ALFRED C. MC CLURE: Thank you very much, and welcome to this afternoon business meeting. It has been a busy day thus far, and this afternoon will be a varied meeting in that the business will include some of the items on the agenda that you have in the green section of your agenda books. But approximately 30 minutes from now, Elder Paulsen will be here to introduce a feature that is also a part of the business session. At that time we will move into that feature, and it is my understanding that that will take us to the remainder of the afternoon session. So we have quite a brief time for consideration of the agenda items on these green pages. If you were here this morning you participated in the discussion of the items that were almost exclusively Church Manual items and we are going to return to that list this afternoon and begin with number 412.

The chair recognizes that we have not done number 411, but in light of the fact that our time is quite limited, we feel that it might be best to hold that one until we have a greater time to discuss it.

Lowell Cooper, vice president of the General Conference, whose initials you see beside each of these items, is standing at the podium and is prepared to lead us into consideration of number 412.

LOWELL COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Veloso has been in another meeting and is on his way here, but I think we can begin with an item. If you would permit, Mr. Chairman, the woman seated at the end of the table where you are is not only the recording secretary for this afternoon but has been the recording secretary on the Church Manual Committee and is one who does the detail work behind the scenes. I would like to publicly thank Rowena Moore for the tremendous assistance she has been to the Church Manual Committee.

[There followed a series of actions that involved editorial changes; these were approved.]

ALFRED C. MC CLURE: Please turn to item 416. I will ask Lowell Cooper to introduce it.

LOWELL COOPER: The delegates to the session will notice, on lines 1-3, a long listing describing the history of this particular recommendation. It is coming to us in an attempt to clarify a question that has been raised from many corners. Dr. Veloso, please join us here. Perhaps we should have the secretary read the item, and then perhaps you�ll wish to comment on it and the reason that it is brought here.

DONALD R. SAHLY: The recommendation reads as follows: �Membership Required for Election�Only those who are members in regular standing in the church making the appointments are eligible for election as officers of that local church. (See pp. 128-130.) The only exceptions are a licensed employee of the conference/mission/field assigned as a district leader (see p. 121), and a local elder who may, when necessary and within the recommendation of the conference/mission/field committee, be elected to serve in more than one church. (See p. 47.)�

MARIO VELOSO: This item was requested because even though it was a principle being practiced and obviously needed in the churches, we didn�t state it that way. I move it.

ALFRED C. MC CLURE: It has been moved and supported.

ALAN DAVID C. CURRIE: I just want clarification, and when I get it I just may need to make a correction. The recommendation says �licensed employees.� Does that also cover a credentialed employee? It may be misunderstood if you just say licensed, because we do have people that are credentialed.

MARIO VELOSO: By licensed ministers we are talking about those who are at the beginning of their ministry and are sometimes placed in churches without being ordained.

ALAN DAVID C. CURRIE: I understand that point. What if you had a credentialed teacher whom you wanted to take a particular office, but their membership had not come through? You may have a licensed teacher in the same category.

MARIO VELOSO: We should then say �licensed ministers,� Brother Chairman.

ALAN DAVID C. CURRIE: That will clarify it if that is all you are referring to. Thank you very much.

KEN CORKUM: My comment is that I think the spirit is here but it doesn�t encompass an important component, and that is the spouses of our employees. Recently I pastored a three-church district, and my wife held offices in all three churches, and it seems to me that that is probably intended here but not expressed. Spouses of employees are often moving with the employees into these churches and hold offices as well.

MARIO VELOSO: We are not referring to the membership of spouses in this situation, and we are not covering the appointment of spouses, so I cannot see, Brother Chairman, why we have to go in that direction.

ALFRED C. MC CLURE: I think what the speaker is saying is that the pastor�s spouse often travels with the pastor and sometimes holds offices in more than one church. Is that something that would fit into this recommendation?

MARIO VELOSO: I don�t think it would make any difference at all.

DONALD W. CORKUM: It says only those who are members in regular standing in the church making the appointments are eligible for election as officers in the local church. My understanding of that is that one must be a member in the local church to hold an office in that local church. However, often the spouse of the worker will have membership in one church but hold offices in the pastor�s second or third church, and this recommendation would appear to exclude them from holding offices in churches other than their home church.

MARIO VELOSO: Brother, that subject would be a matter for another action.

DONALD W. CORKUM: I have run into this problem several times in pastoral work. Mr. Chairman, I would like to make an amendment if the chair is open.

ALFRED C. MC CLURE: In order to do this, you should refer the suggestion to the committee that has been dealing with this, rather than attempt to do it here on the floor.

DONALD W. CORKUM: Mr. Chairman, I would like to move that this be referred back to the Church Manual Committee.

ALFRED C. MC CLURE: Is there support for the motion to refer? It�s been supported. Any discussion on the motion to refer? [The motion was voted.]

I think it might be helpful if we continue to discuss other items so that when this goes back there will be opportunity for other things to be discussed if there is such a need.

ANDREA LUXTON: Mr. Chairman, I see another problem in this relating to college churches. As president of a college that has a turnover of about 50 percent of the students each year (many stay only for one year), I find that it is practically impossible for all of their memberships to be transferred in and out of the college within a 12-month period. This would make it impossible to appoint any of them to hold office during that time. It is our practice usually to appoint many of them to office since it is a good experience for them and for the benefit of the church.

ALFRED C. MC CLURE: Good comment; are there any responses you gentlemen would like to make?

MARIO VELOSO: Brother Chairman, we don�t have any comment on that, because in the committee we did not discuss that particular issue.

ANDREA LUXTON: Mr. Chairman, could I then refer this back and request that it be considered, because at present this situation will be completely excluded.

ALFRED C. MC CLURE: Since it�s being referred, you may wish to speak to the Church Manual Committee, which deals with that.

MARTIN W. FELDBUSH: Mr. Chair-man, I completely support the spirit of this addition, but in line 16 the phrase �licensed employee� excludes an entire category of pastor within the church. I refer to the female pastors. In those fields in which a female is assigned to the leadership of the district, she would not be covered because of the word �licensed.� Currently it�s our practice to commission female pastors. I would like either to place an amendment on the floor or to ask that this be considered in the referral process, or perhaps there is some guidance we can receive.

It�s my understanding that we have commissioned, licensed, and, of course, ordained ministers. The word �credentialed� in a sense refers to all three, but unless we specifically state �commissioned� I believe that we leave it open to misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

MARIO VELOSO: Mr. Chairman, that item would belong entirely to another discussion. We cannot introduce that in a minor item like this one, because the Church Manual does not have that concept incorporated in it.

MARTIN W. FELBUSH: Mr. Chairman, I won�t discuss it further, but I would like to speak with Pastor Veloso or the committee members about this. I want to be sure that the issue is covered and that the female pastors are not excluded in this provision. Thank you.

ALFRED C. MC CLURE: You are free and welcome to speak with the committee.

That concludes our discussion of this issue for now. As the chair stated at the outset of the afternoon, we will now shift into a different phase of our business session. I would suggest that while you have free time, if you have such, you may wish to review the items on the agenda so that you can come prepared to discuss them again at our next session. Dr. Paulsen will introduce the next portion of our agenda.

JAN PAULSEN: Thank you, Brother Chairman. This afternoon and for the next four afternoons, Monday through Thursday, we will be doing something that is somewhat extraordinary in the sense that we have never tried it before. Yet many of us may well have thought that we should have done something like this before. We have set aside an hour and 15 minutes during the latter part of the business sessions for the next four days. During this time we will open before you five different windows on mission that specifically relate to the life and witness of the church. We will take up such issues as the church thinking strategically, which is the one for today. The window tomorrow will be witnessing to other religions. Then we will have a window that will specifically address unity�the unity of clergy and laity working and thinking and planning together in mission. There will be one that will develop the idea of spiritual maturity and discipleship, and will focus on training; and the final one will be on the sharing of financial resources for unity and missions. All of these windows have this in common�they all deal with issues of importance to the mission of the church. It will be good for us to take the time to consult together, to share ideas. It will be good for you to address these matters, and for leadership to listen to the burdens, concepts, and convictions that you have. As you look at these windows, as you listen to what is being presented, we crave your comments. We want to know what you want to say to the leadership of the church. Please consider this. However, please resist the temptation to put your comments in the form of a motion. A motion tends to tie our hands in specific actions, and then we find that we are discussing wording instead of substance. Rather, let us make it a conversation. A true record will be kept on it. As the church goes on with her strategic planning and thinking in missions, what you say will be seriously carried into the thought process, the planning process, of church leadership. Alo, the Adventist Review is working with us on this. Every day they will prepare one page that deals with these five windows on missions. They will also listen carefully to what you say. At the end of the week, when we have finished these five windows, the Adventist Review will give to each of us a packet containing summaries so that we can take them with us from here. But in addition to the summaries that they will make, we the leadership of the church will have a complete record of what you will be saying. So I would encourage you, please, view these windows carefully, even critically. Feel free to respond to comments to share your observations, the convictions you have on your heart. Let us see how the Spirit guides us.

PHILIP S. FOLLETT: The focus of our discussion today, the window that we wish to discuss, is called �The Church Thinking Strategically.� Our group that has worked on this calls it a window on the future. What will the future hold for the church�within the church? One writer and speaker who has become valued around the world, not only for his understanding of the history of the church and writing about it, but also for visioning the future, is Dr. George Knight of Andrews University. Dr. Knight is a prolific writer, speaker, and professor. Today we have asked him to take a quick visionary picture of the church and its future.

GEORGE KNIGHT: Seventh-day Adventism at the edge of the twenty-first century is somewhere it never expected to be�on earth. Beyond that, it has expanded beyond the wildest dreams of its founders and continues to expand. When I joined the church in 1961, there were somewhat more than 1 million Adventists worldwide. That figure expanded to more than 2 million in 1970, 3.5 million in 1980, nearly 7 million in 1990, and roughly 11 million in 2000. At the present rate of growth, we might expect to find 20 million Adventists in 2013 and 40 million somewhere between 2025 and 2030, if time should last. What a change from 1848, when there were about 100 believers. To them Ellen White�s publishing vision that Adventism would someday be like streams of light extending clear around the earth must have seemed like wild nonsense. If one of them would have predicted 11 million Adventists, the others, like Sarah of old, probably would have laughed out loud. There is a sense in which the impossible has happened. Those early believers were few, poor, and weak. On the other hand, the church today is many, with the most widespread worldwide presence in the history of Protestantism, with billions of dollars of assets and means. Yet growth has brought about its own complications and challenges. Things were simple in the early days of the Adventist Church. All spoke the same language, all belonged to the same race, all lived in a relatively restricted part of the northeastern United States, and all had been reared in a culture that provided them with a shared value system and set of expectations. In the year 2000 Adventism is far from simple. We hail from more than 200 nations, utilize more than 700 languages, and vary greatly in our cultural backgrounds and expectations. Adventism today has unparalleled finances and reservoirs of skilled workers, yet it faces unprecedented challenges in moving forward with its mission. Fortunately, our God is a God of the impossible. For better or worse, He has chosen to use quite fallible human instuments to finish His work.

If I were the devil (which is one of my favorite games), I would pit all of my energies against the human element in God�s plan as His church seeks to move from the present into the future. In fact, if I were the devil, I would plan my strategy very carefully. I would have a well-thought-out plan for frustrating the church in its mission.

The first thing on my agenda would be the upcoming generation of Adventists. If I were the devil, I would put my best energies into getting the church to reject the ideas and plans of the coming generation. And that shouldn�t be too difficult, since in most areas they don�t dress like their elders, sing like them, or even think like them. When I get older people to frown on guitars, I will at the same time help them forget that early Adventists didn�t even allow organs in their churches. When I take a shot at their so-called drama, I will help their elders forget that Jesus used fictional stories such as the rich man and Lazarus and that Ellen White used the term drama to refer to what we think of as soap operas. And I certainly would encourage the older members to think of their drama as some great evil rather than an enacted parable. I would also help the Adventist Church to forget that their very movement was largely begun by young people whose ideas were innovative and creative.

Our devil is not a dumb one. He knows that if he can discourage the best of our young people from taking over the church, it will be dead or dying. To reach the new generation, we must learn to communicate in the language of their day, just as Jesus used the language and idioms of His, and James White did in his. If the church insists on using the idioms of the nineteenth century to reach young people in the twenty-first, it will eventually end up the same as the Amish, who have maintained their forms and traditions but lost their mission to the world.

The church needs to recognize that the upcoming generations don�t even think like those of us born in the 1940s and before. Brand loyalty is gone. The post-Watergate, post-Vietnam, postmodern world also tends to be postdenominational. The church can no longer expect mindless or guilt-ridden loyalty just because people were born Adventist or because they think Adventism has the truth. To the contrary, the church will need to demonstrate that it is truly what it claims to be and that it is using its funds and resources faithfully. Today�s youth have fewer qualms about using their funds and talents outside of organized Adventism.

This is no small problem. The youth of the church are its greatest asset, and the youth outside the church are its present and future mission field. The youth are Adventism�s greatest opportunity and its most serious challenge. The church must formulate plans to reach their minds and enlist their support. They will be the church of the future.

If I were the devil, I would get the church to think small. This tactic is closely related to that of frustrated young people, because the young have not yet discovered that everything is impossible. I know Adventists who can give 110 reasons that almost anything that is suggested can�t be done. And they usually buttress their argument with Bible verses and Ellen White quotations taken out of context.

Such apostles of negativism have apparently never read Testimonies for the Church, volume 6, page 476: �New methods and new plans will spring from new circumstances. New thoughts will come from new workers who give themselves to the work. . . . They will receive plans devised by the Lord Himself.� New workers are often young workers.

The apostles of negativism need to learn the lesson of the bumblebee. It is aerodynamically impossible for bumblebees to fly, but they don�t know it, so they do it anyway.

Thinking small in Adventism means Church X baptizing 50 in 2001, rather than 25; it means topping the 20 million mark by 2004 instead of 2013. With small thinking, the church will be on the planet for a long time.

I think of my friend in Hawaii, Arnold Trujillo. He now has 29 churches and companies with 5,500 members, but has publicly stated that his goal is to have 10,000 home church units of 12 members each by 2005 and is currently laying groundwork for that expansion. Is that a vision or a delusion? They may be close together. Never forget what Jesus commanded the 11 disciples to take the gospel to �all the world� and never forget the impossible task that faced our own forebears in Adventism. What we need is to think about the magnitude of the latter rain and faith. How can we think big and best utilize our funds and our resources to make our dreams come true?

If I were the devil, I would get people to believe that there is only one way to do something and that everybody has to do it that one way. Take worship, for example. A few years ago in the North American Division we had some tension over what was called celebration worship. Now, I don�t know much about celebration worship, but I do know that in the average Adventist service I can fall asleep during the invocation, wake up at the benediction, and tell you exactly what happened.

The church needs to realize, as Ellen White put it, that �not all minds are to be reached by the same methods.� Worship styles, for example, are related to a person�s socioeconomic class. What may reach some upper-middle-class community may not appeal to Pentecostals or high church Anglicans or Orthodox or Islamics. I�m not saying that we become Pentecostals or Islamics, but we ought to have modes of reaching out that appeal to them. Adventism does not need one or two ways of worshiping, but 50. Another way of saying it is that if everybody in the church looks like me, we aren�t reaching out very far.

I have spoken about worship, but the same can be said for evangelism. Our God has created variety everywhere. We must move beyond single-crop harvesting in any given community and reach out for all of God�s children. If we are going to reach those most unlike us, we need to consciously develop methods and procedures that are quite unlike our traditional ones.

If I were the devil, I would downplay the importance of new technologies in finishing the church�s work. New technology has tremendous power for both good and evil. Too often we have left the field to the devil. H.M.S. Richards once told me that he had to fight the brethren at every step. Radio in 1930 was too new, too radical, too innovative, too untried, a �waste of the Lord�s money.�

Today we stand at the frontier of technologies for spreading the three angels� messages that Richards didn�t even dream of. Today as never before, we need a generation with the H.M.S. Richards spirit but with twenty-first-century imaginations.

Before leaving the topic of technology, I need to say that I thought the NET idea was crazy. Who would go to a church and watch a preacher on a screen? I am glad that I was wrong. The NET program has put Adventists at the very frontier of some types of worldwide communication. What other ideas are out there for discovery? And how can we best utilize them?

If I were the devil, I would make pastors and administrators the center of the work of the church. It must have been the devil who gave us the idea that the pastor should do all the preaching, give all the Bible studies, be the church�s primary soul winner, and make and carry out business decisions for the church.

We need to move beyond seeing churches as entertainment centers for the saints. We need to get more priests into the priesthood of believers. If we wait for the clergy to finish the work, Adventism will be on earth for a little longer than eternity. The challenge is to create a generation of Adventist pastors and administrators who become equipers who are skilled in helping people use their talents in the work of reaching the world. Pastors need to become enablers, not mother hens hovering over their fledglings.

Al McClure is reported as saying at a church planting convention that any church that doesn�t spin off or plant another church in three years ought to lose its pastor. And if Elder McClure didn�t say that, he should have. Adventism needs to take definite steps to recast the role of the pastor into that of enabler.

If I were the devil, I would undermine the importance of the local congregation. One of the great needs of Adventism is the creation and maintenance of vibrant local congregations. A healthy congregation is not a group of independent individuals, but a unit of believers reaching out to the community around them.

The task of the world church in General Conference organization is to coordinate funds and personnel in order to send Christ�s message to the far corners of the earth. Thus congregationalism as a form of organization is not sufficient in itself. On the other hand, the denomination in the long run will be only as healthy as its local congregations. What can be done to create health in our local congregations?

If I were the devil, I would create more administrative levels and generate more administrators. In fact, if I were the devil, I would get as many successful church employees as far from the scene of action as possible. I would put them behind desks, cover them with paper, and inundate them with committees. And if that weren�t enough, I would remove them to so-called higher and higher levels until they had little direct and sustained contact with the people who make up the church. Now, don�t get me wrong. I believe in church organization. But I also believe in food, and I know that too much of a good thing has less than healthy results. Many Adventists believe that Adventism needs to trim down the number of its administrative types and its administrative real estate so that more money and energy is put into fighting the battle on the front lines. Many Adventists are tired of paying the massive bill for a multilayered system.

At the 1999 Annual Council in Brazil I pointed out that there is no church in the world with as many administrative levels to support as Adventism. When that article was published in the Adventist Review, the editor wanted to insert �except Roman Catholicism.� I responded by telling them to add �including Roman Catholicism.� The Roman Catholic system has two levels above the local congregation, while Adventism has four. The current system was developed in the horse-and-buggy era, when even the telephone hadn�t come into its own. The challenge for the church in the twenty-first century will be to reorganize for mission along lines that take into account modern transportation and communication.

I am just completing a book on the history of Adventist Church organization in which I suggest a three-tiered, totally restructured model that is arranged in such a way as to capture the advantages of a worldwide church while at the same time providing for local initiatives. More and more Adventists are realizing that there are other ways to structure the church in the postmodern world that would free up both money and workers for finishing God�s work on earth. Too much money, claim many, is being used to run the machinery, as if the machinery were an end in itself. Many of the potential opportunities of the future are contingent upon successful restructuring in a manner that will free up resources. This task may be one of the greatest challenges we face at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

If I were the devil, I would make Adventists fearful of the Holy Spirit. Too many of us fear Pentecostalism when we think of the topic of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, we need to remember the Bible teaching about the necessity of the Spirit in Christian work, and Ellen White taught that the reception of the Holy Spirit brings all other blessings in its train.

Some years ago I noted at a General Conference presentation that Adventists don�t really believe the 27 fundamental beliefs. Especially the one about spiritual gifts. We believe in spiritual gift rather than gifts, and most of us restrict that gift to one person who�s been safely in her grave for the past 85 years. What would it be like if suddenly today in the pulpit I got the gift of tongues, a true gift? I might be carried off. What if I got a true gift of prophecy? There would most likely be a massive committee to study the situation for the next 10 years. Now, I have to admit that even talking about such things makes me nervous, because the Spirit is impossible to control.

On the other hand, we have the promise in Joel 2 of the spiritual outpouring in the last days, a spiritual outpouring that will most likely split the church right down the middle. How much do we really think about the Holy Spirit and the outpouring of the latter rain? Are we so focused on goals and structures and human endeavor that we have forgotten the essential power behind each of them? What steps can be taken to allow the Spirit its proper place within Adventism? Or do we hope to complete our work without His troublesome presence?

If I were the devil, I would encourage the denomination to keep playing the numbers game. The worst thing that ever happened to Adventists was learning how to count. We count numbers, churches, institutions, money, and everything else. While numbers may have their proper place, they have very little to do with the reality of a finished work. One result of the numbers game is that we tend to put our money where we can get the most baptisms for the least money. Where we can get the most results. That has meant that we have not put the kind of effort needed into those parts of the world that are the most difficult to reach. In the North American Division the most difficult group to evangelize happens to be Caucasian. Some years ago I wrote the division president that if we didn�t start putting more effort toward creatively evangelizing that self-satisfied group, in 50 years the largest unreached people group in the world could be White North Americans.

The numbers problem takes on different configurations in various parts of the world, but we need to face it consistently in our planning if we ever hope to reach all of God�s children. If I were the devil, I would get Seventh-day Adventists to forget, or at least to downplay, their apocalyptic heritage. Adventism has never seen itself as just another denomination, but rather a movement of prophecy, with its roots in Revelation 10-14. It is that belief in Adventism as a special called-out people with an urgent message that has driven the church to the ends of the earth. When that vision is gone, Adventism will become just another toothless denomination that happens to be a little more peculiar in some of its beliefs than others.

Our approach to apocalyptic in future planning will determine whether Advent-ism will continue to be a movement or will be transmuted into a monument of the movement and eventually a museum about the movement. While we are on the topic of apocalyptic, it is important that we speak to the people of our day. It just doesn�t get people excited about the nearness of the Advent to tell them that there was a great earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 and that the stars fell in 1833.

I have no problem with those events in their historicity and their power on people in the nineteenth century. But we need to help people see the ongoing apocalyptic events in the framework of our day.

If I were the devil, I would get Adventists to hold that all of their beliefs are of equal importance. On the contrary, the plain fact is that having a saving relationship with Jesus is at the very center of Christianity. That relationship is not at the same level as eating a pork chop. I have known Sabbathkeepers who are meaner than the devil. I have known vegetarians who are meaner than the devil. The church needs to think of its beliefs in terms of what is primary and what is secondary, of what is central and of what is on the edge.

The Bible picture is clear that all genuine Christianity flows out of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. It is all too easy to be an Adventist without being a Christian. In Adventism�s entire outreach program the centrality of Christ needs to be made crystal-clear.

The challenge is to structure our outreach consciously so that people become Christians and they become Adventists because Adventism is meaningless outside of a Christian framework.

If I were the devil, I would get Adventists fighting with each other. Any old topic would do�worship styles, theology, dress standards. Anything would do for my purposes if I were the devil. After all, if Adventists were busy shooting all their bullets at each other, they wouldn�t have many left over for me.

The devil has been quite successful in this strategy. What can be done to help us find and defeat the real enemy?

If I were the devil, I would get as many Adventists as possible to think tribally, nationally, and racially. I would make the church one big power struggle, without regard to mission or efficiency. Having made that statement, I hasten to add that there are injustices that need to be rectified and complex situations that can never be made completely straight. My plea is that even in the most difficult and unjust situations we need to behave as born-again sisters and brothers, all able to discuss these things without losing sight of the mission of the church, which makes the issues meaningful in the first place. Adventism needs to develop mechanisms to enrich and enlighten its multiculturalism and its internationalism.

And last, if I were the devil, I would get Adventists to look miserable on Sabbath. Let me ask: When do Adventists rejoice? Sundown Friday, or sundown Sabbath? Too many of us act as if Sabbath were the penalty for being an Adventist, instead of a sign of our salvation and the greatest blessing of the week. This unfortunate attitude shows up in too many of our churches. I have been to Adventist churches in which no one has even greeted me. Not wanting to make them feel uncomfortable, I didn�t say anything either. The only thing they didn�t know was that I was the speaker that day. And then partway through the sermon I asked them, �If you were not an Adventist Church member and you came to this church, would you ever come again?� And then I told them that if I were that non-Adventist, I�d never come back.

It takes more than correct doctrine to fill a church. We need not only doctrinal truths, but the truth as it is in Jesus. Now, I am tired of playing the devil. Where does God come into all of this?

If I were God, I would encourage the Seventh-day Adventist Church to start thinking, planning, and acting in a manner that will defeat the devil�s gate plan. I would encourage Adventism to multiply the power of its blessings, treat its challenges and invoke them in an honest and Christian manner, and put all its energies into maximizing its missiological opportunities. Success will not come about by accident. It will be the product of deliberate thought, planning, and action.

In closing, I would like to thank the General Conference administration for the call to significant thinking and discussion in five windows on the church. You know, this is a dangerous operation. I am not sure whether you know that or not. It is one thing to get the worms out of the can; it is another thing to get them to go back in. The assignment today is for each of us, and we will get a chance to make a list of what he or she considers to be the greatest opportunities for the church today and the biggest challenges as the church faces a completed mission in the twenty-first century.

[Kermit Netteburg requested that the delegates take five minutes to write down what they feel are the greatest opportunities the church has today.]

KERMIT NETTEBURG: I recognize the person at microphone 3.

SIMION OBONG�O NYACHIENG�A: I believe that the church�s greatest challenge or threat is secularism. Secularism is penetrating the church, and that is a threat to the church.

MYRNA COLON CONTRERAS: The church�s greatest opportunity, I think, is Christian education. That�s why we need not only financial support but also understanding and goodwill. Thank you.

LARRY PITCHER: I believe the church�s greatest opportunities are in our youth. Listen to their ideas. Include them in decision-making. Provide real opportunities for service and growth. And reinstate church leadership where it is missing.

ANDREJ GODINA: The greatest opportunity this church has is all the suffering that is going on in the world. It gives us an opportunity to share Jesus� love. And one of the greatest threats is arrogance on our behalf.

PLINY FONDEVILLA: One of the greatest opportunities is the lay training seminar. The lay training seminar should be extended, because the Bible and even the Spirit of Prophecy say that this work will never be finished unless men and women rally together with the church officers and ministers so that this work can be finished. We should also utilize all the available technology. And I believe that the church�s greatest challenge is the retention of members.

LUCIANO NERMAL, JR.: The greatest opportunities are to strengthen the local church by revival and reformation.

RONALD BISSELL: A number of things that have been mentioned here were also mentioned in our group, but there was one thread that ran through both the opportunities and challenges, and that was the need for balance. Balance that would include the young and old working together. Balance that would include recognizing the value of tradition and yet prioritizing principles above tradition; being able to think critically without being critical in spirit; and maintaining an evenness between mass media for evangelism and personal contact, because these are both needed. So balance would be the main point.

ROBERTO BADENAS: I believe that the church�s greatest opportunities are our children. We propose to give priority to strengthening our homes and families and developing the education needs of our church.

ERIC LOWE: One of the greatest opportunities our group felt was the increasing recognition by other churches of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a Christian church, and that we ought to use this as a positive means of reaching out and sharing what we have with them.

KEITH ALBURY: Our group believes that one of the greatest challenges of the church is retaining our young people as active committed members participating in the mission of the church.

BARRY BLACK: My group believes that one of our greatest challenges is to become leaders in inclusiveness, especially in regard to women, demonstrating to the world the strength of our diversity.

MOSES MWENYA: In our group we saw both an opportunity and a challenge in the fact that 70 percent of our church membership is under the age of 30. We feel that the challenge we have is the ability to provide an education for our children so that they will grow up to lead this church in the future. �����

PHILIP S. FOLLETT: I have been asked to announce that the next report from the Nominating Committee will be presented as the first item of business at tomorrow morning�s business session. Let us stand together as we pray, and we have invited Pastor Sabir Sadiq, editor from the Pakistan Union, Trans-European Division, to ask God�s blessing.

SADIR SADIQ: I have been asked to pray in the national language of Pakistan. [He offered the benediction.]

ALFRED C. MC CLURE,

PHILIP S. FOLLETT, Chairs

DONALD R. SAHLY, Secretary

BILL BOTHE, LARRY R. COLBURN, and FRED C. THOMAS, Proceedings Editors

OUTLINE OF THE DOCTRINAL BELIEFS�CHURCH MANUAL AMENDMENT
Voted, To amend the Church Manual, Chapter 5, Church Membership, page 30, and the Appendix, page 189, changing the word �outline� referring to the doctrinal beliefs of the Church to read �summary� as this is more descriptive of the content referred to on those pages.

TRANSFERRING MEMBERS, CLERK TO MAKE OUT LETTER�CHURCH MANUAL AMENDMENT
Voted, To amend the Church Manual, Chapter 5, Church Membership, page 33, Transferring Members, Clerk to Make Out Letter, to read as follows:

Clerk to Prepare Letter�When the church has granted the letter of transfer, the church clerk fills out the regular form used for this purpose and forwards it to the clerk of the church which the member proposes to join. The clerk of this church passes the letter to the pastor or church elder, who presents it first to the church board for recommendation, after which the request is presented to the church at its next regular service. It is then held over for one week, when final action is taken by vote accepting the person into membership. The clerk of the receiving church then adds the member�s name and date of admittance to the church membership record. The clerk also fills out the return portion of the church letter, certifying that the member has been accepted, and sends it back to the clerk of the church from which the member was transferred. (See p. 56.)

ORGANIZED COMPANIES�CHURCH MANUAL AMENDMENT
Voted, To amend the Church Manual, Chapter 5, Church Membership, pages 36 and 37, Organized Companies, to read as follows:

Organized Companies

Where a number of isolated believers reside in proximity to one another, a company of believers may be organized for fellowship and worship with the objective of growing into an organized church.

Such a group of believers may be organized as a company by approval of the conference/mission/field committee, and may subsequently be dissolved by action of the conference or mission conference/

mission/field committee. When a conference/mission/field committee approves the organization of a company, such organization may be effected by the district pastor or by some other minister appointed by the conference/mission/field committee, who, in counsel with the local members, shall appoint from the baptized membership of the company a leader and a treasurer.

All other appointments such as Sabbath School officers, Personal Ministries officers, and Adventist Youth Society officers should be made by vote of the baptized members of the company at a meeting presided over by the district leader or by such person as may be authorized by the conference/mission/field committee.

The leader of such a company shall not be ordained to that office and shall not have the authority to perform those functions that are vested in an elder of the church. However, where exceptional circumstances warrant, the conference/mission/field committee may appoint a person of church experience and leadership ability to serve as elder of that company.

The treasurer of the company shall keep careful record of all moneys received and disbursed. He/She shall send promptly, at the time established by the conference/mission/field, all tithes and offerings, other than funds collected for local purposes, to the conference/mission/field treasurer, who is also the treasurer of the conference/mission/field church.

Since all baptized members of an organized company are members of the conference/mission/field church, the company does not possess the right to administer church discipline. All such matters must be referred to the conference/mission/field committee, which constitutes the board of the conference/mission/field church, the president being the elder of that church.

Such a company of believers should grow and eventually develop to the point that would call for a regular church organization. The company leadership should therefore promote and foster all the church campaigns and activities that are usually carried forward by regular churches, thus preparing the members for the wider responsibilities that are associated with full church organization.

QUERIES CONCERNING RECEIVING AND DROPPING MEMBERS�CHURCH MANUAL AMENDMENT
Voted, To amend the Church Manual, Chapter 5, Church Membership, pages 37 and 38, Queries Concerning Receiving and Dropping Members, to read as follows:

Queries Concerning Receiving and Removing Members

Receiving Members on Profession of Faith�There are four circumstances in which individuals who have accepted the Seventh-day Adventist message may be accepted into the local church by profession of faith:

1. A committed Christian coming from another Christian communion who has already been baptized by immersion as practiced by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (See p. 28.)

2. A member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who, because of world conditions, is unable to secure a letter of transfer from his/her home church. (See p. 34.)

3. A member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church whose request for membership transfer has received no response of any kind from the church where he/she is a member. In this case the assistance of the conference/mission/field shall be sought. In case the requesting church is located in another conference/mission/field the assistance of both conferences/missions/fields should be sought.

4. An individual who has been a member, but whose membership has been misplaced or has been withdrawn because he/she was a missing member, yet who in reality has remained faithful to his/her Christian commitment.

Great care should be exercised in receiving members if they have formerly been members of some other church in the denomination. Instances are not lacking of persons removed from membership in one church, later presenting themselves to other churches for membership on profession of faith. When a person applies for membership on profession of faith, earnest inquiries should be made concerning the applicant�s former experience. The church officers should seek the advice and help of the conference/mission/field president. Sufficient time should be taken to extend the investigation as far as needed to reveal all the facts.

When persons apply for membership on profession of faith, and it is found that they are still members of another church in the denomination, no steps should be taken to receive them into membership until the church holding the membership grants their letters of transfer. If after following the process of transfer (see p. 32), a church refuses to grant a letter of transfer, the member may appeal to the local conference/mission/field committee if it is considered that the letter has been unjustly denied. The church where membership is held, or the local conference/mission/field committee, is the proper organization to decide whether the past conduct has been such that the applicant is entitled to a church letter of transfer. Following such a course will result in a higher appreciation of the sacredness of church membership and in wrongs being made right where this is called for. No church has the right to withhold transfer unless the person is under discipline.

When an individual whose membership has been removed seeks readmission to church membership, such readmission is normally preceded by rebaptism. (See p. 173.)

Removing Names�Names should be removed from the list only on a vote of the church, by granting letters of transfer, or by removing from church membership, except in the case of deceased members. (See pp. 55, 56.)

No Retired Membership List�Each church should have but one membership list. Under no circumstances should the practice of keeping a retired list be followed. The church record should contain the names of all members. Names should be added to this list only on the vote of the church after the individual concerned has requested membership by profession of faith or baptism or letter.

CHURCH OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES, MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED FOR ELECTION�CHURCH MANUAL ADDITION
Voted, To refer to the Church Manual Committee for further discussion the new section, Membership Required for Election, to be added to the Church Manual, Chapter 6, Church Officers and Their Duties, page 45 before the section, Term of Office.

Adjourned.

Alfred C McClure and Philip S Follett, Chairmen

Donald R Sahly, Secretary

Athal H Tolhurst, Actions Editor

Rowena J Moore, Recording Secretary

(Note: These proceedings were inadvertantly omitted from Bulletin 3.)�� G. RALPH THOMPSON: Thank you, Brother Chairman. I want to introduce to you the Secretariat team with which I have had the privilege of working. It has been a great privilege indeed to have a team like this to work with. [Elder Thompson then introduced members of the Secretariat staff: Athal H. Tolhurst; Harold W. Baptiste; Maurice T. Battle; Larry R. Colburn; Vernon B. Parmenter; Donald R. Sahly; Mario Veloso; Elaine A. Robinson, assistant secretary; and Carol Rasmussen, recording secretary. The full text of the secretary�s report appears in Bulletin 2. A motion to accept the report was made, seconded, and voted.]

CALVIN B. ROCK: I want to thank Elder Thompson for a very comprehensive report. He has certainly given us excellent information from every area of God�s work. Thank you, Elder Thompson. I would like to recognize a gentleman of stature and wisdom here at microphone 2. Would you be kind enough to give us your name, please?

NEAL C. WILSON: Thank you, Brother Chairman. For your information I am Neal Wilson. I thought it was about time for these microphones on the floor to be inaugurated. We have been listening with rapt attention, but it is time for us to begin to speak from down here as well. But I really rise, Brother Chairman, to express my very deep appreciation for the comprehensive report that we have listened to. I am still trying to process it. It is not easy to fathom where God has brought this church over a period of time such as recommended and reported on by our General Conference secretary. But, Brother Chairman, somehow I was impressed with his closing comments, which so clearly indicate that when we listen to a report like this we almost think we are in Paradise. Marvelous are the things that God has done, but the great truth is that it isn�t over. It isn�t finished. And, as Elder Thompson appealed at the end, it is going to take a complete dedication on the part of this church working through the Holy Spirit and with God�s power to bring the ultimate report that we are all waiting for. May I express audibly that even though you have heard some clapping thanking Elder Thompson for the report, I think we audibly ought to do that as well, and that is what my point is in rising to use the microphone.

CALVIN B. ROCK: Elder Wilson, while you are still there at the microphone, would you like to move to receive Elder Thompson�s report?

NEAL C. WILSON: It would be a very happy privilege, Brother Chairman. I formally move that we receive and accept his report.

CALVIN B. ROCK: Thank you. It has been seconded. My fellow delegates, we would like to vote on this by using our yellow cards, and in order to give enough time for translation, there is going to be just a slight delay in requesting the vote and the manifestation, so I am going to ask all those who are in favor to raise their card, when I raise mine. [Motion was voted.]

We are now prepared to hear from the Nominating Committee, and we are going to ask the officers of that group to come forward with what I think is the first report. We are anxious to hear from them.

NIELS-ERIK ANDREASEN: Brothers and sisters, I am pleased to bring you a report from the Nominating Committee that you elected last night. This morning it met and organized, and here before you are the officers of the Nominating Committee. I chair it; Dr. Jere Patzer, who is a union president from the North American Division, is the vice chair; Dr. Delbert Baker, the president of Oakwood College, is the secretary; and Dr. Ismael Castillo, from Montemorelos University in Mexico, is the associate secretary.

I am very pleased this morning to bring our first nomination before you. It recommends to this body for the position of president of the General Conference the name of Jan Paulsen.

DELBERT BAKER: Brother Chairman, I move the acceptance of this name.

CALVIN B. ROCK: The acceptance of the name of Jan Paulsen for world president for the ensuing quinquennium has been made; the motion is before us. [The motion was seconded and voted with overwhelming support.] We welcome to the podium Elder and Mrs. Paulsen. Shall we stand and give our president and his wife a hand?

JAN PAULSEN: Thank you very much. It is both a privilege and an honor to serve the church and to serve our Lord. He is the one who calls us and the one who sustains, and were it not for that conviction I think I would run a long way away. But I know that the Lord leads His people. I am reassured by the long-held conviction that Kari and I share that when you are in His church, when His people come together, the Lord is uniquely present at this occasion, and He gives guidance to us. So I accept that the will that you have expressed reflects also His will, and I will do my best. We will do our best to discharge the duties you have placed on my shoulders, and I hope in this way to do something worthy for both the church and the Lord. I desire your prayers every day, and there are probably few things that mean more to me than somebody walking up to me and telling me, �I prayed for you; I prayed for your wife.� Many of you occupy leadership positions in various levels, and you know that often it is a somewhat lonely assignment. Please do not run away from me when you see me, for I am happy to meet with you, talk with you, and hear your wisdom. But more than anything else it would give me great strength to know that you will remember Kari and me in your prayers in the days and weeks and months and, by God�s grace, years that lie ahead. We will do our best to serve the church. Thank you very much.

CALVIN B. ROCK: Thank you, Dr. Paulsen and Mrs. Paulsen. You do have our prayers and support, and thank you, Dr. Andreason and your assistants. We will hear from you as other segments of your work are completed.

Now then, we will ask that our reporting session continue as planned, and we�ll call for the statistical report.

BERT HALOVIAK: Thank you, Brother Chairman. The eight-page printed report that will now be distributed is not only available to the 2,000 delegates but will also be printed in the Adventist Review report of this session. In addition, the report will be available on the General Conference Archives and Statistics Web site at www.adventist.org/ast. As Elder Thompson has stated, that site has a wealth of additional statistical information that is of interest. It provides access to statistical data for conferences, unions, divisions, and the world field from 1946 to the present. Other historical statistics from 1867 to the present are also at that site. [The report can be found in Bulletin 10.]

CALVIN B. ROCK: Thank you very much, Brother Haloviak. I am sure I speak for all of us when I say that we appreciate this carefully crafted report. Thank you. We need a formal action now for the recording that we have done so. [A motion to accept the report was moved, seconded, and voted.]

OLGA PIVOVAROVA: [Benediction.]

CALVIN B. ROCK, Chair

MARIO VELOSO, Secretary

BILL BOTHE, LARRY R. COLBURN, and FRED G. THOMAS, Proceedings Editors