By the time this volume of counsels for the Seventh-day Adventist Church was penned by Ellen G. White, the work of the church had grown to worldwide proportions. Literature was being distributed in thirty-nine languages from thirteen publishing houses. Five hundred ordained ministers, with a thousand other workers in various branches of denominational endeavor were serving 66,000 believers, who made up 1,892 churches.
With the growth of the church overall came the development of different departments (such as Sabbath School, Medical Missionary, and Religious Liberty) to meet different needs. While the organizational structure continued to evolve and strengthen, achieving balance during this state of growth was a real challenge. As a result, the needs of some fields were either neglected or lacked efficiency in management. Some branches of the church, which grew disproportionately and forged ahead within the independent organizational lines of their own creating, seemed to be "getting out of hand."
Seeing these organizational deficiencies, Ellen White began calling for a thorough reorganization of the work in 1901. The task was large, but church leaders worked energetically, accomplishing most of the task by 1902.
During this time, tensions were rising between church leadership and leaders in the medical work (specifically, the Battle Creek Sanitarium). Having reached its zenith in power, the "San" began to tilt towards a vision of Christian medical missionary work quite undenominational in character, which, as they thought of it, would soon eclipse the work of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.
When the Battle Creek Sanitarium burned to the ground in 1902, Ellen White issued a call to spread out and establish many more medical institutions (rather than congregating in one place). The resulting articles, constituting the section on "Our Sanitarium Work," are included in this volume.
The publishing work, which had also run into some challenges, also received counsel. In order to keep the presses busy or "make ends meet," some of the presses were accepting commercial work or even publishing books which contained serious doctrinal errors. All of this called for, and received, additional counsel. Counsel was also provided to encourage and strengthen the publishing work in the Southern states, as well the health food production centers that had arisen. Work in the cities and retirement planning for workers who were advancing in age was also covered. Though devoted to fewer lines of instruction than some of the other volumes, Testimonies for the Church volume contains many far-reaching, vital counsels that continue to bear rich fruit.
