The General Conference Executive Committee voted in favor of updates to the Compliance Document at the 2018 Annual Council meetings, in October. The document outlines how to respond to non-compliant entities of the Seventh-Day Adventist church.
On October 15, the North American Division (NAD) released an official response to the document. A portion of the response states, “We believe that this voted document, which outlines a system of governance to address church entities perceived not in compliance with church policy, does not follow the Biblical values proclaimed by the Protestant reformers and founders of the Adventist Church.”
Due to this statement, it’s been said that some members of the world church view the NAD as “disloyal” to the General Conference. Dan Jackson, president of the NAD addressed this issue in his concluding statement at the division’s year end meetings. Jackson stated that he was, “tired and probably angry at the way our division’s looked at by the world.”
Later on in his statement, Jackson reiterated the loyalty of the NAD to the world church, “I would challenge and I mean challenge someone to find any of the divisions that are more loyal to the church both in terms of policy and finances than the North American Divison.”
Southern students who are unhappy with the General Conference’s plea for compliance have taken to social media and other platforms to voice their opinions. “Unity is different than uniformity. Uniformity isn’t what the Bible calls us to be. Uniformity is exactly what the document demands,” said Shelby Lewellen, sophomore.
On November 20, the youtube channel “Adventist News Network” uploaded the video “Unity #GCAC18”, featuring members of the Seventh-Day Adventist church, including Southern students. The video made statements toward unity such as, “Our global family decided to not allow individual divisions to decide for themselves, but some of us have had a hard time accepting that decision.” The 5 minute, 32 second video concluded with an emotional appeal, “pray for our leaders and be informed about the facts, the facts of the document voted at annual council and share this message.”