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Church governance Executive Committee Newsletter General Conference General Conference Session 2015 San Antonio Hermeneutics Historical-grammatical method Home and church connection Leader Accountability Male-sex specific roles Member ministry Methods of Bible Study 1986 North American Division (NAD) North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) Ordination Without Regard to Gender Oregon Conference Priesthood of all believers Rollene.no Seventh-day Adventist Church The larger issues Theological pluralism TheStairView.com Unilateral Action Unity unityintriuth.com Upper Columbia Conference Women's Ordination

New Sites: Momentum Builds Toward AC2017

We want to point your attention to four interesting new websites that did not exist even six months ago. All are the products of laypeople who support the world church in the present crisis!

TheStairView.com is entirely the work of Adventist laypeople who support the long-standing Seventh-day Adventist use of the historical-grammatical method of biblical interpretation. The focus is on sound biblical interpretation. The material fully supports the decision of the world church. Layperson Johnston Robinson is responsible.

Rollene.no is a new website from laypeople in Norway. “Rollene” means “the Roles.” Many Adventists in Norway have remained largely unaware of the crisis concerning women’s ordination. The site invites Adventists to strengthen their understanding of bible truth applied to gender roles. The Bible is to be read according to the “Sola, Tota, Prima Scriptura” principle. Some leaders are resisting the world church and leading church members away from the body with them. The goal of Rollene.no is to minimize the resulting harm. Articles are grouped in the four sections: The Bible, the Family, the Church, and Q&A. The material fully supports the decision of the world church. Layperson Sergey Paniflov is responsible.

UnityInTruth.com is a new site seeking to activate laypeople in support of the world church. Its mission is to promote loving, Christlike accountability in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, so that we may truly reflect Christ to a world in darkness. UnityInTruth.com seeks to encourage leadership and laity alike to faithfulness to message and mission, hastening the return of Christ. The site also features a thoughtful petition calling for action against the insubordinate sections of the Church. The material fully supports the decision of the world church. Laypersons Gabe and Jennifer Arruda are responsible.

AffirmationSabbath.org is the official site of a growing movement of laypeople from across the NAD called World Church Affirmation Sabbath. The work of this group is to hold lay-led meetings where laypeople can meet face to face and learn how to better fulfill heaven’s plan for representative church governance, which has been largely ignored leaving us in the present crisis. The site gives locations for meetings to be held in September, publishes a twice-a-month newsletter, and has links to videos from it meetings. It will include livestreaming links for the September event. The work of Affirmation Sabbath fully supports the decision of the world church, and the initiative has been positively featured in the General conference Executive Committee Newsletter. Laypersons involved are listed on the site.
Many of these sites merit further detailed review and we hope in the near future to describe some of them more fully.

Categories
Annual Council 2016 Executive Committee Newsletter General Conference

Be Encouraged: GC Executive Committee Newsletter

A new publication began in January which offers great encouragement to God’s Church. It is called the General Conference Executive Committee Newsletter. While the newsletter especially serves the 300+ members of the General Conference executive committee, it is freely available to leaders in the church at any level who would like to read it.
The January 2017 issue of this brief, four color newsletter featured a main article by Mark A Finley, titled “A Divine Movement United in Mission and Message.” Among other thoughts shared, the article points out that “The unity of the New Testament church was based on a common commitment to Jesus’ revealed truth,” “Truth is God’s basis for the unity of His people. Truth unites,” “truth is based on the word of God,” “Church organization and its subsequent policies based on biblical principles play an indispensable role in unifying Christ’s church. Rather than being arbitrary decrees by authoritarian leaders, the church’s policies are mutual agreements based on and through the body of believers as a whole and the leadership established by them,” “No power or authority within the church can claim independent or unilateral legitimacy in view of this model of interdependence established by the Chief Shepherd.”
The February issue carried as its main article BRI’s Elias Brasil de Souza’s article “Built on a solid Foundation: A Biblical Basis for Church Governance and Authority.” A sample from that article is this statement: “A system of church authority and governance is required in order to maintain doctrinal unity and to implement the mission of the church. Thus, compliance with decisions made by the legitimate representatives of the church organization is not optional.”
The March issue carries as its lead article Myron Isminger’s “History and Development of Seventh-day Adventist Policy,” another very informative and useful article helping the church to understand the importance of organization. Each issue also carries inspiring mission stories from around this world church.
You can find the Executive Committee website at this link:
https://executivecommittee.adventist.org/newsletter/
The first three issues are available at these links:
https://executivecommittee.adventist.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ECN-January-2017.pdf
https://executivecommittee.adventist.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ECN-February-2017.pdf
https://executivecommittee.adventist.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ECN-March-2017.pdf