UPDATE: February 07, 2025
Within the next weeks, two important board meetings will take place in Michigan.
Andrews University
One meeting is the Andrews University Board of Trustees (link to member list), which convenes on March 2-4, 2025 (link to schedule). We hope that all its board members are properly informed about relevant and current issues, some of which are presented by an Andrews University student further down in this article.
So, for Andrews University, we pray that board members will courageously stand up for God's true purpose of that institution, that they will unashamedly request any prevailing errors contradicting Scripture to be swiftly rectified, and that they will clearly realize the university's accountability towards God in safeguarding a proper stewardship of the students entrusted into its care.
Michigan Conference Executive Committee
Another meeting is the Michigan Conference Executive Committee, which convenes on February 11, 2025, to discuss the situation of the Village Church in Berrien Springs.
Several Lake Union and Michigan Conference administrators are members of both the Andrews University Board of Trustees and the Michigan Conference Executive Committee. We are concerned that these administrators may be applying double standards in their dealings with the Village Church on the one hand, and Andrews University on the other hand. Scripture is clear in its disapproval of double standards, where Proverbs 20:23 says: "Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord."
On the one hand, regarding the Village Church, we witness the Michigan Conference's unjustified destruction of the growing and faith-strengthening ministry in that congregation, with a collateral damage reaching far beyond Michigan. We witness the canceling of both its senior pastor and some of its leaders, who affirm biblical truths, and who call upon church members and leaders to be faithful to the prophetic calling of God's end-time remnant. In the midst of this destruction we witness a lack of proper and due process.
On the other hand, regarding Andrews University, we witness a seemingly silent Michigan Conference, appearing to look the other way, while unbiblical and destructive doctrines and practices are, and have been for many years, visibly taught and promoted by certain faculty and staff members. In all this silence we get the impression that simply moving on, as if there are no serious dangers, is the order of the day.
So, for the Michigan Conference, we appeal to its administrators and Executive Committee members to not become guilty of double standards. Regarding Village Church, we pray that the Michigan Conference will reconsider and even revoke its decisions, that it will pursue a path of credibility, and that it will give due process its proper and required place. Regarding Andrews University, we pray that the Michigan Conference will consistently and visibly hold the university accountable to its calling and true purpose in both doctrine and practice.
In closing, the current situation is leading to a swelling crisis. Trust is being eroded. Credibility is being lost. For those who seek genuine and inspired advice, please consider this:
"The greatest want of the world is the want of those men and women who will not be bought or sold, those who in their inmost souls are true and honest, those who do not fear to call sin by its right name, those whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, those who will stand for the right though the heavens fall" (True Education, p. 38).
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: January 27, 2025
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“And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church” (3 John 1:10).