Tag: Issues

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Are You an Adventist or Christian First?

Adventist Today has posted the Jan-Feb edition of their magazine in its entirety. You can get to it at this link. In the editorial they asked several Adventist personalities do they consider themselves Adventist or Christian first. You can get to the answers at this link.

Important Question

It is interesting in that I have just had this conversation with a friend of mine. I think it is an important question for all of us to ask ourselves. Those of us who are doing ministry within different theological contexts must have it in their mind. For example, I have to answer this question as an Adventist who edits a website for ministers where 90% are not Adventist. That site is SoulPreaching.Com

I like the answers that Dwight Nelson gave to the question. He simply answered “yes.” He was both. I would answer this by saying it is not possible to be a true Adventist and not be a true Christian. While it is possible to have one’s names on the roll, being an Adventist requires a connection to the divine, requires believers baptism, requires faith in Christ as one’s savior.

But I would hasten to add, that it is likewise impossible to be a true Baptist and not be a true Christian. Or a true Methodist. Or other Christian groups.

My Baptist friend, Minister Napoleon Harris, who contributes to SoulPreaching.Com, when he says he is a Baptist, and when I say I am Adventist, we both know that while we do have significant differences, we are both members of that larger group called Christianity.

Can’t Ignore differences

We can’t simply ignore our differences, or even attempt to say that they are unimportant. We don’t become members of the “Christian” group by seeking to be “generic” Christians. No, my Baptist friend recognizes that the Baptist church has something to say to the Christian world. There is something about soul liberty, church liberty, and the priesthood of all believers that the Christian world needs to hear. His “Baptist” voice cannot be muted.

Likewise, my “Adventist” voice needs to be heard in the Christian world. There is something about God’s Law that should not be forgotten, something about a “Second-Advent focus” that needs to be heard, something about the necessity and importance of rest that the world needs.

Am I Christian first or an Adventist first? I can’t answer that question, just like my Baptist friend we say that we are Christian through our denominational heritage not in spite of it.

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Problems of Some Black Preaching

The problem of some Black preaching that makes it difficult to engage in authentic Adventist preaching is that we often celebrate, according to Rock, “doctrinal neutrality camouflaged in verbal vehemence.”

If we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that we have allowed people to prostitute the Black Tradition by simply yelling. We hear preachers copying the sermons from media ministers talking about our “Breakthrough” or our “blessing” while the teachings of our Adventist tradition and our Black tradition lay dormant.

Yelling and telling folks that they need to “worship God with noise” is not the essence of the Black preaching tradition. Less I am misunderstood, Celebration is an important component of Black worship and preaching. We should celebrate the goodness of God and the Gospel, but something is wrong when people are celebrating and have not been given any true reason for celebration.

There are some great Adventist preachers in the Black tradition, but noise without a core justice hermeneutic ain’t the beast of the Black tradition. And yelling without any application to the traditions of our own church ain’t Adventist preaching.

What is called for from Rock is not simply yelling…It is adherence to the Spirit of the Black Preaching Tradition as well as the Adventist Preaching Tradition. As we continue we will look at what Rock Considers we should do to get to that kind of preaching.