“Have you seen the video?” That question has been going around a lot on Facebook & in conversations I have been having with many a peer and member; even I’ve asked verbatim that question to a few folk over the last two days.
Here are some thoughts I’ve had on my own and some that others have shared with me or motivated me to think in light of this video that I pray will resonate with those of my readers that are Seventh-day Adventists in how they respond and act in response to this video. If you haven’t seen “the video” I am speaking of, it is posted at the bottom of this blog post.
I want to first address those that are not sure why folk are making such a “big deal” about this video:
The “big deal” is only understood if one embraces a prophetic understanding of Revelation chapter 13 that points to the first beast of Revelation 13 as the theological system of Roman Catholicism & the second beast of Revelation 13 as the United States of America. This may be new insight to some of you, which is why to those that have wondered what is the “big deal” I would encourage their response to this video to be a thorough study of the prophecies of Daniel & Revelation! In so doing they will see that we are not against unity in and of itself, what we are leery of is the implications of unity in the context of such a prophetic picture:
“One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.” –Revelation 13:3
&
“Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.” –Revelation 13:11, 12
We as Seventh-day Adventists are alarmed for a second reason; Bishop Tony Palmer in the video states that there is no longer a need for Protestantism because, “the protest is over.” He claims that the protest is over because the Catholic Church has affirmed and agrees with justification by faith (which I question as the need to say certain prayers seems to counter act this premise). Thus “Luther no longer has an argument” against the Papacy. Even if you agreed with Bishop Palmer that the only argument that Luther had against the Papacy was in regards to understanding of justification by faith, which my seminary course on “The Writings of Martin Luther” with Dr. Trevor O’Reggio taught me otherwise; but even if you do agree with that as a Seventh-day Adventist my protest still could not be over! Why?
Because I must still protest:
So Bishop Palmer I respectfully disagree and I hope all Adventists respectfully disagree, the PROTEST is not over!
And this is my response to those which wonder why this video is a “big deal.”
My response to Adventists that have used this video as opportunity to ramp up their venom against Catholicism:
This video has of course given focus to our differences with Catholicism and even many within the Protestant Christian world. But two things we should remember and one thing we should avoid: We should avoid labeling anyone as having “The Mark of the Beast.” We have been taught within the history of our church that NO ONE will receive The Mark of the Beast, until Sunday Worship is made compulsory. Sunday is not the Mark of the Beast, the Compulsion to keep that day holy or as a day of worship is the Mark of the Beast. We must remember in our amazement at this video that we are not against a specific person or people group. We should always be quick to express that our “protest” is not against a man, Pope Francis, Kenneth Copeland, Tony Palmer; our protest is against the systems that will attempt to unite all people under one religious banner. So let us not use inflammatory language against Catholic People. Many of those Catholic people, many Charismatics, many Evangelicals will be our neighbors in heaven and many of those that we sit next to in church each week will not. We protest beliefs and a system that desires to enforce those beliefs on all of us. We also must remember that though it may seem more exciting to talk about this video, let us never talk more about this video or the implications of this video than we do Jesus! Jesus is to be the topic that consumes our thoughts and flows out of our hearts into words. Jesus is the only one that can redeem. Knowing Jesus saves, not knowing the prophecies. So we teach the prophecies but don’t think the prophecy will change a life, remember Jesus will change a life and then we can help folk to understand the times that we are living in. That thought on witnessing leads me to address a third group of Adventists responding to this video:
My response to Adventists that seem overly giddy in regards to this video and it being a further sign of Jesus’ soon coming:
(I hadn’t thought about this response ’till one of my Bible Workers pointed this out to me). It seems from reading some of the comments of those watching this video that their responses are overly enthusiastic. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that they are excited by this being a further sign that Jesus is coming soon & that for them, at least in their own personal assurance, means they’ll soon be out of this world and walking with Jesus. I understand a modicum of joy in thinking of this potential reality. But I am afraid that too much of such a response is not truly living up to the prophetic calling God gave to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As we see the signs approaching of Jesus’ soon coming we aren’t to be dancing around celebrating, we are at the appearance of these signs to be spurred on to even greater and more devoted witnessing! The Three Angel’s Message is not one of a party it is one of warning and appeal. Noah didn’t see the signs and rejoice that he was going to be safe in the boat. Abraham didn’t see the signs and rejoice that Sodom & Gomorrah were going to be destroyed he pleaded with God on their behalf. Jesus didn’t see the future of Jerusalem and the temple and rejoice that the sacrificial system that pointed to Him would be destroyed, He wept. When we see a video like this, when we read the prophecies, and see the signs our response should not be a giddy hurrah! We should instead remember the story of the 99 minus 1 (Luke 15:3-7). The shepherd doesn’t rest if even one is out there lost, the shepherd would never celebrate saying, “at least these 99 made it.” The celebration occurs when all 100 are safely in the fold. So until Jesus comes or until all are reached (and there will always be 1 more to reach) let us put aside our abundance of exuberance and replace it with a deep yearning to tell everyone about Jesus & His soon coming! May we plead like Abraham with our Lord that He will hold back the winds of strife a little longer so that we may tell “1 more” Jesus loves them!
So today I was listening to a book on tape, in this book on tape there was a chapter heading, “Spiritual Formation.” I listened to the entire chapter and guess what? Afterwards I didn’t want to go and empty my mind, burn incense, light candles, chant in repetition or deny the infallibility of the Bible. In fact the authors description of “SPIRITUAL FORMATION” made me want to read my Bible more, spend more time alone being guided by the scriptures to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. He impressed upon me the need to have a consistent devotional time, and that part of Spiritual Formation included being willing to be more generous with my money to the cause of Jesus, particularly the local church…can you believe such heresy? I say tongue in cheek!
At the end of the chapter the thought that came into my mind and started to drive me crazy, “There are so many in our church that would have shut the audiobook off, or closed the book (if they were actually reading it) the moment they heard/saw those words, “Spiritual Formation” and they would have missed out on some great counsel! Why? Because over the last 3+ years many in the Adventist church have taught our people to be scared of words and phrases, like: “spiritual formation,” “liturgy,” and “kingdom growth.” Even “meditation” is being spoken of like all meditation is bad…I sure hope the folk that believe that fallacy never read the writings of Ellen G. White, there are over 800 references of “meditation” or “meditate;” and oh boy they better not read the Bible either, since there are a good thirty times meditation is mentioned in that GREAT book.
Why would I even say that? Because I really believe some would be shocked! They’d be shocked because we don’t teach them to read and to study and to discern truth for themselves, we teach them to be scared of certain words and so many of the sermons I’ve heard say, “Spiritual formation is evil. It is about meditation, and mantras.” And therefore meditation is wrong, even when there is a very good kind of Biblical meditation, but these people don’t know that, all they know is what we’ve told them to be scared of. We’ve taught them to be scared of words, just like the pharisees taught the Jews to be scared of Jesus because He used the words, “I Am.”
In preaching in this manner and writing EXTREME books on this topic not only are we teaching our people to be scared of words, we are also teaching them to be very judgmental.
I was given a CD of a fairly popular and well known speaker amongst Adventists, he is one that frequents many camp meetings. I’d heard him on a couple different occasions and was usually blessed by his messages. Then I received this CD and I listened…what I listened to was fear mongering and a call to judge, not to judge on actions, not to judge on doctrine, just to judge based on words. This preacher was speaking of a pastor of a mega-church and pointing out all the areas he was in error; which by the way, how far have we fallen when we think that is an acceptable topic for a Sabbath morning service? Anyway, he then said this, which blew my mind, “When you hear our preachers (Adventist preachers) use the term ‘Kingdom Growth’ you know they have been under the influence of (name of the Sunday preacher here) and you need to be on guard.” REALLY? REALLY? This semi-well known pastor with at least a moderate amount of influence told a bunch of folk to judge their pastors based on a phrase, “Kingdom Growth.” I’ve been using that phrase as often as I can ever since; yep, there is a rebel in me.
So we’re teaching our people to be scared of words. We’re teaching our people to be judgmental based on phrases. We’re also teaching our people how to be mere reflectors of man’s thoughts, rather than true discerners.
I was at a camp meeting. The evening speaker delivered a wonderful message, but he went on a tangent. In this tangent he began to condemn those associated with spiritual formation (he didn’t give context to this), he just used those catch words of course. But what drove me even more crazy was at the end of this little tangent he said, “that is why we shouldn’t be reading anything outside of Adventist literature.” REALLY? REALLY? I love this man, he has been a blessing in my life, I don’t know him, but I’ve read his books and listened to his sermons. But REALLY? I couldn’t take it so I confronted him afterwards, “How could you say that?” I asked. Well in the course of the conversation he acknowledged we should, and he even quoted Mrs. White referencing her statement about our need to be well read in the literature of the age, and how of course he didn’t mean don’t read anything outside of Adventism (he has a doctorate from a non-Adventist university). I asked him then why he said it, he didn’t have a great answer, something to the effect of wanting to protect the people. That is not protection though, it is dumbing people down. To this man’s credit he corrected the statement in his seminar a few days later and acknowledged that is not what he meant; unfortunately there were only 150 people at his seminar versus the 2000 that heard his original statement.
We’re teaching our people to be scared of words. We’re teaching our people to be judgmental based on phrases. We’re teaching our people how be mere reflectors of man’s thoughts, rather than true discerners.
But maybe most of all we’re teaching people how to miss the good and beautiful truth completely. The pharisees were so focused on all the potential negatives that could happen around the Sabbath day that when someone, Jesus Himself, actually showed up on the scene keeping the Sabbath they way it should be kept…they missed it completely! I worry that we are teaching our people to focus so much on the negative that they may actually miss a lot of good when it is being done right in front of their eyes.
Someone smart in my life said, I’m not sure who said this to me (maybe it was David in our Faster Pastor episode on Christmas), but whoever it was this is brilliant, “Words and symbols only have as much meaning in your life as you allow them to have.”
Our church needs to learn this! The words Spiritual Formation or any others like this only have the meaning that one attaches to them and if we attach all kinds of fear, judgment, and ignorance to them that is exactly the meaning they’ll have in people’s lives.
But maybe some people out there are using those same words and they are doing a great job of teaching about Bible Study, Sacrifice, Prayer, Service, Repentance, Tithing…but our people will never know; cause they’ll close the book the moment they see the buzz words our church has decided to condemn and attach unnecessary negative value to over the last 3+ years.
Lord help us to spend more time teaching people about the beautiful truths of Jesus and in the glorious light of Jesus’ truth maybe we can trust them to be able to discern error for themselves.
This blog isn’t a discussion of my political views, nor is it a discussion on conservative or liberal church views.
No this is a short blog with some free advice on a little thing every church can do, no matter how big or small, to make their church a more comfortable environment for guests.
And this piece of advice involves one simple act…
…a move to the middle.
When a guest arrives at my house one of the first things I do, if they are going to be there for a while is to invite them to, “sit down” or “have a seat.” If other guests are there and all the seats are taken we say, “let me grab you a chair.” If my kids are in a seat that would be more optimal for the guest to sit in I say, “please move Dayton/Landon, so our guest can sit in that chair.” If there is only one seat left and I was sitting in it, I say, “Here take my seat, I’ll just grab another chair” or “I can just sit here on the floor.”
Why?
Because the comfort of my guest is of utmost comfort to me.
Why should it be any different in a church? Our guests, after God, should be our top priority. But so often, probably without any forethought or malice in very little areas, maybe seemingly insignificant areas we actually show a lack of regard for our guests at church.
One such place we show a lack of regard for our guests is in where we choose to plant our behinds during the worship service.
In most churches I have been to, most members immediately gravitate towards the back rows & the aisles.
In both cases I would urge members…please move to the middle!
Why to the middle? Because just like in our homes our guests should have priority in their seating to what would be most comfortable to them; and there are definitely two things which are not comfortable for a guest:
Needing to crawl over or push past people in a row to get to a middle seat…
&
Being forced to walk towards the front of the church to find a seat.
Most guests, especially the truly unchurched, want to come into a church & sit without any notice or recognition–yes they want to be greeted and treated warmly at the door and in the foyer; but once they are in the sanctuary they want to draw as little attention as possible. Something which cannot be accomplished as easily if all the members are sitting in the aisles seats and in the back rows.
So this weekend when you attend church, I would like to encourage you dear church member…
…Move to the middle
Unless you are a Mom or Dad with young children, or someone with an extremely small and active bladder there is NO reason you have to sit in the back of the church, nor in an aisle seat.
So for the sake of the guests, make a big difference with a small movement…
…to the middle.
Maybe even move all the way up front. I promise the preacher won’t bite & maybe, just maybe this one little act will make the guest feel more at ease to come back for a second visit…isn’t that after all our hope with all our guests? That they will feel comfortable and want to come back?
“It is a dangerous thing to wrong one of the children of the King of heaven.” –Ellen G. White, Patriarchs & Prophets, p.131
What comfort this quote brought me today! Not because someone is, or is even about to wrong me. I feel no imminent threat. I have no knowledge of another’s wrath.
It brought me comfort because Ellen White wrote these words in the context of the story of Abraham lying to Pharaoh about Sarah his wife. Abraham was scared, his wife was too beautiful. So beautiful was Sarah that Abraham thought Pharaoh or another in Egypt would kill him just to have her. He was scared and so he sinned. He sinned big time. He told folk his wife was really his sister…
she was a half-sister, I know weird, but things were different in that day…
but a half-sister that was his whole wife lead to a half-lie, and a half-lie is a whole-sin.
“She’s not my wife; she’s my sister.”
And so Pharaoh took her to be his wife. Abraham was willing to allow his wife to be with another man in order to protect his own life. He sinned. He made a conscious decision to sin…and even after Pharaoh took Sarah to his home, Abraham kept the charade going, he did not intervene, he did not cease his sin.
But God did!
And here is what is so crazy about that, it goes against what I was taught as a kid, what many were taught as kids, and maybe have taught their kids.
God stepping in while Abraham was actively sinning…
I was told, maybe by parents, though probably not; more likely it was grandparents or a Sabbath School teacher or a well intentioned preacher,
…that when I willfully sin God does not step-in.
But here is God doing what I was told He did not do…stepping in; in the midst of active sin.
But not only does God step in to protect Sarah…He simultaneously steps in and protects Abraham. Oh and don’t miss this, while Abraham was in active sin, God was blessing Him, “Should Abraham remain in Egypt, his increasing wealth and honor…” (EGW, ibid.) While in the midst of sin there was an increase in Abe’s wealth & honor.
And though Abraham sinned, putting both his wife and Pharaoh in the position to sin; when the sin came to light and Pharaoh was angry, as I’m sure we all would be…God didn’t allow Pharaoh to punish the man that was living in active sin.
God warned Pharaoh, “Don’t harm my man Abraham!”
Because…
“It is a dangerous thing to wrong one of the children of the King of heaven.”
Abraham…active in sin…still a child of the King.
Not an excuse for us to sin…
But glad to know God doesn’t give-up on me even when I’m walking in sin…
Even when my active sin makes me think I should give-up on me.
“It is a dangerous thing to wrong one of the children of the King of heaven.”
I shouldn’t presume upon the mercies of God…but I’m glad to know they’re there for a struggler like me!
A struggler, but still a child of the King!
I love the rich old hymns. May they never be forgotten! Happy Sabbath y’all.
There Is a Balm In Gilead:
Amazing Grace:
In The Garden:
It Is Well:
There Is a Fountain:
Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho:
Blessed Assurance:
The Old Rugged Cross:
Whether it is self preservation or ego that makes us do it, most pastors/members I know fudge slightly on the high side when it comes to their church attendance numbers. I don’t believe people do this maliciously or to intentionally deceive but innocent or not this self-deception regarding church attendance numbers is detrimental to the growth of the church.
If we don’t know our actual numbers we can be deceived about the health and growth of the church. I first realized this when I was a member of a very large church many years ago. To my casual eye and I am sure to most the members eyes this church seemed like a healthy growing church. There always seemed to be a healthy number of folk filling the pews each week. The foyer seemed crowed before and after church. The quality of the service was great. If someone had asked me, “Are you a member of a growing church?” I would have responded with a firm, “Yes!” But one day I thought to myself, “I don’t remember seeing very many baptisms at this church in the last few years.” And I began to question, “Is this church really a growing church?”
I decided to do a little research and what I discovered was this: at the beginning of the year we had just finished the church membership was 3000…now a couple months into a new year the church membership was…wait for it…3003. The church had grown by a net gain of 3 people in more than a year. I was astonished, I was disappointed, I was sad. I thought I was a member of a growing church. What I discovered is that I was a member of a very kind, a very busy, a high quality church…but not an evangelistic, growing church.
When we count (this is especially for the pastors) we are forced to take a true account of whether or not we are leading our churches to be healthy growing communities. If we don’t count, we can remain deceived; thus limiting the urgency to develop the evangelistic fervor needed within every church.
Now there are always those that will resist the value of counting.
They will say:
“Numbers don’t matter!” I would respond, “That if we see each number as representing an individual that Jesus died for, then they certainly do matter!!”
They will say:
“We shouldn’t be driven by numbers!” I would respond, “I agree. We should be driven by the heart of Jesus wanting to reach lost sheep. And one of the only ways to know if this is happening is to count.”
They will say:
“Numbers are relative.” I would respond, “They are indeed! A church of 16 that adds 3 new members in a year should celebrate. A church of 3000 that adds 3 new members in a year should recalibrate.”
Please count! Count every Sabbath to see if you are growing.
Then after you finish counting, start analyzing. There is no point in gathering data, unless you’re going to use that data to help improve in specific areas.
Due to the fact that we don’t just count at our church, we also analyze; these numbers take on extra value to our ministry. Let me give an example.
This past year, 2013, our average attendance was 356 individuals attending per week; that was an improvement of 16 people per week over the previous year. We are growing. Not as much as I believe we could, but we are growing. There is more though to those numbers than just growth; as we analyze the numbers we see that our 1st service grew by an average of 15 people, and our 2nd service grew by an average of 1. This has helped us to have discussions about what is appealing to people about first service and what may be unappealing to folk about second service? What are the demographics of the two services? Is the 1st service growth new member/visitor growth or long time members just choosing to go earlier in the day? All this is looked at because we count.
Also because we count we have found that we are unhealthy as a church in some areas. Last year we baptized or brought in through profession of faith 60 new people. Yet our average attendance for the year was only up 16 people per week. Our attendance definitely increased after all those baptisms, but that means we were actually a little below the previous years averages prior to the baptisms. Why was this? What was happening? Also, are we keeping all our new baptisms? Yes, for the most part we are. Then that means previous members are no longer attending as much? Who? And why not? We discuss this, look at this, try to work on this, and we know about all this; why? Because we count.
Another area counting has helped is that based on the data collected the past five years, analysis tells us there are 4 months that are exceptionally high months of church attendance & three months that are exceptionally low in attendance. So what do we do with this information? We schedule for our strengths. We don’t actually try to improve the attendance for the months that are low; five years is enough to show us that these are months that folk just don’t attend church. Rather than wasting time trying to get people there those months we accept reality and instead focus on growing the average months the rest of the year. We also take advantage of the exceptionally high months by making those services as evangelistically appealing as possible. How many churches plan big events in months that are traditionally low and then wonder why no one showed-up? Too many I’m afraid! Why? Because they don’t count.
Has this made you decide to count?
I hope so, because…
…a lack of counting will lead to acceptance and even an over glorification of the status quo.
A lack of counting can prevent growth.
A lack of counting thwarts strategic planning.
A lack of counting may cause you to miss the members that are missing even though you’re adding new folk all the time.
A lack of counting is dangerous and hopefully after you’ve read this blog…
…a lack of counting is something you’ll never have to worry about again!
Please count! It will make a difference!