Tag: Text Articles

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Who Authorized This Ministry?

The other day someone called the phone line for Sabbath Pulpit Ministries with an interesting question. It was a Seventh-day Adventist woman who wanted to know who authorized the website. She wanted to know if I had had proper permission to publish to the web from some denominational or ecclesial body. When I told her that my authorization comes solely from Jesus Christ’s command to “go ye therefore,” I could tell that the ministry had lost credibility in her eyes.

Still-Born Ministries – No Authorization

Initially, I saw this as simply one person’s indictment of this ministry. However, as I thought about this, the gravity of the situation hit me. This individual has a mindset that would preclude her from pushing forth her own God-given dreams of ministry because it was not “authorized properly.” And more, she would discourage anyone from pursuing their own ministry, if not “properly authorized.” Could it be that part of the long delay is that all of the God inspired ministries of our members are waiting for “proper authorization?”

Your ministry may not qualify you to be a member of ASI, but your is still a God given ministry. You may not have the right to call your ministry “Adventist,” but it is still a ministry. You may have people call you on your line and question your authorization, but yours is a ministry.

God’s Ministry Plan

The organized structure can’t contain the variety of the work that is to be done. When Joel 2:28 is fulfilled and God’s spirit is poured out on all flesh and our sons and daughters prophesy let us not be a hindreance to the work that God is doing. Whether authorized by the brethren or not…

So I encourage you to find the ministry that God has tailored you to. If that ministry is a department in the church, praise God and work in that. If that ministry is a new work that your church or conference wishes to support and promote, Go on ahead, in God’s grace and do that ministry. If you have been baptized, you are authorized for baptism is your ordination to the ministry God has called you to. If you are experienced in a field, find a way to use it for ministry. And if, yours is a ministry that the church cannot support due to financial or personnel reasons, go on ahead and do it. Just make sure that when someone asks you “who authorized this ministry” you can say with conviction, “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

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The Hospice Mindset

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The church is not a place for the righteous, it is a hospital for sinners.

So goes the popular saying that has taken on almost cliche-like proportions in many of our churches. The idea is that anyone who expects church members to live differently than those who are not members.

Is the Statement Helpful?

The statement is a helpful thing to keep in mind if it reminds us of our own hypocracy or even lack of understanding that the Christian life is one of growth and that we cannot expect new people to be as far along as some of our more seasoned members. It is helpful when it reminds us of these things.

However, too often the saying promotes a situation where there is no growth. It can hide the fact that often it is not the new members who are still falling to the sin that so easily besets them, but the old ones. Too often, it promotes the illogical and unchristian idea that we should not expect Christians to live any differently than those on the outside. Too often the saying promotes a mindset that is quick to call anyone a hypocrite who is calling the church to live better.

Do They Mean Hospice?

In short, too often the saying is used incorrectly. When the saying is used to support Christians who do not grow, then the speaker should say that “the church is not a hospital but a hospice.

A hospice is a place where the sick go to be comforted before dying. The sick go to have their pains masked by drugs while they wait for that same illness to overtake and kill them. Too often, we want to make the church a place where the sick can be confortable while they continue the dying process. A place where they will not be confronted by the realization that healing is possible in Jesus Christ. A place where those who do not wish to be bothered by any of the ethical implications of the gospel can go to have a good shout and go home to live unchanged lives.

Too often we want the church to be a hospice where we do not allow Jesus to take from us our most cherished sins. Too often we want the church to be a hospice where the same sin that elicited our need for Jesus ultimtaely kills us!

Reclaiming the Truth in the Statement

But the saying is right, the church is not a hospice, no, it is a hospital. It is a place where Jesus shows up. It is a place where sick folks are healed. Yes, people are broken in need of great help, but Jesus does something. Yes the church is a hospital.

To not expect that the sinner will get better is not a hospital mindset it is a hospice mindset. To not expect that Jesus is able to help me to overcome all of my weakness is a hospice mindset not a hospital mindset. Certainly the church is a place where the sick congregate, but are the sick expected to get better after a confrontation with the King of the Universe, or are the sick simply entertained while the ailment that brought them there ultimately kills them?

That is the question. Is it truly a hospital where the sick get well or a hospice where the sick are comforted and entertained before they die in their sins?

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Taking a Bite out of Adventism

Wrong, Right, or Irrelevant? You know there is no greater crime than to preach an irrelevant message. An irrelevant message is by definition unimportant and a waste of time. We all have heard wrong messages. Many of us have heard right messages. These messages inspire in us a desire to do something. They inspire us to move forward. Or maybe they just inspire us to attack the message. Yes it may be wrong, but it is important enough for the speaker to present it, therefore it is probably important enough for me to attempt to correct the speaker.

Right, Wrong or Irrelevant?

However, there is another category of message. This is the “irrelevant ones.” These are the messages that are only of “academic” interest. You may be right, I may be right, but in the end, it really doesn’t matter. For most of us, when we immediately recognize such a message, we ignore it and move on. There are some of us who actually specialize in this type of message, and soon we find ourselves in a position where no one will listen to us.

Is Our Contribution Irrelevant?

applebite300Interestingly enough, there are some among us who think that Adventism’s contribution to the Christian world is an irrelevant add on. We talk about the Sanctuary Message being the doctrine that we bring to the Christian world. But then we immediately assure our Christian brothers and sisters from other denominations that this message does not really affect our understanding of the Gospel. No our understanding of the Gospel is just the same as yours, we just have added this doctrine to talk about it. No the sanctuary does not really mean that Christ will one day stop doing the work of forgiveness while he will ever retain the work of empowerment. No the sanctuary just means that God investigates who will be saved before Jesus returns. It is not about soul transformation, no we are just like you as far as the Gospel in concerned. We just fiddle around with some mathematical calculations that end up at 1844, but you don’t really have to know that, all you really have to know is what you already know.

The Neutered Message

What we have ended up doing is neutered the sanctuary message so that the Christian world will not see it as a barrior to fellowship. Once you have done that, then you end up with a doctrine that is meaningless. And why preach a meaningless doctrine? And so we don’t. We set it aside and forget about it. No we ain’t been called to ignore that message. Neither have we been called to neuter it so that others will not find it offensive. Neither have we been called to turn it into a mathematical calculation or a celestial book-keeping operation that has no meaning for my contemporary living.

In short, I would rather you defend the real sanctuary message that includes soul cleansing. But if you must go ahead and attack the real sanctuary message. But please don’t continue to promote the ignoring of this important message by turning it into meaningless drivel that we pull out once in a while at revelation seminars.