Bille, please notice that @George is “the other George”… 
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Do you remember the “redneck” who went for a physical examination and was instructed by his physician to return with a “stool” sample? He returned with his family “couch” as he wanted all his family members examined too! 
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Thanks Elmer for sending me the picture of this morning’s session with @kjames.
Man, he was in a hurry, I am glad you had an opening right away! 
Hey, we can work from home now:
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George, don’t make fun of this technology, because that is exactly how I go to church 
Every sabbath I start with SS in my local church, return home and log on to Pioneer Memorial, have lunch and engage in some church function afternoon “Lay Activities,” and end the day with either LSU or LLU church noon services. I feel blessed for being an adventist.
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I feel the conviction that we have been misguided to assume that an organizational church triumphant would be Gods way. His way is more intimate and organic. The notion of a remnant organization doesn’t seem to line up with New Testament thought. Doctrine and intellectual grounding is important. This can come from Internet and books. I believe we truly do church in a smallish community of friends and acquaintances—encouraging one another in discipleship and love and service
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The fact that all religions/churches are man-made seems not enter the minds of many.
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The immediacy of the relief I gained this morning is beyond my imagination (I have little of one, so don’t get too excited)! 
Thanks you Drs GT and EC! @GeorgeTichy @elmer_cupino
I will be sure to resort to said technology at the event another delusional moment presents itself. 
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This is, indeed, a real problem, and internet presence can’t take the place of flesh and blood—ever. The Adventist Forums often provided speakers and resources to member of those congregations who needed and wanted “outside” spiritual support. But an energetic network of that sort is not available outside of major metropolitan areas, where options for Sabbath services are already plentiful. Maybe that’s an option: Crowd-sourcing for a larger, global, parallel system that systematically provides sustenance—by funding visiting speakers, programs, and other materials. In the meanwhile, you might consider attending other churches who are more welcoming and who often don’t care what your religious peculiarities are. In the States, almost any Unitarian church welcomes Adventists and provides great social and spiritual support for people who need more or other. I am not clear about where you live, but I do know that equivalent churches in Central Europe aren’t really there (on the other hand, those Adventists churches I do know there are very tolerant congregations); in most of Europe outside of the UK, options are limited to the Catholic church, Lutherans, and a few American projects, like the LDSs and JWs. I think a good “missionary” project would be for the AAF to start funding support for members like you.
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Thank God we now have this kind of transparency and real-time coverage that has been totally unavailable in the past. Now our young under-40 and women finally have real-time access to the process. Perhaps the reality of this kind of openness will also bring about awareness, change, and a grassroots response to the pressures delegates endured for their votes and the completely unrepresentative reality of delegates’ ages and gender.
Count me thankful for instantaneous communication.
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The following comments illustrate that for many of us something foundational has changed in the Adventist identity & ethos. The question is how long can our modified links to Adventism work to keep us connected to it.
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Just as long as our lives last and we stay loyal to the Adventist “church in the wilderness”… the “invisible body of Christ”… that we each hold in our minds as the “true SDA church”… no matter what certain leaders do. They might continue to hold the “legal rights” to the name Seventh-day Adventist… but “legal rights” do not define or control God’s ownership.
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I just commented on this in response to the limitations of Sabbath services and community in some places, both in the States and abroad. Maybe the AAF, which was organized to meet the spiritual and intellectual needs of graduate students could use that model to develop a program that would provide human society and other resources to a more broad community of Adventists, as well. Spectrum and this blog is open to almost anyone, for example, and although no mature person would want a forum for continuous bickering in person, some kind of funded energetic outreach to a wider constituency would be a good program to develop. It would take material resources and quite a bit of coordination, but it’s certainly doable—an equally fruitful use of the internet and social media as trying to replace human connections with computer or television screens. I suspect that many of us who are disillusioned would rather contribute to that than to the GC as it’s presently operating.
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It’s my experience that many young Adventists don’t know about AAF.
I hope that AAF can reach out to new generations of undergraduate and graduate students who have no idea that Spectrum exists. Perhaps a funded awareness campaign with a graduation gift of a year’s subscription would create a new support base of donors, readers and subscribers. Other ideas?
Spectrum’s visibility on Twitter at GC San Antonio really helped in creating awareness for those who followed the feed–especially on Wednesday, the peak day for millennials to check in with their church’s business. Thanks to Spectrum for hiring young new voices and “Tweeters” at GC and the hashtag #It’sMyChurchToo
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We need to get those students who do know out there recruiting, but that might involve a bit of “mission creep” for the AAF—possibly a board-level decision to find a way to include that kind of outreach would be a good idea. Church visits would be good, and as long as students don’t show up with tattoos and multiple body-piercings, they would certainly be welcome (although I don’t know that there’s a FB about that—yet).
“Churched” young Adventists have no idea AAF or Spectrum exists at all. Weekly, regular, church-attending faithful young Adventist adults don’t know. AAF will have to be intentional to reach this internal audience.
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I got that this was your meaning. What I’m pointing out is that what you’re describing isn’t the traditional understanding of what it means to be an Adventist. Your revised understanding may be better at meeting your needs, but it is still significantly different. It is an understanding that doesn’t keep one linked to the church in the ways the church has taught & continues to teach. Hence it shows that at least in some profound ways the links to Adventism are broken for many long-time members. It is a separation in the relationship. Many separations are transitions to divorce.
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Exactly. To reach undergraduates at SDA campuses is/was not part of AAF’s mission. My thoughts were that the BOD of AAF might make an adjustment in light of recent movements in the Denomination—maybe not an adjustment of the mission (always tricky business), but an adjustment to allow for a broader based project as a subsidiary goal. I think that once the dust settles and we see the consequences of this year’s Fall Council, when the NAD is really out of the building and (one hopes) publishes their own Yearbook, we’ll have a better notion of where all this stands, Division-wide. Then, some kind of post SA/2015 summit meeting among fellow-believers and leadership, globally, would be good. I choose to believe that they are already in communication and that something good will come out of this as they take a de facto alternative path. In the meanswhile, all those under-foties who followed Spectrum’s insightful tweets need to be kept in the fold and not discouraged about their power to change the system, even if it’s by helping identify a viable, variant one.
Creating alternate systems is certainly doable, & happening in an informal way already. I believe that our feeling the need for them is perhaps the primary symptom that the GC has lost its meaning/value for many of us. My uber question is whether these kind of links will keep us being Adventists in the long term. Not tolerating the organized church to the point of not supporting it by our presence & finances creates that question. And the follow up question I believe is: even if some of us who found the need for such links do persist, will such alternate systems win/keep a second generation.
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Right. Also: Bille’s observation is conceptual—highly conceptual—and does not provide real plans or solutions to the possible loss (“divorce”) of a religious community who provided multiple kinds of support. Not even personal solutions. So: when we hear remarks about disembodied church members, what does that look like on a daily or weekly basis?