An Appeal from the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee

Spectrum Website
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Editor’s Note: On October 2, 2018, the Columbia Union Conference issued an official statement concerning the GC’s compliance documents and committees. The statement follows in its entirety:

Official Statement

October 2, 2018

An Appeal from the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee

The General Conference Administrative Committee’s proposed new system of committees to assure compliance and uniformity within the global church will not result in the unity it seeks. We find this approach to be deeply troubling for it will bypass established policies, protocols and processes and reach beyond longstanding governance practices that have contributed to the amazing growth of our diverse, yet united world church family. The global implications of this process are truly a matter of grave concern. In its present form, it appears to centralize even more authority and control in the hands of a relatively small group.

This is precisely what our early leaders sought to avoid when they created unions with locally governing constituencies. They hoped this would enable our church to effectively establish and develop local approaches to fulfilling the Adventist mission. They prayed it would keep our church relevant and in touch with the unique ministry needs in each area of the world.

Contrary to the vision of those early leaders and the stated goal of our current world church leadership to unify the church, this effort to impose a new global compliance monitoring system would produce confusion, division and further distraction from our shared vision to advance Christ’s mission and hasten His return.

When we consider how to measure compliance, and moreover loyalty, it is our prayer that we would test it according to the Bible, the very foundation of our faith and what primarily guides all that we stand for, say and do. Ellen White says, “In the commission to His disciples, Christ not only outlined their work, but gave them their message. Teach the people, He said, ‘to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (see Matt. 28:20, NKJV).’ The disciples were to teach what Christ had taught. … Human teaching is shut out. There is no place for tradition, for man’s theories and conclusions, or for church legislation. No laws ordained by ecclesiastical authority are included in the commission. None of these are Christ’s servants to teach” (Desire of Ages, p. 826.1).

With deep conviction, we submit three appeals:

We appeal to those upon whose shoulders rest the weighty decisions of how to govern and address the needs and realities of a global family of faith, to do so in a way that promotes true biblical unity, healthy dialogue and respect for each and every member of the body of Christ.

We appeal to world church leaders that, rather than creating a compliance structure contrived to keep every member and entity in line, we develop avenues for dialogue, plant seeds of understanding and model Christ-like forbearance in how we treat one another.

We appeal to our brothers and sisters within our union, across our division and around the world, to prayerfully open hearts and minds to possibilities that will free us from this impasse and refocus 100 percent of our energies, efforts and resources on fulfilling the Great Commission.

Be it known that our greatest desire is that, as we truly put aside personal perspectives and earnestly seek to be compliant with the Word of God and the moving of the Holy Spirit in these last days, that we would find plausible solutions to draw us closer to each other and ever nearer to the return of our Lord.

“The church may pass resolution upon resolution to put down all disagreement of opinion, but we cannot force the mind and will, and thus root out disagreement. These resolutions may conceal the discord, but they cannot quench it and establish perfect agreement. Nothing can perfect unity in the church but the spirit of Christ-like forbearance” (Ellen G. White, Manuscript 24, 1892).

Related Articles:

ADCOM Refers to Compliance Committees

Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee Invites Members to Pray

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This statement originally appeared on the Columbia Union Conference website. Logo courtesy of the CUC.

We invite you to join our community through conversation by commenting below. We ask that you engage in courteous and respectful discourse. You can view our full commenting policy by clicking here.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://spectrummagazine.org/node/9064
3 Likes
#2

Do I see a dominos event starting?
I hope so, because this abuse of power has to stop.

Image result for dominos picture

Thank you CUC for being part of the oppositional movement.

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#3

Appeal 1) AMEN !
Appeal 2) AMEN !
Appeal 3) AMEN !

Can I be a member of whatever the Columbia Union Conference belongs to ?

3 Likes
#4

North American Division. You could join a progressive church in the Potomac Conference or Ohio Conference who support the ordination of women in the pastoral ministry. Might be a bit difficult to pull off from where you are but locally, you can probably find out how to send tithe to you conference in a way that makes certain it will support the pastors salaries without being recorded as official tithe.

2 Likes
#5

Thanks.
It was sort of a ‘rhetorical question’, but there is no such punctuation mark that I know of.

Actually, I live in the Lake Union Conference of the NAD, but when I rejoined the SDA church in 2009 I was given membership in the church where my sister worked in Florida. There was no way I was going to submit my membership toward legitimizing the leadership and their puppet pastors in Michigan.

I personally witnessed a 2006 Sabbath sermon by a former president of that conference in which he justified his own decision to lock up God’s canoes – not his – at God’s Camp Au Sable – not his – on Sabbaths by quoting half of an account from scripture, and stopping in the middle. And amazingly the adoring congregation boomed, “AMEN !” . . . Creepy !
The second half of the account clearly condemned him for his hard-heartedness, but who bothered opening their Bibles and challenging his charismatic leadership ? (I was stunned, and also an ‘apostate’ at the time.)
Again, ‘creepy’.

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#6

Yes, if the envelope is marked something like, "For Conference Pastor’s salary only"they cannot use it in a different way. Or, if they refuse it (which I doubt… :wink: ) they have to return you the funds.

I mark it always “Local Budget.” Never got anything back, of course… LOL
@DogTail

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#7

There are so many reasons in your post, which speak to why people leave the SDA church…

Yes, thankfully there are people who notice how ridiculous these kinds of statements are. When hearing this kind of thing for years, some people do eventually reach a point of saying, “Hey, something is really wrong here”, and proceed to study their way out. :slightly_smiling_face:

I started noticing this too. Red flag! When reading the whole text, then reading the context, it said nothing like what was being put forth from the pulpit. :thinking:

Yes…the non-discernment is mind boggling. And…if the problem is pointed out, most people will just gloss over it and continue on with the status quo. It’s inconceivable to them that they/their pastor/or church could ever be wrong, because they are God’s Church (with God’s canoes). :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

3 Likes
“Unity Beards” by the Adventist Caricaturist
#8

Been there, done that! Well, not done that, but been there when it was done. It was the last time I ever purposely attended a church service when this particular pastor was speaking. In fact I was slated to be on the platform after he finished but slipped out quietly during his sermon prayer and left it to fall apart or not, but I wasn’t going to be a part of cruelty even if it meant shirking my job.

I have always been one to give a pastor a little grace because I know how difficult their job can be at times. Still, there’s a line in the sand I will not cross

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#9

"Quoting half on an account from scripture and stopping in the middle is not new. That is the way some of the “fundamental beliefs” evolved. Again, take a look at some of the present day books by Ellen White and compare them with the first and second editions. You may be surprised.

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#10

Perhaps IF more North American unions wrote a similar piece the North American Division
might not need to make any reply to President Wilson and others. That would get the NAD
off the “hook” so to speak.

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#11

A number of years ago a group of Seventh-day Kinship Adventists were having a week-end
event at the beach in North Carolina. There were 2 members from W. Virginia who
wanted to be baptized. One was an SDA and the other was a convert of hers. But
her home church pastor would not perform the Baptism of the convert.
We had a pastor from the D.C. area who would do it. So he baptized this person
and another lady in the Atlantic Ocean.
Was a wonder service!
ALL THREE were welcomed into that D.C. church as members in good standing,
even though the 2 women from W. Virginia would continue to worship at the local
church.
The other lady was also welcomed to the D.C. church as a member in good and
regular standing and would worship near her home in a different state.

2 Likes
#12

I guess the authors of books have the right to make corrections, even if they do it in a post-mortem condition… :open_mouth:
That says it all!

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#13

. . . as you know, I could go on . . . with more reasons from personal experiences. The amazing thing is that so many stay and wink at leadership’s atrocities, like the one I mentioned, and for which Moses was denied entry into the ‘Promised Land’, and Satan was booted out of Heaven ‘like lightning’ (especially after Its role at Golgotha) – misrepresenting God.

In the past, as my wife and I have learned the sad history of what ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ happened in the SDA church, we have both run into non-SDA coworkers and friends who would benefit hugely from what we could tell them of that Gospel which far too many existing ‘loyal’ SDAs have missed. But we were afraid that they might learn what religion we were, visit the local SDA church and learn of its ‘more important’ ‘chocolate wars’ and ‘food fights’ with the local SDA ‘vegan fascists’, instead, and never dare to visit again. We’ve seen it happen more than once with even SDA church members running away. Two of which my wife and I were blessed to intercept, and who were starving to be “FED” (their words) with Good News on Sabbaths, but were instead consistently fed a mirror-full of their own sins, or nothing . . . PATHETIC !

If the SDA church cannot retain what Heaven has blessed it with, then why should heaven bless it with more ? Instead the SDA ‘Pastor’ of those two attacked and blasted my wife and I for ‘stealing’ his members and suggested that we go to another SDA church to do so, instead . . . ? ! Can it get any more insane than this ? Apparently so.

1 Like
#14

Graham Maxwell was repeatedly surprised at how he could submit his writings for publication and even his editors would be puzzled as to how the tiny word ‘not’ would be left out in the finished publication, completely changing his original intended meaning.

Jones mentioned a similar phenomena to the GC session in 1893
( see bold for the point, shy for the context):

“Here is another word that teaches the same point that we had last night in our lesson, to receive the word of God just as it is, just as He says it, with no question of our own. Brother Starr says that he was talking with Sister White one day about the angels at Mt. Sinai at the giving of the law, and he says this:”
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 377.5}

" ‘She saw that the angels, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, surrounded the people of God as they assembled around the mountain, and all above them, thus making a great living tabernacle from which every evil angel was excluded that not one word that was to come from the voice of Jesus should be altered in any mind or one suggestion of doubt or evil to a soul be made.’ "
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 377.6}

“Now that is what we want here. [Congregation: “Amen.”] What we want right here is for each one to just put up his own prayer himself, for himself, to the Lord to cover us with such a canopy as that at this Institute that when the words of the Lord are read not one word shall be altered in any mind from just what God speaks and that not one suggestion of doubt or evil shall come to a single soul, but that we, each one, may receive just what the Lord says in His own way, as He says it and as he means it.”
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 377.7}

Then further from Brother Starr:-
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 377.8}

" ‘In a late testimony to an individual here, Sister White was forbidden to send it to him in writing but to read it personally, for the reason that evil angels are at work substituting words for those that are written. Other words are pronounced in his ears and he gets a meaning just opposite from that designed of God.’ "
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 377.9}

“Well if that man needs that, is he the only one in the world that needs it? If Satan is working that way, is he going to confine himself to Australia? Then don’t you and I need to have our ears anointed as well as our eyes, that we may hear? And does not that word of Jesus, “Take heed how ye hear,” come to us?”
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 377.10}

“Then another instance there:
A brother had been carried away by connection with secret societies and had gone through with them until he was about ready to take the highest degree.”
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 378.1}

“A testimony came for him. God presented his case to her as a man just upon the brink of a precipice to whom it was dangerous to call out even. Sister White asked the Lord what she could do for him, and as she prayed, the angel said, "Give him ( Note: in person ) the pass word. Give him the pass word into the heavenly society,
‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’” "
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 378.2}

“What is the pass word into the heavenly society? [Congregation: “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”] That is the only thing that you and I have any business to know anything about. That is His message to the world, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified”; that is the passport.” {February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 378.3}

“Now turn again to Romans 4th chapter. We want to read of the righteousness of God and while we read of this righteousness of God, we want to receive it just as the Lord has spoken it. Don’t forget now, we want that canopy of angels over us and around us, that no word may be perverted to our understanding.
We want to receive it just as he gave it.”
{February 24, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 378.4}

. . . and Ellen not only personally delivered the password into the heavenly society, but stunned that Freemason-SDA by unwittingly giving him secret hand signals known only to Freemasons, during her personal visit. . . . Wish I could see that video !

#15

I have felt the need to tip toe around being an SDA as well as a chaplain because of the assumptions people make and in some cases maybe rightly so. I am currently teetering on leaving the church and my level of confusion has grown so much this past year. I would appreciate any advice about what you feel the SDA’s have “missed”. I think seminary has shown me inadvertently that there are major errors, namely traditional ones, that the Christian world as a whole embraces. That’s where I am now. What to do with that understanding is the question.

5 Likes
#16

Ella,
I am so sorry that you are going through such a difficult time. I understand your pain and your dilemma. The worst is that you came to a point where you feel you have to make a decision. And this is emotionally extremely difficult.

The best suggestion I can give you is to contact some female pastors and get some input. They must be able to help you with some ideas. Why women? Because most male pastors will not empathize with your condition. But I am sure some women certainly will.

Why don’t you contact Chris Oberg, at La Sierra University Church, or Tara VinCross, at Azure Hills Church. I guarantee that they will give you their time and their wise inputs. Then it will be easier for you to make your decisions.

This is the best input I can give at this time. Maybe @elmer_cupino and @cincerity will drop their word of wisdom for you too.

1 Like
#17

Thank you for the advice and understanding. I will seek insight from others as you have suggested. I appreciate your time and response.

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#18

Makes me proud to be member of the Pennsylvania conference, a member of CUC.

Now would someone suggest to introduce a motion during the AC2018 to censure TW and his ADCOMM? Please!?

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#19

The SDA church has “missed” a lot, but so have all churches, spare none. As in life, it is not the problem that matters most but how the problem is solved. Our good friend Dr. Tichy @GeorgeTichy would vouch for this. You can make greater contributions while a member of the church than being a non-member is my opinion.

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#20

Yes, a lot. But, to think that all churches have missed as much as SDA’s is not correct. I don’t think in terms of perfect, be it people or churches. But, some are much further off the mark than others!

1 Like