Why Aren't These Quoted Too?

Ellen White wanted church services to be attractive to unbelievers. "It is the duty of those connected with the church to feel an individual responsibility to... make the meetings so interesting that outsiders or unbelievers will be attracted to your meetings" (EGW Manuscript 13, 1885 – Manuscript Releases vol 3 page 1).

Ellen White said there should more energy in our services. "I saw there was great necessity of more energy being manifested by the commandment keepers in their meetings" (EGW Manuscript 3, 1853 – Manuscript Releases vol 5 page 424).

Before she was married, Ellen attended one meeting where the volume was so great that the local sheriff arrived to arrest the meeting leader for disturbing the peace (Spiritual Gifts vol 2 pages 40-41). Yet Ellen Harmon, who was present, speaks favorably of what happened at that meeting and says "the power of God" was there (Spiritual Gifts vol 2 page 40)!

While participating in public worship, Ellen White often knelt in prayer (Gospel Workers, p.178). But other times she asked the congregation to stand for prayer (Selected Messages, vol. 3, pp. 268, 269). Or to remain seated (ibid., pp. 267-268). In her private life she even prayed sitting in bed (Review & Herald, December 13, 1906).

Psalm 47:1 says "Clap your hands, all you peoples," indicating a role for clapping in meetings and a understanding of "reverence" not limited to silence in the sanctuary.

Psalm 81:2 says "Start the music, strike the drum, play the melodious harp and lyre." Mention of a drum in this passage shows that percussion was an approved part of ancient worship music. The word here translated "drum" is the Hebrew word "toph." The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary says, "The toph was a hand drum, made of a wooden hoop and very probably had two skins. It was beaten by the hands, and must have made a kind of tom-tom sound."

Psalm 150:3-5 reads "Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with drum and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals."

In the book Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions, Ellen White writes favorably about using guitars in church (page 195). She even requested guitar playing before one of her meetings.

Ellen White even suggests that shouting could be part of worship! "I saw," she said, that "singing to the glory of God often drove away the enemy, and shouting would beat him back and give us the victory" (Letter 8a, 1850).