Adventist worship from the beginning followed a simple format, marked in its earlier stages by enthusiastic outbursts and an emphasis on singing. Worship was not a distinctive emphasis of the Adventist tradition, and its worship patterns were adapted from other movements, with one major exception: most Adventists meet for worship on the seventh rather than the first day of the week.
Adventists are those conservative Protestants outside the dispensationalist camp whose religion focuses on the second advent of Christ. They also have some genetic relationship to the advent awakening of the 1830s and early 1840s, led in America by William Miller. Today, the largest of these groups is the Seventh-day Adventist Church, on which this discussion is centered. Several smaller denominations, including the Advent Christian Church and the Church of God (Seventh-day), also acknowledge William Miller in their heritage.
The Millerite movement cut across denominational lines, attracting Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, probably in that order as far as a number of adherents are concerned. When Christ failed to return to earth literally in 1844 as Miller had predicted, the movement broke up, and one faction eventually (in 1863) organized itself formally as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Many Millerites were or had been active in the reform movements of the day, notably abolitionism, and thus tended to be found primarily where abolitionism thrived: in small towns and rural areas of the northeastern United States.
The worship practices of the Millerites who became Seventh-day Adventists were probably influenced most by Methodists, Baptists, and the Christian Church of New England, or Christian Connection as it was sometimes called. The latter was staunchly anti-creedal, anti-Trinitarian, and anti-liturgical. Two of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventists, James White and Joseph Bates, had previously belonged to the Christian Connection; the third founder, Ellen G. White, had Methodist roots. Adventists were also influenced by the “Christian anarchy” of the abolitionist movement, a view which regarded all earthly institutions, even governments, and churches, as fallen and evil. Hence it was nearly twenty years after the Millerite movement ended before Seventh-day Adventists finally decided that formal church organization was both necessary and divinely sanctioned.
These influences ensured that early Adventist worship would be simple, informal, and vigorously non-liturgical. When the first Church Manual was adopted, reluctantly, in 1883, it made no mention how regular worship services should be conducted, although it did lay down some guidelines for the “ordinances of the Lord’s house,” by which Adventists meant the Lord’s Supper and the accompanying foot washing service. The first description of an order of worship for Adventist churches appears to be a 1906 book by a prominent Colorado pastor, H. M. J. Richards:
The minister enters the pulpit and kneels for a few moments in silent prayer to God. All the people bow their heads and unite with their minister in silent prayer, imploring the Divine blessing upon the services of the hour. Then the minister announces the opening hymn, then all stand and join in singing. After this, the minister and all the people kneel in prayer, while he leads them in a public extemporaneous prayer of moderate length and appropriate to the needs of the people and the subject of the sermon. Usually a second hymn is then sung, and the sermon follows this. The service is concluded by another hymn sung by the entire congregation, after which the benediction is pronounced by the minister. (H. M. J. Richards, Church Order [Denver: Colorado Tract Society, 1906], 64).
Even this order of service was not ironclad. Richards allowed for some variations such as “special music,” including sacred solos, duets, quartets, or anthems; and also occasionally “a short Scripture reading at some time before the sermon, and at times a short prayer is introduced after the sermon when the Spirit so directs.” Richards’ only concessions to liturgical propriety were his insistence that no announcements would intrude on the worship service and that the “benediction” be pronounced by an ordained minister. Ten years earlier the same reservation had been expressed, describing a benediction as “a blessing pronounced upon the congregation. In doing this the minister usually raises his hands and blesses the congregation in the name of the Lord, pronouncing grace, mercy, and peace upon them. This function … ought to be confined to ministers of the gospel” (G. C. Tenney, “To Correspondents, #68,” Review and Herald 73 [March 31, 1896], 202).
Scattered hints in earlier sources mention such elements as “prayers, singing, exhortation, and preaching,”(D. M. Canright, “A Few Thoughts About Meetings,” Review and Herald, 28 [Oct. 30, 1866], 173) but recommend no specific order and seem to be far more concerned with the spiritual preparation of the worshiper, promptness, and reverence, than with the content or order of the service.
Whatever the exact order of service might have been, Adventists during the early years of their movement, like the “shouting Methodists,” often enjoyed an enthusiastic worship service. Fervent cries of “Glory!” “Hallelujah!” “Praise God,” and “Blessed Jesus!” punctuated worship services. A believer from Vermont reported that “free and full ‘Hallelujahs’ ascended to God and He was glorified with praise, love, and adoration” (Hiram Edson, “Brother Hiram Edson writes …,” Review and Herald 1 [Feb. 1851], 48). Another tells of a meeting where “the house rang from the full shouts of praise” (James White, “Eastern Tour,” Review and Herald 15 [Dec. 1, 1859], 13.). Ellen White, co-founder and spiritual leader of the Seventh-day Adventists, also experienced ecstatic public visions during the early days of the movement. Occasionally a worshiper was prostrated or “slain by the Spirit” during a service, and in three or four instances, believers spoke in tongues, although the practice was never encouraged and never became widespread.
These practices died down fairly quickly after the Civil War. In part this development followed the trend of the times; Methodists were also becoming more sedate. It was also a response to fanatical abuses of “exercises.” By the end of the century Ellen White, who had encouraged shouting in 1850, instructed her fellow believers that the praise of God did not lead to “wild demonstrations.” No, she said, “Softly and silently the power of the divine Spirit does [his] work.” (Ellen G. White, “Sermon at Ashfield, Australia,” November 3, 1894 [Manuscript 49, 1894]; “My Dear Brethren,” c. April 1889 [Letter 85, 1889]).
Singing was a prominent part of the Adventist worship experience both early and late. During their Millerite days, Adventists imbibed the folk hymns and white spirituals of the Second Great Awakening. Their early hymnody drew on this source but included a respectable number of hymns of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley as well. Four hymnals and five supplements were published by Seventh-day Adventists even before the formal organization of the church. As late as 1870 it was reported that during worship services “singing makes up one half of the meeting” (D. T. Bourdeau, “Punctuality in Attending and Taking Part in Religious Meetings,” Review and Herald, vol. 35 [March 8, 1870], 95).
An Adventist worshiper in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century still experienced a simple, non-liturgical service. When emotion did appear, it was expressed in weeping. Worshipers were said to have had a “melting time,” as hearts melted and tears of repentance, gratitude, or joy-filled their eyes.
[A group of Adventists near Washington, New Hampshire, began to observe the seventh day as a Sabbath in 1844. In 1846 Joseph Bates issued a pamphlet on seventh-day observance that publicized the question and created wide interest. Before long a number of Adventist leaders, including James White and Ellen Harmon (later to become Ellen White), began to advocate the seventh-day Sabbath in various publications, along with other distinctive Adventist teachings. Seventh-day Adventist doctrine stresses the Ten Commandments as a reflection of the character of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, and as a universal standard of righteousness; observance of the seventh day is based on the fourth commandment.
