Top Ten Ellen White Quotes* Dying/Disgruntled Churches Don’t Want Their Pastor to Know About

10. “It is of little use to try to reform others by attacking what we may regard as wrong habits. Such effort often results in more harm than good.” {CD 459.2}

9. “The ministers who are connected with him in the work are to be respected and loved; criticism should have no room to work. Let envy and evil-surmising be expelled from the soul. Nothing can grieve the Spirit of God more than dissension and depreciation of brethren.” {GCB, February 11, 1895 par. 1}

8. “If pastors would give more attention to getting and keeping their flock actively at work, they would accomplish more good, have more time for study and religious visiting, and also avoid many causes of friction.”  {GW92 102.1}

7. “Ministers are not to be called hither and thither to attend board meetings for the purpose of deciding common business questions. Many of our ministers have done this work in the past, but it is not the work in which the Lord wishes them to engage. Too many financial burdens have been placed on them. When they try to carry these burdens, they neglect to fulfill the gospel commission. God looks upon this as a dishonor to His name.” –Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 7, pp. 254-255.  {9MR 171.2}

6. “There are times when it is fitting for our ministers to give on the Sabbath, in our churches, short discourses, full of the life and love of Christ. But the church members are not to expect a sermon every Sabbath.”  {7T 19.2}

5.    “There should not be a call to have settled pastors over our churches, but let the life-giving power of the truth impress the individual members to act, leading them to labor interestedly to carry on efficient missionary work in each locality. As the hand of God, the church is to be educated and trained to do effective service. Its members are to be the Lord’s devoted Christian workers. The church of today is too one-sided.”  {AU Gleaner, January 8, 1902 par. 9}

4. “Just as soon as a church is organized, let the minister set the members at work. They will need to be taught how to labor successfully. Let the minister devote more of his time to educating than to preaching.” {7T 20.1}

3.  “In some respects the pastor occupies a position similar to that of the foreman of a gang of laboring men or the captain of a ship’s crew. They are expected to see that men over whom they are set, do the work assigned to them correctly and promptly, and if occasion shall require it, only in case of emergency are they to execute in detail.  {RH, July 24, 1883 par. 5}

2. “God has not given His ministers the work of setting the churches right. No sooner is this work done, apparently, than it has to be done over again. Church members that are thus looked after and labored for become religious weaklings. If nine tenths of the effort that has been put forth for those who know the truth had been put forth for those who have never heard the truth, how much greater would have been the advancement made! God has withheld His blessings because His people have not worked in harmony with His directions.”  {7T 18.2}

1. “They should be taught that unless they can stand alone, without a minister, they need to be converted anew, and baptized anew. They need to be born again.”–Manuscript 150, 1901.

*Ellen White is an influential pioneer of the church who was blessed with incredible insight, and remains an authoritative source for Seventh-day Adventists, although in some cases people abuse her authority and take it to extremes.