True In Spite of Opposition

Psalm 27:8 

American Standard Version (ASV)

⁸ When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek.

A long time friend, whom I’ll call Eric, was a pastor in the Adventist Church. Like I did, he grew up in an extremely legalist church. Like so many of my contemporaries he spent many prayerful hours studying scripture, initially to support the ideas he had grown up with. Gradually the magnificent gospel of Jesus Christ forced its way through the smog of the false and enslaving salvation by works. He accepted the wondrous, all-encompassing grace of Christ and the marvelous freedom from guilt and bondage.

Eric’s and my paths didn’t cross very often. Some 15 years after graduating from college we spent some time together comparing our experiences after having pursued very different, widely separated careers. We worked at the same place for a year or two and casually shared our new found appreciation of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross and what it means to Christians today.

Eric was pastor of a number of churches over many years. The conference he served in still clings to its old emphasis on the efficacy of strict Sabbath keeping, tithe paying, and dietary restrictions for salvation. He rejoiced in preaching that good works are a result of a grace based salvation rather than the means to that salvation. Eventually the conference took a unilateral action that where there was a difference in what the Bible said and what the Spirit of Prophecy said, members were to adopt the latter as the supreme authority.

Eric knew that Ellen White wrote that she was but the “lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light,”[i] and he felt that he could no longer in all honesty continue to pastor for that conference. He resigned and after a period of study time preached for a different denomination until his retirement. I heard many rumors criticizing Eric, demonizing him, accusing him of apostasy, and the list went on and on. Years later, when I had a chance, I sought him out and spent a day with him. What a wondrous fellowship this was. As usual his detractors were misinformed at best, and a few malevolent. Eric had not apostatized. His spirit was one of warmth and forgiveness. He expressed sorrow for the misunderstandings and firm confidence in the grace of Christ to save us all.

Lord, grant us firm assurance in the Grace of Christ. Make it the firm pillar in our quest for sanctification.

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[i] Colporteur Ministry p125

Is Anything Too Trivial for God?

Romans 8:32

The Voice (VOICE)

³² If He did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over on our account, then don’t you think that He will graciously give us all things with Him?

I was walking through a library book sale yesterday. To my delight I found three volumes of a six volume stamp catalog series that I have wanted to get. Instead of $120 each that is the price for new ones, these were older and only $1 each. I looked around to see if I could find the other three. With something like 10,000 books of all kinds on sale, I had no luck. So I purchased the three and took them out to the car.

Then with a prayer in my heart I decided I would have one more look. All of a sudden in a pile of books I had looked at several times before I discovered the missing volumes and a specialized catalog. I rejoiced and praised the Lord. I got the equivalent of $840 of catalogs for $7.

Several years ago we were driving through a part of Africa where crime was extremely prevalent, and it was getting close to nightfall. Naturally we prayed for a safe place to stay. We had just found out that there was a special conference going on in town, so all of the resorts and hotels were already full. We asked a clerk at a tire store if he knew where we might stay. “Wait a minute!” he replied and disappeared. He came back in five minutes and handed us a phone number. It was for a resort not two miles south of us that had a vacancy.

Is anything too trivial to bother God with?

Thank You, Lord, that You are just as interested in supplying a one dollar catalog as a life saving place to sleep.

Men's Ministry

Matthew 14:21

The Voice (VOICE)

²¹ There were 5,000 men there, not to mention all the women and children.

Sylvia often reads to me while I’m driving. Riding down to the beach on a scorching August Sunday afternoon, she read an article in the Adventist World announcing a new international ministry for men.[i] The author, Consuegra, used two pages of the church’s official news magazine to promote and defend an outreach to men. Ever since the 19^th century the church has a history of launching ministries to various groups of people including ethnic groups, children, women, and nations. Some were launched with great fanfare, some even at the urging of Ellen White.

“Why men?” I asked myself.  You may have noticed that there are usually significantly more women than men that attend your church every week. This may be a reason for starting a Men’s Ministry. However, read on.

Some years ago we attended a large institutional church. I confess that I was not receiving the spiritual nurture I craved. Our family sat in the front row of the back balcony each Sabbath. In boredom I counted the worshipers below me. In fact, I counted the males and females separately and noted down the numbers. This little exercise went on week after week for four years. Eventually I entered the numbers into a spreadsheet. Its software easily drew a graph showing the weekly rising or falling of attendance. It also calculated and plotted lines of regression that showed long-term tendencies. After all, I am a mathematician.

On the street one day I happened to meet the pastor, whom I regard as a personal friend and whose preaching I value. I pulled out the graph as an intellectual curiosity and showed it to him. He stopped talking, he even stopped breathing. His face turned as white as a sheet. I began to fear for his health. He walked away in a daze.

The next Sabbath a deaconess walked down the outside aisles of the church quietly counting the attendees. This went on for a few months. Then the pastor announced that he was transferring to another continent and left us.

The graph showed a slow and steady decline in attendance. What’s more, it showed that average female attendance dropped off every year by 3%, but average male attendance had dropped off every year by 7%. In other words, at the end of about 4 years, 10% of the women and almost 25% of the men in our church were no longer attending. Coincidentally there was significant emphasis on women in ministry at the time, and we ordained our first two women to the ministry on December 2, 1995. How much effect did this emphasis have on the men’s decisions? I don’t know.

Since that time, huge changes have taken place in the institutional church. I believe that many of these changes are for the better. It’s high time that the church recognize that its men are an irreplaceable asset to the church. They are also people for whom Christ died and whom he chose to be leaders in His church.

Lord, grant Your church wisdom to serve all of its members no matter who they are.

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[i] Consuegra, Claudio “Another Ministry? Why a ministry for men makes sense,” Adventist World—NAD August 2014, p. 14.