Among the many things discussed at the Seventh-day Adventist Spring Meeting yesterday, were ministries in the church. This video begins at this discussion:
Ted Wilson introduced the topic and called on Mark Finley and Mike Ryan to address it.
Finley says that supportive ministries have their root in Scripture and quoted 1 Corinthians chapter 12, where it says the body is made up of hands and eyes and many parts. He also cites Apostle Paul working as a self-supporting missionary in Acts 18, saying Paul did not seek finances from the corporate church as he shared the mission and message of the corporate church (let’s not forget that the post conversion Apostle Paul was essentially the face of the early Christian church in his missionary enterprise and writings).
He says there are 4 basic purposes of self-supporting ministries. They are,
Cooperate with mission (they were not a corrective of the failings or apostasy of the church).
Committed to the message of the church
Communicate with Adventist leadership
Collaborate in projects
These ministries are supportive of the church, they are not critical of the church, like some independent ministries. He cites ASI and OCI as examples of supportive ministry groups.
Mike Ryan spoke, and said the church’s most important resource is laypeople. “Who here in this group, does not like lay people?" Raise your hands.” No hands went up.
He then invited Steve Dickman for an interview. Steve is the president of OCI, and someone whom I had favorable interactions with at ASI. Steve said volunteer lay people represent the church in different environments and do so without sending a bill to the church.
“Lay people are the essence of the church, we are all lay people, we may hold a position in the church but we are all laity.”
Mike asks Steve “What is the difference between supportive ministries and independent ministries?” Answer:
“The governance of our ministries must be separate from the governance structure (hierarchy) of the church, the ministry must be managed by members in good standing. Secondly, OCI requires that their ministries do not accept tithe from any church member. Thirdly, these ministries must agree to support the doctrines and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I like the term supportive ministry; when I hear the term independent ministry, I get the feeling, these people are not with us. Some of them are critical of the church, some have people in their governance structure that are not even Seventh-day Adventist. Some have even accepted tithe. Those things are adverse to working together.”
Steve went on to say that if OCI members do accept tithe they will receive ‘counseling’ to change their ways, or if they are not members already they will not be accepted as a member of OCI. “If you’re not fulfilling the membership requirements of OCI, we can start divorce proceedings.”
Mike Ryan then proceeded to speak with Andi Hunsaker, current president of ASI. She explained that ASI is a collection of businesses and supportive ministries who share Christ in the marketplace. She said that one of the requirements of members is that they are supportive of the mission, message and leadership of the Adventist Church. Another requirement is that a member of ASI must not accept tithe. If they discover that an ASI member is accepting tithe, they are ‘uninvited’ from ASI (translation, booted out). She said, in closing,
"Anybody that joins ASI, we ask that they are truly supportive of the Message, the Mission and the Leadership. You will not find anyone at ASI criticizing the [church] leadership (which we believe that God ordained). "Thank you elder Wilson for your leadership over the last several years, and may God continue to guide you as we navigate to the kingdom."
Finally, Mark Finley interviewed Norbert Restrepo, president of Hartland College. Restrepo said that when he came to Hartland, 30% of their operating budget came from tithe, donated by Seventh-day Adventist members. Hartland College (now Hartland Institute) stopped receiving tithe money in 2014, after a decision by its board of directors to change its financial structure and move away from a tithe-based system. [Correction. Following a tweet by ANN, we described Norbert as the former president of Hartland. He is the current president. ANN has since deleted the tweet].
Commentary
It appears that a supportive ministry is (among other things) never critical of leadership decisions, or allowed to be.
This could imply that the hierarchy of the church is infallible and those who acknowledge this are ‘supportive’ individuals and ministries. Or it could mean that even though church administrators do make mistakes, a ‘supportive’ person never acknowledges those mistakes or criticizes them for it. If you do, you are ‘unsupportive’, or ‘independent’.
In my view, such an approach robs the church of responsibility, and the benefit of learning from our mistakes together. It could also burden someone’s conscience by making them complicit or an ally in wrongdoings. Questions:
Is there a place for constructive criticism regarding leadership decisions? I’m genuinely curious.
On July 3, 2010, Ted Wilson said “Hold your leaders accountable.” I heard it; I was there. (Honest question—How are we supposed to do that?) This encouraging July 3, 2010 statement opened up a highway of trust between church administrators and the laity.
Lately, that highway is under heavy construction with several lanes shut down due to disrepair, potholes and weeds growing up between cracked asphalt.
How can this trust highway be repaired and trust restored? The best way is to increase transparency and communication between hierarchy and laity (ever mindful, as Steve Dickman said “We are all laity”). Such communication must be two-way in order to be true communication. Monologues and filibustering is not that kind of communication (this applies to me too).
The call to hold your leaders accountable is certainly a noble one. Why haven’t rebellious church Conferences and Unions been held accountable in this church? Especially after compiling and voting a special Compliance Document in 2018 to address the problem, and then refusing to use it. 22 Million church members are aware of this failure of leadership, and that damages the highway. True leadership identifies a problem, pinpoints what is causing it, and asks how do we fix it?
If a person is concerned about the GC aligning with the United Nations and the WHO, are we supposed to blindly support it? If we don’t support those decisions, will we be labeled unsupportive, or ‘independent’? If we decry the ecumenical activities of Ganoune Diop, and his assertion that the Roman Church has changed, are we being bad or unsupportive Adventists? Must our minds and conscience die, that unity might live?
If lay members believe that the Administrative Committee (ADCOM) act amiss when they make statements for 22.5 million church members (without laity involvement) what should they do about that?
Church leaders must be willing to both give and receive counsel in order for this relationship to work. That is what leadership does. It sounds like church leaders are willing to give counsel, but are unwilling to receive it. What can be done to fix that?
Would John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and Martin Luther be considered supportive or independent?
John the Baptist pointed out Herod's errors, and he was killed. Elijah pointed out Ahab's errors, and he was threatened with death. Martin Luther and John Wycliffe pointed out the Catholic errors and they were persecuted for it. EGW pointed out leadership errors and they shipped her off to Australia to cancel her admonitions. Conrad Vine pointed out errors of leadership and stood up for liberty of conscience and he was canceled. Ron Kelly stood up against denominational abuse and was canceled for it. Our Lord pointed out the errors of the leadership of His day......and they killed Him for doing so.
I recognize that certain individuals seem to enjoy criticizing the church, wrapped in a garment of bitterness. I agree they are not helping the situation. We must speak the truth in love, but speak it nonetheless.
Fulcrum7 has a goal to encourage our people around the world, and let them know what is going on in the church—in a responsible manner. For too long, bad things happened in the church behind a veil. They were concealed, yes, but still happening and hurting people.
If we were to help conceal these things we might be called ‘supportive’ but we would also be complicit. To do that would sit heavily on our conscience.
“And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).
Walk with the King and be a blessing.
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“The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall” (Education).
