DUCH Session – The Road Ahead

The 9th session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Danish Union of Churches, ended today at 14:00 pm. The last day was mostly a continuation of the good mood set forth during the last two days.

Thomas Müller was elected Secretary (vice president). Thomas has been youth director for the last six years, and media director for the last three. In the latter, he was my immediate boss, and I have had many a fruitful cooperation with Thomas. Furthemore, he has been coordinator for church planting in the last couple of years, and been a great support for us in Århus Café Church. His appointment may signal enhanced priority in this field. I look forward to this.

Daniel Birch (my brother) was re-elected as Treasurer with only 1 (one) vote against.

And finally, the new union board was approved. Contrary to many other unions, here the majority are lay-people. I believe this is definitely the right way to do it. And the list looks very good. A wide representation of positions, from right to left, but most are people who have a vision for the church and have demonstrated a will to cooperate – if not earlier, then at least at this session.

We owe all these people our support and prayers. As Lasse Bech points out, the work is not done; the challenge is not over. But it’s time to go. Time to go out in the world. Time to start working together for the sake of those who do not know Jesus.

P.S. The last five days have seen a record-breaking number of visits to my blog. Thanks for reading, I hope it has been informative. Several of you commented in person in Nærum, and some on the blog. As for the rest of you, I don’t know who you are, but you are more than welcome. Feel free to leave me a comment.

DUCH Session – United in Christ

I love the Sabbath. It is amazing to have one full day with no business, especially during a session like this one. In stead, we have been able to celebrate the love of Jesus together as one church body.

Many people have been praying for this session - in the weeks preceding it, but definitely also during it. We have been praying for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Adventist Church in Denmark, praying for God to unite us as a church family. I believe that these prayers have not gone unanswered. The mood yesterday, the election of a new president, the accepting and dialogue confirm this. Tonight’s meeting was another clear indicator.

Per tradition, at Danish camp meetings Saturday night is reserved for ‘youth meeting’, where the youth department do a program for all attendees. Often thought-provoking, sometimes just provoking, but always well visited. At tonight’s version, we celbrated The Lord’s Supper. There was singing, open microphone for people giving witness, foot-washing, and bread and wine. We were reminded that we are all equal under grace, and especially the foot-washing reminded us of Jesus’ command to serve each other. This was a night of reconciliation, with young and old, liberal and conservative all looking at the cross – together, as one family.

I hope the attitudes we witnessed tonight may permeate the church in the weeks and years to come. I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to impart God’s love on this fellowship. Let us look together towards our higher calling.

DUCH Session – Structural Change

Apart from the election of a new president, the best thing that happened today was the passing of the structural commission’s proposal. I cannot go into details here, but the group, led by pastor Lasse Bech, have done a tremendous job, and the ideas put forth here have potential for truly changing this church for the better. The need for change has been evident for a while, and the commission has been working a couple of years. These organisational reforms may help us refocus, help us manage according to God’s will, and help us to look ahead, not behind. There was opposition, sure, but the referendum was clear in favour of the proposal, and the document will provide a vital help for the new leadership.

DUCH Session – New President

Surprisingly fast, a new president for the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been found. At 12:08 pm today, Bjørn Otteson was voted as the new leader of this church body.

According to the report from the nominating committee, as many as 15 names were considered, but finally ended upon this person, who is both willing and able to fulfill the position. Bjørn is currently union president in Sweden, but has previously served as pastor in Denmark. He is reportedly looking forward to taking on this challenge, and is believed to be capable. In his 6 years in Sweden, he has managed to reconnect the church there with a proper balance of new and old, a focus on evangelism and mission, and a recognition of SDA identity.

The vote count was 168 for, 34 against. We were all encouraged to give our full support and prayers to the new leadership.

I will hereby do this. I am positively surprised, and very much looking forward to this new development. I have experienced Bjørn as a solidly founded man, willing to listen, open to new ideas, but faithful to the cause. He will be in my prayers, and it will definitely be interesting to see where it leads.

On a second note, I now have the right of speech (not vote) at this session, by proposal from the suggestion committe. Three is a magic number. Now I just need to find out if I have anything to say.

DUCH Session – So Now What?

Last night’s meeting was not as bad as feared. The mood was better than in the afternoon, and even though some very clear disagreements finally came into the open, there was also talk of fraternity and acceptance. But where do we go from here?

Our problems were not solved in one meeting. No one was expecting that. Hopefully, it will open up to a slightly more forward-looking mindset in today’s structural discussions. But the disagreements are still there. As one person said, the reason this fighting touches us so deeply is that we are brothers and sisters, and we care about the future of the church.

One meeting solves nothing. But it sheds light on a possible path towards reconciliation: dialogue. We need to continue talking, even though it may hurt, and even though it may seem like nothing is accomplished. More importantly, we need to refocus on a common project, we need to all put our energy into something besides in-fighting. One such project could be to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the different peoples of Denmark – but that’s just an idea.

Can this happen? Strong leadership is essential. Perhaps we will see a new union president today.

DUCH Session – What are You Afraid of?

Before this session, I was mostly afraid of one thing: that it would ‘go ugly’. My fears have come true.

The day began fairly well, with a very accomodating proposal from the bylaws committee, which would, in effect, give the two church plants the representation they were denied yesterday. In the end, though, the referendum came 10 votes short of the 2/3 needed for constitutional changes. This continued a sour mood set in the afternoon’s discussion.

On the agenda was structural change. A very well-prepared proposal had been presented by the structural commission that was initiated at the last session. Some comments were on the proposal itself, and several were valid. But a lot of the discussion centered upon other themes.

The church in Denmark is split. Between those who fear apostasy and those who fear exclusiveness and stagnation. Between those who regard everything new as coming from the devil, and those who see natural changes as a healthy sign. Between those who view any revival as a false revival, and those who joy in the salvation that comes from methods they may or may not agree with.

Talking about effiency, structure, and the need for having a vision and a goal does not make us less Christian, or less SDA. If ‘united in diversity’ is to become more than just a catch-phrase, it is essential that we are willing to be inclusive and open to other people with other ideas and other tastes.

People on several fronts voiced the need for seeking God’s guidance. Isn’t that the essence? If we do that, what are you afraid of?

Tonight, the agenda has been cleared, and an extraordinary meeting called to open up for the frustrations, worries, dreams, and questions that many of our members have. This will be open to the public, not just delegates. I am afraid, though, that the issues will not be resolved, and the split will only grow deeper.

Miserere nobis.

DUCH Session – Reminiscent of Florida

First day of the session. Many people there, delegates as well as others, full of apprehension.

The outgoing president seemed visibly subdued in his presentation, talking a lot about trust, about feelings, about the big challenges ahead and his own lacking in facing them in the past three years. Also a lot about identity and global fellowship; I’m not exactly sure where he was going with that.

A couple of minor, but good bylaw changes were passed, others deferred, and the Nominating Committee (bestyrelsesudvalg) looks surprisingly good.

But then, almost as an afterthought (although some of us knew it was coming), a delegate – a well-known and respected member – suggested to expand the session with extra delegates from two church plants, Haslev (formerly Face-Out) and my own Århus Café Church. Due to a technical fault from the union with dates, we are not allowed a delegate, but I was chosen to be the one if the session decided to grant us the privelege. There was widespread sympathy for our cause, with the audible exception of one particular concerned sister. But very quickly, the lawyers descended, and the debate turned to the legality of the procedure. The church’s constitution is unclear on this issue, and so was the verdict. As for now, the proposal was deemed unconstitutional and never came to a vote, but there were many discussions afterwards, and no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

It is not a personal issue, and I don’t think one delegate can ever change anything. For us, its a matter of being taken seriously. We would like to share responsibility for the rest of the church, but that should be a two-way street. This is not a good start to the session, and does not bode well for discussions into more serious matters. I’m not sure I even want to be a delegate if it’s like this.

It’s raining heavily in Denmark, but probably not exactly the latter rain. That might be needed, though.

DUCH Session – Here Goes

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Denmark will meet today in Nærum for its tri-annual, 5-day business session.

What to expect? Much is at stake, and as readers of this blog may know, discussions have been flying high the last few months about the future of the church. I have no idea what will be the outcome this weekend. Things could “go ugly”, splitting the church in two (or more). Fears could be put to shame, with a large majority stating the will to move forward in unity. Or nothing much could happen, sending us into another 5 years of insecurity. The last option is, unfortunately, not unlikely.

What is certain is that a new union president will be elected. But there are no obvious candidates. And it is not exactly a desirable position at the moment.

I am prepared to be a delegate for Århus Café Church. Due mostly to technicalities out of our control, we have no regular delegates, but must rely on the goodwill of the session. I know that people will suggest granting us and Haslev Frikirke delegate status, and I am hoping for the best. If this is not granted, it does not bode well for the mood of the session.

I will try to update as much as I can during the session. When this blog began almost two years ago, I was at the GC session in St. Louis; this gave me the incentive to share my thoughts with the world. Now it’s time again, on a more local scale, but in many ways more interesting and nerve-wrecking.

I am not a liberal

Neither am I a conservative, strictly speaking. In my own account, I am definitely not a charismatic, nor exactly a traditionalist. I wouldn’t like being called a fundamentalist, either. Some like to use the words progressive, emerging, or even postmodern, but all are labels.

I’m reading a lot of Brian McLaren these days, and he (rightly, I think) challenges us to look beyond the scales of, say, liberal versus conservative. In stead, we should transcend the difference in the making of something new. A classic dialectic exercise, if you will, the result here being, in McLarens words, a new kind of Christian. And the term postmodern is rapidly gaining hype within Christian circles, something that I too must admit to having encouraged.

But there are dangers with excessive labeling. One is, obviously, over-simplifying. It is very easy to let ‘postmodern’ be just another box, even though that would be contrary to the very essence of the postmodern.

Another more sinister danger comes from the notion that we always view the world from a certain vantage point. In a postmodern society there is no fixed point, and our perspectives can and will change, sometimes rapidly. But there is a blind spot in that we cannot observe our own observation. By applying the label postmodern to ourselves we see the outside in terms of whether it is postmodern, modern, pre-modern, or ancient. Once again, we have created a scale, forgetting that by doing so we see other phenomena through just our own glasses.

I am pretty sure that many people would be just as annoyed by being labeled modern as I would be by being labeled liberal.

Where does this lead us? A greater degree of reflection and nuance would probably be a good thing.

A New Alliance

A new political party was born today in Denmark, founded by MP Naser Khader. Khader was born and raised in Syria, but immigrated to Denmark with his family at the age 11. He has been one of the most prominent public figures the last two years, speaking out against extremism and for a democratic, peaceful version of Islam.

The new party has its roots in social liberalism and social conservatism, aiming to build bridges between right-leaning economic policy and an open-minded, non-racist, globalized worldview. I applaud the initiative.

In the opening press conference, some of the statements were:

We are tired of politics nearly always being about conflicts, contradictions, and finding faults with others. We think politics should be more about beliefs, vision, values, hopes, and dreams.

We believe that many would like so see a government that takes its roots in the middle of Danish politics so the wings have less say. And not many parties today work towards cooperation, unity, and bridge building.

The party will build on what unites rather than what divides. The agenda for Denmark should be set by people who think of society as a whole, and not by extremists or egoists.

Denmark needs something to hope for – something to cooperate in.

(From nyalliance.dk, my translations)

Now switch to the church and the earlier mentioned crisis. In little more than a week, the Seventh-day Adventist Church will meet for session. A lot of issues are up in the air, people on several sides being disgruntled with the current leadership, people leaving the church, and many waiting in apprehension.

What the church needs is a new alliance. We also need to work on what unites rather than what divides. The agenda for the church should not be set by extremists. We should collectively stop listening to the freaks, and move on, move forward. Being a church should be about beliefs, vision, values, hopes, and dreams.

If he were a Christian, Naser Khader would make a great union president.