SCC

President Edmond's GC Notes-Day 10

07/03/10

Elder D. C. Edmond, President, South Central Conference
 

General Conference-Day 10

 

We are down to the last few days of this General Conference (GC) Session. As the weekend approaches, the crowd has already begun to swell and it becomes apparent why GC’s tend to be located in North America.

 

First, it is probably safe to assume a certain amount of political stability in the United States five years from now. Retiring GC General Vice President Jerry Karst told the delegates that it takes about five years to plan a GC session.

 

In the time that I was blessed to serve as Youth Director and then as Conference Executive Secretary, it was my privilege to be involved in planning approximately 80 events which include: Camp Meetings, Youth Congresses, Youth Federations, Constituency Meetings, Youth Summits, Church Officers’ Meetings, etc. I can only imagine what it takes to plan a GC.

 

Though I am out of that area of ministry right now, I have to admit, I would love to take a run at planning a GC. It is the "Super Bowl" of planning events.

 

My Administrative Assistant or Office Secretary and I would plan conference events by making a manual that listed everything that had to be done, when it had to be done, who was supposed to do it and then an area to check it off when it was done.

 

We would list everything that had to be done beginning at the beginning of the event. For example, our first item for Camp Meeting was the Camp Meeting Work Assignments: who does what at Camp Meeting; who we need to meet with to help plan Camp Meeting Work Assignments. After that is decided, then next, when does that list get sent to the workers? Who sends it? Etc., etc.

 

Our event planning manual was about 12-15 pages long, depending on the event. We would make a new manual for each event, because we always learned something different about every meeting. My copy went with me everywhere. I suspect that a GC Planning Manual would probably be 200-300 pages, probably more. I am excited (and tired!) just thinking about it.

 

The second reason why GC’s are easier to have in North America is that GC’s have become such enormous events, you almost have to have them in domes, and, in domes that are very close to a huge block of large hotels. There are approximately 2,400 delegates at this GC. Throw in the Special Guests and GC support staff; that is probably 500-600 more people. That puts the total number of people needing hotel rooms to approximately 3,000, and that does not include the literally tens of thousands of people who just want to be apart of GC. I mentioned in my first GC memo to the conference workers that there are approximately 100 people from the US Virgin Islands alone, virtually none of whom are delegates. I anticipate that there will be approximately 75,000-85,000 people here by Sabbath.

 

That means that wherever the GC is located, you will need a domed facility with a couple thousand hotel rooms located nearby and tens of thousands more hotel rooms in the surrounding area. There are not too many areas outside of North America that fulfill those requirements.

 

Whatever city that gets a GC reaps an enormous economic benefit. Mrs. Edmond and I took one of our new pastors, Pastor Josie Frampton, to lunch yesterday. We ate at the CNN food court. The place was overrun; lines were everywhere. The only way we were able to sit down to eat was to ask a complete stranger who was eating alone if we could share her table.

 

Imagine what is being spent on hotels, parking (my hotel charges $26 per night), meals, rental cars, etc., by all of the people whom the GC has brought to Atlanta. I would suspect that we are talking about billions of dollars.

 

This afternoon, we wrapped up the discussion on The Church Manual. Dr. Ella Simmons chaired the session and I thought she did an excellent job. There were delegates who wanted to veer off and go back into issues that had already been decided, but Dr. Simmons, very kindly, but very firmly, keep closing the door on that and kept the meeting on task.

 

I anticipate that at least two issues will come to the forefront in 2015. One is more young people and young adults serving as delegates. The GC delegation this time around was overwhelmingly male (of the 2,000 delegates that listed their gender when they registered, 1,700 were male--85%) which is a disproportionate amount of males. Everyone knows (especially, single women) that just about no church is 85% male.

 

Part of the reason for the large number of males in the GC delegation is that it includes those individuals who are in leadership; specifically: conference presidents, union presidents, division presidents, university presidents, etc., and they tend to be male, although there are at least a couple university presidents who are female; and one is a black female, at La Sierra University. In the next few years, I anticipate that there will be a female conference president within the next five years; already a few conferences have female Executive Secretaries, including one right here in the Southern Union--the Florida Conference. But for now, the leadership tends to be male.

 

Of the 2,400 delegates, less than 100, were under 40. Our church probably could stand to be a little more intentional about getting more young adult delegates; I wish I had been more sensitive to the young adult GC delegates on the committees where I sit. I kind of pride myself on that kind of thing; I dropped the ball this time. I would anticipate that intentionality to be seen in 2015.

 

The other issue that I anticipate coming to the forefront is the issue of women in leadership in ministry and their ordination, or lack thereof. In a church that is overwhelmingly female (some 65% or so), I am not sure how long you can say to the largest population group in the church that there are certain things that you cannot do, and certain things that you cannot have (no matter how spiritual, gifted, educated, prepared you are), JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE FEMALE. I do not see how that can fly much longer.

 

We hired five young pastors a few weeks ago; two of them were female, as you know by now--the first two in our history. All of the young pastors we hired are very talented, gifted, young people. five years from now, if the Lord has not returned by then, it would ordinarily be the time when all five of them would be up for ordination. Except, two of them cannot be ordained. They could baptize three "zillion" people, start three thousand new churches in that time. They could baptize so many new people and start so many new churches that we would have to start a new conference. They could demonstrate every gift that anyone could ever dream of in a minister, but right now, we cannot ordain them nor can we even consider them for ordination, under any circumstance, and for one reason, and one reason only, they are female.

 

It just seems to me that it is going to be rather difficult to maintain that position indefinitely.

 

That does not mean that I do not understand the reluctance of some to accept female pastors; once upon a time, I could not accept female pastors, either. But my responsibility is to get the best possible people for this conference and when you sit across a spiritual, intelligent, gifted female, as I have done, and you see that they have all of the qualities that you are looking for in a pastor for the South Central Conference, it is very hard to say that you will take someone with fewer of those qualities, just because they are male; that is very hard for me to do.

 

It requires me to say to that person, who feels that they have been called by God, and who have begun demonstrating that call in their life, "No, God has not called you. You are a woman." I just do not feel as though I can do that.

 

That is an issue that we will face in our conference and in our church, over these next five years. May the Lord help us to face that challenge by the power of His Spirit.

 

 

Elder D. C. Edmond, President South Central Conference