During the lead-up to the 2015 Adventist General Conference session in San Antonio, TX, several preachers, teachers, and scholars discussed the Adventist community’s approach to ordination. The Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) and its regional subcommittees met over two years to thresh the questions. Their hope was that they would get to San Antonio […]
Knowing history can change the conversation
This weekend I watched an extended presentation by Bert Haloviak and Dr. Kendra Haloviak Valentine on the Adventist community’s first 150 years with female pastors. It’s part of a series of talks from 2014, and so occurred before the 2015 General Conference vote in San Antonio. Adventist Women In Ministry – Progress or Regress? from […]
When persistence makes sense
Constant improvement includes abandoning the things that no longer work… When a strategy or an action doesn’t seem to be working, the rule is, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try once more. then do something else.’ The first time around a new strategy very often doesn’t work. Then one must sit down and ask […]
Update: 4th Adventist Position on Ordination
In my post on the ordination discussion at last month’s General Conference Annual Council meeting (#GCAC14), I shared several background resources including the 1973 Camp Mohaven Report; Dr. Olive Hemmings’ book on ordination, interpretation, and culture; and the three positions that the Theology of Ordination Study Committee presented to the wider church: (1) the headship principle […]
At #GCAC14: Adventists Debate Women’s Ordination—Again
Today, about 20 minutes down the street from me, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is on Day 6 of its 2014 Annual Council meeting. The group reconvened for the afternoon session at 2 p.m. Eastern. The Annual Council meeting convenes church administrators from around the world each October to present progress reports on their […]
