The following articles will appear in the February 18 issue of the
Adventist Review
Adventist World President Resigns
By Carlos Medley, news editor for the Adventist Review
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9
Ten days after top church officers voted to call a special
meeting of
the church's
highest deliberative body to consider allegations against him, General
Conference
president Robert S. Folkenberg announced his resignation, effective
immediately.
Folkenberg's decision averts a potential conflict between himself
and
the General
Conference Executive Committee scheduled to meet at the church's world
headquarters
on March 1.
By provisions of the church's working policy, General Conference
secretary G.
Ralph Thompson became acting president. He will serve in that position
until the
268-member committee elects a new president. (See "What Happens Next?", p.
3.)
In an emotional statement to more than 600 employees at the
denomination's
world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Monday, February 8,
Folkenberg cited
the distractions created by a lawsuit against him and the need for church
unity as reasons
for his decision.
Folkenberg, 58, was elected president of the 10-million member
denomination in
June 1990 at the church's international constituency meeting in
Indianapolis, Indiana, and
reelected at the 1995 General Conference session in Utrecht, Holland.
In late December 1998 allegations of financial and ethical
improprieties by
Folkenberg surfaced in connection with a civil lawsuit filed by James
Moore, a
Sacramento, California, entrepreneur against Folkenberg, attorney Walter
Carson and
accountant Ben Kochenower, who had all at one time served on the board of
two
independent charitable organizations.
The General Conference Corporation and the church's
Inter-American
Division
were also named in the suit, but are not expected to figure prominently in
the litigation.
No church entity had any funds invested with Moore, nor were any church
funds at risk.
The General Conference Corporation never had any dealings with him, and the
Inter-American Division had cut off all contact with him 10 years ago.
"This is a day I never dreamed would come," Folkenberg
told the
headquarters
employees as he explained his decision to resign. "There are things that
are far more
important than Robert Folkenberg and the position of president of the
General Conference,
and that is this movement that the Lord has raised up and the task that He
has given us to
do. And that transcends all personalities. It is bigger than any
mistakes, and Lord
knows, I've made my share of them. And I have confessed them, apologized,
and wept
and prayed about them. But above and beyond all of those is this end-time
movement
with a last-day message the Lord has given us."
Folkenberg also read aloud the resignation letter that he sent to
Thompson on
Sunday, February 7, in which he acknowledged mistakes in his dealings with
Moore but
"rejoiced that the integrity of my motives has not been called into
question."
A Special Ad Hoc Group appointed by the General Conference
Administrative
Committee (ADCOM) met on January 25, 26 to hear presentations by Phil
Hiroshima, a
General Conference-retained attorney, and Folkenberg and his attorneys.
Hiroshima had
discovered evidence of possible ethical irregularities as he prepared to
defend the General
Conference Corporation and the Inter-American Division in the civil suit.
The 19-member
committee met for more than 25 hours and concluded by an overwhelming
secret ballot
vote that the allegations against Folkenberg were grave enough to warrant
calling a special
session of the General Conference Executive Committee, subsequently
scheduled for
March 1-7.
The Special Ad Hoc Group delivered its report on January 27 to an
ADCOM
meeting which included 10 of the denomination's 12 division presidents.
According to several persons at the ADCOM meeting, members were
troubled
by Elder Folkenberg's long business association with Moore, who had been
convicted of
felony grand theft in 1987. The president's failure to share information
with the leadership
circle about the lawsuit when it was still only being threatened seriously
damaged his
credibility.
There was also evidence that the office of the president had been
misused,
according to those at the meeting. Several financial schemes were
attempted, invoking
the influence and even the letterhead of the General Conference to
introduce Moore to
leaders of foreign countries as a way to raise money and pay off what Moore
claimed
Folkenberg owed him. ADCOM members deemed that behavior unacceptable.
Church leaders reached for comment expressed their belief that
Folkenberg had
made the right decision even as they underscored their personal pain about
the events of
the last three weeks.
"All of us are saddened by this sudden rush of events that
has
necessitated
Elder Folkenberg's resignation," said Thompson in a phone interview from
Loma Linda,
California. "A series of events has swamped and engulfed him, and for the
good of the
church and his family it is important to let a time of healing begin. We
admire him for his
decision and look forward to his continued contributions to the church he
so much loves.
"Elder Folkenberg reminded us when he was first elected
nearly nine
years ago
that the real president of the General Conference is the Lord Jesus
Christ," Thompson
continued. "The church moves forward, and, as I always like to say, the
future is as bright
as the promises of God."
Others echoed Thompson's sentiments about the denomination's need
for
stability.
"The history of recent events cannot be undone,"
said Jan Paulsen,
General
Conference general vice president. "But we owe it to God and the church to
look for ways
of healing and a sense of a strong, deliberate march forward."
"I'm sorry Elder Folkenberg made mistakes," says Kelly
Butler, 22, a
production
artist in Laurel, Maryland. "Now, however, our church should move on with
new leadership
to share the gospel. I'm sad when people approach me and say, æHave you
seen what's
on the front page of the LA Times today about your church?' I believe our
church can be
better represented than that."
"There are still many unanswered questions," says Kit
Watts, assistant
to the
president of the Southeastern California Conference and a former Adventist
Review
assistant editor. "Folkenberg's resignation will give the church a chance
to heal and move
on, and I hope the same for him."
Some observers expressed satisfaction with the speed and candor
with
which
church leaders have dealt with the crisis.
"I'm deeply grateful that the church has dealt with this
openly and
quickly," says
Richard Stenbakken, director of chaplaincy ministries for the church. "The
anguish of this
situation is palpable. But I'm glad that the church has exercised judgment
without being
judgmental."
"Our church gathered for prayer and debriefing when we first
heard
about these
matters two weeks ago," reports Ron Schultz, pastor of the Lewiston, Idaho,
Adventist
Church, who read the February 11 Adventist Review special report to his
congregation.
"We appreciated that the matter was handled forthrightly and with dispatch.
But we
concluded that these events won't sidetrack us from the mission of our
local church.
While one person has apparently stumbled, the rest of the church's
processes have
succeeded."
"The resignation of a GC president under these circumstances
is an
unprecedented event," says Reinder Bruinsma, secretary of the
Trans-European Division,
headquartered in St. Albans, England. "More information must be provided
to the church
at large. Only openness can ensure continued trust in the church's
leadership."
Still others looked for lessons in the three-week drama.
"Situations like this should be viewed as a warning for the
church,
particularly
church leaders," says Gregory Allen, chair of the theology department at
Oakwood
College in Huntsville, Alabama. "In a crisis, we must evaluate and ask the
critical
question æWhat is God saying to the church through this situation?' For
the people of God,
the answer is always that God is calling us back to a relationship with
Him. He's calling
us back to His mission, operating on His agenda, using His strategies."
Lawrence Geraty, president of La Sierra University in
Riverside,
California, notes
both strengths and weaknesses in Folkenberg's presidency. "I have
appreciated so many
things about his leadership: his strong commitment to the message of
righteousness by
faith; his ability to think æout of the box' when it comes to the use of
technology; his
tireless commitment to holding a world-wide church together, with all its
diversity; his calls
to evaluation and accountability in the light of mission, eschewing
æbusiness as usual.' He
never asked anyone to do what he himself was not willing to do.
"It is no secret, however, that his methods often clashed
with the
church's
leadership in higher education," Geraty adds. "I personally felt his
leadership style of
æmanagement by destabilization,' while perhaps useful in other settings,
was not
appropriate for the church
where ædoing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God' is what
we expect of
our leaders."
"He's been a good president for the church," says
Steve Timm,
moderator of the
600-member SDANet computer forum, an Internet discussion group that focuses
on
issues affecting the Adventist Church. Timm's Internet group has featured
dozens of
comments about the Folkenberg matter in recent weeks. "We should ask God
to guide
our leaders as they choose another General Conference president."
**********************
What Happens Next?
By Bill Knott, associate editor of the Adventist Review
The decision by General Conference President Robert Folkenberg to
resign his
office has set in motion a never-before-used policy for replacing the
highest officer of the
10-million-member denomination.
G. Ralph Thompson, secretary of the General Conference and the
second-ranking officer, became acting president upon Folkenberg's
resignation and will
serve until a new president is elected and assumes the responsibilities of
the office.
Thompson, 69, has served 18 years as General Conference
secretary, and
was
first elected at the church's international session in Dallas, Texas, in
April 1980. He was
subsequently reelected in 1985 and 1990, and most recently at the July 1995
General
Conference session in Utrecht, Holland. Originally from Barbados, West
Indies,
Thompson is the first non-North American to serve as the church's
second-ranking officer
and becomes the first person in its 135-year history to function as an
acting president. He
has served as a pastor, evangelist, theology teacher, union president and
general vice
president of the General Conference during 48 years of denominational
service.
The General Conference Administrative Committee (ADCOM) has
scheduled
a
special meeting of the full Executive Committee for March 1-7 at the world
church
headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, to elect a new president. The
Executive
Committee is composed of nearly 270 laypersons, pastors, and church
administrators
from around the world, and is charged with giving leadership to the
worldwide church
between the five-year international sessions.
At the March meeting, a nominating committee will be selected
with
representatives from each of the world church's 12 divisions and will meet
to bring a
recommendation to the Executive Committee. The person elected as president
will serve
until the next General Conference session in June 2000 in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada.
Only rarely has the church had to act to fill a midterm vacancy
in its
highest
post. In October 1978 President Robert H. Pierson surprised the Annual
Council gathering
in Takoma Park, Maryland, with an announcement that he was resigning his
post and
retiring from denominational service on the advice of his physicians.
Members of the
General Conference Executive Committee at that meeting subsequently elected
Neal C.
Wilson, then vice president for North America, as the new president.
Fifteen persons have served as General Conference president since
the
church
was organized in May 1863 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Terms of service were
only two
years during the first decade of the church, but gradually increased to
four and then five
years as the denomination lengthened the span between its international
sessions.
********************
Man on the Move
By Bill Knott
Aggressive church planting, administrative downsizing, rapidly
expanding use of
communication technology, and unprecedented membership growth marked Robert
Folkenberg's 8 -year tenure as president of the General Conference.
Elected to his post in July 1990 at the church's fifty-fifth
General
Conference
session, Folkenberg was the youngest General Conference president in nearly
90 years
and the first to come to office directly from the conference level since
the Seventh-day
Adventist Church reorganized in 1901. The son of missionary parents and
fluent in both
Spanish and English, he spent more than 30 years in Inter-America,
including 16 years as
a pastor, departmental director, and church administrator, before assuming
the church's
highest elected office.
Folkenberg spearheaded major initiatives during his first
five-year
term to reduce
both personnel and budgets at the church's world headquarters in Silver
Spring, Maryland,
and to cap operating expenses for the denomination. With the enthusiastic
support of
Adventist laypersons in business and industry, he promoted the use of
satellite and
Internet communication to further evangelization. Three international
satellite evangelistic
effortsù commonly known as NET evangelism in1995, 1996 and 1998ù resulted
in tens
of thousands of baptisms and positioned the Seventh-day Adventist Church as
a global
leader in church-based satellite communication through AGCN, the Adventist
Global
Communication Network.
For the first time in its history, the Seventh-day Adventist
Church
approved an
official logo for the denomination, even as it contested trademark
infringement with entities
that inappropriately used the church's name.
World membership of the church increased by nearly 68 percent
during
Folkenberg's term, from approximately 6.3 million in 1990 to more than 10.3
million in
early 1999. Contributions to the church increased by more than 57 percent,
from a 1989
total of $953,134,989 to $1,500,521,546 in 1997, the last year for which a
complete report
is available. The church's Global Mission initiative planted nearly 12,000
new Adventist
congregations in previously unentered territories during Folkenberg's term.
Rapid growth for the church in the formerly Communist countries
of
Eastern
Europe, in Africa, and in the South Pacific resulted in the creation of a
new world division
of the church since 1990, the Euro Asia, and the splitting of the
Asia-Pacific region into
the Northern Asia-Pacific and the Southern Asia-Pacific divisions. "On the
road" an
average of nearly 200 days each year, Folkenberg showed no hesitation in
visiting
politically sensitive and even dangerous regions, including Iran, Iraq,
China, Cuba, and,
most recently, war-ravaged Angola. In 1994 Folkenberg baptized the first
convert in
Mongolia. Adventists around the world could follow the peripatetic
president on his many
travels via his personal website, complete with day-by-day diaries and
photographs. A
weekly "From the GC President" fax newsletter kept hundreds of Adventist
leaders and
institutions updated on the president's travels and opinions.
Folkenberg also championed several initiatives that called for
greater
church
scrutiny of Adventist institutions and more accountability to constituents.
His "Total
Commitment to God" initiative, voted by the church's 1996 Annual Council in
Costa Rica,
called for each Adventist pastor, congregation, school, health facility,
communication
enterprise, and administrative office to adopt mission statements, prepare
specific and
measurable objectives, and annually assess outcomes. A 1998 world church
action to
establish a Board of Ministerial and Theological Education in each division
to give oversight
to church-operated seminaries and theology departments has evoked
significant criticism
in some areas, including North America, and awaits implementation.
Twice during Folkenberg's tenure (at Indianapolis in 1990 and
Utrecht,
Holland, in
1995) delegates to General Conference sessions declined to approve the
ordination of
women to gospel ministry or to allow world divisions to pursue independent
policies to do
so. An Office of Women's Ministries was organized in 1990 and gained full
departmental
status in 1995, highlighting the increasingly public involvement of women
around the world
in the church's evangelism and nurture efforts.