被称为教会的庞大机构，是上帝主要的传播媒介，要在耶稣基督里，藉着祂，把救恩的伟大福音信息传达给迷失的人。它不仅仅是一群美丽建筑或志趣相投之人的集合体，它乃是上帝向世界宣告真理和分享基督之爱的机构。怀爱伦很好地捕捉到了这一点，她写道：“一个与世俗分离的教会，在上天看来，是世界上最伟大的机构。” (Letter 26, 1900).
多世纪以来，福音在地球的每一个角落由忠心的见证人传播给人类。自19世纪40年代，基督复临安息日会在卑微中诞生以来，就接受了上帝预言的召唤，向世界宣讲《启示录》第14章三位天使的永恒福音信息。这是一种在基督教世界中独特的爱与关怀的庄严责任。这个神圣的使命对成员和领导人都提出了挑战。在运动的早期，先驱们努力寻找传播信息的手段和方法。当时主要靠的是原始的印刷机和巡回的传道士，但更好的时代还在后头。
在19世纪60年代，内部和外部的压力，加上不断扩大的传道战线，导致了基督复临安息日会第一个主要组织的成立。它的名称和主要结构也起源于此。人数、地域和机构的扩张致使1901年到1903年之间进行了大规模的重组。对于日渐成熟的基督复临安息日会来说，这是危险的时刻，但上帝正通过圣经的原则指引着祂的教会及其领袖，这些原则是通过怀爱伦的预言著作和洞见揭示出来的。
怀爱伦对基督教领袖的建议涵盖了经验和实践的方方面面。她关心领袖的品格、家庭、责任和能力。她中肯地写了关于健全管理和效仿世俗商业惯例之危险的文章。她对教会使命的看法在范围上是国际性的，但在实施上却是地方性的。她写信给会长、传道士、经理和主管——总是呼吁领袖们遵守上帝关于祂余民教会忠诚和秩序的标准。
你即将阅读的书中包含了一些怀爱伦的热心读者以前见过的段落，但从来没有如此全面地精选出上帝设法促进成长和指导基督复临安息日会的忠告和原则。每一段引文都附有日期，以帮助读者了解勉言的历史背景，便于正确地应用。我们希望，《基督教领袖的原则》将加强那些寻求催促基督来带领赎民回家之人的工作。
怀爱伦著作托管委员会
2018年1月22日于马里兰州银泉市
资料出处缩写
AA 《使徒言行录》
COL 《基督比喻实训》
CT 《基督教育之研究》
DA 《历代的愿望》
Ed 《教育论》
GC 《善恶的斗争》
GCB 《总会公报》
GCDB 《总会每日公报》
GW 《传道良助》
HS 《SDA国外布道史略》
Letter 《信函》
MH 《服务真诠》
MS 《文稿》
PP 《先祖与先知》
RH 《评论与通讯》
SM（1-3）《信息选粹》
SpT 《特别证言系列》
ST 《时兆》
T（1-9） 《教会证言》
TM 《给传道人的证言》
YI 《青年导报》
The great enterprise called the church is God’s primary vehicle for giving the lost the great gospel message of salvation in and through Jesus Christ. Much more than a mere assemblage of beautiful buildings or like-minded individuals, it is God’s agency for the proclamation of truth and the sharing of Christ’s love with the world. Ellen White captured it well when she wrote, “A church, separate and distinct from the world, is in the estimation of heaven the greatest object in all the earth” (Letter 26, 1900).
Over the centuries, the gospel has been spread to humanity by faithful witnesses in every corner of the globe. Since its humble beginnings in the 1840s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has embraced God’s prophetic call to proclaim the eternal gospel of the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 to the world; a solemn responsibility of love and concern that is unique in Christendom. This sacred mission has challenged members and leaders alike. In the early days of the movement, pioneers struggled to raise means and methods to spread the message. Primitive printing presses and itinerant ministers were the order of the day, but better times lay ahead.
In the 1860s, internal and external pressures, together with expanding lines of ministry, led to the first major organization of the Adventist Church. It also originated its name and general structure. Numeric, geographic, and institutional expansion forced an extensive reorganization between 1901 and 1903. Those were perilous moments for the maturing Adventist Church, but God was guiding His church and its leaders by means of the biblical principles revealed through the prophetic writings and insights of Ellen White.
Ellen White’s counsel to Christian leaders runs the gamut of experience and practice. She was concerned about the leader’s character, family, commitment, and competence. She wrote cogently about sound management and the perils of emulating worldly business practices. Her vision of the church’s mission was international in scope, yet local in implementation. She wrote to presidents and pastors, managers and supervisors— always calling leaders to God’s standard of faithfulness and order as His remnant church.
The volume you are about to read contains some passages that avid readers of Ellen White have seen before, but never has there been such a comprehensive distillation of the counsels and principles by which God sought to grow and guide the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Dates have been provided for each quotation, assisting the reader in placing the counsel in its historical context for proper application. It is our hope that Principles for Christian Leaders will strengthen the work of those seeking to advance the day when Christ shall come to take His ransomed home.
Board of Trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate, Inc.
Silver Spring, Maryland
January 22, 2018
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