August - Lake Union Conference - General Conference of Seventh ...

Meet President
Dan Jackson
P r e s s C o n f e r e n c e
b y G a r y B u r n s
After his election as president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America at the 59th General Conference Session, Dan Jackson ( former
president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada) answered questions from members of the press. Following is an excerpt from his first press
conference, a response to a question posed by the Lake Union Herald editor, Gary Burns.
SDA Church of Canada
The volume of divergent voices claiming to
define Adventism seems to be raised a bit.
How do you plan to approach what it means
to be Adventist in North America
“That’s an excellent question. I have already made a comment
about the fact that we have a duplication of many
things. We have many presses that are printing many things.
We have many broadcasts that are listing many things—
some better than others. The fact is that as a church, as a
constituency, we need to decide this together.
“We have people who sit on the right and people who sit
on the left; and I want to suggest that as difficult as it may
be, we all need to talk and we need to build together.
“Obviously, there is an official voice. We have what we
call the official organs of the church, and we have a biblical
research institute that speaks in terms of official doctrine.
But you know, the fact is that as we study the Bible, as we
personally and collectively study scripture, and share with
one another ... we just need to build a consensus.
“Now I’m not saying, ‘Let’s now find 28 new doctrines.’
We have fundamental beliefs that we’re not going to compromise
on. We believe in those things. We believe in those
teachings. We will never compromise on those doctrines.
But you know, you’ve illustrated it—the diversity of thought
in the Church is immense.
“I have a very strong belief we need to reach out to one
another, that somehow we need to acknowledge that we are
not the enemy, that we are brothers and sisters in Jesus.
“And you may not agree with me on my belief on a given
doctrine, or on my perception, or on what I say when I
preach. You may not agree with everything I say, but we are
still brothers and sisters; and we need to link arms and walk
toward the Kingdom.
“We absorb..., or we have too much, or we spend too much
time in the church trying to shoot at each other. And so my
feeling is while we have 28 fundamental beliefs, and we have
official position statements, and we have organizations or
entities that clarify issues theologically, the common person
sitting—and I am a common person—the common person
sitting in the pew isn’t really all that concerned about BRI
(Biblical Research Institute) and about 27 or 28 doctrinal
statements—they are, but they are from their perspective.
“Somehow, we need to get people talking and studying
the Word of God. When I think of our pioneers—and I’ll
stop after this—when I think of our pioneers and the Sabbath
conferences, these people were able to sit together and
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