ANR Bulletin No. 9 GC Session 2005, St. Louis, USA

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do.
And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with
– even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department.
Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. Romans 14.1: The Message

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#45624 - 07/08/05 03:19 AM ANR Bulletin No. 9 GC Session 2005, St. Louis, USA
Stan Jensen Carpe Diem!!! Registered: 09/15/06 Posts: 3945 Loc: 49.05° Lat- 122.3° Long	ANR Bulletin No. 9 GC Session 2005, St. Louis, USA Adventist News Review Trans-European Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Thursday, 7 July 2005 INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF MISSION SOUTHERN ASIA DIVISION Pastor D. Ronald Watts, president of this Division claimed Gods Presence at Work in a population of more than 1 billion with 5,000 unreached towns and cities and 4,982 people groups. The churchs total membership of 1 million equates to only one tenth of the population yet despite the complex and difficult task they have recorded 600,000 baptisms in the last five years. EURO-AFRICA DIVISION Within a population of 561,356,000 the Euro-Africa Division reports a membership of 190,000. During the past five years the increase in membership has been 5.4% despite the many major challenges that are faced by these people. The region comprises countries in east and west Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. In Western Europe the church is growing faster than the population. One of the most effective methods of evangelism is through the health message. More than 30 Health Fairs have attracted over 22,000 people. WEST CENTRAL AFRICA DIVISION During 2002 the continent of Africa was re-organised into 3 divisions, leaving West Central Africa with 692,000 members. Dressed in brightly coloured costumes, the entire delegation thronged the platform and presented their report entitled The Challenge of Change. In spite of these difficulties, there is one Adventist to every 421 of the population with an even higher ratio in some of the countries in this region. Many evangelistic events have happened during the last three years with 3,000 students baptised at one of our Adventist universities; 5,800 baptisms following an evangelistic series conducted by Doug Batchelor; 19,700 baptisms following satellite evangelism in Nigeria; 185 baptisms as a direct result of distribution of Bible lesson tracts. BUSINESS A suggestion to limit the President of the General Conference to two terms was rejected by an overwhelming majority. It was suggested by some delegates that it should be possible for new leaders to emerge, and reducing the presidency to two terms would help that. However, delegates voted against that, noting that it is the Holy Spirit's role to lead the delegates, and the authority to elect a new president, or not, always rests with the session delegates. The General Conference nominating committee finished its business today. It was noted that out of the 196 members, over 50% were women. The committee voted over 200 positions using over 1000 votes over 7 days in 45 hours, while being translated into 3 languages and consuming 47,000 fluid ounces of water. HIGHLIGHTS OF CHANGES TO THE CHURCH MANUAL It has been voted to permit Divisions to approve alternative methods for transferring members between churches within their Division. However, when an individual is moving between Divisions, the present rules remain. An alternative baptismal vow was voted. The Church Manual already permits alternative forms, but the new vote formally recognises an alternative which has been agreed by the world church. This alternative vow is much shorter and is designed particularly for services where many of the attendees may be non-Seventh-day Adventists. Significant additions and rewriting was done on the subject of rebaptism. There is a new section on inappropriate rebaptism, stating that rebaptism "should occur only in special circumstances and should be relatively rare . A church member whose spiritual experience has become cold needs a spirit of repentance which leaders to revival and reformation. This experience will be followed by participation in the ordinance of foot-washing, and the Lord's Supper to signify renewed cleansing and fellowship in the body of Christ." An addition to the manual on the Lord's Supper was also introduced concerning the disposal of the bread and wine after a service. It now reads, "Any remaining wine that was blessed is to be respectively poured out. Any remaining bread that was blessed should be buried, burned, or respectfully disposed of in another appropriate manner but in no event returned to common usage." In a change in the section on Music in Worship, the statement saying that musicians "should be members of the church" has been changed to "It is preferable that [musicians] be members". It was also voted that co-ordinators for Bible Schools and Publishing be members of the Church Board. FINAL PRESENTATION ON LEADERSHIP The final leadership presentation given by Leslie Pollard focused on our ability to respond to diversity. He called on delegates to avoid the pitfalls of trying to minimise our differences with such statements as, "I don't see colour (class, race, nationality, etc), I see people" pointing out that such attitudes actually reduce the richness of our God given diverseness. Taking Paul's comments in 1 Corinthians 9:19-20, he presented a model of responding to diversity, focusing on Paul's new freedom and therefore new identity in Christ. Paul's new identity freed him from his previous primary identity of being Jewish and male, enabling him to focus on meeting diverse people as one of their own, stating, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews." (1 Corinthians 9:19-20, NIV) Pollard noted that, "personal diversity is no longer the defining reality of our existence . As leaders we are not called to be ethnocentric, but Christ-centred and ethni-sensitive." GC SESSION PHOTO GALLERY If you wish to see photos of the session please visit the following site: http://news.adventist.org/specials/2005/gcsession/photogalleries.html [ANR Team/ANR] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANR Team: Miroslav Pujic, news director/writer, Beverly Coysten, editor/writer, Gavin Anthony, news writer. ANR, 119 St Peter's Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England E-mail: anr@ted-adventist.org Website: www.ted-adventist.org ANR (Adventist News Review) is a news and information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify ANR whenever you publish these materials.
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