The Epic, Pt. 16

In February, March, and April of 2008 the Potomac Conference held a series of Town Hall meetings through their territory. The only one to be held anywhere near Takoma Park took place at the Southern Asian SDA Church in mid April. Several Group members made a point of attending. The presentation of the Conference was insulting, both in the level of intelligence it was geared to and in the message it sought to convey.

The presentation began with a fill-in-the-blanks review of statements from the Spirit of Prophesy regarding evangelism. This was followed by a review of the growth statistics of the conference (and some really wild goals for future growth), the enrollment statistics of the schools within the conference, and an overview of the financial condition of the conference. The final assessment was that the financial picture wasn’t good and that we all desperately needed to go out and convert massive numbers of people so that the conference’s financial picture would be improved by the influx of tithes and offerings. All of this information was presented at, perhaps, at second-grade level of complexity and assumed comprehension.

When the presentation concluded time was allowed for questions. The first person out of their seat with a question was a member of Takoma Park. The question was, “Are all congregations in the conference being required to follow the new system of governance being imposed at Takoma Park?”

Dr. Pichette, who was answering the questions, replied that each congregation had the right to choose whether or not to adopt that system of governance, but that every church needed to get serious about evangelism.

The Takoma Park questioner asked a follow-up, “So, just to be clear, if Takoma Park decided they didn’t want the new system after all, they could do that?”

Dr. Pichette’s answer? “Yes, absolutely—as long as they were doing evangelism.”

Next: Reinforcement

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