As the King James Version states it: “Pride goeth before destruction…” Proverbs 16:8
An article from The Christian Century and picked up by the U.S.A. Today have recently been passed around amongst Adventists affirming our church growth in North America. Yesterday my twitter and e-mail box was a buzz with this article. Most the comments from folk indicated excitement about our growth and making statements of pride regarding the growth of the Adventist Church in the U.S..
Here are a couple realities though:
We are the fastest growing church amongst the Mainline Protestant Denominations:
We are growing more than any other mainline denomination in North America, but our growth is minimal in comparison to our past history and to the world:
I believe it would be wise of all of us to celebrate the individuals that are accepting Jesus and the message we teach as Adventists, but to not celebrate our growth because we still have a LONG way to go and God can do so much more if we will all have the heart of Jesus to “save the Lost.” Matthew 18:11. If we don’t have that heart and instead our hearts are turned to pride over our “growth” we will soon find destruction!
It would be mindful to hold in our thoughts the comment of Dr. Ron Clouzet in the Christian Century article,
“We don’t feel that we’re growing very much, and that is a source of concern, especially for North America,” said Ron Clouzet, director of the North American Division Evangelism Institute at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich. Hispanic Adventists are “the one group that is growing very well,” he added. “If we didn’t have that group, we would look even more dismal.””
May God increase and we decrease!
So I guess today is a music day! What a beautiful song written by Darlene Zschech. I am looking forward to us doing it at the Visalia Seventh-day Adventist Church.
You probably think I am talking about:
But Christina doesn’t agree with me and I don’t get that! Still it is foolish for me to argue about it, and it is foolish of me to expect her to love it the way I do, she doesn’t have my shared history with the place. I guess there are things in our lives that we may love and be intensely passionate about that other folk just won’t see the same way…so I guess it would be good for me and for all of us to accept that about each other and not fight or become upset with people when they see stuff and places different than we do.
“Thou shalt not steal!” –Exodus 20:15
Bob Deffinbaugh wrote about stealing on the site Bible.org. I would encourage you to go and read his entire article, but here is just a little snippet that was profound and convicting to me about a major source of theft in our society:
“Stealing is a subject well worth our attention for several reasons. First, stealing has become a national problem of epidemic proportions. For example, consider the impact of “time theft” on our economy:
The Robert Half Personnel Agencies has calculated that time-theft will cost the American economy as much as $70 billion a year. Time-theft is defined as those deliberate employee actions which result in the massive, growing misuse and waste of time. Estimated time-theft are: arriving to work late, leaving early, taking unjustified ‘sick’ days, extensive socializing with co-workers, turning the water cooler into a conversation pit, inattention to the job at hand, reading novels and magazines on the job, operating a business on the side during working hours, eating lunch at the desk and then going out for the ‘lunch hour,’ excessive personal phone calls, on-the-job daydreaming and fanticizing, long, frequent coffee and snack breaks, etc.“
Are you involved in “time theft” ?