My Observations on the 2022 GC Session
The 2022 GC Session in St. Louis was the most sparsely attended Session in 100 years. There are a couple reasons for this, in order of their significance.
1. There was no exhibit hall.
2. Some individuals are still fearful of COVID.
3. Some international travelers can’t enter the United States unless they show proof of vaccination.
These three factors combined to limit attendance at the Session.
The venue was nice. Plenty of room and the staff was friendly.
Step Brothers
One nice thing about a large venue is if you are into counting steps (actually my phone counts them) you can accumulate a lot of them walking around. On Wednesday during lunch break I walked around the Arena several times—getting more steps! After I had almost worn out the first floor, I went up to the 2nd floor and walked around it, counterclockwise. I passed a man walking clockwise. After a while I passed him again. “Are you getting steps in?” I asked?
“I am!” he replied. (I guess that makes us step brothers.)
“Same here.” We chatted like old friends for a moment and then walked on, in search of more steps. (I got 31k steps on Wednesday and 34k on Thursday).
Towards the end of the day I saw him again. “Did you get 20,000” (steps) I asked? “Almost” he replied with a smile. He offered some tips on how to get more steps and we had a chuckle together. He is Kyoshin Ahn, and if you need a good walker, I recommend him highly. He’s top notch.
Before the Session, we were warned by various church members who live in Missouri that downtown St. Louis is rather unsafe, both day and night. That said, I didn’t experience any problems, or see any scoundrels. The report may have been overrated.
As is my custom, I took a large bunch of shirts along to the Session, my wife dryly remarking that I “should have enough.”
“A man has to be prepared” I replied.
“You are prepared for about 2.5 shirts per day” she replied. She can be sarcastic like that (ha-ha).
Do you have any favorite shirts? Well I do. On Thursday, I wore my black and white checked shirt–easily one of my favorites, although my wife pretends to hate it.
In the grocery, I happened to walk by a fellow with the exact same shirt. Whoa! I said “Nice shirt.” “Thanks” he mumbled, wondering who this weirdo was who was complimenting his shirt. Then he looked up and saw my shirt. “HEY! That’s great!” I had a friend for life. He and his family is now invited to Thanksgiving at our house. Ha! I snapped a selfie picture, just to alert my wife that there were other people with great taste in shirts. That became a theme throughout the week, more selfies with awesome checked shirts/dresses. We should totally consider making this a fundamental belief.
There were a few homeless people on the sidewalk between the Convention center and the local grocery store. On my way there, one of them asked me for money. “Nope.”
In the store, I bought some food items and picked up an extra apple pie on a whim. Back on the sidewalk I walked over to the homeless guy and said “Do you like apple pie?” “I sho do”, he replied. “Me too, and I got one for you if you want it.” He was all smiles. I now had another friend.
The Vibe
There was a different vibe at this Session, others felt it too. For me it might have been because it was the first GC Session I had ever attended without Nancy (except for me getting up at 5AM on July 11th 1990 and driving to Indianapolis to observe the discussion of ordaining women). As a brand-new baby Seventh-day Adventist I wanted to see if these people really believed the Word of God. They did, and that’s another story (1173 to 377).
But there were more universal reasons for the different vibe. Some things that should have been there were missing, and some things that should not be there were. Here they are, in no particular order.
Missing
Joy. There was a noticeable lack of joy at this meeting. It was visible on the countenance of a thousand delegates. I note this not to condemn, but to observe that John 10:10a is now reality among us (see also Psalm 16:11; John 15:16). My heart goes out to these people, and that that brings us to…
Compassion. A delegate revealed that some 25,000+ people (two thousand pastors and four thousand medical professionals affect a lot of people) had signed an appeal to the Church, asking them to stand for liberty of conscience regarding medical autonomy. He then made a motion that this world body would discuss (and possibly overrule) the 2015 ADCOM statement that was damaging the conscience and livelihoods of a number of our members, the motion was quickly shut down. Ted Wilson went to the microphone and personally asked that the delegates would reject this motion. The president of our church asking the delegates to reject a motion is the epitome of non-neutrality. I don’t begrudge him his opinion, in fact I support his right to have it. But it would have been wiser to say something like this to 25000+ members who signed the appeal. ”My friends, fellow believers in Christ. I know that many of you have been hurt by a decision that we made in 2015. We didn’t see 2020 coming. Please know that I care about the pain you have endured as a result. It was never my intention that you would experience personal loss, pain or compulsion because of our decision. The Bible says that people matter to God, and you matter to me, to all of us. Please be patient as we seek a solution together, and please forgive me for the hurt I may have caused you.” That would have been a moment that people would never forget. I’m not telling you what to do, my brother. But, compassion (1 Peter 3:8). Where was it?
Child-like faith. If we must become like children before we can enter the Kingdom of heaven, it follows that a simple and profound child-like faith is indispensable (Matthew 18:3). Note: there is a difference between being childlike and being childish.
Trust. Trust seemed to be missing throughout the Arena this week. From a GC communications employee with a meter-maid complex to delegates loving the sound of their own voice, trust was in short supply. And like I told a dear friend “Where trust is little, love is little.” True love cannot exist in an environment of distrust.
Present
Groupthink. There is a remarkable level of groupthink among the delegates. From their thumbs waft the unmistakable scent of rubber stamps.
Big business. The Church has become a big business instead of a large family. A vocal woke minority is slowly taking over the business. As I remarked to a pastor today “Every church, organization, person and family will ultimately be liberalized, unless there is a conscious decision to resist it”. We learned this in the apostasy of national Israel. The solution is repentance and a childlike faith.
The Clap. The incessant applause of delegates after a rubber stamp vote reminds me of the 3000 men who went to take the city of Ai—singing and shouting to keep their courage up. That didn’t work out well, in case you wondered.
Grenades. Fragmentary grenades have been tossed into the church and caused a lot of damage. Sadly. May the Lord heal us from within.
Women’s ordination was the first of three ‘recent’ fragmentary grenade tossed into the church. When it exploded, it taught us that we can become editors of the Bible, carving it up to suit our cultural inclinations. As Jeremy Rifkin said, “We are responsible to nothing outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever.”
The second fragmentary grenade tossed into the church was Covid. It exploded, teaching us that in order to be ‘relevant’ we must surrender our conscience to government mandates. In other words, politicized and weaponized worldly governments know more about our health than we do, thank you very much.
One possible solution is, now that cOVid is virtually over, remove the 2015 Vax statement and replace it with something more neutral that also warns against coercion of conscience. That could help unify the Church and heal some of the damaged trust.
The third fragmentary grenade that is being tossed into the church is the homosexual LGBTQ+ agenda. When that explodes it will teach the church that Christianity must be subverted by neo-pagan religion. In it, we exchange righteousness for relevance.
Takeaways
As we near the end, there will be more challenges, not less. The church is like the world in this regard.
We may be an informed people, but we are not prayerfully informed. There is a big difference.
I don’t think bundling religious liberty with public relations is a good idea. It makes religious liberty politically correct. That is where the current PARL director has taken the church’s religious liberty.
I don’t like block voting. Presenting twelve names in a chunk is a terrible idea. By doing this you can bundle decent people in with deadbeats that should be fired, and force people to vote for the whole mess in order to get the good ones. A line-item veto is needed to correct this.
My wife said the people who keep pushing the female leadership agenda at the microphone are like dogs barking in your ear. She’s observant like that.
Baby Boomers are retiring and millennials are moving into leadership positions. And millennials are big on social justice, baby. In three years, you WILL see social justice storm through the front door of the Church. The church structure can change, fortunately the Message and the Giver of it never will.
Kyrgyzstan needs to buy a vowel.
Relevance is the new righteousness, albeit a false righteousness.
One botheration with having a website with significant reach is that sooner or later people will want to control your message. Some will say, you need to call out problems with leadership; others will say you need to blindly support the leadership. Neither one of those approaches satisfy me/us. We may address issues if we think leadership has a blind spot (and we have) yet we are permanently supportive of the Advent Message and its Author. We support the Seventh-day Adventist Movement; we love it’s Message.
Never get into a popularity contest. Ever.
Every Church Manual and GC Constitution amendment that was on the agenda was accepted by the delegates (by 90%+ votes). The scent of rubber stamping was overpowering at times, rising above the smell of bad amendments.
Delegates face a peculiar problem, that of becoming a small but powerful elite that, instead of holding the Church to account on behalf of the people/members, they offer leaders unconditional support in exchange for the illusion of influence. And right at the heart of this coterie of insiders is ADCOM.
Ted Wilson gave a fine sermon on Sabbath. Well done, brother. Pray for this man and his wife and family.
I like Ted’s new adjective “Miserable Covid” or was it “Miserable pandemic”? I will use it generously.
Solutions
What is needed? We need carpenters, plumbers and farmers in the delegate pool and on executive committees. These people see the church in practical terms, are not impressed with the sound of their voice, and are not easily influenced by a coterie of insiders.
Primitive godliness. Primitive godliness teaches us that the Bible means what it says. Primitive godliness teaches us that the only culture that matters is the culture of biblical righteousness. Primitive godliness teaches us that the only true religion is that which comes via a child-like faith in the almighty Word of God.
A child-like faith looks up to heaven and says “I need you.” “I trust you.” And “I love you.” This is my great need tonight, as well.
Dear friends. God loves you. Stay in the Word of God and stay the course. When hard times come, the rats will flee the ship. You will be needed to help steer it towards the distant city.
Love God, and love one another.