On October 11-17, 2018, the Executive Committee of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists assembled in Battle Creek Michigan for their 2018 Annual Council Meeting.
On Sunday, the 14th they discussed the issue of unlawful ordinations that had taken place in the Pacific, Columbia, and four European Unions (there are 139 total Unions around the world). A process of discipline had been suggested in 2016 & 2017 to address the problem of these insubordinate Unions. That process had been codified into a document called 113-18G Regard For and Practice of General Conference Session and General Conference Executive Committee Actions. It was unofficially called the ‘Compliance Document.’ Among other things, it outlined three discipline steps for non-compliant Church entities (we will discuss them later). The document was voted and passed.
The reason that these unlawful ordinations are a problem is threefold.
1) For over 100 years, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has made major decisions by sending representatives from all over the world to a Session where they would discuss and vote on issues as a world body. This is a fair and representative way to decide on matters of significance. This body of representatives voted three times on the issue of ordaining women as pastors (1990, 1995, 2015). Because of the biblical counsel against such an idea, it was defeated all three times. When rebellious Unions began ordaining women in violation of these major decisions, it undermined our tried-and-proven process of making doctrinal decisions, and invalidated the idea of General Conference Sessions altogether.
2) Secondly, the prevailing motivations for ordaining women was that the cultural climate around these insubordinate Unions and Divisions had shifted and their theology was shifting along with it. That raises grave questions about the way we allow biblical principle or culture to influence significant decisions in life.
3) Unchecked rebellion spreads like a cancer to all parts of the body. All 20+ million members are watching this process unfold, and without resolution there is nothing to prevent these church members from demonstrating rebellion towards Conferences and Unions themselves. Chaos.
Disciplinary Measures of the Compliance Document
1. Warning (slap on the wrist, but a necessary one)
2. Public Reprimand
3. Removal for Cause (this is fair and necessary)
On October 15, 2019, the GC Executive Committee implemented the first disciplinary step of the Compliance Document.
The Netherlands, Swedish, English, and North German Unions were each given a warning.
The Pacific and Columbia Unions were also issued warnings.
What Has Happened Since October 15, 2019?
Nothing. The discipline process is stalled between the first and second step. Meanwhile, the rainbow colored freight train (another gender issue) is racing toward us.
In certain quarters, the grassroots members are doing what they can to help resolve this problem, and getting no help from the General Conference. The GC really needs to do their part. They, after all, started this disciplinary process.
The President of the General Conference should help get this process moving quickly like King Hezekiah did in 2 Chronicles 30 and 31, and like Josiah did in 2 Chronicles 34 and 35. ADCOM should support him. The General Conference Executive Committee should support this effort with all possible dispatch.
Or they could stick their heads in the mud and be like Eli; they can watch the Church disintegrate into chaos.
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