A Conflict Between Statement and Actions
I just read a news posting on the General Conference website entitled Adventist Officers Release Statement Regarding a Local Conference's Recent Election of President.
I find it interesting that the GC officers continue to speak of "mutual trust and agreed upon policies" while they ignore long-existing policies that allowed both our union and the union in which Dr. Roberts was recently elected president to ordain women to the gospel ministry.
Ordination is a responsibility charged to the unions, not to the General Conference. Our union, the Columbia Union, was within policy when we made the decision to grant ordination "without respect to gender."
The GC officers are now pointing to the 2012 Annual Council action that took place AFTER two unions had already acted WITHIN existing policy to ordain women.
When I grew up we used to establish the rules before we started to play a game. It's unfair to change the rules halfway through the game just because you can't get your way. We're either playing uptown or downtown. We're not switching halfway through the Rook tournament because you're getting taken to Boston!
That's one conflict between this statement and GC executives' actions. They cite policy when it suits their bias. They conveniently omit or ignore policy when it does not.
The second conflict is in their leading statement: "The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been called by God as an urgent, end-time voice proclaiming God’s love and last day message to the world."
If we are called to be "an urgent, end-time voice proclaiming God's love and last-day message to the world," can we not see that there is a conflict between what is being said and what is being done? We are supposed to be declaring his message to the world, but our leaders are expending time, energy and money fighting the church. Officers making great efforts to try to stop half of the eligible messengers from sharing the everlasting gospel with the blessing and authority of the church!
The Bible says in Joel 2:28: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." If the Holy Spirit is poured out upon "ALL FLESH" to share God's end-time message, and if that "all flesh" includes "daughters," what are we doing trying to block our sisters from servant-leadership?
Our elected leaders could very well be asking for a Damascus Road experience (See Acts 9). As we look back upon the text in context, Paul (then Saul) was spiritually blinded to the truth of what God was doing. He was unwittingly fighting against God's program. What did God do? If we read it we see that God let him experience physical blindness in order that Paul might come to realize his error.
Let the word go forth through the ranks of Adventism that it's time to move on. It's time to stop these divisive tactics camouflaged in the artful lip service of a "concern for unity." If we are really concerned about unity, we will tell the rest of the church that God is moving by His Spirit. And God doesn't take a Gallup poll to get our approval before He places His hand upon a man OR A WOMAN. If we are really concerned about unity, we will tell opposers that we don't really ordain anybody anyhow! We as humans only acknowledge those whom God has already chosen. Tell those who are concerned that the church created policies decades ago that made room for the decisions that were made by those unions in 2012. And caution those who seem to be opposing women's ordination at any cost that we are tampering with and compromising the integrity of those well-considered policies by trying to block them because we are uncomfortable with this outcome. Remind those concerned that no GC officers, no lawyers, no human organizations have the power to stop what God is doing. Tell them that God opens doors that no MAN can shut.
See the statement here:
http://news.adventist.org/all-news/news/go/2013-10-31/adventist-officers-release-statement-regarding-a-local-conferences-recent-election-of-president-1/
I find it interesting that the GC officers continue to speak of "mutual trust and agreed upon policies" while they ignore long-existing policies that allowed both our union and the union in which Dr. Roberts was recently elected president to ordain women to the gospel ministry.
Ordination is a responsibility charged to the unions, not to the General Conference. Our union, the Columbia Union, was within policy when we made the decision to grant ordination "without respect to gender."
The GC officers are now pointing to the 2012 Annual Council action that took place AFTER two unions had already acted WITHIN existing policy to ordain women.
When I grew up we used to establish the rules before we started to play a game. It's unfair to change the rules halfway through the game just because you can't get your way. We're either playing uptown or downtown. We're not switching halfway through the Rook tournament because you're getting taken to Boston!
That's one conflict between this statement and GC executives' actions. They cite policy when it suits their bias. They conveniently omit or ignore policy when it does not.
The second conflict is in their leading statement: "The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been called by God as an urgent, end-time voice proclaiming God’s love and last day message to the world."
If we are called to be "an urgent, end-time voice proclaiming God's love and last-day message to the world," can we not see that there is a conflict between what is being said and what is being done? We are supposed to be declaring his message to the world, but our leaders are expending time, energy and money fighting the church. Officers making great efforts to try to stop half of the eligible messengers from sharing the everlasting gospel with the blessing and authority of the church!
The Bible says in Joel 2:28: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." If the Holy Spirit is poured out upon "ALL FLESH" to share God's end-time message, and if that "all flesh" includes "daughters," what are we doing trying to block our sisters from servant-leadership?
Our elected leaders could very well be asking for a Damascus Road experience (See Acts 9). As we look back upon the text in context, Paul (then Saul) was spiritually blinded to the truth of what God was doing. He was unwittingly fighting against God's program. What did God do? If we read it we see that God let him experience physical blindness in order that Paul might come to realize his error.
Let the word go forth through the ranks of Adventism that it's time to move on. It's time to stop these divisive tactics camouflaged in the artful lip service of a "concern for unity." If we are really concerned about unity, we will tell the rest of the church that God is moving by His Spirit. And God doesn't take a Gallup poll to get our approval before He places His hand upon a man OR A WOMAN. If we are really concerned about unity, we will tell opposers that we don't really ordain anybody anyhow! We as humans only acknowledge those whom God has already chosen. Tell those who are concerned that the church created policies decades ago that made room for the decisions that were made by those unions in 2012. And caution those who seem to be opposing women's ordination at any cost that we are tampering with and compromising the integrity of those well-considered policies by trying to block them because we are uncomfortable with this outcome. Remind those concerned that no GC officers, no lawyers, no human organizations have the power to stop what God is doing. Tell them that God opens doors that no MAN can shut.
See the statement here:
http://news.adventist.org/all-news/news/go/2013-10-31/adventist-officers-release-statement-regarding-a-local-conferences-recent-election-of-president-1/
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