Women’s Ordination #9 Oct 3 — “The Third Option: A Way Forward or a Step Backwards?” — Jim Howard
Women’s Ordination #10 Oct 3 — “Are Liturgical and Organizational Matters Important?” — Daniel R. Mesa
Women’s Ordination #11 Oct 3 — “Regional Ordination: A Path to Conregationalism?” 2nd Panel
Women’s Ordination #12 Oct 3 — “Reply to NAD and other Pro-Women’s Ordination Arguments” — Docjin Zivadinovic
Women’s Ordination #13 Oct 3 — “Women’s Ordination and the Jerusalem Council” — Phil Mills
Women’s Ordination #14 Oct 3 — “The Present Relevance of 1 Timothy” — Don Mackintosh
Category: Unity
Secrets Unsealed WO symposium presentations–Oct 1, 2
The following presentations were given and live-streamed on Wednesday and Thursday, October 1, 2, 2014:
Womens Ordination #1 Oct 1 — “Are You Sure? Issues and Answers” — Stephen Bohr
Womens Ordination #2 Oct 2 — “The Impact of Spiritualism on Feminism and Gender Issues Today” — Laurel Damsteegt
Women’s Ordination #3 Oct 2 — “From Mohaven to TOSC: How we got here” — Mario Veloso
Women’s Ordination #4 Oct 2 — “Male Headship in the Old Testament” — John Peters
Women’s Ordination #5 Oct 2 — “Male Headship in the New Testament” — Ingo Sorke
Women’s Ordination #6 Oct 2 — “Hermeneutics: Universal Principles and Local Application — 1st Panel”
Women’s Ordination #7 Oct 2 — “Straw Man Arguments in Favor of Women’s Ordination” — Eugene Prewitt
Women’s Ordination #8 Oct 2 — “The Present Relevance of 1 Timothy” — Don Mackintosh
Women's ordination and congregationalism
Prs. Wayne Kablanow and Jim Brackett discuss women’s ordination. Is WO as we have seen its proponents attempting to introduce it to the church today, actually congregationalism just at a larger scale? Is letting each division decide independently in essence the same as letting each congregation decide independently? Kablanow and Brackett work their way into the topic carefully in this extended study. Unity in diversity is discussed. The core biblical components of unity are uncovered. 32 minutes. Pr. Kablanow is a successful church planter, presently serving West Plains in Airway Heights and also the Spokane North View churches.
Church policy and WO
Pr. Kevin Paulson discusses briefly the realities behind church policy and women’s ordination. Does each union get to decide privately for itself on matters that impact unity across the wrld field on women’s ordination?
WO: helping or hindering unity?
Don Mackintosh considers claims that women’s ordination came as new light to the Seventh-day Adventist Church 40 years ago and that in rejecting it, we are hindering the Second Coming. Pastor Mackintosh reviews the history and sees whether this is so. Is the push for women’s ordination helping us advance toward the Second Coming, or actually hindering us? Is the pro-women’s ordination movement helping or hindering the church toward unity? Pr. Don Mackintosh served on the General Conference Theology of Ordination Study Committee.
NAD's cultural WO solution
Pastors Larry Kirkpatrick and Mike Lambert discuss “NAD’s cultural WO solution.” Although the North American Division has packaged the adoption of women’s ordination as being a biblical necessity, the solution they insist upon for the church is strangely identical to the one offered by Lutheran scholar John H.P. Reumann to ELCA in 1987—just three years before the original attempt by the NAD to introduce WO to the world field in 1990 GC session. The CAP pastors also discuss a most critical hermeneutical admission made by Ruemann—although one that, so far, NAD WO advocates have not acknowledged.
Can we take 1 Timothy chapter 3 to an extreme?
TOSC committee member Eugene Prewitt Carefully considers the biblical requirement that elders be the “husand of one wife.”
Is the word "ordained" in the Bible?
TOSC’s Eugene Prewitt discusses the question about whether the word “ordained is found in the Bible.
Eugene Prewitt–The Bible, slavery and women's ordination
Eugene Prewitt, a member of the Theology of Ordination Study Committee, discusses the Bible, slavery, and women’s ordination.
TOSC, the way forward — "biblical qualifications" position
The following is the one page TOSC “Way Forward” statement made by the 32 persons opposing women’s ordination and arguing for a position consistent with the biblical qualifications.
To remain faithful to Scripture, to reaffirm and further promote women in ministry, and to preserve Bible-based unity in the Church, we recommend the following for consideration by the General Conference in full session: (1) Reaffirm and encourage women whom God has called to gospel work by public recognition and licensure; (2) Provide specialized educational opportunities for women in gospel work and ensure fair and just treatment upon their placement in ministry; (3) Promote the greater development of various lines of ministry for women, according to their spiritual gifts, including but not limited to personal and public evangelism, teaching, preaching, ministering to families, counseling, medical missionary work, departmental leadership, etc. While increasing opportunities for women in ministry, we also recommend that we (4) Retain the scriptural practice of ordaining/commissioning only qualified men to the office of pastor/minister throughout the world church in harmony with the consistent example of Christ, the apostles, and the Adventist pioneers; and (5) Return to the biblical practice of electing and ordaining only men to the office of local elder throughout the world church, while allowing women to serve as unordained church leaders under certain circumstances.
Support and Other Considerations
- God calls women to both full- and part-time ministry (Daughters of God, pp. 20, 110; Evangelism, p. 472). The lines of service in which women may work are broad and far-reaching (Exodus 15:20; Judges chs. 4-5; Acts 9:36, 39; Romans 16:1-12; Titus 2:3-5; Testimonies, vol. 9, pp. 128, 129; Christian Service, p. 68). For its mission, the Church must make full use of the indispensable role of women in the ministry of the church. Women “can do in families a work that men cannot do, a work that reaches the inner life. They can come close to the hearts of those whom men cannot reach. Their work is needed” (Christian Service, p. 27). The Church should issue an appropriate license with equitable compensation to qualified women “although the hands of ordination have not been laid upon” them (Manuscript 22, 1892; Evangelism, pp. 491-493; Manuscript Releases 12, p. 160; Gospel Workers, p. 492).
- Although both men and women are called to various lines of ministry, the Bible consistently assigns the office of local elder or pastor/minister to faithful men who satisfy the scriptural requirements. See the examples of Jesus and the early church as well as Paul’s instruction (Mark 3:13; Acts 1:21-26; 6:3; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). This assignment, rather than being based on culture, is grounded by Paul in the male spiritual leadership role established at Creation and reaffirmed after the Fall (1 Timothy 2:13, 14; 1 Corinthians 11:3, 8, 9). While spiritual gifts include pastoral care, this is not equivalent to the biblical office of elder that is today referred to as “pastor.”
- Ordination involves a call from God (Acts 13:2) and recognition by the church regionally (acts 13:3) in harmony with the church globally (see Sketches From the Life of Paul, p. 43). Ordination to the office of pastor/minister (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:1-9) grants full ecclesialastical authority to establish new churches, ordain local elders, baptize converts, and lead out in the ordinances of the church in cooperation with the local conference (Acts of the Apostles, p. 160). In certain circumstances, a woman may serve as a local church leader (Church Manual, pp. 75, 76) without being ordained as an elder (Manuscript releases 19, p. 56).
- Allowing regionally established beliefs or qualifications for ordination would fracture the church, create confusion and disunity, and set a dangerous precedent. It would remove an important protection from non-biblical cultural influences (Acts of the Apostles, pp. 95, 96) and move the church toward becoming an association of national churches instead of a united world church.
- Global church unity can be preserved only by yielding to the “plain” and “obvious meaning” of Scripture (The Great Controversy, pp. 268, 599, 521, 54), rejecting “higher criticism” (Education, p. 227) or other methods of Bible study that give the reader authority over the divinely inspired text (2 Timothy 3:16; Luke 24:27).
- Jesus is our example of servant leadership. His life expresses the loving authority and submission that exist in God’s family in heaven and on earth (1 Corinthians 11:3; 15:28; Matthew 6:10).