In Memory

On a cold windy afternoon just after Christmas, Nolan and Crystal Williams, together with friends and family, gathered at a 200 year old cemetery just a few miles from Highland Academy.  In that place, near some evergreen cedar trees, the little body of one-year old River Williams was laid to rest.

As many within our conference family know, in the fall, River was diagnosed with a rare and extremely aggressive tumor which despite surgery and chemo-therapy, continued to return and in the end, the physicians and the limits of their technology could not overcome the disease.

I joined with others, both before, during, and even after Rivers death, asking God "why?" There are answers we offer and they are legitimate and real. We remind ourselves that we are in the midst of a fierce war-fare between Satan, the enemy of all of God's creation, and Jesus Christ. We know that Satan delights in harming, hurting, and if possible, in the process, destroying the faith of God's people. We also know that the final chapters in this Great Controversy are written, and final, and "soon-to-be." And in the end . . . there is no great answer to "why" except to with trembling hands and hope-filled hearts, open the Word, and be reminded of this:

"But now, Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep . .  .For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a  shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first."

The hope and faith and optimism born out of these promises, and expressed by Nolan and Crystal, has reminded me that through the pain and disappointment, there is a bright and certain future.  The ending words of Jesus in Revelation are appropriate for closing this tribute to River and his family: "Surely, I am coming quickly!"  . . . Even so, come Lord Jesus." 

Day Three

For Sabbath,  in addition to visiting some places important to my childhood, I went with my daughter to the "New Hope" SDA Church in Fulton, MD. My daughter works for the NAD in the Human Resources Dept., and often attends New Hope. The Church has a great  Lead- pastor  (Mike Speegle) who,  in agreement with my daughters opinon, I find to be a very thought-provoking speaker.

The music is in the 'praise' style and while I have no objection to that, I would enjoy it more if the volume was turned down a bit! The church is also located near a small 'oasis' of farm land; a rare commodity in metro-Baltimore/D.C. and my daughter enjoys the drive to and from Church.

New Hope has two worships, with an average attendance of around 700 each Sabbath. Of course in this area, there are many church 'choices' and the congregation seems to have found a great niche to meet the interests of what appear to be many Gen X and 'millennials.'  It offers a great variety of ministries which are mostly community focused and that too seems to be a draw for many. Below is a great picture of the back of someones head, and in the distance, the praise team!

Most of Sunday's session of Year End Meetings (YEM), in fact all except about the last 90 minutes, was spent on 'refining' the NAD recommendation that is to be forwarded to the NAD delegates regarding women's ordination. Though the support of the NAD leadership at YEM's was  a foregone conclusion, the wording of the statement was greatly debated with A LOT of time spent on toning down the verbiage which, in the estimation of some, was demanding support for women's ordination position, rather than encouraging GC delegates to 'consider' it.

The Chairman of the GC TOSC Committee (Theology Ordination Study Committee) Dr. Stele, gave a lot of interesting information on  the results of the GC Annual Council's reaction to the GC TOSC report. Note that the GC report is separate from the NAD report, as well as the other 13 World Division reports, some of which, we were told, were as long as 600 pages, and some much more brief.  In the end, the GC report formed "no concensus" and when pressed to define "consensus", Dr. Stele replied 90%?

Some believe that 90% was way too high for a very diverse International Group to ever form a "consensus," and that the intention was not to allow for consensus. That's some of the 'rumbling' I heard from some sitting near by. Dr. Stele did lead us to believe that even the GC report was affirming toward the role of women serving the church in ministry and I wonder how women could serve the church . .  but not be affirmed or placed in "leadership?"

 This is, for some, a volatile and 'politically-packed' issue, but for most in the NAD, and many other divisions, the issue
is about  the mission of the church and women in leadership, and that ordination is simply a "human" way of publicly identifying those who God, and the church recognizes, are invested in serving God's Church. For others,  in the extreme, it's viewed almost as apostasy to consider it, all though,those voices don't seem to be present at YEM.

If you have some interest in the GC TOSC origins/ etc., here's a link:

http://www.adventistarchives.org/about-tosc

In the end, here is the  NAD statement that was voted: Notice the first sentence which met the desires of some that individual responsibility and prerogative to vote as one pleases was honored.

And the result?  Here they are . . . . the picture below suggests around a 90% vote
of support for the statement.

The voting at YEM is done electronically with a small hand-held device. At the 2015 GC session, they will be using the same kind of system for delegate voting. It is very fast, allowing for instant responses. It is completely confidential and gives immediate public 'on the screen' results.

Much of todays session (Monday), until just before lunch, was focused on Young Adult initiatives with a number of reports on some experiments and successes throughout the division.  Steve Case, President of 'Piece of the Pie' Ministries, gave a report, and like many of the speakers, challenged us
with the epidemic of "lost" young adults who are, or will, leave the church.  Here are a couple of slides which illustrate some of the issues: Notice 'why' some young adults stay, and the main questions addressed by a recent symposium/study group who are offering some options for addressing the problems.

Finally, Steve Case gave a very visual illustration of the choices churches face in terms of retaining young adults.  One "choice" is to fill the pews with "Church Man Charlies" which are 'cheap, easy to move and control, and can 'look and act' the way we want.  Steve presented "Church Man Charlie" as one option . . .OR . . .  we can learn to love, involve, and understand how to reach and affirm and build the young adult population in our churches . . . a much more difficult if obviously vital initiative to prioritize.

Notice in the picture that Church Man Charlie DID get a few moments to preside over the meeting (just before Elder Jackson unceremonisouly tossed him over his shoulder)!

The morning has ended with the Finance Report and I am inspired by the desire of the NAD to invest in putting as many dollars as reasonably possible into doing ministry in the Division. Across many fronts, including Youth/Young Adults/ Women's Ministries and encouraging  and incentivizing conferences to hire female pastors, the leadership is attempting to becoming meaningfully engaged in the big picture issues which challenge the denomination in the U.S. and Canada.

I will share more with you later regarding the "Presbyterian Church" report that was given this afternoon.

Maryland Year-End Meetings

I have been in Maryland since late Thursday, attending NAD Year-
end meetings.  Below are a few pictures, some of them personal, and a couple from the presentations. The most interesting information shared Friday, at least for me, was Alex Bryant's report. Alex is the NAD Executive Secretary and shares a statistical report each year.  As usual, his findings are both encouraging and sobering . . .

Among other points which caught my attention in his report is that last year, while the Division did grow, we lost nearly 30,000 members to death, missing,  or apostasy.  Many of that number have simply dropped out and no longer attend church by their own choice.

Here are a couple of slides that I took pictures of, the first one illustrates the results of a survey of missing members which asked, "What Happened After you stopped Attending?" Notice that four out of ten replied "no one contacted me."

The report on membership was long and I believe I can get a copy of the slides, so, I'll save more of its findings for another time.  This second slide reflects the high number of short-term volunteers and missionaries that are from hospitals or universities/colleges.  By far, as the slide illustrates, Southern puts the greatest number of volunteers into the world field.  

Friday included a stirring report on the NAD's commitment to increase the number of women serving as pastors in the Division; an initiative made possible by the Division investing money into encouraging local conferences to hire more qualified females. There was also an inspiring "visioning" report by Elder Jackson which focused on the centrality of Jesus to everything we believe and do, a summation of the results of the major evangelistic thrust into New York City last year, and as reflected above, a review of the scope of volunteer mission service of NAD church members to the world field.

On Sunday we will review the NAD's initiative to move it's headquarters and separate from the GC in terms of it's historic and unique organizational tie, as well as it's physical tie (the NAD is housed in the same building as the GC). As Elder Jackson reminded us, the 'separation' is not theological,  and is not an act of apostasy (as a few eccentrics have suggested) but  instead represents a continued move towards operating in the same complimentary but independent status from the GC as that which defines the Division/GC relationship for all of the other 12 world divisions. The GC/NAD relationships has always been a source of some blessings, and I sense, some 'tensions' as well as perhaps reflected in the old adage, "Too many cooks can ruin the soup!"

Some of you may know that I grew up in this area of Maryland; about six or seven miles west of the GC/NAD headquarters building. This afternoon I had opportunity to take my daughter on a "memory" nostalgia trip around urban Metro Montgomery County and while I have no immediate family in the area, many of my closest relatives once lived here and in many cases, are buried in the area.  The little Methodist Chapel just off a busy city street and pictured below is the resting 'place' for my oldest brother, who died in infancy, in 1951. While there is no longer a marker that marks the spot, an old family picture reminded me that his grave is just in front of the black light pole near the spot of what was once a great tree, now removed, but the base of it still visible.  Ellen White reminds us that angels mark the places that human eyes cannot see and minds no longer even remember.

My father was not a Christian, and again, a few of you may know that. Regrettably, he died suddenly due to poor health habits, when he was 48 years old. My daughter never met him and in fact neither my wife nor any of my kids met him.  Despite his challenges, I would be delighted to see him in the Kingdom, and for now, this is his resting place not far from the house I grew up in and just outside the city where I worked in law enforcement.

I stopped by the City of Rockville police headquarters fora moment to get a picture of one of the patrol cars I used to drive, though mine was not nearly as "cool" as this one! Moments after I snapped the picture, the officer driving the car came out to resume his patrol duties. I asked if I could take his picture and he politely but adamantly said, "Oh no.  no. " I told my daughter that I wasnt' sure why he objected, even after I told him I was a former Rockville City officer, and that I was pretty sure I had the legal right to take his picture whether he wanted me to or not, but . .  wisely . .  I was NOT going to test my "constitutional rights" theory with him.

I'll try to post again tomorrow night.  Blessings,

Steve

At Oshkosh

Standing in Front of the KTC Camping area, in front of our 40' tall
"visible for a mile" flag pole.

Have enjoyed  the past two days in Oshkosh, a 45000 person "life event" held on a massive campground next to an airfield. My first time attending, and it immediately makes a big impression . . .  of how BIG . . . this thing is! It's hard to get your senses around a crowd this large, occupying space of probably about two square miles, unless you see it.  People, food, laughter, "beating drums," flags, and as per one of my pictures below, "booming cannons," courtesy of KTC! I agree with Ken Wetmore, among other 'wonders' of this event is the incredible level of talent that is vital to pulling off the logistics: sanitation, security, medical, event-planning . .  an endless list which requires I"m sure hundreds of individuals. In our conference, Elder Wetmore and the KTC Pathfinder Council are the brains and energy behind our organization and my visit to Oshkosh confirms we have (as you already know) some of the very best!  A few pictures from last night:

Mykal and Melissa Ringstaff provide leadership for
the Harlan "Black Bears." I happened to catch up
to them during the "always happening" pin-exchange.

I liked the "feather" look for the Louisville  Cherokees Banner

Madison Boulevard had a cool hand-crafted entryway made
just for this event. On the lentil is carved "Forever Faithful" the
Oshkosh Theme.

Arlan Monroe and the Madison Club, like others, have a great mobile kitchen. They
also provided me with their Madison 'Trailblazers" Pin, proudly displayed on
my shirt collar this morning!

I learned that KTC has the deserved and well-recognized honor of providing the Signal Cannons for the Camporee, and have done so for a number of years. This is me backing away as this little "howitzer" is a second from blasting the message to "lower the flag." What kid wouldn't want to fire a cannon? (what conf. president wouldn't want to?!!!)

I'm standing in front of our KTC "Club Pole" listing all of our clubs. I 'think' all of these are present at Oshkosh, though I didn't get to visit personally with all, I enjoyed seeing the staff and kids who were in the area during my visits.

As the sun sets welcoming the Sabbath,
 the masses gather for the evening program,
a virtual sea of people with this scene representing about
 one-fourth of what
was there as the program
begins.

The really neat thing about this many people as it does have a little feel of
how big Adventism is,
how many youth are a part of the church, and in a small way, what
heaven
will feel like as countless throngs gather for worship and fellowship.
There are clubs here from every continent on earth
 (this is NOT solely a NAD event) and as God's children fellowship -here -
yes, it feels like you
can't wait to go "home" and be together - there!

The Kentucky-Tennessee  Color Guard! 

With the Wind Blowing the Banner not sure, but
the Louisville Club is bringing up the Rear Guard 

Lake Cumberland which is the Somerset District 

General Wetmore Marching By! 

Nashville First Hispanic's Club "Soldiers of the King!" 

Lebanon's Club "Orion" 

The Proud Ridgetop Ridge Runners!


I should note that among the Pathfinder Leadership, I saw Karen Kind from Lexington helping give support to the Lexington
Club, Will Anderson assisting with the Highland Club, Pastor Carlos Pinto as one of the Directors of the Nashville 1st Hispanic Club, and Pastor Nathan Dilema, as a Director with the Lebanon Club. I am hugely inspired to
see this level of dedication among our great staff!

Day Three Voted Recommendations

By lunch time today, nine recommendations were voted by the attendees, and they are as follows:

Mission to Contemporary Audiences

1. Develop a branding strategy for Adventism tied to a clearer sense of our identity, including shifting our evangelistic emphasis from educational to relational approaches. Empower members through training and internal promotions programs, to mingle with the secular community, including opening our churches more hours to be available to local communities.

2. Promote a stronger emphasis on discipleship which encompasses evangelism into nurture resulting in retention.

3.Create a program for educating, mentoring, and training members, including contextualizing the Adventist witness, providing a greater emphasis on contemporary issues, including listening to young adults.

Education

1. Develop a program for the promotion of Adventist Education for pastors and members tied to mission.

2. Develop innovative strategies for the delivery of Adventist education including: after-school and online programs, requiring all churches in a given constituency to support their local Adventist school, whether they have students there or not.

3. Develop alternative funding streams for Adventist education, including endowments, changing tithe ratios, and expanding enrollment by including non-Adventist students already in our community.


Church Structure

1. Appoint a study group to examine the relationship between the size and complexity of our organization and achieving our mission, resulting in three recommendations based on the relationship between conferences, unions, and the division.

2. Make recommendations specifying ways that Administration and ministries of the church can streamline operations and eliminate duplications where unnecessary at every level.

3. Assign to a  representative commission the challenge of exploring at least three scenarios for the re-distribution of tithe for furthering the mission of the church.

The NAD will return proposals and recommendations based on the above nine, at NAD year-end meetings.

The rest of today is focused on discussion regarding Women's ordination, and the churches response to the LBGT issues.

In my opinion, this was, has been, one of the more meaningful events I've participated in since moving into the administrative area. The collective prayers of the attendees is that God would be a real and indispensable presence in directing His church toward new initiatives and/or changes that might enhance the mission of growing the Kingdom of God.

Day Two - Part Two - "The Vote"

The Wednesday session here at Dulles was quite interesting, characterized by the "votes"  highlighted in my last post. It seemed 'extraordinary,' at least to those of us present, that there was a 95% "yes" to "willing to change position" in order to accomplish the mission, meaning, changes that might mean moving to a different job, were, rather than 'feared,'  . . ..  'affirmed!'

No one would have expected that as historically, to some cynics, it has seemed that "loosing ones job" or better, having to "change jobs" was supposed to be more important that anything else. Not sure that was ever true for most, but some have that impression.

What was most interesting to me in yesterdays afternoon session was the speeches at the microphone which addressed the topic of "changing structure in order to facilitate" mission, save money, etc.,

Understand that there are 58 conferences  with Executive Officers represented,  9 Unions, much of the NAD leadership, University Presidents,  AHS officials, and, the cultural mix among these leaders represents significant diversity, and . ..  those perspectives and differences "played out" in the various speeches at the microphone. A number of those at the mic addressed the importance and role or questioning the value in today's society of the Regional State conference mix.

The comments at the mic were at times quite lengthy - probably too lengthy in most cases - as individuals addressed or offered various scenarios for changing structure, OR, warning that changes to structure posed risk. The treasurer from Florida, Duane Rollins?, proposed a thoughtful option, that suggested the Southern Union move from 8 local conferences to two Unions covering all the SE U.S., I told Steve Rose I was good on that idea,  " as long as one of the Unions is the Kentucky-Tennessee Union!"  (FYI - said with a smile)

Most intriguing to me were a few opinions that spoke of a desire to address redundancy, overlap, and financial waste in duplication, BUT, at the same time seemed to believe the present organization is "perfect." I'm not sure how you meaningfully address cost savings and "alignment for mission" while maintaining a 'hands off' the structure position.

In our break-out groups, an individual from AHS made a very helpful comment in the midst of conference leaders bantering back and forth about their version of what's important to change or not change . . He said, "In my world, you determine what end-result, or goals you are desiring to achieve, such as "we want to carve out, save, a million dollars, and then you determine a strategy to get there."

I thought that was quite helpful if simple advice in the midst of leaders doing what they sometimes do best in the church, talk, and talk, and talk and "detour" away from the agenda.  Remarkably, these meetings do seem very intentional on addressing change within structures.

A motion was made and passed around lunch time that in essence said, "By the time of 2014 NAD Year End Meetings, the NAD leadership will have comprised a committee that will bring recommendations to the NAD attendees." That passed with a 80% "plus" vote of support.

Now THAT"S the easy part. What changes would be recommended? The only organizational entity that the NAD is in charge of is the NAD. It can affect "policies" that may touch the rest of us, but it cannot 'force' a Union or local conference to "drop" a department, OR, collectively do their payroll in one center than than on multiple sites etc.,

I'll end with this thought: "which " organizations, and "what" level deserves to be the focus of structural change seems very uncertain as well as highly debated. At this early stage of conversation, that's not surprising. I am of the opinion, and I hope always will be, that within the organization the local conference IS the most important entity to the success and mission of the church. It is 'closest' to the ministry of church and school, less removed, more accountable to constituents, and is far more invested in the day to day operation of the local church.

However, again not surprisingly, speeches were made that spoke of the benefit of the "higher" organizations, which I would not deny, but if pressed to make tough decisions, as one president said in our break out group, we will all have to give up Something.  You can't give up  "nothing" in this conversation/issue, and expect to get back "a lot."

Someone asked me last night if the discussion and report on NAD education came with any motions or votes. The answer is "no." It was simply a report, but I found it enlightening and helpful as we navigate SDA education in KYTN.

Today's agenda is "Where do we go from here?" with a report from family ministries that will include the LBGT topic and the churches stand/position in the changing social landscape that now (have you noticed) not only embraces same-sex activity, but seems to celebrate it. Will also address women's ordination.  This should be another day of "engaging" conversation.

Dulles Meeting "Day Two"

Yesterday the afternoon session included a report on SDA education throughout the division. Statistics and information shared was both affirming to the mission as well as  highlighting the challenges. Larry Blackmer NAD Ed. supt., was the presenter.

In the 'affirmation ' category, there is enormous support for the mission of SDA education with almost all respondents prioritzing the value and contribution to mission and ministry. The areas of concern are known to most of us: Cost, and "mission" priority in the face of declining enrollments.

Blackmer noted that the solution to cost, is NOT reducing other areas of ministry and evangelism that the church is invested in. He noted what many believe: the church puts enormous financial resources into SDA education; far beyond any other endeavor, though, he noted how important SDA education is to growing the church.

More of the good. Our SDA test scores, across ALL grade levels, is consistently and significantly higher than the public sector scores.

We are the largest "collective"private school system in the world. The Catholics are larger numerically, but are divided in terms of structure.

89% of our SDA students in our schools, in the last survey, rate the "school experience" as the most important factor in their lives.

We are the only private religious school system that requires 100% of our schools to be certified. Now for the challenges . . . they were prefaced by Dr. Blackmer's comment that whenever he meets with his colleagues in private religious education leadership . . Jewish, Lutheran, Baptist, etc., the consensus is always the same . .

The two biggest needs present and in the future for the success of private religious education is:

LEADERSHIP and SUSTAINABILITY (I assume that means cost, etc,) Here are the stats:


1. In the last ten years, 170 (mostly small elementary schools) have closed.

2. There is an extremely sharp drop in enrollment that  progressively gets 'worse' from grade 4, through grade 12.

3. Only 26% of SDA families have school age children.

4. The median income for SDA families is around $25,000. Nationally, a low figure that underscores the challenge of family's to afford private education.

5. Though "younger" SDA members would vote to use tithe funds to subsidize education cost, Dr. Blackmer pointed  out that tithe contributions are largely from older members who strongly disagree in regards to funding education with tithe.

6. The average conf. subsidy to SDA boarding schools is $745,000 annually. KYTN is considerably higher though I don't have that figure in front of me.

7. The average 'total' cost, for a boarding academy student, once subsidy is factored in, is $24,000 a year. For elementary students, it is $9,000.

8. The average dollar "loss" per student in k-12 is $3,000 across the NAD. This means that $3,000 per student IS NOT covered by fees OR subsidy and must be made up in other ways. "Written off," or, individual fund-raising, etc.,

9. Finally, back to numbers, only around 33% of eligible SDA school children are students in our schools.



Dr. Blackmer told of one conference where a school owes the conference 7.5 MILLION! And the conference, he stated, wants the money NOW.

It was noted that we do not manage mergers and closings of schools well; it is done through 'attrition.' Dr. Blackmer offered a brief formula to be pro-active with this issue . . .

"Determine the LOWEST number of students acceptable for a school to remain open. If the school falls below that number for two consecutive years, it triggers a constituency meeting to determine the future. OR, a "upper limit' subsidy dollar figure is determined and IF that number is exceeded for two years (or three) it also would trigger an automatic constituency session.

This issue was a topic in our break-out sessions and it is clear that we all wrestle with how to manage the complexities of schools, cost, and managing - even guessing - God's will for continuing in the environment of declining enrollments.



The Morning session has begun with several interesting votes taken by the attendees:  Here are the three questions we voted on:

1. "Is the present organizational structure of the church optimal for succeeding in the mission?

85% voted "NO."

2 "Is the time to change the organizational structure NOW?"
81% voted "YES"

3. "Would you be willing to give up your present position if that was the result fo
re-structuring?"

The answer to this was quite interesting:

95% said "yes" meaning, no one wants to join the unemployment line, but a HUGE majority, (self included) said, "I'm willing to do something else if it might increase the effectiveness and success of the mission."

The remainder of the morning is spent in review of "how" the NAD is spending money and how that aligns with mission effectiveness and efficiency. Last year,$932 MILLION in tithe was contributed in the NAD with $163 million being forwarded to the NAD. The NAD has operated in a deficit budget position for a number of years.

The areas it supports are quite broad from evangelism to retirement, to the seminary, to various departmental ministries and functions. Also, a portion of NAD funds is returned to the GC; 8% which is far higher than any other world division. The other 12 divisions return 2% and the GC has agreed with the NAD that the NAD contribution will decline another 1% in 2017, on top of a present 1% drop.

Before lunch time, we will break into discussion groups.