This is a brief statement of
my position regarding the prevailing issues of the church in Myanmar Union.
Introduction:
I was one of the employees
of Myanmar Union Mission for 23 years in different capacities: 11 years as evangelist,
1 year as teacher, 5 years as departmental Director, 5 years as mission
President, secretary. I love the Church and committed my life to its mission.
Regarding Administration of the Church
1.
MYUM and UMM leaders mistakenly
thought uniformity as unity and they demand only uniformity in all their
dealings with the church. I believe this as the basic cause which maximized the
present issue. To them worldly material gets higher priority than soul winning.
2.
They are always resistant to any
change for church growth. They have no vision for church growth because of
ethnocentrism.
3.
Their first interest is to crush
anyone who has different view other than their view point instead of practicing
love and patience in dealing with the present issues. This kind of actions of
theirs resulted in disbandment of thousands of souls (more than half of
Adventists in Upper Myanmar were disbanded on flimsy ground).
Regarding their dealing with the Conference issue
1.
In contrary to Biblical model of
conflict solving, the leaders of MYUM magnified the current issues in the
church of Myanmar. Since 2002, they have secret plots to destroy the
aspiration of Conference status and any other church growths.
2.
The present leadership of the Myanmar
Union is not trustworthy because they are not truthful to their own promises.
They are dictatorial, brutal, cruel, and destructive to the extent that they
invited the governmental authority to destroy their fellow members (Adventists
Christians).
3.
Partiality and inconsistency in
dealing with issues of the church: They did not hesitate to disband the
Conference promoters of Upper Myanmar but are permissive to the case of Insein
Church in Yangon that did not submit tithe, and independently operating itself
for more than a decade now.
4.
I am sorry for the leaders’
pretension to be tolerant, forgiving, and waiting for the return of the
Conference group but stabbing them from the back by reporting them to the
government and accusing them of trouble-makers, rebels of the church, and
doctrinal heretics.
5.
For these reasons mentioned above, I
have no trust in their leadership.
Regarding accusation as separatists
We have never separated ourselves from Seventh-day Adventist
church. We have tried all possible means to settle the issues
amicably. Unfortunately the Union leaders were not interested in solving
the problems. Instead, they anathematized and persecuted the Conference
promoters with the help of secular authorities during 2004 and 2005 that the
CPC had no other choice but to establish itself for legal protection and became
UMC and then MAC for the time being.
Regarding the SDA Church
1.
I believe in God, and accepted the
Holy Bible as the only infallible word of God for test of fellowship and
Christian conduct.
2.
I accept all the 28 Fundamental
Believes of SDA doctrines, the Church Manual, and Constitutional Bylaws and
Working Policies.
3.
I love the church and commit my life
to its mission. I would love to see the church grow but I believe that church
growth will not occur unless there is a paradigm shift in leadership style and
change of leaders in Myanmar Union.
4.
I want to be part of an organization.
I am praying for the time that the Conference and the Mission be united under
the spiritual leadership of Myanmar Union for the sake of the gospel.
Regarding the Disbanded Churches
I am extremely sorry for the disbandment. Since they are
separated by the Union they have no shepherd. I could not suffer the lost of
such volume of precious souls bought by the blood of Jesus. I commit my life to
shepherd them and protect them so that they may be faithful to Adventism and be
brought back to the fold of the Union under the Conference status some day.
Sincerely yours,
Sdxxxxxxxxxxx
Kham Khen Pau,
Ex-President
