3ABN Night Light Women’s Ordination Discussion, featuring pastors Doug Batchelor, Stephen Bohr, Jay Gallimore. The program was recorded at ASI. Includes discussion of Scripture evidence and of the surprising results of the survey conducted. There is a brief musical presentation near the beginning, and afterwards the main program continues. At 16 minutes in the 3ABN WO poll sample and process is explained. Doug Batchelor kicks off the main discussion 28 minutes in. Doug Batchelor is the senior pastor of the Granite Bay Church near Sacramento. Stephen Bohr is senior pastor of the Fresno Church. Jay Gallimore is the president of the Michigan Conference. The hosts are pastor Jim Gilley, president of Three Angel’s Broadcasting Network (3ABN) and Danny Shelton, a founder of 3ABN. Full Program.
Category: 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.
Survey launched on 2014-08-07. Answer receiving the most ballots is bolded… See update information at bottom of posting.
QUESTION 1: Do you believe that the Scriptures teach only men should be ordained as pastors?
Yes: 75.22% (2939 ballots)
No: 24.78% (968 ballots)
Total answering: 3907
QUESTION 2: Do you believe that the Scriptures teach women should be ordained elders?
Yes: 18.38% (713 ballots)
No: 81.62% (3167 ballots)
Total answering: 3880
QUESTION 3: Do you believe the Adventist Church needs to create more paid ministry opportunities for women aside from the ordination question?
Yes: 68.56% (2656 ballots)
No: 31.44% (1218 ballots)
Total answering: 3874
QUESTION 4: Do you believe if women’s ordination is approved it will make it easier for same-sex marriage advocates to agitate for acceptance within the church?
Yes: 68.66% (2682 ballots)
No: 31.34% (1224 ballots)
Total answering: 3906
QUESTION 5: Do you believe the women’s ordination issue should be conclusively settled at the next General Conference meeting and whatever is voted should be unitedly followed by the world church?
Yes: 52.59% (2018 ballots)
No: 47.41% (1819 ballots)
Total answering: 3887
QUESTION 6: Do you believe each SDA world division or conference should be allowed to determine the women’s ordination issue independently?
Yes: 21.04% (819 ballots)
No: 78.96% (3073 ballots)
Total answering: 3892
QUESTION 7: Do you believe the women’s ordination issue may lead to a division within the Adventist Church?
Yes: 82.68% (3228 ballots)
No: 17.32% (676 ballots)
Total answering: 3904
QUESTION 8: Are you a denominational employee?
Yes: 13.10% (511 ballots)
No: 86.90% (3391 ballots)
Total answering: 3902
QUESTION 9: Do you reside in the North American Division?
Yes: 70.97% (2785 ballots)
No: 29.03% (1139 ballots)
Total answering: 3924
QUESTION 10: Are you male or female?
Female: 51.10% (1969 ballots)
Male: 48.90% (1884 ballots)
Total answering: 3853
QUESTION 11: What is your age range?
18 to 30: 18.96% (747 ballots)
30 to 55: 53.26% (2098 ballots)
55 and up: 27.77% (1094 ballots)
Total answering: 3939
NOTE: Survey results were updated August 25, 9:33 am PST. You can participate in the survey by calling 800-272-1280, or, readers can participate in the survey via the internet at http://www.ordinationsurvey.com.
TOSC position 2 problems
Pastors Larry Kirkpatrick and Mike Lambert discuss TOSC outcomes. One group within TOSC, the “Position 2” group wants the church to permit individual divisions to make their own separate decisions about women’s ordination. The immediate result would be that some parts of the church would ordain women as pastors/elders, others not. In the TOSC Position 2 paper, WO advocates declared that the problems Paul is addressing in 1 Timothy were intended to deal with only local issues. The pastors zero-in on chapter two looking at the passage in the Greek NT, and the reason Paul DOES give for the general, universal prohibition against women exercising authority over men in a congregational setting.
August 7, on 3ABN TV, Pr. Doug Batchelor will be part of a panel discussion with pastors Stephen Bohr and Jim Gilley, that will be broadcasting live from the national ASI convention. During this special program they will be exploring the current position of the church concerning the ordination of women to the gospel ministry. This program will air live from 8:00-10:00 p.m. CDT. (6:00 – 8:00 Pacific Time for West coasters). They will be taking some text questions.
You can also watch online at http://3abn.org/media/3abn-broadcast/.
UPDATED: This event has been scheduled to be broadcast again on Sunday, August 10, 1:00-3:00 pm. PST.
Gender differentiation?
Professor Ingo Sorke, who also served on the General Conference Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC), considers the question of whether the Bible teaches gender differentiation. Several texts are reviewed, including in Genesis 1, Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 11, 14, Galatians 3, Ephesians 5, 1 Timothy 3, 1 Peter 2, 5. Sorke also appeals to males to be godly males and to lead in a way that honors the Scriptures. Sorke shares what happened in a secular class when women read these Bible passages without commentary. Finally, he makes a striking appeal to Christian men at the video’s conclusion. We believe that many persons will want to see this brief video. Tell your friends and share the link!
Should we ordain at all?
Phil Mills looks to the Scriptures and to the writings of Ellen G. White for the answer to the question, “Should we ordain at all?”
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.
NAD's trajectory hermeneutic examined
The North American Division’s 248 page 2013 Theology of Ordination Study Committee Report urged that Seventh-day Adventists adopt a variety of hermeneutical innovations, among them, the “redemptive movement” or “trajectory” hermeneutic. References in the NAD document in support of these ideas included William J. Webb’s book Slaves, Women & Homosexuals. Pastors Larry Kirkpatrick and Mike Lambert share material from that book showing what happens when the people who developed it use their own “principle-based” approach on an issue like the seventh day Sabbath.
The NAD Report refers to William J. Webb’s book, Slaves, Women, & Homosexuals, in footnotes 18 and 19, and in several paragraphs in the report on pp. 26-28. The dean of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan, later in the NAD Report also promotes the “redemptive movement” hermeneutic.
The Bible provides our directives, not culture
TOSC committee member Pr. Daniel Scarone discusses hermeneutics, how what the Bible does not teach is not our authority, and these things in relation to women’s ordination and the role of culture. Daniel Scarone is a pastor, an international speaker, counselor, and author of several books and many articles that have been published in the Americas and abroad.