Bradford, Charles Edward (1925–2021)

Charles E. Bradford stood at the forefront of Seventh-day Adventist leadership in North America during the second half of the 20^th century. He served as a pastor, evangelist, local conference and General Conference administrator, and as president of the North American Division, the first to hold that title.¹ As an author, speaker, and denominational executive, Bradford set forth an inclusive vision for the church and sought to implement it by empowering full and equal participation across lines of race and gender.

Heritage

Charles Edward Bradford was born in Washington, D.C., on July 12, 1925, to Etta and Robert Bradford. He was the youngest of their eight children. Two daughters—Robetta and Nina—died in early childhood before Charles was born, leaving him with five older siblings: sisters Myrna, Lucille, Eva, and Vera; and a brother, Terrance.²

Charles’ parents were stalwarts of the founding generation of Black Adventism in America. Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Etta Elizabeth Littlejohn (1883-1945) became an Adventist at age 12 from Bible studies on the Morning Star river boat that J. Edson White and his colleagues used in their pioneering mission to the southern Black population. She was one of the 16 students enrolled at Oakwood Industrial Training School (later Oakwood University) in Huntsville, Alabama, when it opened in late 1896.³

Etta met Robert Lee Bradford (1882-1958) at Oakwood. Robert was born in Athens, Alabama, in 1882 to Robert Lafayette (1861-1943) and Sylvia Lincoln Bradford (b. 1861). Robert Lafayette’s parents, George and Leutitia Weems, were enslaved at the time of his birth but after emancipation in 1865 a well-to-do white family offered to take in young Robert and provide him a good education. At age nine, Robert’s parents encouraged him to take the name of the sponsoring family, Bradford, believing this would afford him greater advantages in life.⁴ In 1886, Robert Lafayette moved his family to Kansas City, Kansas. He became a lay preacher in the Presbyterian church but his son, Robert Lee, became an Adventist through the ministry of Sydney Scott (1874-1943) and, at Scott’s encouragement, attended Oakwood.⁵

Etta completed training as a medical missionary nurse at Melrose Sanitarium (later New England Sanitarium) near Boston, Massachusetts. While there, she was a nursing attendant for Ellen White who, at age 77, spent two weeks at the sanitarium in August 1904, receiving treatments and speaking at a camp meeting nearby.⁶ Meanwhile, Robert Lee entered ministry in the Kansas Conference in 1902, winning several family members to the Adventist faith. These included his father, identified as R. L. Bradford, Sr., in church periodicals, who served as an Adventist minister in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.⁷

After their marriage, Robert Lee and Etta Bradford proved an effective ministerial team, evangelizing and building up nascent congregations in San Antonio, Omaha, Cleveland and Philadelphia. Charles was born at Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, where his father served for two years (1925-1927) as pastor of the Ephesus (later Dupont Park) church.⁸

Charles’ most vivid early memories of growing up in an Adventist preacher’s home were formed during the five years (1930-1935) in which his father served as pastor of the New Rochelle church in the suburbs of New York City. During these years, his father developed severe asthma, eventually making it impossible for him to continue full-time ministerial labors.⁹ Despite 30 years of denominational service, his application for sustentation was denied, placing the family in precarious circumstances during the midst of the Great Depression. A measure of relief came when Dr. Grace Diuguid Kimbrough, an influential Adventist physician in Philadelphia, threatened to withhold tithe until Elder Bradford was taken care of, prompting denominational officials to change their minds about the sustentation.¹⁰

Education, Early Ministry, and Marriage (1944-1952)

After brief sojourns in Tennessee, Alabama, and New Jersey, the Bradford family moved to Philadelphia where Charles, by then a teenager, enjoyed fellowship at the church, by then called Ebenezer, that his father had built up more than 20 years before. The formidable Dr. Kimbrough saw great potential in this bright, engaging, intellectually curious young man and urged him to study medicine, with her sponsorship, either at Temple University or the University of Pennsylvania.

At the same time, during his high school years Charles’ gifts for ministry started to become evident, suggesting a different path than the one Dr. Kimbrough laid out for him. During the summer of 1944 he assisted Frank L. Bland, pastor of Ebenezer church, with an evangelistic effort in Philadelphia, serving as tentmaster.¹¹ When asked decades later, “What made you decide to go into the ministry?” his reply was quick and simple: “Oakwood College” (now Oakwood University).¹² No single event but his overall experience there led to his decision sometime during the 1944-1945 school year. He often in adulthood referenced his special bond with his sister Eva as particularly influential in his life’s direction.¹³

The sudden death of his mother, Etta, on March 20, 1945, at age 62, added to Charles’ resolve to follow the call of ministry.¹⁴ “My mother exerted the greatest influence on my life,” Bradford stated.¹⁵ Her “sensitive intuition, winning personality, and endearing disposition” along with “the strength of conviction, the unswerving loyalty and deep commitment of his preacher father” bequeathed to him qualities that made him an exceptional church leader, according to Calvin B. Rock, Bradford’s nephew and colleague.¹⁶

After completing his studies at Oakwood, Bradford began pastoring in 1946 in the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference, working alongside two men who became highly regarded mentors. He assisted one of them, W. S. Lee, with evangelism in New Orleans. Then, under the supervision of the other, W. W. Fordham, he began pastoral responsibilities in a multi-church district.¹⁷ At the time, Fordham oversaw the Black Adventist work in the Southwestern Union Conference. A few months later, in December 1946, he became president of the Southwest Region Mission (then Conference, 1950), comprised of Black congregations in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.¹⁸ For Bradford, it was the beginning of 24 years of ministry in the Black (regional) conferences organized after General Conference approval in 1944.

Bradford’s Louisiana district included Baton Rouge, Hammond, and Covington. Along with Samuel Meyers, also just beginning a distinguished career in ministry and leadership, Bradford conducted an evangelistic effort that led to the planting of an additional church in Monroe.¹⁹ In Baton Rouge, he teamed with Fordham in an evangelistic campaign during the summer of 1947 that brought close to 100 new members into the church. The influx led to construction of a new house of worship dedicated debt free on November 26, 1949.²⁰ During these years Bradford became acquainted with Gardner C. Taylor (1918-2015), then pastor of the Mount Zion Baptist church in Baton Rouge, later acclaimed as “the dean of American preaching.”²¹ The two preachers would deepen an enduring friendship of high mutual regard a few years later while both were ministering in New York City.

On May 23, 1948, Charles married Ethel Lee McKenzie (b. 1926) of Jacksonville, Florida. They met at Oakwood, where they were assigned seats at the same cafeteria table. Sometimes her piano rehearsals made her late for lunch, but he would wait for her. Following her graduation in 1946, Ethel played an indispensable part in the start-up and early work of the South Atlantic Conference office in Atlanta. For the first two years of the conference’s existence (1946-1948), she served as secretary for the conference president, Harold D. Singleton, as well as for two departmental leaders.²²

Charles and Ethel had three children: Sharon (Lewis), Charles, Jr., and Dwight. From the outset of their 73-year marriage, music was one of the most visible of the many ways Ethel collaborated with her husband in ministry. At Oakwood she refined her exceptional talent as a pianist and was an accompanist for Sabbath School, recitals, and other events. She played piano and organ and accompanied choirs at all of her husband’s churches and at evangelistic meetings. During their three years in Louisiana, Ethel continued her professional career, employed at Southern College as secretary to the Dean and Coordinator of Freshman Studies, Dr. Harrison Lawless.²³

Elder Bradford continued ministry in Louisiana until 1951. He was ordained on May 20, 1950, in New Orleans.²⁴ From 1951 to 1952 he pastored the Oakland Avenue church in Dallas, Texas.

Departmental Director, Evangelist, Pastor (1952-1961)

In 1952, Bradford, at age 27, entered a new phase of ministry as conference evangelist and director of the Home Missionary Department for the Central States Conference, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. It was the beginning of a pattern that recurred over the ensuing decade in which Bradford was given relatively high levels of responsibility for his age while shuttling between conference positions and local pastorates.

When his assignments as conference evangelist took him to St. Louis in the summer of 1953, the experience was so rewarding that, at his request, he remained there to replace the retiring pastor of the Berean church. Some of his colleagues in departmental work in the Central Union (a predecessor to Mid-America) wondered why he would want to return to a local church after attaining a position in “the office.” However, in Bradford’s estimation, despite his later election to the highest levels of denominational administration, the real center of vitality would always be the local congregation. And, he simply enjoyed ministry in St. Louis, calling it “just a great city . . . you could spread your wings there.”²⁵

The membership growth in St. Louis made possible acquisition of an impressive church building on Union Boulevard in 1954. It has continued serving the Berean congregation into the 2020s.²⁶ The growth continued under Bradford’s leadership, such that the Berean church’s membership doubled by 1957, and a new congregation of 42 members was planted in South Kinloch.²⁷ During the Central States years, Ethel Bradford was again secretary to a conference president, this time Frank L. Bland. In St. Louis, she was employed by the Federal Housing Administration.²⁸

In 1957, Harold D. Singleton, another of Bradford’s primary mentors, called him to the Northeastern Conference to head the Home Missionary and Sabbath School Departments, and to conduct public evangelism. Bradford did not recall doing anything particularly innovative in his conference departmental work. Yet, he did try to begin a shift in the departmental director’s role from “supervisor” to “resource person.” When conference departmental leaders visited local churches in that era, it was typically to check to see if goals for various programs were being met and make the necessary exhortations if not. Bradford instead prioritized listening to the pastors and members of the churches he visited to ascertain how the conference could help their ministries thrive.²⁹

Once again in Northeastern, public evangelism became his preeminent assignment. In the summer of 1957, Elder Bradford conducted a series of tent meetings in Harlem on 147^th Street between 7^th and 8^th Avenues—the first such effort by Seventh-day Adventists since the era of James K. Humphrey in the 1920s. By September, 62 persons had been baptized, with many more to come through follow-up meetings conducted in an auditorium. Similar success attended an effort in Buffalo, New York, during the summer of 1958.³⁰

In January 1959 the Bradfords traveled to Bermuda with Northeastern Conference Bible workers Rosalie Jones and Mrs. Jessie J. Bentley for a three-month evangelistic campaign in Southampton. It was the first such effort on the island conducted by regional conference personnel. While Charles preached and led the team, Ethel, was his “right hand,” as always, in the roles of pianist, music director, and business manager, paying the bills and keeping financial records.³¹

As in Central States, Bradford left the Northeastern Conference office in the fall of 1959 to return to pastoral ministry, this time at City Tabernacle in Harlem. “Some people would say that was a demotion, but it was one of the greatest things that happened to us,” Ethel later observed.³²

Lake Region Conference President (1961-1970)

At 36, Elder Bradford was elected the fourth president of the Lake Region Conference in the summer of 1961. He held the position for nine years. Lake Region was the first regional conference to be organized (September 1, 1944), bringing together Black congregations from the Lake Union Conference states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, with office headquarters established in Chicago. By 1961 the number of congregations had more than doubled from 21 to 43, as had the membership from 2,300 to 5,187.³³

As president, Bradford, who possessed what his daughter, Sharon, called, a “forward-thinking mindset,” introduced changes, such as installing younger ministers from outside Lake Region in the pulpits of some of the conference’s largest churches. Though it was impossible to completely overcome the natural defensiveness of veteran workers more experienced than himself, Bradford sought to move with discretion, and in accordance with one of his main goals: a more participatory form of decision-making and collegial style of interaction between conference leaders and workers.³⁴

At workers’ meetings, he sought to make everyone feel their individual “worth and importance” and engage them in the planning process. He brought educators and pastors together periodically at workers’ meetings, seeking to counteract the feeling on the part of some teachers that they were “second class citizens” in the conference workforce. Bradford, whose voracious reading shone through in his preaching and informed his leadership practices, challenged the pastors to “crack a brain cell every now and then.” Toward that end he held one workers’ meeting each year on the campus of Andrews University in Michigan so that the ministers could benefit from the church’s scholars in delving more deeply into theological and biblical issues.³⁵

By 1970, Lake Region Conference membership reached 8,800, a net increase of 70% since the beginning of Bradford’s administration in 1961. The conference’s annual growth rate during these nine years was double the average for conferences in the North American Division.³⁶

Race Advocate and “Company Man”

As conference president Bradford had greater opportunity for gaining a hearing among denominational leaders with regard to racial disparities. This opportunity also placed on him the delicate challenge of using his voice wisely as well as courageously in the enflamed atmosphere of civil rights revolution and urban upheaval during the 1960s. As Lake Region president he was a member of the Andrews University Board of Trustees and as such spoke up for Black students when a cross-burning on campus and reports of white students with Confederate flags and guns in their dormitory rooms brought racial tension to a point of crisis. Bradford helped white administrators, who had downplayed the problems, to see the seriousness of the situation and the necessity of action to forestall loss of confidence in the institution on the part of the Black constituency.³⁷

Bradford also issued a forthright rebuke to the General Conference president, Rueben R. Figuhr, in response to Figuhr’s open letter to “Fellow Believers,” published in the Review and Herald for January 2, 1964. The GC president had seemed to ascribe equal validity to the positions of those who said that the race question is a “moral” issue and those who said it was not, but was instead a political controversy of the sort that Christ instructed His followers to avoid. In a letter of January 9, Bradford warned Elder Figuhr in no uncertain terms that he was “definitely out of harmony with the times in which we live, as well as the timeless counsels of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy.” Citing passages from these “timeless counsels,” Bradford insisted that the “issue IS moral,” and asked, “How can we be silent on the matter and present it as an ‘option’ or non-essential when great segments of our church membership do not understand that the frown of God is upon all who do not recognize and appreciate the dignity and intrinsic worth of every man?”³⁸

Despite Figuhr’s reluctance, the General Conference, in April 1965, did issue a strongly-worded call for a complete end to racial bias and segregation in all Seventh-day Adventist churches and institutions.³⁹ With the General Conference session set to meet the following year in Detroit, Bradford called for further advance, writing an “Appeal to the Leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church” to resolve long-standing racial inequities in the denomination. Using terminology then in vogue, he contended that “compensatory and massive remedial measures are necessary to bring Negro institutions and facilities up to date and to prepare more Negro youth to serve the church,” and set forth a program of eight imperatives for moving toward this goal. “The Negro Seventh-day Adventist is perforce affected by the tension and the drama of his people’s struggle for justice and equal rights,” Bradford stated. “Half measures and token gestures do not satisfy now.”⁴⁰

Bradford’s advocacy influenced several measures that, if short of the massive scale that he called for, made a tangible impact. These included the Large City Evangelism Fund that targeted assistance to work in the inner cities (1966); the annual regional conference tithe appropriation for Oakwood College (1967); the Small Conference Assistance Plan benefitting conferences serving constituencies that on average faced greater economic burdens (1968); and the Regional Scholarship Fund providing scholarships for Black Adventist graduate students.⁴¹

His bold insistence on sweeping action to advance racial justice in the denomination sheds light on Bradford’s self-description, often repeated during his later years, that he was a “company man.” Though some at GC headquarters might have been tempted to think otherwise, he was not a rebel. Yet his loyalty was not a craven subservience for the sake of higher position. Rather, it was a loyalty born of genuine love for the church—“a lifelong romance with the Seventh-day Adventist movement,” as he put it. That same loving loyalty compelled him to do all he could to hold the church accountable to its ideals regarding the equal dignity of all its members. His passion for rectifying the injustices that hampered the work among African Americans was part of a broader vision for the whole church that made him a “company man.”⁴²

Bradford’s election as an associate secretary of the General Conference in 1970 suggests that the predominantly-white denominational leadership sensed the genuineness of his loyalty, and, more importantly, something of the value of his gifts for leadership. His winsome interpersonal manner helped gain their confidence. He was a skillful diplomat, combining affability with shrewdness in navigating the interplay of conflicting perspectives and competing agendas, without surrendering essential principle. That skill was one quality that made evident his potential for effective service to the church at large.

Another was his effectiveness as a preacher. A folksy yet highly intellectual oratorical style became Elder Bradford’s trademark.⁴³ His speaking combined prophetic power with pastoral warmth, and he endeared himself to listeners by illustrating his points with a seemingly exhaustless supply of telling and often humorous anecdotes. His voracious reading and lively awareness of current issues and societal trends enabled him to speak with credibility and relevance to a wide range of audiences. In sum, Bradford, by the 1960s, had “established his reputation as one of the premier pulpiteers of the Church,” according to Benjamin Reaves, a homiletics professor at the SDA Theological Seminary, subsequently president of Oakwood College.⁴⁴

The first 24 years of Charles Bradford’s ministry coincided closely with the first quarter-century of the history of the Black conferences. When organization of these conferences began in late 1944, many saw them as a precarious experiment, with dubious prospects for success. Serving in the varied capacities of pastor, evangelist, departmental director, and president, Bradford’s contribution was prominent among the many who made regional conferences not only viable but exemplary.⁴⁵ In 1945 Black Adventist membership in North America stood at around 17,000, constituting 8% of the total. In 1970, after 25 years of regional conferences, not only had the Black membership increased to 70,000, its portion of the NAD total—at 16%--had more than doubled.⁴⁶

Bradford was also an early example of how the Black conferences were generating leaders for the church at large, beyond the work specifically targeting Black people. His pivot to the General Conference began the second half of his career. Along with her husband, Ethel Bradford served at denominational headquarters as an office secretary for the remainder of her professional career (1970-1990).

General Conference Associate Secretary (1970-1978)

Bradford became one of seven associate serving under the General Conference secretary, Clyde O. Franz. The position immersed the 45-year-old preacher in the “machinery” of church administration--personnel matters, coordination of meetings, and oversight of official documents and records. It also made him an ex officio member of numerous committees and governing boards—at least 16 as of 1973. These included the General Conference Executive Committee, North American Division Committee on Administration, General Conference Association, Seventh-day Adventist World Service (predecessor to Adventist Development and Relief Agency), North American Board of Higher Education, Andrews University, Oakwood College, and Loma Linda Foods.⁴⁷

At times he was also given assignments concerned with controversies facing the church. In 1971 he was connected with a committee of scholars and administrators that engaged in discussions contributing to a temporary rapprochement with Robert Brinsmead, whose Awakening movement, based in Australia, had become a divisive influence throughout the denomination.⁴⁸

The General Conference position also gave Bradford opportunity to preach more widely both at denominational gatherings and for evangelistic efforts. His H. M. S. Richards Lectures at Columbia Union College in 1972 became the basis for his first book, Preaching to the Times (Review and Herald, 1975).⁴⁹

In the spring of 1978, Bradford declined a request from the Pennsylvania Conference to serve as its president. But this somewhat surprising offer from a predominantly-white conference pointed to the growing esteem across racial lines in the North American Division for Bradford’s leadership qualities. That esteem would become more fully manifest less than a year later. On January 11, 1979, Elder Bradford was elected General Conference vice president for the North American Division (NAD), based on the recommendation of a nominating committee comprised of his leadership peers in the division. He succeeded Neal C. Wilson, who had become General Conference president in October 1978, following the resignation of Robert H. Pierson, due to health concerns, in the midst of his third term.

GC Vice President for North America (1979-1985)

Bradford’s election in 1979 to the top leadership in the NAD, less than 15 years after the denomination decisively renounced segregation, was widely-hailed as a milestone in denominational race relations not only within the church but also in the public media, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. A feature article in Ebony magazine reported that Bradford had been elected “president of all Adventists in North America, becoming the first Black to attain that position.”⁵⁰

Though frequently referred to as “president,” Bradford was in fact elected to the position of GC vice president for the NAD. The distinction is important because it was indicative of a longstanding “special relationship” that enmeshed the NAD with the GC in the denomination’s governance structure. It was a relationship that was causing considerable discontent in North America by the 1970s, and one of the top priorities of Bradford’s administration was to move the NAD toward becoming a full-fledged division comparable to the other divisions of the General Conference.

A North American Division Conference (NADC), with Irwin H. Evans as president, was formed in 1913 when the General Conference divided the world field into “division conferences” with constituencies comprised of the union conferences that made up their territory. This plan was abandoned in 1918 and the world divisions re-constituted as the administrative arm of the General Conference in their portion of the world. Under this system, gradually implemented following World War I, the presidents of each division were also vice presidents of the General Conference, and each division had a full complement of officers and departmental directors located at a headquarters office in its territory.⁵¹

By contrast, the North American Division (NAD), following the dissolution of the NADC in 1918, was administered directly from General Conference headquarters in Washington, D.C. Its only administrative apparatus was the NAD Committee on Administration, established in 1950. Though the vice president for the NAD was sometimes informally or for convenience’ sake referred to as the division president, even in denominational publications,⁵² he did not formally hold that title. Thus, unlike the other world divisions, the NAD had no president, no officially designated officers or departmental leaders, no office space, and no budget. With the other divisions rapidly growing in size and influence, conviction grew among North American leaders that the historic intertwining of the GC and NAD was inhibiting rather than aiding the church’s mission in their territory. An NAD with a profile and structure more akin to that of the other divisions was urgently needed, they believed, to enable development of strategies and policies that would more effectively implement the shared mission of the world church in North America.

At its April 1980 session in Dallas, Texas, the General Conference elected Bradford to continue as vice president for the NAD. Though his title was unchanged, leaving the NAD without a president, the session voted a seemingly minor change in policy that in fact represented a significant step forward for the division. It authorized the North American members of the GC nominating committee, rather than the committee as a whole, to nominate a slate of officers and departmental directors for assignment to the NAD. Going forward, this change meant that Elder Bradford would be authorized to convene meetings with NAD personnel to develop plans and exercise leadership for the church in North America.⁵³

Bradford’s sermon on the first Sabbath (April 19) of the 10-day session, “Formula for Change,” drew on the biblical prophets in setting the tone and direction for his administration. “God’s formula for change,” Bradford declared, “is to break up the dull, tame, monotony of our religious labor and to take on a deep, earnest, sanctified zeal.” He broadened the typical understanding of Adventist mission by invoking the prophetic mandates of justice and compassion: “The principles of justice and neighbor love must be worked out in the laboratory of human experience, in the here-and-now. And we are the ones to demonstrate these grand principles.”⁵⁴ This would be a recurring theme in his sermons and articles.

To chart a path forward for mission in the NAD, Bradford embraced an endeavor, stemming from an evangelism Summit held at Glacier View Ranch in Colorado in April 1979, to formulate biblical leadership principles informed by up-to-date research on church growth and effective management models, and by listening to the perspectives of those on the ground in diverse ministry settings. The rubric adopted through this process, Faith Action Advance, called for empowering, and holding accountable, every unit of church organization for implementing plans best suited to reach their target populations. In all of this, attention was to be focused on the local church as the primary and most important unit of church organization. With the Caring Church model, voted in 1983, the NAD provided resources for renewal of dynamic local congregations in accordance with New Testament principles.⁵⁵

While the degree of receptivity varied from place to place, Faith Action Advance and the Caring Church helped give the NAD a distinct identity separate from the GC. Innovations introduced by the Bradford team to implement these formulas at the division level made a tangible impact on church life. The NAD affiliated with several “resource centers” such as the NAD Evangelism Institute, the HART Research Center, and the Center for Creative Ministry to make training and resources directly available to local ministries. Among the most enduring of these centers is AdventSource—a major publisher and distributor of local church leadership materials.⁵⁶ The NAD also fostered development of a new Sabbath School resource, the Collegiate Quarterly, and organized an unprecedented division-wide Pathfinder camporee at Camp Hale, Colorado, in 1985. That event inaugurated the era of large-scale camporees every five years (international since 1994) that have become a prominent and highly-valued feature of Adventist life.⁵⁷

These achievements came about despite the limitations under which the NAD continued to operate. While always careful to give full recognition to GC authority, Bradford persistently pressed the case for progress toward full status as a division. In part it was a problem of logistics. Like a young married couple that still lived in a parent’s house and had to “share the kitchen and all the rest,” Bradford observed, the NAD lacked even a room of its own in which to conduct meetings. Even more problematic, the NAD leadership team members were also responsible to their GC department heads or chief officers, and ambiguous lines of authority sometimes resulted in conflict and obstacles to change. At the same time, the lack of clarity about the NAD’s role lessened its influence with the leaders of the union conferences in its territory.⁵⁸

In a paper presented to a commission appointed to study “General Conference-North American Division Relationships,” Bradford set forth the choice before the church: “If we are thoroughly convinced that to implement the full powers of a division in North America would be detrimental to General Conference authority, we should not hesitate to abolish the NAD Committee on Administration, reassign the officer group elected for North America and have the GC directly administer this territory without any mezzanine. . . . But if we choose to have a North American Division, then we should not hesitate to structure it fully as an operational entity.”⁵⁹

North American Division President (1985-1990)

The NAD’s track record in the early 1980s along with Bradford’s diplomacy paid off when the 1985 General Conference in New Orleans approved major changes. Among them, the NAD and GC would remain in the same office complex but with arrangements changed “to provide visible and functional unity and identity for the NAD.” The responsibilities and powers of the NAD Committee and its officers and departmental directors were delineated more fully. The GC treasurer was now requested to allocate to the NAD a “total general budget” that the division would have responsibility for administering.⁶⁰

The session also voted that the head officer of the NAD be designated with the same title as those of all the other world divisions. Accordingly, on July 1, 1985, Charles E. Bradford was finally and officially elected the first president of the North American Division (as re-constituted following dissolution of the North American Division Conference in 1918).⁶¹ Further advances and struggles lay ahead, but under Bradford’s leadership, the NAD turned a corner, setting the direction for a process that culminated in establishment of its separate office headquarters in Columbia, Maryland, on October 26, 2017.

Advancing the church’s mission in North America, was, of course, the overriding purpose driving the protracted struggle over bureaucratic details. While Bradford was an astute administrator, organizational management was not his primary concern. He regarded the doctrinal and organizational structure of the church—the anatomy of the church body, as he often put it—as basically strong and well-established. His real passion was for the vitality of its “physiology”—its dynamics as a thriving, growing community of faith.⁶² The preaching and writing that he directed toward that end during his years at the helm of the NAD made an impact beyond the strengthening of the division structure.

Few speakers of his time could uplift and motivate audiences at church events as Bradford could, and its unlikely that any were as versatile in doing so at gatherings that spanned the spectrum of Adventist life. Whether at Sabbath worship services, graduations, conferences of educators and other professional groups, conventions for youth ministry, evangelism, and pastoral development, to name a few examples, Bradford had an extraordinary ability to make people of all stripes feel that their abilities were indispensable to the church and inspire them with hope that committing themselves to its mission was worthwhile.⁶³

As for evangelistic preaching, Bradford’s most widely-reported series during the 1980s took place in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, in 1983. The three-week campaign, conducted in Massey Hall, resulted in the planting of a new congregation in a downtown neighborhood and was instrumental in leading around 200 people to become Seventh-day Adventists.⁶⁴

While Bradford remained a practitioner and promoter of the traditional mode of public evangelism, he also supported innovation. In 1979, for example, he used his influence to overcome the reluctance of some to fund the new, Black-oriented television ministry, Breath of Life, according to Charles D. Brooks, then the program’s speaker. The investment more than paid off with the planting of several Breath of Life congregations in the short-term and with an evangelistic media ministry that has continued to thrive in the long-term. Bradford also fostered acceptance of the seminar mode of evangelism, initiated by It Is Written. The Daniel Seminar, Revelation Seminar, Family Seminar, and other varieties proved highly-appealing during the 1980s and beyond.⁶⁵

Advocacy for women in ministry and equal recognition of their calling through ordination also stands out as a feature of historic importance in Bradford’s leadership of the NAD. Calls for the General Conference to move forward with the ordination of women had arisen after 1973, when a denominational study commission that met a Camp Mohaven in Ohio, found no clear biblical or theological prohibition against doing so. Considerable opposition also arose, however, leaving the matter to simmer unresolved.⁶⁶

As with other issues, Bradford acted with full respect for denominational policies and procedures while making clear where he stood as NAD president, and doing all in his power to move his church toward what he believed to be right. In September 1988, Bradford summarized his convictions in an interview published in the Adventist Review: “I myself believe that we are in a time when the Holy Spirit wants to empower all of the people of God for ministry,” he stated, adding that he was praying for the day when “the church will be willing to affirm and fully empower whomever the Holy Spirit has evidently called.”⁶⁷

He pulled no punches in rejecting arguments frequently cited against ordaining women: “I can’t accept the argument that some call ‘headship’ and the order of creation—man first, woman second. I cannot accept the Levitical priesthood as being the New Testament model for ministry. I can’t even accept the choice of 12 men as being the ‘eternal paradigm.’”⁶⁸ The following year he set forth the basis for his claims in a comprehensive study of New Testament ecclesiology presented to the Role of Women Commission as it prepared its report for the upcoming 1990 General Conference in Indianapolis.⁶⁹

Though the question of equality in ordination would remain unresolved, Bradford’s leadership was critical in achieving an important step forward in affirming women in ministry—the “commissioned minister” credential authorizing a female pastor, if ordained as a local elder, to perform virtually all of the routine functions of a minister, including baptisms and marriage ceremonies. As the 1989 Annual Council neared a close, with long hours consumed by debates over procedure and secondary issues such as the appropriateness of church basketball leagues, it appeared, after years of discussion, that the commissioned minister proposal might yet again be deferred. Bradford then arose and gave a memorable, impromptu speech that spurred it on to approval in 1990. “It is terribly hard to try to lead a division in soul winning when you are constantly discussing these all-consuming issues,” he said in urging the Council to move forward.⁷⁰ As he put it on other occasions, “You can’t catch fish while fighting gnats.”⁷¹

Toward a Theology of the Church

Elder Bradford retired from full-time denominational employment at the time of the 1990 GC session, having completed 44 years of service, 11 as leader of the North American Division. Publication of The Wit and Wisdom of Charles E. Bradford (Review and Herald, 1990), a 136-page volume compiled by colleagues William G. Johnsson, editor of the Adventist Review, and Noelene Johnsson, an associate director of the NAD Church Ministries Department, reflects the esteem and affection held for him at the time of his retirement. He and Ethel moved to Spring Hill, Florida, and lived there until 2008 when they moved to Madison, Alabama.

Bradford’s health would have permitted continuing in office, but he explained that his retirement at the standard age of 65 was motivated by desire to devote himself to study and writing, particularly on ecclesiology—the doctrine of the church.⁷² The Review and Herald had published his second book, The God Between, in 1984 and he now moved on to complete two more, Find Out About Prayer: An Urgent Call to Rediscover the Secret of Spiritual Power (HART Research, 1993) and Timothy & Titus: Counsels to Young Pastors for Struggling Churches (Pacific Press, 1994), a commentary in the Abundant Life Bible Amplifier series.

In 1991 Bradford began research that led to publication of his book Sabbath Roots: The African Connection in 1999. Conversations with missionaries who had encountered African peoples who already knew of the seventh-day Sabbath had sparked his interest in the topic, as did often-overlooked passages in Ellen White’s book, The Great Controversy, on how Africans preserved the biblical Sabbath during medieval centuries when its observance nearly disappeared in western Christendom.⁷³ In Sabbath Roots, Bradford drew on a wide range of scholarship to demonstrate a deep and extensive pattern of seventh-day observance in Africa and the African Diaspora. True to his calling, Bradford wrote with an evangelistic purpose, urging readers to consider the seventh-day Sabbath as emblematic of a Christianity more authentically African as well as more truly biblical than the distorted and sometimes repressive forms of the faith brought by Western missionaries.

Sabbath Roots was well-received, with more than 25,000 copies sold.⁷⁴ To deepen understanding and raise consciousness about the subject, Bradford assembled a team of biblical scholars, historians, and missiologists known as the Sabbath in Africa Study Group (SIA). Throughout the decade following publication of Sabbath Roots, the SIA team presented seminars at churches, camp meetings, conferences, and universities. As part of the project, Bradford made connections beyond the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. The prolific New Testament scholar Craig S. Keener, for example, lectured for the SIA’s “2000 Years of Christianity in Africa” seminar at Andrews University in February 2008.⁷⁵

Bradford’s voice and pen remained active and influential through the 2010s. In 2017, at the age of 92, he published his last book, The King Is in Residence, a capstone on decades of reflection on the church. In it, he depicted the church as indispensable to “God’s strategy” for redeeming humanity. He memorably called the local church the “rainforest” of Adventism, its vitality determining the health of the entire denominational ecosystem. He called for a “gift-driven church” in which the purpose of organization was not to regiment and restrict but to facilitate and empower the gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit on each individual. He offered the book to his church, not as a definitive treatment of ecclesiology, but as an invitation to a serious, in-depth conversation about the church, long-neglected while issues of inspiration, authority, and individual salvation received extensive attention.

Charles E. Bradford passed away on September 9, 2021, in Huntsville, Alabama, at age 96, survived by his wife, Ethel, their three children, three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. A lengthy list of co-workers and church leaders, including General Conference president Ted N. C. Wilson, gathered at Oakwood University church on October 3 to pay tribute to him.⁷⁶ Elder Bradford was laid to rest in the Oakwood Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Huntsville.

Legacy

The recognitions awarded Elder Bradford, too numerous to list, included induction into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers and Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College in 1992. He was awarded honorary doctorates by Andrews University, Walla Walla University, Loma Linda University, and his alma mater, Oakwood University.⁷⁷ The Bradford-Cleveland-Brooks Leadership Center established in 2007 at Oakwood University to provide continuing education resources for the development of servant leaders, is a standing tribute to Bradford’s legacy, along with that of two other giants of Black Adventism, C. D. Brooks and E. E. Cleveland.⁷⁸

Bradford’s role in the advance of Adventism among Black Americans alone establishes his historical significance. Calvin Rock writes that Bradford “was the last of the cadre of black leaders who carried Regional Conferences from birth to imminent maturity while at the same time moving black leaders from local conference endeavors to national and international service.”⁷⁹ Thus, his rise to the top leadership position in the NAD and the quality of his leadership in that role signaled the demise of what historian Benjamin Baker calls the “Blacks-are-only-fit-to-lead-Blacks” mentality.⁸⁰ Beginning in 1980, albeit gradually, African Americans began assuming leadership positions that were inconceivable for them not long before, such as union conference president, conference president beyond the regional conferences, and college or university president (beyond Oakwood).

Bradford’s leadership thus transcended race, as does his importance as a transformative figure in Adventist history. In announcing the selection of Bradford to head the North American Division in 1979, Neal C. Wilson, General Conference president, stated, “He’s a pastor at heart, and that’s what he’s going to be to our people in North America.”⁸¹ As pastor, Bradford’s preaching and writing inspired, motivated, and mobilized the North American church to fulfill its mission in a changing world. He encouraged innovation and stood up for those whose gifts had been marginalized. As shepherd, he stood up for the well-being of the North American flock and deftly guided it to new terrain. As leader, he initiated construction of a new organizational house for the NAD, essential to its flourishing, and ensured that its framework was firmly in place by the time he left office.

As pastor for North America, Bradford also left a remarkable legacy as a unifier and bridge-builder, both within the church and with those outside the Adventist fold. He demonstrated the possibility of genuine fellowship and constructive cooperation even amidst deeply-held differences in belief, and how this could be a positive witness to Adventist faith. Gardner C. Taylor, reflecting on 60 years of friendship with Bradford, years in which Taylor became one of the most widely known preachers in the United States, stated, “I know of no one else in all of these years who possesses the spiritual genius to remain true to the faith of one’s fathers while reaching out to others in the great family of God—certainly not as effectively as Charles Bradford, one of the Lord’s true noblemen.”⁸²

Yet, Bradford’s leadership was not only pastoral but prophetic. He continually prodded the church forward, pointing to the divine justice and compassion proclaimed by the prophets and embodied by Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit as the source of power. His sincerity about enacting his vision of the church was evident, as was his conviction that it would become reality:

Finally, there will be, in time, and history, a demonstration of the ideal community. The Spirit’s rule will be unchallenged. Every member of the community will be affirmed and participate in ministry. It cannot be a racial community, permitting racial discrimination and separation within its own fellowship. Class and caste will be unknown. It will not be a male church, tolerating male dominance; nor a national church, tolerating national arrogance. As it nears the end, the community will conform more and more to the liberating rule of Christ. . . . This is the challenge to Adventism—a pilgrim people “between the already and the not yet,” always in transition on their way to the Kingdom of God.⁸³

A Bradford Bibliography

Books

Find Out About Prayer: An Urgent Call to Rediscover the Secret of Spiritual Power. Fallbrook, CA: HART Research Center, 1993.

The God Between. Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald, 1984.

The King Is in Residence. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2017.

Preaching to the Times. Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald, 1975

Sabbath Roots: The African Connection. [Silver Spring, MD]: Ministerial Association of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1999.

Timothy & Titus: Counsels to Young Pastors for Struggling Churches. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 1994.

Articles, Book Chapters, Papers

“An Appeal to the Leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” April 1966. In Delbert W. Baker, ed., Telling the Story: An Anthology of the Development of the Black SDA Work, 5:7-13. Loma Linda, CA: Black Caucus of SDA Administrators, 1996. General Conference Online Archives. Accessed October 3, 2024, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/TTS1996.pdf.

“The Church—An Eschatological Community.” Adventist Perspectives 3, No. 2 (1989).

“Cry Out For Justice.” JD (1995).

“‘This is a Day of Good News.’” In Our Times as I See Them, edited by Richard W. Coffen. Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1980.

“Women in Pastoral Ministries and Ordination.” Reprinted in Lee, Harold L. with Monte Sahlin. Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership. Lincoln, NE: Center for Creative Ministry, 2005.

“The Word Whose Time Has Come.” African American Pulpit 9, No. 3 (Summer 2006).

Sources

Baker, Benjamin. “Tribute to Elder Charles Edward Bradford.” Spectrum, September 14, 2021. Accessed September 10, 2024. https://spectrummagazine.org/news/tribute-charles-edward-bradford/

Battles, Miriam. “Women in Oakwood’s History.” Inside Oakwood. Oakwood University Integrated Marketing and Public Relations email newsletter, April 7, 2021.

“Bradford on Evangelism.” Interview. Ministry, April 1982.

Bradford, C. E. “Baton Rouge Church Dedication.” North American Informant, January 1950.

Bradford, C. E. “Formula for Change.” ARH, April 20, 1980.

Bradford, C. E. “How I View the North American Division.” ARH, August 9, 1984.

Bradford, C. E. “When You Care Enough!” Ministry, June 1983.

Bradford, Charles E. “Ellen White and the Black Experience.” ARH, May 30, 1996.

Bradford-Rock, Eva. “Bradford Family History.” November 30, 1981. Unpublished manuscript, excerpt in author’s possession.

“Candidate for an Honorary Degree.” North American Informant, July 1978.

“Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Elder Charles Edward Bradford.” Memorial Program, October 3, 2021. Copy in author’s possession.

“Charles E. Bradford Shares His Story! (courtesy of 3ABN). blacksdahistory, November 14, 2020. Accessed September 10, 2024. https://youtu.be/qcc3iI_TTW0?si=6btj6s84Si4be9w4

“Evangelism in Northeastern.” North American Informant, October-November 1957.

Hyer, Marjorie. “Seventh-Day Adventists Elect a Black President.” Washington Post, January 13, 1979. Accessed October 10, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/01/13/seventh-day-adventists-elect-a-black-president/f70df9f9-139e-4174-a2f9-ec32763cc9e3/.

Johnsson, William and Noelene, eds. The Wit and Wisdom of Charles Bradford. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1990.

Jones, F. L. “Evangelistic Team in Bermuda.” Atlantic Union Gleaner, February 9, 1959.

Lee, Harold L. with Monte Sahlin. Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership. Lincoln, NE: Center for Creative Ministry, 2005.

Maran, Kimberly Luste. “‘A Spiritual Giant Among Us.’” Noth American Division News, September 15, 2021, accessed October 11, 2024. https://www.nadadventist.org/news/spiritual-giant-among-us.

“Members in St. Louis Move to New Church.” North American Informant, March 1954.

“New GC Vice-President for North America Elected.” ARH, January 25, 1979.

Rock, Calvin B. “Bradford, Etta Elizabeth (1883–1945) and Robert Lee (1882–1958).” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, September 19, 2021. Accessed September 09, 2024. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=7I45.

Rock, Calvin B. Protest and Progress: Black Seventh-day Adventist Leadership and the Push for Parity. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2018.

“Role and Function of Denominational Organizations—Commission Report.” ARH, July 5, 1985.

“‘Second Coming of Christ is Near.’” Ebony, November 1979.

"Seventh Business Meeting, Fifty-Fourth General Conference Session, July 1, 1985, 3:15 p.m.," ARH, July 3, 1985.

Thompson, Christopher C. “Charles E. Bradford: Chosen Builder of God’s Church.” Adventist Today, February 15, 2019. Accessed October 11, 2024. https://atoday.org/charles-e-bradford-chosen-builder-of-gods-church/.

Vecsey, George. “7^th Day Adventists Elect Black Chief,” New York Times, January 12, 1979.

“Where is the North American Division Going?” Ministry, April 1984.

Widmer, Myron K. “Charles Bradford on the Church.” ARH, September 1, 1988.

Notes

1. Bradford was the first president of the North American Division (NAD) as reformulated following dissolution of the short-lived North American Division Conference (1913-1918); see further explanation below.↩

2. “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Elder Charles Edward Bradford,” Memorial Program, October 3, 2021, 2; “Robert L. Bradford” in 1910 United States Federal Census, accessed September 9, 2024, Ancestry.com; Harold L. Lee, with Monte Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership (Lincoln, NE: Center for Creative Ministry, 2005), 3.↩

3. Calvin B. Rock, “Bradford, Etta Elizabeth (1883–1945) and Robert Lee (1882–1958),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, September 19, 2021, accessed September 9, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=7I45; Mervyn A. Warren, Oakwood! A Vision Splendid Continues (Huntsville, AL: Oakwood University, 2010), 17-18.↩

4. Eva Bradford-Rock, “Bradford Family History,” November 30, 1981, unpublished manuscript, excerpt in author’s possession. The names of Robert Lafayette Bradford’s parents are identified on his Certificate of Death in “Tennessee Deaths, 1914-1966,” at FamilySearch, accessed September 10, 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NSTS-LM2.↩

5. Rock, “Bradford, Etta Elizabeth (1883–1945) and Robert Lee (1882–1958).”↩

6. Charles E. Bradford, “Ellen White and the Black Experience,” ARH, May 30, 1996, 30; “Charles E. Bradford Shares His Story! (courtesy of 3ABN),” blacksdahistory, November 14, 2020, accessed September 10, 2024, https://youtu.be/qcc3iI_TTW0?si=6btj6s84Si4be9w4.↩

7. Rock, “Bradford, Etta Elizabeth (1883–1945) and Robert Lee (1882–1958).”↩

8. Ibid; Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 3-5.↩

9. William Johnsson and Noelene Johnsson, eds., The Wit and Wisdom of Charles Bradford (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1990), 12-16, 22-23.↩

10. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 8.↩

11. Ibid, 10; Wit and Wisdom, 85-86.↩

12. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 9-10.↩

13. Calvin B. Rock, email message to author, October 28, 2024.↩

14. “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Elder Charles Edward Bradford,” 2.↩

15. Wit and Wisdom, 9.↩

16. Quoted in Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, i.↩

17. Ibid, 10-11, 19.↩

18. Phillip Warfield, “Southwest Region Conference," Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, April 02, 2024, accessed September 13, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8JJD.↩

19. Wit and Wisdom, 47-48.↩

20. C. E. Bradford, “Baton Rouge Church Dedication,” North American Informant, January 1950, 5; Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 19.↩

21. Jazmine Richardson, “Gardner Taylor (1918-2015),” BlackPast.org, accessed October 24, 2024, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/gardner-taylor-1918-2015/.↩

22. Miriam Battles, “Women in Oakwood’s History,” Inside Oakwood, Oakwood University Integrated Marketing and Public Relations email newsletter, April 7, 2021.↩

23. Ibid.↩

24. “Southwest Region News Notes,” Southwestern Union Record, May 31, 1950, 4.↩

25. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 35.↩

26. “Members in St. Louis Move to New Church,” North American Informant, March 1954, 8; “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Elder Charles Edward Bradford.”↩

27. “Candidate for an Honorary Degree,” North American Informant, July 1978, 6; H. T. Salter, “A New Church,” North American Informant, May 1958, 7.↩

28. Battles, “Women in Oakwood’s History.”↩

29. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 36-37.↩

30. “Evangelism in Northeastern,” North American Informant, October-November 1957, 4; Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 35.↩

31. F. L. Jones, “Evangelistic Team in Bermuda,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, February 9, 1959, 4; Owen Troy, Jr., “Regional Workers in Bermuda,” North American Informant, February-March 1959, 4.↩

32. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 34.↩

33. “Lake Region Conference (1945-Present),” General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research (ASTR), accessed September 17, 2024, https://adventiststatistics.org/view_Summary.asp?FieldID=C10219.↩

34. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 41-42.↩

35. Ibid, 42.↩

36. Ibid, 38, 43.↩

37. Charles E. Bradford, telephone interview by Douglas Morgan, January 26, 2016.↩

38. C.E. Bradford to R. R. Figuhr, January 9, 1964, in Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 175-177.↩

39. “Actions of the Spring Meeting of the General Conference Committee, Apr. 13, 14, 1965,” ARH, April 29, 1965, 8.↩

40. C.E. Bradford, “An Appeal to the Leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” April 1966, in Delbert W. Baker, ed., Telling the Story: An Anthology of the Development of the Black SDA Work (Loma Linda, CA: Black Caucus of SDA Administrators, 1996), 5:7-13, quotations from 5:13 and 5:11, respectively, General Conference Online Archives, accessed October 3, 2024, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/TTS1996.pdf; April 1966 date given in Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 177.↩

41. Calvin B. Rock, Protest and Progress: Black Seventh-day Adventist Leadership and the Push for Parity (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2018), 123-124.↩

42. Charles E. Bradford, The King Is In Residence (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2017), 13.↩

43. Benjamin Baker, “Tribute to Elder Charles Edward Bradford,” Spectrum, September 14, 2021, accessed September 10, 2024, https://spectrummagazine.org/news/tribute-charles-edward-bradford/.↩

44. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 20-21, also includes several other observations from contemporaries on his Bradford’s preaching prowess.↩

45. Baker, “Tribute to Elder Charles Edward Bradford.”↩

46. H.D. Singleton, “North American Regional Department General Conference Report,” North American Informant, September-October 1970, 5; “North American Division Yearly Statistics (1913-2022),” General Conference ASTR, accessed October 3, 2024, https://adventiststatistics.org/view_Summary.asp?FieldAbr=NAD.↩

47. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1973.↩

48. Lowell L. Bock, also an associate secretary whose assignment mainly pertained to North America, is listed instead of Bradford as part of the group representing the General Conference in minutes of the General Conference Officers meetings on August 2 and September 13, 1971. The close collaboration between the two associate secretaries can be taken as corroboration of Bradford’s recollection, in conversation with the author, about being present, if not a leading participant, at these discussions. For a brief overview of Brinsmead’s Awakening movement and the change in his views in 1971, see Gilbert M. Valentine, “Palmdale Conference (1976),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, January 29, 2020, accessed October 9, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=39XL.↩

49. “Bradford on Evangelism,” interview in Ministry, April 1982, 7-8; Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 27.↩

50. “‘Second Coming of Christ is Near,’” Ebony, November 1979, 107. See also George Vecsey, “7^th Day Adventists Elect Black Chief,” New York Times, January 12, 1979, A20; Marjorie Hyer, “Seventh-Day Adventists Elect a Black President,” Washington Post, January 13, 1979, accessed October 10, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/01/13/seventh-day-adventists-elect-a-black-president/f70df9f9-139e-4174-a2f9-ec32763cc9e3/.↩

51. Richard W. Schwarz and Floyd Greenleaf, Light Bearers: A History of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (Silver Spring, MD: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Department of Education, 2000), 314-316.↩

52. See for example the cover of the Review and Herald, July 10, 1975.↩

53. “Where is the North American Division Going?,” Ministry, April 1984, 14-15.↩

54. C.E. Bradford, “Formula for Change,” ARH, April 20, 1980, 13-14.↩

55. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 84-87; “Bradford on Evangelism,” Ministry, April 1982, 8-9; C.E. Bradford, “When You Care Enough!,” Ministry, June 1983, 16-17; Myron K. Widmer, “Charles Bradford on the Church,” AHR, September 1, 1988, 8.↩

56. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 103-104.↩

57. Leo S. Ranzolin, “Youth Department,” ARH, July 7, 1984, 3; Victory Kovach, “International Pathfinder Camporees,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, October 2, 2020, accessed October 8, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=A9Y2.↩

58. “Where is the North American Division Going?,” Ministry, April 1984, 14-17; C.E. Bradford, “How I View the North American Division,” ARH, August 9, 1984, 8; Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 108-111.↩

59. Excerpts from the paper published in Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 111-114.↩

60. “Role and Function of Denominational Organizations—Commission Report,” ARH, July 5, 1985, 12.↩

61. "Seventh Business Meeting, Fifty-Fourth General Conference Session, July 1, 1985, 3:15 p.m.," ARH, July 3, 1985, 9; “Nominating Committee Report—7,” ARH, July 5, 1985, 20l General Conference Committee meeting minutes, July 1, 1985, pages 46-47, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1985-13.pdf.↩

62. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 85-86.↩

63. The author heard Bradford speak and observed audience reaction at nearly all of the types of gatherings mentioned.↩

64. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 142.↩

65. Ibid, 153-161.↩

66. Ibid, 192.↩

67. Widmer, “Charles Bradford on the Church,” 12.↩

68. Ibid.↩

69. Charles E. Bradford, “Women in Pastoral Ministries and Ordination,” published in Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 192-198.↩

70. Wit and Wisdom, 95-100.↩

71. Charles E. Bradford, interview by Daniel Weber, North American Division Communication Department, 2013.↩

72. Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 116.↩

73. Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1911), 63, 577-578.↩

74. “Sabbath in Africa Study Group Report to the Boards of Oakwood University and the Bradford-Cleveland-Books Leadership Center,” April 20, 2009, copy in author’s possession.↩

75. “Noted Biblical Scholar Speaks,” Sabbath in Africa Study Group newsletter, February 2008, published at www.africanchristianity.org (inactive), hard copy in author’s possession.↩

76. “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Elder Charles Edward Bradford,” Memorial Program, October 3, 2021, copy in author’s possession.↩

77. “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Elder Charles Edward Bradford,” 3.↩

78. “Bradford-Cleveland-Brooks Leadership Center,” Oakwood University, accessed October 10, 2024, https://bcblc.oakwood.edu/; Benjamin Baker, “Brooks, Charles Decatur (1930–2016),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, December 28, 2020, accessed October 10, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=3CE6; Douglas Morgan, “Cleveland, Edward Earl (1921–2009),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, December 30, 2020, accessed October 10, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CCEG.↩

79. “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Elder Charles Edward Bradford,” 3.↩

80. Baker, “Tribute to Elder Charles Edward Bradford.”↩

81. “New GC Vice-President for North America Elected,” ARH, January 25, 1979, 24.↩

82. Christopher C. Thompson, “Charles E. Bradford: Chosen Builder of God’s Church,” Adventist Today, February 15, 2019, accessed October 11, 2024, https://atoday.org/charles-e-bradford-chosen-builder-of-gods-church/.↩

83. Bradford, “Women in Pastoral Ministries and Ordination,” in Lee and Sahlin, Brad: Visionary Spiritual Leadership, 198.↩