Today, marked two weeks since the pastor of Gaithersburg gave the congregation an ultimatum, kneel to the Potomac Conference over their attempt to ban Pastor Bohr from speaking there, or leave.
As we reported on August 2, the entire church walked out of the building, leaving this pastor standing alone in an empty building. Such is the result of autocratism.
Undaunted, and determined to worship the Lord together, the Gaithersburg congregation met in a park last Sabbath for open air worship. It was a success.
While they were meeting in the park, the Potomac pastor who gave them the ultimatum returned to the empty church building and took all the electronic equipment, computers and sound system from the building. All of it.
The Gaithersburg congregation negotiated with the Church of the Brethren building caretaker and agreed to rent the building from them. Today, they worshiped the Lord in the same building that they walked out of two weeks ago. The church was packed with SDA members (minus the autocratic pastor of course).
Observations
This heavy-handed saga happened because the Potomac Conference is trying to prevent a well-known SDA pastor from preaching to the Gaithersburg congregation, and the pastor is trying to please the conference.
What does the Potomac Conference have against Stephen Bohr? It appears that their main objection is that Bohr is opposed to the (unbiblical) ordination of women to the pastoral ministry. The Potomac Conference is in outright rebellion towards the Seventh-day Adventist Church who has voted three times to NOT ordain women to the pastoral ministry.
The Potomac Conference has made no public objection to multiple pro-homosexual meetings held at Sligo SDA church and Washington Adventist University.
The Gaithersburg SDA congregation had all of the sound equipment that the congregation paid for taken from them. Where I come from, they call that stealin’. They are in the process of replacing what was taken from them. We reached out to the Potomac Conference via email to learn if the pastor who took the equipment did so with their blessing. They have not responded.
Pastor Stephen Bohr, the director of Secrets Unsealed, is going to be speaking in Gaithersburg next week from the 16th-19th. I wish I could be there.
Pray for this courageous and committed congregation as they prepare for what will surely be a standing-room only series of meetings with Pastor Bohr. May God bless them richly.
Last June at the GC Session in Saint Louis, there was a problematic Church Manual change that gave conferences more authority over who speaks in church pulpits. Whatever the intent of this change, it has been immediately seized upon by heavy-handed liberal conferences as a weapon against conservative churches. I can cite a whole series of examples that have occurred this year already. This is an ugly church manual change and should be revoked ASAP. What was the previous General Conference Ministerial Director thinking when his office recommended this change? What was Billy Biaggi thinking when he chaired the committee that recommended this change? Naivete’ or malicious intent? Either way, fix this mess you created.
Liberal conferences start out somewhat tolerant and biblically confused. When they acheive power, they become the worst tyrants of all.
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