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Currently I'm doing a little bit of research on how different churches are organised.

As far I can understand, the General Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church has an important role on discussing different important matters which are voted and eventually shared around the world.

The General Conference is responsible for the spiritual and developmental plans of the church around the world.

Source: adventist.org

If I get it correctly, after each General Conference event, a resolution is made containing the changes in the way how the church works (organizational issues, believes/principles (?) etc).

How are these resolutions shared and to whom? Who has access to them? Should they be public (to anyone, including people outside of the church) or be available only to the members of the church?

The point which I'm missing is:

  • if they would be shared only with the pastors/leaders, how would a member know if something is changed?
  • if they are shared only with the members, how would someone from outside (who eventually wants to be a member) know what they are going to accept without knowing what the General Conference decided before?
  • are there any points which should not be shared with members? Similarly, are there any parts which are shared with members but not with non-members?
  • how would somebody from outside of the church request as much information which is supposed to be public?

While this question is about the SDA church, for comparison, I'm interested how other churches/organisations handle this subject (e.g. LDS, JW etc).

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Ionică Bizău
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  • I'm interested in answering the JW part of this question, but I have no idea how LDS or other Christians handle this, so I couldn't give a complete answer. Do you think you could post several questions which each ask for details on a specific denomination? –  Feb 14 '18 at 19:58
  • @4castle oh, I see your point. I’m not sure how to proceed in this case: I could ask questions for each denomination, but I’m not sure if that would be a good idea. I’d be really curious about your answer, but I can see that accepting an answer would be difficult if the question is about multiple churches. Any suggestions? – Ionică Bizău Feb 14 '18 at 21:00
  • the information from an LDS general conference (94 since April 1971) can be found online at https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng, freely available to anyone who wants to watch, read, or listen to messages given – depperm Feb 14 '18 at 21:09
  • @depperm After a quick look I can see the talks are available, but does this include the resolutions (such as changes in beliefs/organisational changes/etc and maybe how they were voted)? – Ionică Bizău Feb 15 '18 at 04:48
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    LDS vote in General Conference to sustain church officers. This takes place during the Saturday afternoon session of each conference, and it is public, you can watch almost every session of conference ever recorded back to 1971 on lds.org. Beliefs and principles are not voted on. Doctrine is revealed by God through his chosen prophet, and isn't up for secular debate. – ShemSeger Feb 15 '18 at 05:39
  • Doctrine is revealed by God through his chosen prophet, and isn't up for secular debate. — Did that happen only once sometime in the past or new light is coming on specific matters? If second, how does that happen and how is it recorded and shared? – Ionică Bizău Feb 15 '18 at 05:58
  • @IonicăBizău Modern prophets continue to receive revelation from God. As the world progresses, questions are raised by the church, and it is the prophet who speaks with God and receives answers on behalf of the church. Everyone is entitled to personal revelation, but the prophet receives it for the whole Earth. – ShemSeger Feb 15 '18 at 06:47
  • @ShemSeger Thanks! Can you give me some examples (links) from that archive when doctrine changes (e.g. something was done in some way and then it changed, or something was simply added or removed) took place? – Ionică Bizău Feb 15 '18 at 08:02
  • @ShemSeger members don't 'vote' to elect/maintain church leaders, sustaining church leaders; they are saying that they stand behind them, pray for them, accept assignments and callings from them, obey their counsel, and refrain from criticizing them. – depperm Feb 15 '18 at 13:09
  • @IonicăBizău if you want an example please ask a different question instead of asking in the comments of another question. – depperm Feb 15 '18 at 13:13
  • @depperm I asked here. – Ionică Bizău Feb 15 '18 at 15:22
  • @4castle You could edit it into the existing answer. That's what I did. – Christopher King Mar 20 '18 at 16:04
  • @depperm, actually, the law of Common Consent is a very real vote. If 51% of the Church voted against the Prophet, he would no longer be president of the Church (still the Prophet, only the Lord can dismiss a prophet). We vote to accept each serving leader and new scripture, it's just that new scripture doesn't happen very often. We do not vote on church policy - similar to a representative government, that's the purpose of a sustaining vote of leadership, to let them lead. – JBH May 17 '18 at 02:28

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The Seventh Day Adventist General Conference session is not secret, nor is it well published. Formal minutes are only distributed to delegates of the session; this is primarily for practical reasons.

However, there are lots of news sources that cover the proceedings that discuss the high-level decisions that are made. For instance http://2015.gcsession.org/en/news/index.html

you can also find information on sites like https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2015/05/29/how-delegates-are-selected-general-conference-sessions

Regarding becoming a member, this is articulated through the fundamental beliefs. Usually, the General session deals with the business of the church and the protocols of the different offices of the church. Not often effecting lay members beliefs. Recently, however, there has been issues with how women should be accepted into leadership and the ministry credentials they can carry.

There is no secrecy at the session level. However, a board of directors is appointed that runs the organisation between sessions. These minutes are confidential, but cannot make significant changes; These are confidential as they can deal with highly sensitive operational issues that can affect employees. (Think restructures, pay cuts or increases, moral failures and apostates)

As a member, I gain all my information from the websites, both the official ones and the reputable Adventist news publishers. In reality, the General conference session has little impact on my day to day faith, or how the local church operates. There are other downstream organisations that have more influence over these.

Bluephlame
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I find the premise of this question a little misguided, since the governance (polity) of the Seventh Day Adventist church is based on democratic representation, and therefore resembles the Presbyterian system of church organization. Therefore, it really should be compared to other major Protestant denominations.

Church denominations exist for doctrinal centering, which means members join the church because they share the same fundamental beliefs, but there could be deviations in beliefs even within the church. The Seventh Day Adventist Church is no different, a new member can best understand what the Seventh Day Adventist church is about by reading our 28 fundamental beliefs and getting to know their local church. The general conference has no ability to change local church beliefs through resolutions.

As a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church, I can tell you the developments at the general conference level has no impact on my spiritual beliefs, which I like to think is rooted in the Bible. Even the North American division, which has more direct impact on hiring policies of my local church, cannot change the doctrinal direction of an individual member. For example, recently the North American division voted to recognize women's ordination, which has been very controversial within the church since there is little Biblical support. However, individual members are free to believe what their conscience dictates, and if a female pastor is assigned to a local church, the local church elders must agree.

To sum up, the Seventh Day Adventist church is a protestant church where members are required to support the 28 fundamental beliefs at baptism, but beliefs are dictated by an individual's freedom of conscience. Perhaps the unique aspect about the Seventh Day Adventist Church heritage compared to other protestant churches is that a majority of us believe the writings of Ellen White, a church founder, was inspired because of her testimonies, and the fact that they are not contradictory to the Bible. The Bible is the basis of our faith, therefore the decisions at the general conference are business decisions and has no ability to change the doctrine direction of the local churches.

Beestocks
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