Here's a thought experiment for #Adventist Twitter. What if... we dissolved the conferences and merged them up to the union level? This could address several issues at once:
1) Segregation happens at the conference level. We would no longer have regional conferences and regular conferences, and we wouldn't have to negotiate the logistics of trying to merge them into one another with duplicative officers.
2) Church administration is bloated. We learned at #GCAC19 that admin growth far outstrips growth in number of members or pastors. Although the unions would have to increase in size compared to how large they are now, the overall number of administrators should decrease.
2a) Some functions could be consolidated up to the division level (i.e. payroll). Dan Jackson estimated at #NADYEM19 that this alone could save ~$55 MILLION dollars.
2b) With modern technology that allows teleconferencing, etc, it shouldn't be such a big deal to have administrators overseeing somewhat larger territories. While impractical in the past, it is now much more feasible.
3) Savings in administrator salaries and overhead for conference facilities could be freed up to return to local congregations and/or invest in evangelism and church planting (the way the system was originally designed to work).
4) Unions, which are a bottom-up form of governance, would be retained to resist implementation of a "kingly power" approach from the GC level.
There are obviously some problems that would have to be ironed out. Church property is held at the conference/association level. Would we keep the associations or transfer ownership of properties to another entity?
Who would determine the number and makeup of officers at the union level? It's hard to get administrators to vote to eliminate their own jobs. HOWEVER, constituents might be persuaded to vote for it if they see benefits coming back to their local churches as a result.
References:
What do you think??
