Church Property Ownership

Contrary to what most pastors and laymen understand, there is no compelling reason why the houses of worship should be owned by the denomination's legal corporation. Some of our readers will no doubt be surprised to learn that, at one time, the church titles were commonly held by the church congregations (usually by a board of trustees who held the title on behalf of the church body). There is little doubt that the beginnings of change were motivated by honorable concerns. Those concerns revolved around the possibility that these churches, in the hands of a few lay people, could be wrested from the Seventh-day Adventist Church should there be apostasy of any magnitude among the leaders.

The situation has now reversed. Many now recognize that a conference committee or officers of a conference may apostatize. Here are some of the issues:

1. Denial of conference recognition. Any congregation that refuses to turn over its church property to the conference is in very serious danger of losing recognition by the conference. A classic example is the Marshall Company in North Carolina. The members of that company built their church and paid for it. They decided they would not surrender the title of the church to the Carolina Conference. In response, the conference decided that there had been an act of distrust, and refused to recognize the company. A similar situation occurred in the 19th century when the Roman Catholic bishops insisted that title to church property be under the effective control of the bishop before new churches would be blessed. Older churches were denied pastoral services, even in some cases placed under interdict.
2. Punitive action against the church community. With ownership of the church building in the hands of the conference, there is increased danger of punitive action being taken against the church community, especially against small churches that have little political backing. While a conference committee cannot vote to disband a church community, it can, because of its ownership of the building, padlock the church facility. The case of a Samoan Seventh-day Adventist Church in Auckland, New Zealand, demands examination. The conference appointed a pastor who was deemed unacceptable by the church community. No amount of negotiation between the church and the conference solved the situation, and the church members refused to accept the designated pastor, choosing their own pastor. The conference padlocked the doors of the church. From personal testimonies we have learned that the lock was removed, presumably by one or more members, who replaced it with their own lock. The conference leaders in turn removed this lock and replaced it with their lock. In the end, pitifully, the whole issue was placed before the court, though that action was clearly contrary to God's Word (see 1 Corinthians 6). The court ruled in favor of the congregation, and today there is an independent Seventh-day Adventist congregation of Samoan believers in Auckland, New Zealand.
3. Conference debt. Evidence shows that the structure of the Seventh-day Adventist Church now in existence places the whole of the real estate property of the church in danger, should bankruptcy be filed. There are many who are deeply concerned about the large debts that are accumulating. Paramount amongst debtors are the hospitals operated under the banner of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Not only are there the serious debts of the hospitals, but there are also the major debts of our educational institutions. While we are not certain of the present debts, they were quoted in the Adventist Review in 1987 as being 2.2 billion dollars, a sum that would certainly bankrupt our church. Should this happen, the question arises, "What would happen to our churches?" Surely, since they are owned by our conferences, they would be sold as disposable assets in order to meet the settlement. The collapse of one institution leading to the failure of another in a domino effect is not a mere hypothetical assertion. In 1991, the bankruptcy of the church's Danish health food company, Nutena, led to the closure of our 90-year-old health facility, the renowned Skodsberg Sanitarium.
4. Conference apostasy. A deeper concern is that, in some conferences, few of the ministers are loyal to the authentic Seventh-day Adventist message. By default, the churches are being taken over by those who are not good representatives of the everlasting gospel which God has given to this people, not only to know, but to believe, to live and to proclaim. (For further discussion on this subject see Apostasy in Leadership.)

We believe that one matter is certain: the time has come for an honest review of the policy that virtually demands that churches surrender the deeds of their property to the conference corporation.

The above was excerpted from Organizational Structure and Apostasy, by Colin and Russell Standish, pages 101-107.