Dear ___________,
Well, how about that! I believe I do remember you, though I am embarrassed that I never learned all the names of the chorus members. Good to hear from you again. It sounds to me like the issue has already become divisive in your church, long before you got there. The petition has been signed by many people (about half of the signers) who are not attending, at least not regularly. Did they stop attending over this issue? If so, it would only confirm that this has been a more divisive issue for that church than the number of currently-attending protesters would indicate. Again, just speaking pastor-to-pastor, I have observed that many churches that adopt what we used to call a "celebration" worship style soon begin preaching generically-Christian messages that one could hear in any church, and they begin to lose the distinctive Adventist character that has given our church its "bite." They become enamored of the Willow Creek model or the Saddleback model or some other model that seems to work well for non-Adventists. But those models were constructed for churches that don't have such a distinctive, counter-cultural message as Seventh-day Adventists do. Some of our churches that have adopted these models have finally stopped keeping the Sabbath and have left the Adventist communion. This is not to say that every church that adopts such approaches to worship will do this, but I think that all of the churches I have heard of that have left have first taken this path on worship style. This suggests a connection, an ominous one. Speaking as an outsider who is not acquainted with your situation beyond a few things I can glean from your comments, it seems to me that your predecessor may have taken an unwise course, one that has left the church divided and sore. If some of the members want to institute a different kind of worship service, usually with the idea that this will attract many new people (unchurched) to the church, such an experiment is better tried as a start-up in a new location. A storefront, a public school auditorium, or some other location will provide a neutral ground for the unchurched to come to, and the existing members who are strongly opposed to attending such a service are not driven away from the church. If you have a group in the church that is insistent on having drums and all in a worship service, might they be open to doing a "church plant" along those lines and seeing how it goes? And the services at the church would return to a more standard type of service. Though you don't have the two groups worshiping together, at least the separation is for positive reasons rather than negative ones. It is separation *for* something rather than *against* something. At some point down the line, careful study should be given to see whether the members of such a start-up group go on to be fully Seventh-day Adventist in their beliefs and lifestyle, or whether such a church tends to make only partial believers in this message that we have been given to proclaim. Those are my thoughts on the matter. You have a challenge ahead of you. I pray that the Lord will give you wisdom and grace to shepherd His flock with all the care of the Master Shepherd. God bless!