Divergence

This blog post was written for the Spectrum Blog and was posted on August 15, 2012 here . Last week I asked what Martin Luther King would say about the current ordination struggle. Today I am asking what Ellen White would say. In The Great Controversy, White writes about Martin Luther’s experience before the Diet of Worms. In this chapter, she hails Luther as a great model of faith who was willing to stand up for his convictions despite great opposition and risk of personal peril. During his trial at the Diet of Worms, Luther was told that he must either retract his writings or face severe consequences. White records Luther’s response: “The Reformer answered: ‘Since your most serene majesty and your high mightinesses require from me a clear, simple, and precise answer, I will give you one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the councils, because it is clear as the day that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless...

This blog post was originally written for the Spectrum Blog and was posted on August 8, 2012 here .  I often find myself turning to the sermons and writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. when contemplating issues of justice. In light of the debate surrounding women’s ordination, I turned again to his writings, specifically his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” [i] for guidance. In reading this letter again, I was struck at how relevant it is for the discussion today. The “Letter From Birmingham Jail” was written in response to a letter he received while in jail from eight white ministers. This letter was titled, “A Call For Unity,” in which the pastors urged King and others fighting for justice to pursue the matters through the courts and to abide by their decisions. They suggest that progress was being made and that the demonstrations were “unwise and untimely.” [ii] In eerily similar fashion, on June 29, the General Conference also issued their own “Appeal For Unity...

This blog post was originally written for Spectrum Blog and posted on their site on July 16, 2010 here . Should the Seventh-day Adventist Church strive to remain unique and distinctive in its beliefs and practices? Is our uniqueness a virtue? My guess is that the majority of Adventists would answer those questions with a hearty, “yes.” In fact, many of our institutions and ministries use the importance of remaining unique to justify their existence, raise funds, and sell their products. In contrast to this, I would like to suggest that the desire to remain unique is, in fact, negatively affecting our faith and witness and should not be one of our goals. If you look up the definition of “unique,” you will find phrases such as “highly unusual or rare,” or “radically distinctive.” If this is what it means to be unique, the fact that we have so many unique doctrines simply means that we have not been effective enough in our witness. Instead of being a virtue, our uniquen...

It was shaping up to be a long, draining Sabbath an Adventist pastor experiences quite often. I got up around 7am and didn't finish the day until 10pm (I did get a chance to sneak a nap in so that helped). Although too long, it provided a lot of thought-provoking experiences that made it manageable. The week turned out to be filled with good news. On Monday, a member had a baby so that was exciting. Another member had back surgery on Tuesday that went well. Wednesday, one of our members' sons was had a very rare and serious surgery. It literally took all day but by late afternoon we got the great news that everything had gone well. So, we were coming to church in a celebrative mood. Then, before Sabbath School started, a mother and daughter-in-law were crying and hugging each other because another daughter-in-law was given bad news about her cancer. The doctors have told her she has two months to live. This actual is quite typical in church. You have people coming full of prais...

In our last post we looked at the idea of evangelism being an invitation to join a shared faith journey. It’s not about presenting a completed theological package but a process of shared discovery as the Spirit unfolds truth. I ended that post with the idea that this is a better way not just because it “works” but more true to our Christian experience and calling. One of the guiding principles of the Adventist church that I connect most deeply with is the idea of progressive truth. The early church founders were dead set against any kind of creed because they felt it would stop the church from growing in its understanding of God and his Word. I believe the church has gradually lost this sight of this guiding principle but it must be regained. Our greatest fear cannot be what new things God might reveal to us that would cause discomfort but instead remaining mired in our present understanding of the amazing God we all want to know. Jesus serves as the model of someone who constantly c...

Evangelism is typically viewed as something done by full-time ministers who preach a message that the evangelized person accepts and starts a process leading to baptism. It’s usually presenting a completed theological package and is a one-way street from evangelizer to the evangelized. While that approach has its place, I’d like to suggest that a different model is needed today. What if we viewed evangelism as an invitation? Not an invitation to hear a proclamation but an invitation to a shared faith journey. The woman at the well in John 4 gives us the model for this approach. She has a life-transforming experience with God and then has no choice but to share it with the community. She doesn’t have it all figured out but actually asks the question, “Can this be the Messiah?” In this way she invites people to engage in discussion and discovery together. It’s not based on a neat theological package she has developed with all the answers but a reliance on the Holy Spirit to unfold tru...

If only there was an easy answer to that question. I've found that each "success" in minstry brings with it the realization that there is much more work to be done. For each baptism, knowing there are millions more unreached people in the city. For each life-changing sermon for one person, 10 others who were sleeping the whole time. For each conflict resolved, 1,000 more on the way. Success and the idea of a job well done and completed seems like an impossible dream. With this in mind, I've found myself relying on one thing to make myself feel successful. In talking with other pastors and seeing them twittering and updating their facebook statuses they seem to have the same definition of success as well. What makes a pastor successful? BUSYNESS. That's all we can end up relying on in the end. We see all the things that can and should be done. Our church members constantly come to us reminding us of all that is wrong with the church. So, we just take satisfacti...