Annual Meeting of Adventist Governing Body Begins
October 8, 2015: The annual meeting of the Adventist denomination’s governing body began last night (October 7) in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington DC. It will continue through the end of next week and Adventist Today’s new Executive Editor, Loren Seibold, will be on site reporting via Twitter, Facebook and providing information for daily reports here on the Web.
The General Conference (GC) executive committee has its main meeting each year in October at which policy changes are voted, strategic plans are adopted and financial decisions made. Between the GC Sessions every five years, this is the top decision-making body for the denomination.
The members of the executive committee include GC officers, department heads, the officers from the 13 world divisions of the denomination, union conference presidents, presidents of GC institutions such as Andrews University, as well as three church members and one pastor from each division, plus one additional denominational employee for every 500,000 members. There are also 30 other “at large” committee members.
Today and tomorrow the agenda includes in-service education for the committee members and a meeting of the denomination’s Council on Evangelism and Witness. This year the focus is on cross-cultural missions. The business agenda will begin on Sunday (October 11).
A major item on this year’s agenda is a new five-year strategic plan setting global goals for the denomination from 2015 through 2020. The committee will also appoint or re-appoint a number of GC staff whose positions were not considered at the GC Session in July.
Among the roles to be voted on are field secretaries who lead special projects; a treasurer of the Southern Asia Division; a director and two associate directors for Planned Giving and Trust Services; a director and two associate directors for the Stewardship Department; three associate directors for the Health Ministries Department; the director of Archives, Statistics and Research; the director and associate directors of the Biblical Research Institute; and editorial personnel for 14 major publications, including the Bible study guides used in Sabbath School for each age group.
The committee will also appoint the members of four key boards for Adventist organizations. These include the International Board of Education; the International Board of Ministerial and Theological Education; the Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools, Colleges, and Universities; and the International Health and Temperance Association.
There are three new articles in the on-line Review about the meetings. The theme is about justification for church decisions based on culture. It is all about how to make your message fit whatever culture you are in.
While the Christian message must deal with culture, it does not patronize the culture to make the message fit in. World cultures are heathen and sinful. They must be confronted by the culture of God’s kingdom in which the basis and foundation of His culture is the moral law.
The theme of modern Adventism is unity. And much of the unity advocated is not biblical unity, although the bible is referred to and Jesus always calls for unity. But before you can advocate unity, there must be various objective truths that are non-negotiable to build unity on. Unity for the sake of unity has no meaning or definition.
Some of the justification was to defend the church’s involvement in politics and the need to defend social justice. While Christanity advocates social justice, Jesus did not get involved with the social justice of His day. As citizens of the USA, we agree and advocate social justice and civil rights. As citizens of God’s kingdom we advocate the principles of His kingdom that goes far beyond the justice advocated by this world.
The line between the two concepts is becoming more and more blurred even as the line between the SDA message and the generic Christanity in other denominations is blurred more and more. Our message is confrontational, and…
demands reform and acceptance of the issues we advocate as being salvational and mandatory for entrance into the kingdom of God. The desire to patronize and be accepted and liked, can easily overshadow the necessity for confrontation and reformation.
We are all hopeful that there will be more done, than said. Because traditionally in the SDA church, there is more said, than done. Difficult problems demand difficult decisions. Many are praying for positive dynamic decisions in harmony with bible truth.
Bill says, “World cultures are heathen and sinful.”
That’s what I thought until I went to live among some of the most primitive (so-called) people in the world.
I will give you 2 examples from among many.
a) Our missionary teachers insisted that the schoolboys should always have their shirts tightly tucked into their trousers. The local culture never tucked their shirts into their lap-laps. Instead, they let their shirts hang loose in order to catch any cool breeze that might float by in the steaming heat.
b) Our missionaries condemned anything that leading tribesmen might try to instil into the younger generation, denouncing it in ignorance as of the devil and a form of spiritism. Later, I learned that when leading tribesmen lived in the bush for six months with the teenage boys it was virtually a finishing school. The youngsters were taught, among other aspects of decorum, how to speak tactfully so as not to cause embarrassment to the one being addressed.
And, of course, this was a society built on sharing their food and finances. The elderly, sick and crippled were well cared for. And pregnant women were specially cared for by other women.
Now Bill I want to know what is “sinful” about all this? Where in your much touted law does it say you should tuck your shirt into your trousers? Where does it say you should seek to embarrass others when you speak to them? Where does it say that you shouldn’t share your food with others? I would like chapter and verse,…
Milton,
Thank you for sharing your experience. Isn’t it wonderful how being “out there” changes your views? As you described so well, just because they do it in a different way that is not familiar to you doesn’t mean it is sinful.
That method of teaching the boys is the same method used by a number of higher species in the animal world. For example, young male elephants reaching adolescence are driven-out of the herd where they have been nurtured to spend several years in a male-only herd under the command of an older male who teaches them how to behave. Then they leave to join a new herd. But those not receiving that training often are rejected by any herd they try to join.
“Now Bill I want to know what is “sinful” about all this? ”
Hopefully, Milton, no one would suggest that every aspect of heathen societies is contrary to the word of God. The influence of bible Christanity is in all the world and some of that influence molds world cultures.
Marriage between a man and woman is classic of the influence of bible truth all down through history no matter what country. Sad to say, in America today, that many elements of heathenism are rapidly at work to destroy the Christian influence that much of America was built on.
So, EGW calls is “Protestant America” because it was the influence of basic bible Protestantism that helped formulate American government and politics. Even separation of church and state was basic Protestantism.
So the fact you refer to some basic Christian values in countries of the world, does not negate the fact that these countries are heathen and have a heathen culture. Where ever the bible truth has had some influence, it has raised the quality of life in that society.
I am not adventist but i have read most of their books i keep the sabbath. I have listen to sermons from defferent denominations but the message of the SDA church is the only message that give meaning to faith. From my studies i have realised the Church did not accept 1888 message, should the SDA church accept the 1888 message by A.T. Jones and E.J. Waggoner there would have been arevival such has not happen before. The church is still waiting for the latter rain, not knowing it is at work. Lets the leaders with prayerful and humble heart study those writings and they will testify. I was introduce to different sabbath church but after studying sister EGW writings and the writings of this two elders it has really revived my life and am sharing with people all the time. If the church is not careful they will be like Jews waiting for messaih while the messaih is already come.
Emma,
You are more “Adventist” than many others who comment here 8-).
Bill Sorensen,
The foundation of the character of God is Love.
Law was instituted as a consequence of Sin, to restore our understanding of what is true Love. Jesus summarized the entirety of the Law in two commandments – Love God supremely and Love your fellow humans as yourself.
when the christian missionaries came to Hawaii they said hula was heathen and sinful and the people had to stop practicing it. Having lived in the islands I can tell you for sure Hula is the language of the heart, therefore the heartbeat of the Hawaiian people. Any form of dance or music can be used to glorify God or glorify self. Rock, reggae, rap, hip hop, hula. It all gets back to this…what was the intent of the artist? I am saddend when I hear folks make blanket statements toward native and 1st nation cultures that their ways are demonic, heathen and sinful. Or telling the young man at church “we love you but the sexual orientation you were born with is sinful” I’m not Jesus but I wonder “what would Jesus do” ?
Is this what used to be called Fall Council?