "The worship of God will become corrupted unless there are wide-awake men at every post of duty" (Testimonies vol 4 517). However, there has been almost no attempt to maintain the Biblical worship style in the SDA Church since her death. We have allowed our worship style to drift and to eventually become formal. And we now have virtually no congregational involvement.

Summary: Ellen White agrees with the Bible that worship should be energetic, that shouting is desirable, that musical instruments like guitars are acceptable, and that all members of the congregation should be able to speak.

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