Category: Ordination Without Regard to Gender

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1 Corinthians 1 Timothy Biblical Interpretation CAP authors Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) Culturally driven Distinct roles Doctrine of the Church Doctrine of Unity Ephesians Gender General Conference General Conference Session 2015 San Antonio Headship Hermeneutic of Suspicion Historical-Critical Method Historical-grammatical method Jim Brackett Krister Stendahl Larry Kirkpatrick Male-sex specific roles Methods of Bible Study 1986 NAD TOSC Minority Report NAD TOSC Report NAD Year-end Meeting North American Division (NAD) Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Postmodernism Principle-based Historical-cultural Method Rio Document 1986 Seventh-day Adventist Church Submission The Welcome Table Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) Women in Ministry Women's Ordination YEM

New NAD WO hermeneutic, pt. 1


On November 4, 2013, the North American Division’s biblical research committee brought its completed study on women’s ordination to its Year-end Meeting. The document was approved by 182 of 216 NAD delegates. Astonishingly, the study (we refer to the “Majority Report”) proposed a new method of biblical interpretation. They claimed it to be in harmony with longstanding Seventh-day Adventist use of the Historical-grammatical method. Most Seventh-day Adventists are unaware of this officially proposed NAD approach to the Bible. The Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) has produced video interviews discussing the NAD’s “Principle-based Historical-cultural” method (PBHC). In three segments, Pr Jim Brackett interviews Pr Larry Kirkpatrick to unpack the implications.
CONTINUES IN PART 2 POSTED ABOVE…

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Amazing Facts Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) Eugene Prewitt Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Seventh-day Adventist Church Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) Women in Ministry Women's Ordination

Women's Ordination, 31 Popular Arguments and Biblical Answers

In December an important announcement was made by Amazing Facts. A book on Women’s Ordination published only weeks earlier was being released in electronic format for free distribution. Women’s Ordination, 31 Popular Arguments and Biblical Answers, is a short and sharable book by Eugene Prewitt that can be read in a couple hours and that has already turned the tide in minds of some who had been favoring the Ordination of woman. Prewitt is a member of the Theology of Ordination Study Committee.
Here are the links to ebooks in three of the more popular formats:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/63487945/EB-WOe.epub
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/63487945/EB-WOm.mobi
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/63487945/Women%27s%20Ordination%20Text.pdfprewitt31ordination

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Biblical Interpretation Biblical Research Institute Clinton Wahlen Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) Culturally driven Darius Jankiewicz E.D. Hirsch Feminist Theology Hermeneutic of Suspicion Historical-Critical Method Historical-grammatical method Lake Union Conference (LUC) Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Postmodernism Principle-based Historical-cultural Method Reader-response criticism Rio Document 1986 Seventh-day Adventist Church Women in Ministry Women's Ordination

Hermeneutics and Scripture in the 21st Century

Earlier this year we reported that the Lake Union had held a prayerful discussion on the matter of women’s ordination and had chosen rather than to move into a position of opposition to the Church, to work with the Church with reference to this topic. Among the presentations at the Lake Union was “Hermeneutics and Scripture in the 21st Century,” by Clinton Wahlen.
Wahlen points out how methods of interpreting Scripture continue to adjust and modify. The use of the historical-critical method has waned but a new focus has arisen. This new focus moves away from locating meaning in the text of Scripture and places meaning instead in the reader. It is fascinating that, while this material was presented nearly a year ago, reader-response criticism forms a central part of the NAD’s “new” proposed women’s ordination hermeneutic released last month (NAD Report, pp. 23-31). The NAD Report actually critiques the Church’s 1986 “Methods of Bible Study” (Rio) document for lacking this emphasis. However, we agree with Wahlen who warns in this paper, “…all of these methods [“literary ” and reader-focused”] as classically defined employ a critical approach to the text ‘which subordinates the Bible to human reason’ and should therefore be ‘unacceptable’ to Seventh-day Adventists, as the 1986 ‘Methods of Bible Study’ document voted in Annual Council has made clear” (“Hermeneutics and Scripture in the Twenty-First Century,” p. 1). The paper by Wahlen linked above provides important background for those who peruse the NAD Report.

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1 Peter 1 Timothy Acts Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) Culturally driven Dueteronomy Ellen G. White Exodus Genesis Louis R Torres Male-sex specific roles Mike Lambert Numbers Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Priesthood of all believers Seventh-day Adventist Church Titus Women in Ministry Women's Ordination

Biblical Sacredness of Ordination

Louis R. Torres shares an extended study on ordination and its biblical sacredness, and how the question pertains to women’s ordination. Pastor Torres has a long history of service and soul-winning in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Appended to the article is an extended section addressing many questions relating to Ellen White materials on ordination. FIND IT HERE!

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Church governance Church Manual Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) delegated authority Doctrine of the Church Doctrine of Unity E-60 Gary Patterson General Conference General Conference Session 2015 San Antonio General Conference Working Policy Insubordination NAD Working Policy Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) Unilateral Action Unity Utrecht General Conference Session 1995 Women in Ministry Women's Ordination

Questions & Answers regarding current issues of unity facing the Church

Last year a document was released that quite succinctly answered some of the key questions in the present controversy over unity and the ordination of women. That document was titled Questions & Answers Regarding Current Issues of Unity Facing the Church. We reproduce this document here in hopes of lending it wider circulation. This document was subtitled, “A response by the General Conference Officers and Division Presidents” (i.e., the top 25 world leaders of the Adventist Church).
We also remind visitors to this site that CAP has made available a document summarizing developments of the past five years titled E-60 and the WO Endgame, which is also quite useful in understanding these developments. Finally, a third document addresses similar policy questions as the above and may be helpful. That document is titled Church policy, Church unity, and Women’s Ordination.

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Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) General Conference General Conference Session 2015 San Antonio Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Seventh-day Adventist Church Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) Trans-European Division (TED) Women in Ministry Women's Ordination YEM

Trans-European Division seeks WO

The Trans-European Division at its 2013 Year-end Meeting made several recommendations connected with the issue of Women’s Ordination. Among its recommendations to the world church: “Removing the intricate differences between various levels of ministry, such as the licensed and ordained minister, the licensed minister and the ordained local church elder, the pastor and the local church elder,” that the Church “remove all gender distinctions in its Working Policy related to the ministry,” that “unions, whose constituency meetings in session have voted approval and whose division committee has voted approval, be allowed to maintain an inclusive pastoral ministry which removes all gender distinctions within the work of the church in that union territory,” “recommend that the ritualistic and consecrational flavour of the act of ordination, its vague mixture of granting the Holy Spirit or gifts for ministry and ecclesiastical authority be radically toned done and removed from policy and practice,” recommends “that the imposition of hands be an optional part of the ceremony,” and asks that the church “separate Ordination from Election to an Organisational Office of Leadership.” An article reporting more fully can be found here:
http://www.ted-adventist.org/news/ted-executive-committee-recommends-inclusive-ministry-without-gender-distinctions
A committee in the Division has been at work on these issues for 19 months. Over the coming months TED has plans to offer well over 1,000 pages of material they hope will support these ideas and others. The TED report is by far the legthiest to be sent to the GC Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC). TED is also the smallest of the 13 world divisions in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, having some 84,000 members.

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Church governance Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) Doctrine of the Church Doctrine of Unity General Conference General Conference Session 2015 San Antonio General Conference Working Policy Insubordination NAD TOSC Report NAD Working Policy NAD Year-end Meeting Ordination Without Regard to Gender Ted N.C. Wilson Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) Unilateral Action Unity Women in Ministry Women's Ordination

Ted Wilson: The State of the Church

State of the Church – Ted Wilson from GCComm on Vimeo.

BREAKING NEWS. This video was released late on the afternoon of Thursday, November 14, 2013. In it, Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, shares a “state of the church” address. The release of this message directly to the church viewership in this way is unusual. Wilson tells about the powerful movings of the Holy Spirit upon the church round the world right now, but also shares four special concerns which are weighing on his heart. Included among these is a special concern over disunity and some segments of the Church ignoring the agreed policies by which the church works together.

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1 Corinthians 1 Timothy Biblical Interpretation Clinton Wahlen Complimentarian Deborah Distinct roles Doctrine of Unity Edwin E. Reynolds General Conference Session 2015 San Antonio Genesis Headship Historical-grammatical method NAD TOSC Minority Report NAD TOSC Report NAD Year-end Meeting North American Division (NAD) Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Principle-based Historical-cultural Method Rio Document 1986 Seventh-day Adventist Church Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) Women in Ministry Women's Ordination

NAD Minority Report

It may appear to the world church that the North American Division is immovably united in favor of Women’s Ordination. This is far from the case. Many Adventists in the small towns surrounding our universities in North America do favor Women’s Ordination. There are a few geographical locations like Southern California, Western Oregon, and parts of Ohio, where this is also the case. However, it is probably still true that the majority of Adventists in North America are not committed to Women’s Ordination. Many oppose it on serious biblical grounds.
Many NAD administrators and scholars seem in favor. But not all. For example, Edwin E. Reynolds teaches in the religion department at Southern Adventist University. Clinton Wahlen is an associate director of the Biblical Research Institute. Both are members in the North American Division and were among those selected to engage in study on behalf of the North American Division Theology of Ordination Study Committee. They have prepared a powerful study in which they dissent from the Majority report. This material is included as part of the NAD Report released on November 2, 2013. We have made available in the following link the full North American Division Theology of Ordination Study Committee Minority Report.
http://ordinationtruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nad-ordination-14-minority.pdf
In the report, Reynolds and Wahlen point in particular to the central issue of interpretive method. “The current divergence in views on the subject of women’s ordination is due in part to different understandings of the nature of Scripture and how it should be interpreted. . . Some advocate an approach that takes into account the ‘trajectory’ of Scripture. . . extrapolated so that the trajectory beyond and outside of Scripture can be seen. . . such an approach, even though it might broadly affirm the Bible’s inspiration, nevertheless undermines it by characterizing selected portions of Scripture as time- and culture-bound and, therefore, tinged with the author’s prejudicial views on such topics, rather than God’s thoughts which are valid for all places and all time” (p. 195). The authors are concerned about this approach, and warn, “it is one thing to study the historical-cultural backgrounds to enlighten our understanding of the setting in which the text was written; it is another thing altogether to suggest that the text was culturally conditioned and that, therefore, a trajectory beyond the text must be constructed for our current, more enlightened age” (pp. 196, 197).
Reynolds and Wahlen look closely at passages like Genesis two, Deborah in Judges, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 11, among others. They conclude that “ordaining women represents a significant departure from the biblical model” (p. 207). And, they warn that “To follow the Bible model on the issue of women’s ordination will require courage like that of our pioneers. Nevertheless, it is the only basis on which we can expect to maintain global unity, receive God’s continued blessing, and, most importantly, anticipate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to finish His work” (p. 208).
Among the varied studies produced on Women’s Ordination in the past five years in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, few illuminate so much in so compact a space as this document. The Council of Adventist Pastors encourages all to read the NAD Theology of Ordination Study Committee Report Minority Report.

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Adventist Today Church governance Church Manual Council of Adventist Pastors (CAP) delegated authority Distinct roles Doctrine of the Church Doctrine of Unity Ellen G. White Gary Patterson Gender General Conference General Conference Working Policy Headship Insubordination Kevin D. Paulson Male-sex specific roles NAD Working Policy North American Division (NAD) Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Pacific Union Conference (PUC) Raj Attiken Seminary Spectrum Magazine Unity Utrecht General Conference Session 1995 Women in Ministry Women's Ordination

Church Policy, Church Unity, and Women's Ordination

Kevin D. Paulson takes a look at the authority of the General Conference. He responds to charges presently being published on other websites that the General Conference, in asking that Unions not ordain women, has exceeded its authority. Gary Patterson offers such ideas. Paulson checks them against the Working Policy. FIND IT HERE.

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Church governance Congregationalism Doctrine of the Church E-60 General Conference General Conference Working Policy Male-sex specific roles NAD Working Policy NAD Year-end Meeting North American Division (NAD) Ordination Without Regard to Gender OrdinationTruth.com Polity Sandra Roberts Sandy Roberts SECC SECC constituency meeting Seventh-day Adventist Church Southeastern California Conference Ted N.C. Wilson Unilateral Action Unity

Moving Forward Together

2013-10-31
A RESPONSE FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE TO RECENT ACTIONS IN NORTH AMERICA
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. He has commissioned us to proclaim the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6-12 to people worldwide desperately looking for hope. The message and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is unique and is heaven-sent. Our top priority as a church is knowing Jesus ourselves and sharing His message of redemption. Nothing is to stand in the way of this proclamation as we unite to reach every “nation, kindred, tongue and people” with the “everlasting gospel.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a fellowship of believers bound together by a common commitment to Christ, the truths of the Bible, a worldwide church organization and a mission to the world. Each of these elements is vitally important in preserving the unity of the church and keeping it from fracturing. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not organized as a collection of independent units. Although each Conference/Mission, Union and the General Conference (which includes the divisions) have their own constituencies, they are also united by common commitments, mutual trust and agreed upon policies. The Church, the body of Christ, is inter-related. Actions that affect one part of the body affect the whole. The Apostle Paul stated it succinctly in these words, “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.”(1 Corinthians 12:12)
Working Policy, which is the recording of our agreements as to how we will work together to do the Lord’s work and mission, serves as one of the practical unifying agents that the Holy Spirit uses to bind the church together. Policy is not inflexible. It can be changed but it reflects the understanding of the collective group, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When personal convictions are placed ahead of the collective policy decisions of the worldwide church, troubling precedents are set. God works in an orderly way and wishes His church to exemplify this sanctified behavior through the power of the Holy Spirit. Humility and submission to God for the good of the church body as outlined in the Word of God and the Spirit of Prophecy are fundamental Biblical principles for the benefit of the church.
At the 2012 Annual Council in a voted action entitled, “Statement on Church Polity, Procedures, and Resolution of Disagreements in the Light of Recent Union Actions on Ministerial Ordination,” the world church strongly indicated that it does not recognize as ordained ministers individuals who do not meet the criteria outlined in policy. It deeply concerns the world leadership of the church that recently a local conference constituency elected as a conference president an individual who is not recognized by the world church as an ordained minister. Ordination to the ministry is one of the criteria set forth for being a conference president. General Conference administration is working with the North American Division administration as they deal with the implications of this local conference action, which is contrary to the 2012 Annual Council action.
The world church is currently working together in a Theology of Ordination Study Committee with participation by all divisions to better understand the functions of ordination as well as the role of women in relation to ordination to the gospel ministry. A careful process is functioning and reports will be given to the 2014 Annual Council with the expectation that this subject will go to the 2015 General Conference Session for a decision under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We have every confidence in the Lord’s leading of His precious remnant church. By God’s grace and through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, the church will find its way through this challenging time as we move forward with the unique message and mission entrusted to the Seventh-day Adventist movement. It is God’s plan that we proclaim His end-time, prophetic truth to every corner of the globe and especially the enormous metropolitan centers of the world through “Mission to the Cities” utilizing every form of comprehensive urban evangelism including comprehensive health ministry and many other methods. We urge all church members and leaders to pray that the Holy Spirit will unite us to fulfill Christ’s promise that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) United in Christ’s love, bound together in a common Biblical message, linked through a common church organization and committed to one another with mutual respect and trust through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are confident this church will triumph at last and proclaim Christ’s eternal message of truth to the ends of the earth in anticipation of Jesus’ soon second coming.
—The General Conference Executive Officers