2005 General Conference Session in St. Louis

Adventist Today Report 7

THE OTHER GENERAL CONFERENCE

The formal purpose of the General Conference (GC) Session is to transact the business of the church—elect officers, vote policy and doctrine, and constitute the committees that will govern the church for the next five years. There is another purpose that is less tangible but just as real: the GC Session functions as a global Adventist family reunion and market. This “market” provides for the exchange of goods and services and ideas.

The center of the market is the exhibit hall. The range of ideas allowed in the exhibit hall is remarkable. You will find literature that claims some dinosaur bones are actually the remains of oversized humans. Other people offer a defense of immanent creationism (the idea that God has worked through natural processes over extended time). There is a booth promoting massage therapy and a booth promoting Loma Linda University Medical Center with its latest in technological advances. There are people who insist the solution to the problems of the church is to cure us of coffee drinking and others who believe we need to forget health and focus solely on spiritual development. There are booths for accredited universities in the U.S. and abroad and booths promoting schools that reject any notion of accreditation.

I’ve heard complaints about this nearly unrestrained marketing. They are embarrassed that a particular idea is allowed “inside.” I think this variety is a sign of the vitality of the church. If we ever manage to get things neatly ordered and controlled, it will be a sign of the death of the church.

The market extends outside the exhibit hall to the sidewalks. There, people who either did not apply for exhibit permits or were refused them offer their mostly ideological wares. This marketing is restricted to the sidewalks across the street from the convention center. But since everyone has to cross the street to get to the metro train or their hotel, this is not a serious impediment.

It appears the greatest pamphleting activity at this GC is by groups who oppose the doctrine of the trinity. A demure young woman offered me a little tract titled “The Devil’s Greatest Lie.” When I asked her what the devil’s greatest lie was, she shyly answered, “the trinity.” I tried to maintain a poker face, but she must have seen my wonderment. “That’s what we believe,” she added, still very shyly. I’ve been handed several pamphlets from the same publisher all devoted to warning us against the grave dangers of this “deadly doctrine.”

While these activists are earnest in their opposition to the official church teaching about the nature of Christ, neither they nor the official church has equaled the zeal of Christians in Constantinople and Alexandria in the fifth century of the Christian era. In those cities mobs supporting opposing opinions about the nature of Christ religiously filled the streets with each others’ blood.

Someone gave me a thick pamphlet on the Vision of Dry Bones of Ezekiel 37. When I glanced through it I was unable to immediately pick out what was the point of this pamphlet. Someone else had a pamphlet about the end of time. It warned that we are right at the end, that dire things are about to happen, and we must take immediate action. I looked for the bottom line—something like it was time to move to the wilderness or time to sell stocks—but the only bottom line I could find was an appeal to buy the author’s book.

I ran into a young man who was offering tracts prepared by a network of Christian communes. He was sweet and gracious and deeply committed to his vision.

I could not tell if he was trying to “save” the Adventists or if he saw us as natural allies in their work to restore genuine New Testament Christianity which was, of course, communal (sort of, for a few years in Jerusalem).

The one commercial operation on the sidewalk has been selling sack lunches. Their poster announces the contents as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, an apple, juice, raisins, a cookie all for five dollars. Given what I have heard about the meal service in the GC dining room this is not a bad deal. I have not personally been in the dining room but I have heard many complaints that the food is not very good and the portions are small. Most of the restaurants in the immediate vicinity of the convention center advertise vegetarian specials. So if you have the money, good “Adventist” food is readily available.

I’ve been struck with the piety and sweet spirit of many of the saints here—both delegates and non-delegates. In some circles there is endless trading of gossip about what happened in the nominating committee and how the business sessions are being managed or mismanaged. But at least half of the people whom I ask about the politics of the church show very little interest in this kind of conversation. They are confident that God is bigger than all the machinations of church elites and committees. They are here to worship and fellowship and they refuse to devote any energy to speculation or complaining. They are not blind to problems. They do not believe that every decision is guided by God or approved by God. They simply believe that God is not made helpless by human bungling or evil.

For these saints, the GC Session is not the business meetings but the conversations in the exhibit hall and the worship and celebration of the evening reports and the weekend services. They thrill to the stories of faith and faithfulness that come from around the world. They take pleasure in sitting with thousands of fellow believers and sharing a sense of common purpose and calling.

Speaking personally, when I focus my attention on the business apparatus of the church, I find myself very frustrated. I have strong opinions about adding a new doctrine (We shouldn’t) and about some of the elections. But no one has asked my opinion. In fact, there is no way for anyone who is not very wealthy or very prominent in the church to have any impact on what happens at the session. (President Paulsen has scheduled two question and answer sessions with the general public and one specifically for youth. At these anyone can make a point or ask a question. I’ve not seen anyone taking notes in these sessions. I have no idea what their impact is, though it is at least a tiny step toward helping members feel included.)

The cheerful, devout saints I meet remind me the church is bigger than the closed, old-boy network which governs the denomination. Someone has to sit in committees and deliberate over budgets and policies and creedal statements. Some group has to take care of filling offices in our church bureaucracy. (And any earthly society with millions of members has to have a bureaucracy. The church is no exception.) The good old boys probably do about as good a job as others would. So let them do their work.

The approximately 2000 delegates are about 0.005 percent of the church. Their work is important, but they are not the totality of the church.  The other General Conference—the economist from Zambia, the dentist from North Carolina, the minister from the Sand Hills of Nebraska, the conference president from southern Africa, the lawyer from India—these saints who have come to worship and fellowship, to renew their hope and their commitment to the global Adventist community—this General Conference is just as much “The Church” as are the delegates and the GC officers. If you care much about the life of the spirit this other General Conference is the most interesting and vital.