GYC 2012 Acts: The Revolution Continues

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2012 Seminar: Church Authority - Gospel Order and Redemptive Discipline

Jay Gallimore

Church Authority, Part I

This message was presented at the GYC 2012 conference in Seattle, Washington.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Just for fun, let's see where some of you are from.

Let's see, anybody from Washington State here?

He's our ministerial director and he's sitting right up here and he's promised to help me with this.

So we are, he may just jump in here at any time he has permission to do that.

And I want to conduct this class, and it's going to be a little bit awkward, because if you ask questions and use the microphone, you and I are then on the same frequency, I don't guess that'll be too much of a problem.

But I really want to make this more of a class and not just a lecture kind of a thing.

They were looking for a clicker for me and I don't have that yet.

I may pull this down here so I can get up there.

And see if we can just pull this down here.

And just Maybe sit on the corner there, I can get to it and change it, because I don't have a clicker yet.

And yeah, you can keep 1 of them open, sure.

All right, How many of you have a church manual?

No, I just want you to know if you have 1 at home.

I just want to know if you have 1, if you own 1.

Actually, the Church Manual behind the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy is the most important document that we have in the Church.

And there's a big reason for that, and that is because it's what guides the Church and keeps the peace in the Church.

And I think the devil hates the church manual almost as much as he hates the Bible and spirit prophecy.

All right, let's bow our heads and we're going to get started.

Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this time together and we pray that you will be our helper and our teacher, that we'll be able to come out of here with the right kinds of concepts, the needs to be able to minister more effectively.

Now authority is an ugly word in our world today, am I right?

People don't like authority and that's because authority has been abused and misused in a sinful world and many times that that happens.

And you don't have this, so I've got stuff up on the screen for you.

I don't have a whole church manual up there, obviously, because we wouldn't have time to cover the entire church manual.

But the first part of the church manual starts out and asks a question, why a church manual?

1 of the big debates in the early Adventist church was whether we should have organization.

Why do you think that people in the early Adventist Church did not want organization?

In fact, they resisted it for Oh, you've got 1.

Hey, you guys are going beyond the call of duty.

All right, so why do we need a church manual?

And why was there so much resistance in the early church against a church manual?

We were afraid that we would run to the manual as opposed to the Bible.

Because the way I want to conduct this class is not have a question and answer at the end of it, but try to get some comments and maybe your questions as we go along.

And it's nice we have a little smaller group so it makes it a lot easier.

If the whole room were full, it would be very, very difficult to do that.

All right, we're on the same frequency right here.

Yeah, if you need to switch, you have to turn yours off.

Okay, so I can't have them both on at the same time.

We'll see what we can do with this, though.

Okay, let's another reason that they did not want to do that is that many of them have been kicked out of their churches.

Over the coming of Christ 1844, all of that kind of thing, they had just been really abused by church authority.

And because of that, they they were very reluctant, they didn't want to look like Babylon as far as they were concerned, you take the Roman Catholic Church is Roman Catholic Church organized to a T.

I'll talk about the different systems of organization, why we have the organization we have.

In fact, I find there's a great deal of ignorance today about why Seventh-day Adventists have an organization.

So let me just share a few things here on why we have a church manual and why it's important.

Church Authority, Part II

Alright, well you're brave enough to come back and that's good.

So we're going to plunge in here today and get started.

Ross Naman, our Ministerial Director, will be back.

His wife's father is not doing well and so he's trying to stay in contact with her down in North Carolina.

Let's bow our heads and we'll get started.

Our Heavenly Father, as we move into this topic on church authority and church discipline And these things that make to hold us together as a people, we pray that you will really bless us and encourage us, may have a good understanding of how we should work and operate in your work.

All right, yesterday we left talking about the representative form of church government, and I left you with the 4 levels of church government that we have, the local church, local conference, and local union of conferences, our union of conferences, and then the general conference and its divisions, and that's the way that works.

That looks like it's going back instead of forward.

Okay, the General Conference, the highest church authority under the Bible.

Now that's my topic, but I get it from them.

This is not a quote from Ellen White, but it's a very important quote in my estimation.

The Bible is the foundation and source of belief and practice.

That's what makes us different, say, than a Roman Catholic communion, that basically they have big councils, but for the Seventh-day Adventist Church we're saying to ourselves that everything that we do comes under the authority of Scripture.

So even a general conference session, even though it has authority, has to come under the the Word of God as its authority.

So that's voted, that's part of what we believe.

It's a foundation and source of belief and practice.

On this basis, notice those words, the general conference in session determines the stated fundamental belief of the Church." So when you read those 28 fundamental beliefs, they kind of the basic beliefs that glue us together, those beliefs are there because of Scripture and no other reason.

Okay, as I mentioned yesterday, this is a class, so if you have comments and you want to ask questions, we'll try to get into that as well.

Now this is another quote from the Church Manual.

You may not can read it all over there, so I'll go over here.

In the church today, the General Conference session and the General Conference Executive Committee, and you might know what the General Conference Executive Committee is typically called.

If you're moving in Adventist circles, you'll hear of annual council.

And whenever annual council meets, you want to kind of perk up your ears because that has authority between sessions.

And annual council has the union presidents and officers and representatives from every union in the world.

Now that's been some change even in my own lifetime because used to be the North American division kind of ran the show, I hate to put it that way.

But, but, and this has been a healthy change in my thinking, that now we bring those union presidents, whether they're from Asia, or from Africa, or wherever they're from, we bring them and they come and represent their conferences, their fields at a general conference annual council.

And it's also known as the General Conference Executive Committee.

I went through this last annual council, and it was very interesting that everybody stand up that was a member of the annual council, General Conference Executive Committee.

And so that they were recognized, you had to have registration of course to get in there.

Those of us who are not members but are conference presidents where they are actually holding an annual council.

They can hold an annual council not only in Washington DC but they can hold an annual council not only in Washington, DC, but they can hold an annual council in other parts of the world.

So at that point, those conference presidents can also attend, but they don't have vote, but they have voice.

So notice we could go to the microphone, say who we are, and make a statement.

The votes are given to the union representatives of those unions from around the world.

It would be impossible to bring all the conference presidents, and there's too many conferences, that kind of a thing.

And the General Conference is built on unions.

So in the church today, the General Conference session and the General Conference Executive Committee between sessions, in your local conference, What is the authority between constituency meetings?

Your conference executive committee, and we call it the Michigan Conference Executive Committee, MCEC.

Is the highest ecclesiastical authority, What's the word ecclesiastical mean?

Ecclesiastical church authority in the administration of the church.

In fact, at this last annual council, I heard the General Conference president make the statement that when certain issues come, the session, the General Conference session, that's the 1 that happens every 5 years, is the highest authority we have in the church to appeal to.

It's under scripture according to our bylaws and so forth.

But that's just, from an earthly standpoint, that's as far as you can go and take something.

The General Conference Executive Committee is authorized by its Constitution to create subordinate organizations with authority to carry out their roles.

Now what would those subordinate organizations be?

That would be conferences, that would be institutions like Andrews University, which is a general conference institution.

And most colleges in North America, the union president chairs it.

In Andrews University, it is a vice president of the general conference that chairs the board of trustees.

What role or authority does the fundamental beliefs have?

Fundamental beliefs, they have authority of the general conference in session because that's where they're voted.

The fundamental beliefs can be used to say, hire and fire our institutions?

In my estimation, no employee that's in a teaching or ministerial employee should come into the Seventh Adventist Church without them being questioned as to whether they support those 28 fundamental beliefs.

In fact, we will not hire a minister in the Michigan Conference without asking that question and looking them right in the eye.

And I've got testimony of people in here that know that's the truth.

We want to know if they actually have any trouble, or problems, or questions about 28 fundamental beliefs.

And I think that's part of the role of administrators in in the Adventist church.

You wanted to come back there so you can get okay, your your own something else there.

And we can talk about some of that other things later.

Let me let me finish up because this is a pretty important paragraph.

In other words, the Michigan Conference has authority to carry out their role.

They carry out their role in the state of Michigan.

The Lake Union has authority to carry out its work in the Lake Union.

Therefore, all subordinate organizations and institutions throughout the church will recognize the General Conference session and the General Conference Executive Committee between sessions as the highest ecclesiastical authority under God among Seventh-day Adventists." Now that's a pretty powerful statement.

That really says the local conference or the local church or the local union does not have a right to go its own direction.

Sometimes people come to me and they say, well what's the mission conference mission statement?

I said it's the same as the general conference.

That's our mission statement, because we're part and parcel.

In the Western world sometimes we get that wrong idea.

No, you're part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In fact, you name your town or your neighborhood or your territory, and you are the Seventh-day Adventist Church in that territory.

But you're not independent, because you are connected to the world church.

The Michigan Conference is the Seventh-day Adventist Church in that territory, but we are not independent and we do not have the right, what did I say, of independent action outside the defined roles for which we are put there.

That's reason a conference president cannot become a dictator.

Now sometimes I'm not saying didn't get abused at times, but our union president, he doesn't have the right and we're different from corporate America.

People, that word president really messes people up.

And sometimes I regret having to carry it.

Church Authority, Part III

This is probably 1 of the most subjects that people really like to avoid, and it's probably 1 of the most important subjects we have in the Adventist church.

And we are going to get into the Scripture today as well.

I'm not going to strictly stick by the church manual because of...

I just want to make this a really teaching time for us.

And so we'll get into the Scripture here in just a little bit.

Under the chapter on church discipline, I want to set this out here.

The Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy set forth in clear, unmistakable language the solemn responsibility that rests upon the people of God to maintain their purity, integrity, and spiritual fervor." And all of those 3 go together.

If members grow indifferent or drift away, the church must seek to reclaim them for the Lord." So that's a pretty solemn statement, it's a very serious statement that we are to take this whole issue very serious.

I made the statement yesterday and I'll make it again today.

I don't think it's possible to have a real church growth without having church discipline.

We can have growth, but it may not be true kingdom growth.

A lot of people shy away from this subject because it's a difficult subject.

And it's become more difficult because of the way we've approached some of these things.

How is the health and purity of the church preserved?

This is by the way coming from 7T 261-263, Church manual, page 57, Ellen White quote, "...no church officer should advise, no committee should recommend, nor should any church vote, that the name of a wrongdoer shall be removed from the church books until the instruction given by Christ has been faithfully followed.

When this instruction has been followed, the church has cleared herself before God, the evil must then be made to appear as it is and must be removed, that it may not become more and more widespread.

The health and purity of the church must be preserved, that she may stand before God unsullied, clad in robes of Christ's righteousness." It's quite a statement.

This is another place she talks about our schools, in the context of our schools.

She said she talks about lowering the standards in our schools and that the argument would be if we don't lower our standards then people will not attend.

She says fine, let them go to other schools.

She said the school's reputation should be based not on its numbers.

Sometimes we lower the standards, we have higher numbers, and then she says we make that an issue of great rejoicing.

She said the real rejoicing should be is are those schools and its faculty and its students, Are they doing the will of God?

And that should be the real issue of rejoicing.

Is there Christlikeness in their characters?

It's a very different view than what we have with all the church growth mania.

I'm not talking about in the Avens church, I'm talking about in the Christian world that we have and all that kind of a thing in the world that we have today.

So that doesn't mean we want to be small.

And we need to be very careful with church discipline.

What is the great object of church discipline?

I'm going to read this and then I'm going to give you 3 ways that the church today approaches church discipline.

This is again Church Manual page 56, a quote from 17260, human beings are Christ's property purchased by him at an infinite price, bound to him by the love that he and his father manifested for them, how careful then should we be in our dealings with 1 another?

Men have no right to surmise evil in regard to their fellow men.

Church members have no right to follow their own impulses and inclinations in dealing with fellow members who have erred.

They should not even express their prejudices regarding the erring." Very interesting.

For thus they place in other minds the leaven of evil.

1 person is told, then another, and still another.

And continually the report grows, and the evil increases until the whole church is made to suffer.

We are really suffering on this kind of thing today.

Somebody does something wrong and first place we want to do is get on Facebook and tell it to the world.

Ellen White says about that secular world today that they love the sin but they hate the sinner.

How do you know that the media loves the sin but hates the sinner?

Because they condemn the person who did it, but they keep recounting and regurgitating the evil and all of its horrible details.

I'm just wondering how you would reconcile that statement with some of the church policies that are coming into, at least in my conference, I'm from the Upper Columbia Conference, and they have started a policy whereby every member gets background checked in order to work with the youth, Pathfinders, young people, children, Sabbath schools, whatever.

If you're going to be involved in the church, you need a background check.

In fact, some churches in the conference have discussed having everyone background checked before they're even baptized.

That to me means that you're suspicious of evil in all of the brethren.

Well, unfortunately we live in a very ugly world.

Yeah, I will tell you that She's talking about publicly making people's sins apparent.

We have a shield of vulnerable where if you're working with children in our conference, It's an educational program as well as it does do background checks.

Because we want to make sure that children are protected.

But we don't take that information and broadcast it around.

It's a state law in the state of Michigan, if you're teaching in a in a school, that you have to be fingerprinted.

Again, that is private information and it's protected information.

We it's it's a difficult thing to be we got to be careful that we don't, that there's a balance between protecting and not advertising the sin at the same time protecting our kids.

So I don't have a totally good answer, but I do believe we've got to protect our kids.

Here's some of the challenges that we have in our world today.

You can turn on spigots of sewer, I'll put it that way.

And so today we're educating little kids in the grossest stuff of Sodom and Gomorrah today.

And these kids, innocence is taken away from them, adults have taken it, stuff people would never ever look at, they're going and looking at it on the internet today and it's affecting behavior.

And we're just creating monsters between that and the media.

But her point here is that we should not be evil speaking of 1 another.

We shouldn't be going around saying to somebody, do you know what I know about so and so?

If there's a church discipline issue, people get it on Facebook and everybody in the world thinks they have a right to weigh in and we try to do church discipline by blogs.

There's a reason why church discipline is left to the local church.

It's not a conference issue, it's a local church issue.

I've just been amazed at some of the stuff that I have seen and it's like folk never read that particular thing.

Alright, if it's my wife I'll answer, No.

Okay, there are 3 kinds of church discipline.

The first 1 is what I would call an ostrich discipline.

I don't think I have to explain that, do I?

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