The Roanoke Church in Virginia is currently without a pastor.
They have several capable elders who share the preaching and teaching duties. They occasionally invite guest speakers to come and preach to them; this is a common practice throughout the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Last year, the Roanoke Church board invited Pastor Stephen Bohr to come and speak to them regarding end time events on May 5 & 6, 2023. Although he is in great demand as a speaker, Bohr accepted the invitation. Bohr is also speaking during the divine hour at the Michigan Campmeeting in June.
The Potomac Conference found out that the Roanoke SDA Church had invited Bohr and they contacted the church and demanded that Bohr be disinvited. They said he wasn’t allowed to speak in their Conference.
The church inquired “Why?” I mean, if they accidentally invited a speaker that was wanted for murder, armed robbery, or was sexually immoral or homosexual, they wanted to know about it, so they could tear up the invite. They would stand together with the conference.
The conference wrote back with the reasons they dislike Bohr. Here’s a summary:
He is in agreement with the world Seventh-day Adventist Church in regards to women’s ordination. Bohr also believes in the biblical distinctions between male and female.
He believes that our task (and duty) is to help people get ready for the Second Coming of Jesus, a teaching scornfully derided as Last Generation Theology. It doesn’t matter that the Advent Movement has taught this from our inception.
The Potomac Conference administration believes that they alone possess the discernment to determine if a speaker like Bohr is safe to listen to. Common church members are not informed or biblically astute enough to judge in these matters.
Bohr’s ministry with Secrets Unsealed has been very supportive of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He has preached around the world and through his ministry many have turned their lives over to Jesus and became baptized into the SDA church. Part of the Secrets Unsealed mission states:
“….Ever conscious of the sacredness of God’s holy truth, We hold high and without apology or compromise all of the fundamental teachings of the Bible as well as the distinctive beliefs of our beloved Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
As we understand it, the Roanoke Church wrote to the Potomac Conference and said (in essence) ‘Thanks for your concerns but we are Seventh-day Adventist members in good standing and Bohr is an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister in good standing, and the invitation we gave him still stands.’
The Conference wrote back that they will be visiting the Roanoke Church on Sabbath April 22 (with unnamed others—probably Columbia Union folks). The meeting will be an hour long and the conference administrators will end it if it goes over an hour. This meeting is about the elder’s and/or church board’s decision to go against ‘conference policy’ in regard to inviting Stephen Bohr to speak at Roanoke.
Translation: The Potomac Conference is bringing the heavies to Roanoke SDA Church and try to intimidate them. They might even threaten to disband them for inviting an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister--Steven Bohr--to their church. They have a problem with him.
Here’s some people they don’t have a problem with:
On March 17–18, the Sligo Church and WAU hosted an LGBTQ Summit. Two of the speakers were Alicia Johnston and Paul Anthony Turner.
Alicia Johnston is a pro-LGBTQ bisexual/lesbian ex-SDA pastorette from Chandler Arizona. Released by the Arizona Conference after coming out as bisexual in April 2017, she spends her time now promoting LGBTQ causes. She didn’t just drift off into a rainbow-colored Anglican malaise, she is actively trying to convince Adventists to accept homosexuality and transgenderism (including writing a book about Adventists and LGBTQ+).
Paul Anthony Turner is a former Andrews Seminary student and Mdiv recipient who also attended Southern Adventist University. He currently spends his time celebrating sacred queerness (whatever that oxymoron is) and promoting the LGBTQ agenda. One of his podcast sermons on YouTube is titled Jesus was Queer.
These people were permitted to speak a couple weeks ago at the Sligo Church/WAU Symposium in the Potomac Conference.
Q&A Meeting
The Roanoke Church had an open informational meeting with Q&A last Sabbath for its members. About 65 people attended and the meeting lasted over two hours. Anyone who wished was given two minutes with the microphone to ask questions or comment. Almost everyone took the opportunity. At least 90% of the commenters were supportive of the church decision to invite Steve Bohr as a weekend speaker. The meeting ended with the entire group holding hands in prayer and spontaneously singing the hymn “Side by Side We Stand.” That sounds like a special moment of unity and faith, reminiscent of our pioneers.
Summary
Roanoke is in the Potomac Conference. Sligo is in the Potomac Conference.
Steven Bohr is bad. Pro-LGBTQ meetings at Sligo are fine.
The Potomac Conference has ordained more women in violation of Seventh-day Adventist ordination standards than any other conference. They are a big part of the reason that the Columbia Union is under a formal warning from the GC Executive Committee (circa October 2019).
The same people who rebel against those over them often demonstrate tyranny towards those under them.
"Over and over again men have said, “The voice of the Conference is the voice of God; therefore everything must be referred to the Conference. The Conference must permit or restrict in the various lines of work.” As the matter has been presented to me, there is a narrow compass, and within this narrow compass, all the entrances to which are locked, are those who would like to exercise kingly power. But the work carried on all over the field demands an entirely different course of action. There is need of the laying of a foundation different from the foundation which has been laid in the past" (Ms 43, 1901).
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According to an Adventist Review article, a bully targets people who have difficulty defending themselves from repeated and aggressive behavior. It’s an imbalance of power and a form of abuse.