That the Seventh-day Adventist Church is passing through difficult times due to several issues demanding resolution does not need to be demonstrated because anyone only tangentially aware of what is being said in the various Adventist media outlets already knows it. On the surface, the issue is the ordination of women to the ministry of the church. As a spinoff from it, the function of the policies directing all aspects of the conduct of the church's business has taken a prominent role. Policies necessitate someone with the power to enforce them. Thus, it has become important to determine who has the authority to evaluate whether an action taken by a church body is in compliance with policy and to determine the consequences of non-compliance. Of course, the arguments presented in the debates carried on around these issues appeal to biblical sources for support. As a result, at the bottom of all these discussions is the question of how the Bible is to be used in support of any of the aspects of the current debates.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2018/07/27/what-mission-church