Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
Reading some Seventh-day Adventist websites, you get the feeling Adventists are holding their breath waiting for decisions from the General Conference session in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The session, held every five years, has 2400 delegates meet to vote in leaders, debate issues and make or adjust policies for the worldwide church.
The session lasts for 11 days—it finished on Saturday, July 3. In the evenings, delegates receive reports from each of the divisions of the General Conference. On the Sabbaths of session, the delegates join other Adventists in worship. About 40,000 attended the first Sabbath. These meetings and Sabbaths are memorable—the business sessions tend not to be, unless there’s a contentious issue.
In an organisational chart of the Adventist Church, you’d find the General Conference (GC) at the top. At the bottom is us, the local church. We’re part of a conference of churches (the North New South Wales Conference, to be precise); each conference is a part of a union of conferences (ours is the Australian Union Conference); and each union is a part of one of the 13 divisions of the General Conference (ours is the South Pacific Division).
One of the reasons you won’t find many people holding their breath about the meetings is the distance from where we are to the GC. Most decisions at that level have minimal impact in local churches. Some emphases will be passed down the line and churches will, to varying degrees, work with them.
A new president of the General Conference was elected on the first Friday of the session—Ted Wilson. His is a difficult task. He needs our prayers. We should also pray for those meeting at the GC session. The decisions made are important.
Of course, any level of the Adventist Church that forgets its main role is to support and encourage the local congregation, has lost its purpose. That’s not harsh, that’s reality.
Tags: Bruce Manners