Have you ever been in a church where going on outreach with your fellow church members moved slower than molasses and was more painful than having teeth pulled? Maybe your church is shrinking, but you can’t seem to steal enough youth from the other Adventist churches to bring in the crowds. Or did your church recently split because a disagreement over a special music soundtrack exploded into an existential crisis? Whether you can relate to these vignettes or not, it is no secret that many Adventist churches are struggling. The question is: Why? Why the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Why now? It’s clear from the Bible and Adventist history that this was not always the case. Diagnosing the underlying problem is the only way to discover a rational cure. Is it just the pastor’s problem or is it the conference’s fault for departing from the straight and narrow? Or are our educational institutions to blame for not rightly training the youth? Or is it that one elder’s fault for shutting down every ministry idea that’s actually good as soon as it’s expressed in a board meeting? As you might imagine, the woes of Adventist congregations and their inability to accomplish God’s purpose of giving the gospel to the whole world are not limited to any one person, group, or ideology. Church health suffers whenever anyone, whether the pastor or a church member, insists on following his ideas or perceptions instead of surrendering to God’s will.
We all know people whose ideas may differ from ours. There’s the elderly man who thinks that 9/11 was planned by the government; your friend who questions whether the moon landing was real; and we can’t forget the new couple who started coming to church lately who thinks the earth is flat. We may think that some of these ideas are a little weird, or we might believe some of these things ourselves. Regardless, it seems that people get so stuck up on these ideas that the church freezes because it has no idea how to respond. A family once came into a church with some of these ideas, and their church concentrated all its energy on helping them to see that they were wrong. But they wouldn’t change their opinions, even though the church presented “cold, hard evidence.” Meanwhile, the local congregation lost the spark to go out and reach the community for Christ, and the members became bitter toward each other. How do we face these controversies that plague our Church?
This isn’t the first time the Christian mission has been stalled by differences in opinion: Right after Jesus went to heaven, the Church started out very strong. They were united in many different ways. However, while they shared a common desire to preach the gospel to the world, they disagreed about how to do it. Some suggested that the Jewish ceremonial laws needed to be instituted on the Gentiles who wanted to become Christians. Others believed these rules were unnecessary and would discourage people from accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior. The debate got very intense. But then Paul and Barnabas spoke up. “They listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.”[1] As they listened, they came to understand that their debate over circumcision was Satan trying to distract each of them from doing the work they were supposed to do. They realized the truth of Jesus’ words and how He was with His disciples as they went to places that had never heard the gospel. This was not the last struggle of the early Church, but this struggle made the early Church more determined than ever to share the love of Jesus with a hurting and dying world.
Today, many churches face problems of similar magnitude to those the early Christian Church faced. But if we lay aside our ideas and seek to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as the early Christian Church did, we can become one in Christ. The Bible tells us that “the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”[2] The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth,[3] enabling us to know and empowering us to obey God’s will. It is therefore vital for all of us, whether we are a pastor or an ordinary member, to earnestly pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives and our churches. The Holy Spirit will give unity and power to the Church to finish the work of reaching the world with the gospel.
Another element that has tremendous implications for church health is members’ and pastors’ perception of the pastoral role. Let me illustrate: I grew up in an Adventist “Mecca” near a large Adventist university. My family attended a small church with 50-100 people on an average Sabbath. A few years ago, we got a new pastor who really became popular with the community. We loved this pastor because he made us feel included in his decision-making and did his best to get the church involved in every way possible. Attendance increased. We started having guest speakers that only larger churches would typically get, and the house was packed. It was amazing! However, a few years later, a new pastor came to the church. This pastor didn’t have the same personality or focus as the previous pastor. Almost immediately, people started dropping off the books and moving to other churches, and the 200+ members that packed the church building were reduced to the faithful few who had attended all along.
This story illustrates the tendency of church members to become dependent on their leader. God foresaw this tendency, which is why we are instructed that “ministers should not be retained in the same district year after year, nor should the same man long preside over a conference. A change of gifts is for the good of our conferences and churches.”[4] Think about pastors like water. There needs to be a constant flow. Otherwise, the water becomes stale and stinky. According to the Biblical record, Paul spent a maximum of three years in one place, and then he moved on and sent other people to pick up where he left off. One of those people was Timothy, and he was sent to several of the churches Paul began, including Corinth[5] and Philippi.[6] If pastors and members were to value this counsel from God above their own professional and personal goals, we might observe more positive trends throughout our churches.
The focus of our pastors should be evangelism and church planting: “There should not be a call to have settled pastors over our churches. . .” Instead, “. . . the life-giving power of the truth [should] impress the individual members to act, leading them to labor interestedly to carry on efficient missionary work in each locality.”[7] Each church member is to learn to do evangelistic work and depend on Christ, not the pastor.
It is essential that our pastors be trained by our seminaries to be church planters and evangelists. They should be prepared to instruct those who come into the church to do evangelistic work, while they move on to unreached territory. The counsel is, “Our ministers are not to spend their time laboring for those who have already accepted the truth. With Christ’s love burning in their hearts, they are to go forth to win sinners to the Saviour. . . . Place after place is to be visited; church after church is to be raised up. Those who take their stand for the truth are to be organized into churches, and then the minister is to pass on to other equally important fields.”[8] When we, pastors and church members, learn to listen and unreservedly obey God’s directions, the Church will unite, the latter rain will be poured out, and the world will be reached with the gospel.
In conclusion, it stands to reason that whenever anyone in the Church allows anything, whether that be personal ideas or a misguided perception of leadership to take the place of God and His instructions, church health suffers and the Church fails to truly be the light of the world. While our self-drafted agendas may impress others, the Bible declares to us that God has made “foolish the wisdom of this world.”[9] It may be easy to see where a pastor, conference, educational institution, or fellow member has failed to make God their first consideration. However, regardless of how much others have failed, our churches will not become healthy until each of us makes God first in his own life and decision making. If we really want to see the latter rain of the Holy Spirit reach the whole world with the gospel, we need to make God number One and listen to His voice—individually and as church congregations. Will you today surrender your ideas and perceptions—your will—to God and commit to obeying His voice?
[1] Acts 15:12 (ESV)
[2] 1 Cor. 2:11
[3] John 16:13
[4] Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers (Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald Publishing Co., 1892), 240.
[5] 1 Cor. 4:17
[6] Phil. 2:19
[7] Ellen G. White, “The Work in Greater New York,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, January 8, 1902, par. 9.
[8] Ibid.
[9] 1 Cor. 1:20