Monday: More Church Manual—[Yawn]

by Loren Seibold  |  7 July 2025  |

This is a big noisy meeting in an inferior space—spread out and confusing and noisy with bad acoustics. But as I look around, I’m moved by people from all over the world—not the big conference and union and division people with fancy suits and ties, but the regular little people who have come to the other side of the world and are so proud to be here and to be contributing to the governance of their church. It is fun and exciting for them, and also rewarding. And, they see that there is more to their church than their little congregation in a small city or village. It makes them proud.

Now, for the most part they vote whatever is recommended, and even when they have questions at the microphone, the leaders steamroll right over them and keep going. But it is a mark of the goodness of these dear delegates that they don’t seem to get discouraged. They are part of something bigger than themselves. I’m grateful for them.

By the way, the business meetings themselves are deadly dull. It is amendments and amendments to amendments, and changing “a” to “the,” and “or” to “and.” Be grateful that you need only read about it, not sit through it.

Note:

I’ve been enjoying the common title the delegates use for the chairman: “Pastor Chair.” (Though they didn’t use that title for Audrey Andersson yesterday.)

Membership

I was at first a bit concerned about this change to the Church Manual. It is called “redemptive membership review,” and it encourages churches to sort through their membership and keep it up to date. Now, some churches love to “get rid of the dead wood,” as the saying goes. Others are terrified that the conference is going to see that 30 people are in church even though they have a membership of 200, and take their pastor away. So I’m not sure many churches are going to do anything different, unless the conference pushes them to.

They say that the concern is membership reconciliation—that is, members who somehow end up going to one church and members in another, or even get recorded in two churches sometimes.

Let’s be honest: the whole notion of membership is a mess. Many people really don’t value it. When I was a parish pastor I didn’t make a fuss about whether people were members or not, as long as they participated in some way. But the truth is it is still used in many calculations by our judicatories, such as insurance and pastoral assignments and (at one time) goals such as Ingathering or magazine subscriptions.

I always tried to find missing members. (I have a memory of a night wandering around on country roads in Appalachia in the dark, trying to find a member. It was kind of scary. I found a mobile home way out on a dirt road, and was a little afraid to knock! They have guns out there. The trailer house was empty. I never did find her.)

I hope that this Church Manual change will encourage pastors and church boards to do that. I’ve heard horrible stories of church members suddenly, unexpectedly, getting a letter that they were disfellowshiped from membership, for some (possibly imaginary) trespass. Other times they were supposedly “lost” when no one looked for them and they were housebound for some reason, or active in another church. That’s a horrible thing to do to people.

The section to be changed was accepted.

Another related change was started by encouraging people to transfer their membership when they move. This line concerned me a bit more, though:

“Careful consideration should be given by the granting church and the receiving church to ensure the members in the process of being transferred are living in harmony with the fundamental teachings and related practices of the church.”

I have actually seen churches that would refuse to transfer someone they didn’t like, sometimes because he or she drank coffee or ate meat, or sometimes just out of spite. As someone pointed out, it creates another level of discipline when a congregation gets to add test of membership to transfer. It relies heavily on local understandings, which could be quite flawed.

It’s my understanding that there are supposed to be no explanations given when you transfer or refuse to transfer—except in the case of someone who has perpetrated pedophilia.

The people on the platform said again that we have to have some trust, a justification they often return to. But I don’t trust some congregations. This is a process that could easily be abused. But it was approved.

The word “discipleship” is being replaced with “disciple-making”.

Money

I’m not going to note every change in this section. Suffice it to say that there is more stuff on stewardship than any other topic in these Church Manual changes.

The overarching idea is encouraging the giving of tithes and offerings as part of worship and part of the spiritual life. Folks got sidetracked about taking three lines from Acts of the Apostles out of the manual because it is quoted elsewhere. Really, this is the level of what we’re doing here: editing with 1700 (of the 2800) delegates. Okay, now we’re editing changes about the Sabbath School offering. Because, ya know.

Several young people objected to this clause, because it seemed to make salvation dependent upon tithe:

“In recognition of the biblical plan and the believer’s experience of salvation, all are encouraged to faithfully return a tithe, one tenth of their increase or personal income, into the denomination’s treasury.”

It was sent back to the committee—and rightly so. This is what happens when we give our young people a voice.

Here’s another change that gives me pause:

“The treasurer should always remember that personal giving decisions are strictly confidential. The treasurer and the pastor should never comment on personal giving decisions are strictly confidential. The treasurer and the pastor should never disclose individual giving records except with consent of the giver, as required by law, as needed to audit or review the church’s financial records, or as needed for the nominating committee process. Great harm may be caused by failure to observe this rule.”

I’m all for the confidentiality rule—but that “except … as needed for the nominating committee process.” Not a nominating committee in the world I would trust to keep mum about someone’s giving.

Nominating Committee:

The following were nominated and voted to be associate secretaries of the GC

• Hensley M Moorooven as undersecretary of the General Conference
• Gerson P Santos as associate secretary of the General Conference
• Gary D Krause as Adventist Mission associate secretary/director of the General Conference
• Elbert Kuhn as associate secretary, AVS (Adventist Volunteer Service) of the General Conference
• Karen J Porter as associate secretary, IPRS (International Personnel Resources and Services) of the General Conference
• Selom Kwasi Sessou as associate secretary of the General Conference
• Alexander Ott as associate secretary of the General Conference

The following were nominated and voted to be GC Division presidents. They are also GC vice presidents. These were recommended by the Division caucuses. The five with an asterisk (*) are new to the job.

• Blasious M Ruguri as president of the East-Central Africa Division
• Mikhail F Kaminskiy as president of the Euro-Asia Division
• *Abner De Los Santos as president of the Inter-American Division
• *Barna Magyarosi as president of the Inter-European Division
• G Alexander Bryant as president of the North American Division
• *Soon Gi Kang as president of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division
• Stanley E Arco as president of the South American Division
• Glenn C Townend as president of the South Pacific Division
• Harrington S Akombwa as president of the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division
• *John Victor Chinta as president of the Southern Asia Division
• Roger O Caderma as president of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division
• Daniel Duda as president of the Trans-European Division
• *Bassey Udoh as president of the West-Central Africa Division

I liked Barna Magyarosi—he appeared in the presentation lineup in denim jeans!

The appointment I’m most worried about is John Victor Chinta—he’s part of an administration in India who have failed to be accountable for the corruption in that division.

At last, a motion I like: “Pastor Chairman, I speak in favor of dinner.”

Loren Seibold is the executive editor of Adventist Today.

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