The Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is forced to eliminate 20 positions this year as they deal with significant losses in tithe over 2024 and 2025.
The Numbers
The Michigan Conference experienced a gain of 3 million dollars in tithe for 2023, over the previous year. That is a 7.7% gain over the previous year.
In 2024, they experienced a tithe shortfall of -$2,026,725 over the previous year.
in 2025, they lost another -$2,434,077.28, compared to the previous year (2024), which was down significantly from its previous year (2023). Combined shortfall for both fiscal years (2024 & 2025) = -$4,460,803. That is an observable loss.
Commentary
In early September 2024, Jim Micheff issued a speaking ban on Conrad Vine for the state of Michigan. He was disgruntled over a sermon that Vine preached at an August campmeeting in Maine, and apparently felt that banning Vine from speaking in the state of Michigan was a good move. The MISDA tithe situation worsened significantly throughout the rest of 2024, ending (as we stated above) over two million dollars down from the previous year. There was a lot of pushback over Micheff’s ban, and tremendous support for Conrad Vine around the SDA world. YouTube lit up in support of Vine the entire rest of the year, and into the next year.
In late September, Micheff ruled that Conrad Vine could not speak at the Village Church Religious Liberty Symposium, an event that Vine had organized for over six months, in his capacity of religious liberty leader at the Village Church. Consider the irony of banning the organizer of a religious liberty symposium from speaking. Proves the point, didn’t it?
In December 2024, pastor Ron Kelly was placed on leave, a precursor to firing him. According to those in the know, his crime was not allowing the conference to compel the Village Church to strip Conrad Vine of his church offices as elder and religious liberty leader. In mid February, the MISDA executive committee and their chairman, Jim Micheff, voted to fire Ron Kelly. More and more people spoke out against what they saw as injustice in the vendetta against these two men. Tithe continued to decline.
The issue was never resolved, and the Village Church held a business meeting in August of last year to address this issue. They voted 118 to 19 to allow Conrad to speak in his own church, as that—after all—is one of the duties of an elected elder (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1). The conference and the interim pastor fought against it, although it was brought to their attention they were in violation of the Church Manual.
Michigan reached out to the General Conference, hoping they would affirm Michigan’s right to interfere in the selection of local elder in a local church. The General Conference wisely declined to adjudicate the question, and told Michigan/Micheff to take the question to the (Lake) Union. The Lake Union declined to adjudicate the issue of whether the Michigan Conference could interfere in the speaking and teaching duties of an ordained local elder in his own church where he serves. They quoted a portion of the Church Manual that has nothing to do with the office and duties of an ordained local elder. The portion of the Church Manual that deals with local elders was skipped completely (page 77-78).
Meanwhile, Michigan experienced another tithe shortfall for 2025, down 2.4 million over the previous year which was already down. They are looking at cutting 20 jobs this year. Several of their best pastors have been terminated, or moved on. Their communication director left last year, their Executive Secretary left as well, and their Ministerial Director announced he was leaving, this week. We are looking at a Conference in decline, and the 64-Million dollar question is this “Is there a line of connection between poor leadership decisions and a personal vendetta of the Michigan Conference against Vine and Kelly, and the financial declension they are experiencing? Obviously.
Attempts by the current President to blame it on inflation does not explain why Michigan has the highest 2025 net loss in tithe income across the whole Division. When the system attacks members, the system suffers.
How could it be fixed, how can the situation be resolved? It seems to me (and you may see it differently) that if the current President of Michigan would retire or move on, reconciliation might be possible. We can’t promise that it would, but it seems plausible to us. I sat on a conference executive committee for nine years, and a wise committee—after looking at the fallout over the last 18 months—would say “It’s time for some new blood.” It is.
Stay sharp, love God, and walk in Truth.
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“Even the best of men, if left to themselves, will make grave blunders. The more responsibilities placed upon the human agent, the higher his position to dictate and control, the more mischief he is sure to do in perverting minds and hearts if he does not carefully follow the way of the Lord”