Why I Almost Left, and Why I Support the 2026 Declaration of Principles

Let’s get personal.

The proposed 2026 Declaration of Principles is of the utmost importance to our denomination, the church I currently pastor, and to myself. Allow me to explain.

I grew up in an Advent Christian Church. My father was an AC pastor for a few years. If you trace my family tree, you will find many ACs, even some who were involved in the Millerite Movement. If you look on my bookshelves, you will find an assortment of AC and Millerite literature, most of which I have read, including one from the 1850s that attempted further date-setting. In college and seminary I wrote papers on the history of the Millerites, the Advent Christian General Conference, and my home church (Blessed Hope in Waterville, ME), just as some of you have also done. You see, being Advent Christian is in my blood and is my heritage. It influenced me even before I was born. And yet, I almost left the denomination.

There were a variety of reasons that I began to leave, but I will focus on one key reason today: Advent Christians functionally major on the minors while actually majoring in nothing at all. Before I explain what I mean by that, allow me to trace a little more background.

The Lord has truly blessed me by causing me to come to faith at a very young age. In fact, I cannot remember a time when I did not believe. Certainly, the content of my belief was not always clear, nor could I express it well for many years. Yet there was a gradual and continual progression of understanding of who Christ is, what he has done for lost sinners, and who the Triune God is. Through my parents, youth pastor (Earl Weigelt), and high school Sunday school teacher (Alden Weigelt) I came to understand the gospel and the fundamentals of the faith. And thanks to Alden Weigelt in particular I learned to be able to rest in the foundations of the Christian faith while engaging with other Christian views and even severely erroneous views (and thanks to him I also greatly enjoy engaging with open proponents of different views from my own).

It was while I was in high school that I first learned that the denomination I grew up in did not have a unifying statement of faith and therefore allowed a very wide range of views on the nature of God. This was uncomfortable for me at the time, but I did not yet understand its full impact. 

Through a year of study at BICS, and then further studies at Lancaster Bible College and Westminster Theological Seminary, my understanding of the nature of God – particularly the Trinity –  and the incarnation became clear, and my discomfort with our denominational disunity grew exponentially. Let me be clear: my discomfort was not due to those institutions, but due to what Scripture sets forth as clear foundations of the Christian faith, foundations that are not agreed upon among ACs in any official way.

During those years something else stood out to me as well: Advent Christians tend to take the intermediate state and the final state of the lost more seriously than they do the nature of God. For me this moved beyond mere discomfort. How can a group of churches take the nature of God so lightly while placing such a strong emphasis on the intermediate state? It made no sense to me, and deeply concerned me. 

It was while I was in seminary that the Holy Spirit made clear to me the call to be a pastor (my original intention had been to be a professor) and at that point I had an important decision to make: what denomination should I seek credentials with? Many factors influenced my decision, but the lack of clarity on the nature of God was a key reason pushing me away from the ACs. How could I remain with a group of churches that welcomed non-trinitarian heresy in their midst? We all see certain lines that divide us, and I believed firmly that this was a right dividing line. I still do.

For a number of years I was a member of a PCA church, teaching Sunday School and later interning at one of their church plants. When it came time to begin the credentialing process, I worked with both the CCCC and a small, evangelical Mennonite denomination. The Lord had other plans, and through a series of divinely appointed events brought me to the Attleboro Advent Christian Church. 

A key component of the credentialing process of all three denominations was to write out what I believed were the most foundational beliefs of the Christian faith and the gospel. This exercise, along with the necessity of returning to the denomination of my youth and heritage, brought great clarity on a few points and helped me piece together a number of thoughts that had already developed in my heart and mind.

First, there are, without a doubt, a few foundational points that are essential to the Christian faith. Included among these are the Trinity and a right understanding of the incarnation. Although I think there are circumstances in which a person may not believe or understand these doctrines and still be a Christian (as I believe was the case for me in my childhood), to actively deny and teach against these foundational doctrines is contrary to the Gospel.

Second, there is no spiritual unity, or unity in Christ, between those who hold an orthodox view of the Trinity and incarnation and those who deny these great truths. Jesus himself makes this clear in his high-priestly prayer in  John 17:12-19, when he asks the Father to keep his people by and sanctify them in the truth. The Apostles Paul (i.e. Galatians 1:8-9) and John (i.e. 1 John 4:1-3) emphasize the truth of Jesus’s prayer through their own warnings against those teaching false doctrine.

Third, remaining an Advent Christian meant striving for the unity of the faith based upon the clear fundamentals of the Gospel, including the Trinity and incarnation.

In preparation for the 2017 Triennial convention, many told me that the tension and discomfort I felt should be resolved due to the introduction of the ACGC Statement of Faith. Yet two things stood out to me: 1. the only people who were required to uphold it were denominational employees, and 2. it still allowed non-trinitarian heresies (especially modalism). I gladly supported that statement, and still do. Yet more was needed.

Then I was called to pastor the Whitefield Christian Church. And what a privilege it has been to follow the ministries of Lou Going, Roger Brown, and Doug Foss! What is of particular interest, though, is that I soon found out that this church has shared many of the same thoughts and struggles regarding our denominational situation that I have had, even to the point of considering leaving the denomination for this same reason, among others. And yet their conclusion was very similar: let’s remain and encourage the foundational truths of the Gospel as long as it seems possible to encourage greater unity upon them.

Enter the proposed 2026 Declaration of Principles. Tom Loghry, myself, and numerous others had discussed such things for quite a few years. Though, admittedly, Tom was the only one who believed a new DoP was possible at this time. Personally, I had become cynical of any possible change among us for a variety of reasons, and was quickly becoming disillusioned. The Triune God has used Tom to shine the light at the end of tunnel for me, even as I maintain doubts as to whether this will pass. Yet I am also encouraged. More than forty individuals, from different regions and theological backgrounds, were invited to edit the final version of this DoP. It passed through the hands of a task force, and was even recommended to the delegate body for the 2026 Triennial Convention. A year ago I did not think any of this was possible. And here we are, a few months away from one of the most critical decisions ACs have had before us in many decades.

Why do I think this decision is so critical?

First, the 2026 Declaration of Principles places the most emphasis on the most essential doctrines, encourages and supports AC distinctives, and yet also succeeds in promoting unity across non-essential doctrines. As I mentioned at the beginning, we have historically majored in non-essential doctrines. Every doctrine expressed in the Bible is important, but some are more central than others. We have officially neglected the more critical doctrines.

Second,  it brings clarity to the essentials of the doctrine of God (especially the Trinity) and the incarnation. These are doctrines that rightly unite Christians, and opposition to them rightly divides. These are truths set forth in Scripture and agreed upon by Christians throughout most of the history of the church. And these truths bring faithful unity.

This sort of unifying statement is something I have desired for us to achieve for many years, and I believe Tom, along with those who have participated with him, has accomplished what I was unsure of how to accomplish.

Third, the wording of this new DoP is clear and cohesive. Our current DoP lacks clarity, precision, and cohesion.

Fourth, I am convinced that the vast majority of us can agree with all of the statements in the 2026 DoP. On the other hand, most of us would have at least one disagreement with the current DoP. Even if the current DoP described ACs at some point in the past, it does so no longer. Over time we have changed, even while maintaining our distinctives among a majority of our pastors and churches. Our declaration of Principles should not reflect who we were, or who some of us would like us to be, but who we currently are.

Now, some of you may desire certain statements to be worded differently. That is fair. In fact, there are statements I would like to word differently, and I was Tom’s primary editor. But if we wait until every statement is worded the way every person wants them to be, then we will never complete it. We can postpone those discussions for later.

Fifth, we are a congregational denomination, and congregationalism requires something to unify us. Some would claim relationships do this, yet such connections are waning for a variety of reasons, and can be the basis of all sorts of non-Christian organizations. Others claim it is Christian character that unites. And while Christian character is critical, at times I have seen some non-Christians exhibit better Christian character than many Christians. Our unifying foundation needs to be the truth of the Gospel, set forth in the Word of God, who makes himself known therein as the Triune God. Upon this foundation, which is declared in the 2026 DoP, relationships and Christian character find their true home, and together they all bring forth unity in Christ. The Advent Christian denomination is one expression of the universal church. Together we can only stand as the church if we stand upon the right foundations.

And so, as one who has agonized and prayed over these matters, I urge you to lend your support to the 2026 Declaration of Principles.