Participants:
Series Code: DPM
Program Code: DPM000028A
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00:04 Many of the early Adventist pioneers
00:07 came from a Methodist background. 00:09 And one of the things 00:11 that the Methodists did through John Wesley 00:13 is they had what was called class meetings, 00:16 which was basically small groups in people's homes. 00:19 That's one of the things Wesley had done. 00:22 And so what happened is 00:24 people who became Christians or were thinking of it, 00:26 they would meet in people's homes, 00:28 and in these class meetings, 00:30 they would learn what it meant to grow as a Christian 00:32 and in their spiritual journey. 00:34 And all of those class meetings were led by lay people. 00:39 So when many of them join the Advent movement, 00:42 the idea of lay ministry 00:43 was something that was already ingrained 00:46 within their psyche. 00:48 And so those are three of the reasons 00:49 the Adventist Church did what they did in the beginning. 00:53 Now what I want to do, 00:54 as I'm going to read to you a quote that describes 00:58 what the early Adventist Church did 01:00 for the first 60-70 years of its existence, 01:03 just notice how their ministry is described. 01:06 It says, 01:08 "For the first 60-70 years of its existence, 01:12 the Seventh-day Adventist Church 01:13 had an itinerant clergy." 01:15 Now you know what itinerant means? 01:18 They didn't stay in one place. 01:19 They kept going from one city and town to another. 01:24 It goes on to say, 01:25 "Their main function was to raise up churches 01:28 and give oversight to many local congregations, 01:33 who primarily cared for themselves. 01:35 There were no," what? 01:38 "Settled pastors 01:40 who were the chief care givers for the local church. 01:43 In this sense, 01:44 the structure was very similar 01:46 to that of the first century church." 01:50 And that comes from a book called 01:51 Recovering an Adventist Approach to the Life 01:54 and Mission of the Local Church. 01:56 I want us to notice a few things there. 01:58 It specifically says that the pastors, 02:00 the few ministers there were 02:02 in the beginning of the movement, 02:04 because in the beginning there weren't that many. 02:06 They were itinerant evangelists, 02:08 they were sent to unentered areas 02:10 to raise up new groups of believers, 02:12 while churches basically functioned being lay lead. 02:16 And so very purposely, 02:18 the early Adventist Church followed the pattern 02:22 that we learned this morning 02:23 from the early New Testament Church, 02:26 that was not by accident, 02:28 that was not by chance, 02:29 they did that on purpose 02:31 because is if the remnant movement 02:34 supposed to be like the original. 02:36 Can you say amen? 02:38 And so they took mission very, very seriously. 02:41 They knew they were not just another denomination. 02:46 That it was actually very rare 02:48 that a pastor would come 02:50 and preach to a local congregation 02:52 in the first 60-70 years, 02:54 because all the pastor's time was spent 02:56 planning churches and in evangelism. 03:00 Now they might see a pastor maybe once a quarter, 03:04 you can imagine that? 03:05 A pastor once a quarter. 03:08 You say what, 03:09 how did they function like that? 03:10 What did they do for a church service? 03:13 They had what Ellen White called the social meeting. 03:17 Now how many of you are familiar 03:19 with the term social meeting? 03:21 That's some Ellen White wrote about 03:23 even over 100 years ago, 03:24 what would happen is the early Adventist Church, 03:27 they would have a Sabbath school 03:29 just like we have today. 03:31 But when there was no minister who would preach a sermon, 03:33 which was on most Sabbaths, 03:35 what they would do 03:37 is they would basically have a social meeting 03:39 which was like a testimony time. 03:41 And that's where people would just stand up 03:43 and share how they were growing in the Lord 03:46 or share their trials. 03:47 And people would pray with them together, 03:50 they would share what they were learning 03:51 in their Christian journey. 03:53 And it was a time 03:54 just for fellowship and bonding, 03:56 because the early church did not sense 03:58 that they had to have a sermon every single week. 04:03 People simply shared their testimonies 04:06 and Ellen White speaks a lot about 04:08 how the Holy Spirit moved within those social meetings. 04:12 In fact, the most, 04:14 you know when the most time 04:15 was that Adventists believers would actually hear 04:17 an Adventist minister? 04:19 Guess where it was? 04:21 You're right, there was at camp meeting. 04:22 It wasn't in the local churches, 04:24 because even camp meetings in the early church 04:27 were totally different. 04:29 Today, when we do camp meeting, 04:31 probably 90% of the people who are there are what? 04:35 They are Adventists, probably more than 90%. 04:38 Back in the early Adventist Church, 04:40 it was just the opposite. 04:41 Camp meeting was actually meant to be an evangelistic endeavor. 04:46 During the day, 04:47 the messages were for the Advent believers, 04:50 in the evenings and on the weekends, 04:53 they were actually evangelistic messages 04:55 for the community 04:56 that people were supposed to bring individuals to. 04:59 So even camp meeting functioned in a mission centered 05:04 and evangelistic way 60-70 years ago. 05:08 In fact, when you do some research, in 1903, 05:12 there was what's called the California Conference. 05:15 Now today, 05:16 California is broke up into four different conferences, 05:19 but back then they were all one conference. 05:22 And so when the California Conference in 1903, 05:26 when they received a request from a group of believers 05:29 to send them a minister, 05:31 this is what would happen. 05:33 Instead of sending them a minister, 05:35 if they've learned that there was an area 05:36 where there was already 05:38 a significant number of Advent believers, 05:40 they would not send a pastor there. 05:43 They believe that 05:44 the Advent believers there 05:46 were capable of handling their own church 05:49 and being able to work in a mission minded way 05:52 in their locality. 05:54 They would send pastors to areas 05:56 where there were no Advent believers. 05:59 Now today, it's just the opposite. 06:02 We would send a pastor to a place, 06:04 a new place where there's already Advent believers, 06:07 and we would say, 06:08 "Oh, we can't send them somewhere 06:10 where there's no one to work with." 06:12 But the early Adventist Church saw it 06:14 in a completely different and a completely opposite way. 06:18 What would happen if we started looking at things 06:22 in that manner? 06:23 When there's a place 06:24 where there's already believers? 06:26 Yes, give them some training. 06:27 Yes, give them some encouragement, 06:28 have someone they can talk to when necessary 06:31 to help with certain issues, but for the most part, 06:34 clergy are sent to the unentered areas 06:36 that have no Adventist presence. 06:40 That's how it functioned in the early years. 06:43 Do you see a difference thus far? 06:45 I would hope so. 06:47 In fact, James White, at one of the Advent conferences, 06:51 when he was asked to describe 06:53 how the early Adventist Church did ministry, 06:56 notice the statement he made in the Review 06:59 and Herald from 1859. 07:01 Now this is more than 150 years ago. 07:03 This is what he said, 07:05 quote, 07:07 "We have no settled pastors over our churches, 07:11 but our ministers are all missionaries, 07:13 as were the early ministers of Jesus Christ." 07:17 Now, when he says early ministers, 07:19 he's talking about the apostles 07:21 of the early New Testament Church 07:23 in the first century. 07:24 But he said, "They must be sustained, " 07:26 meaning the ministers, 07:27 "and God has made it the duty of the church 07:30 to support them 07:31 as they go on their mission of love." 07:35 James White said 150 years ago, 07:38 we don't have settled pastors over our churches, 07:41 our ministers are missionaries going to the unentered areas, 07:44 just like the early ministers of Jesus Christ, 07:47 just like those early apostles, 07:50 and they taught churches to be lay lead, 07:53 so they can move on to the next town. 07:56 And so Adventism not only through James White, 07:59 but through the early pioneers, 08:01 they specifically followed the approach 08:03 of the early New Testament Church. 08:06 And see what struck me 08:07 is tithe was not used to pay clergy 08:12 to babysit churches. 08:14 Tithe was used to send people to the areas 08:19 that have no Advent believers. 08:22 Today, we do the opposite. 08:24 You know, we have certain formulas 08:25 that say, well, a church needs to have so much in tithe, 08:28 and then they can get a minister to themselves. 08:30 But early Adventist churches 08:32 never looked at it in the sense, 08:34 boy, we got to give more tithes 08:35 so we can get a pastor for ourselves. 08:38 They return tithe, 08:40 not because of what they could get out of it, 08:43 but because they wanted to see the Advent message 08:46 go to the unentered areas, 08:48 they supported people they would probably never see 08:51 or maybe see perhaps once a quarter. 08:54 And what is the attitude of some churches today? 08:57 Well, if I don't have a minister, 08:59 I'm not going to return my tithe. 09:01 And what we're really saying is, 09:03 I'll return tithe if I get something out of it. 09:06 But I'm not going to return tithe 09:08 if it means supporting people 09:10 that I'm never going to see in my life. 09:13 See, the whole mindset was completely different 09:16 in that early Adventist Church. 09:17 That's why they grew like wildfire 09:20 more than all these other denominations. 09:23 Now, I don't say that in pride and arrogance 09:25 but there was a very distinct difference 09:28 in the way the Adventist Church did ministry 09:30 as compared to the rest of the Christian world. 09:33 And actually, the secular world noticed this, 09:37 because one of the premier evangelists back in 1886 09:41 was a man named G. B. Starr, 09:43 he was an Adventist evangelist, 09:45 and he was asked to do a newspaper interview 09:49 because the world was noticing 09:51 how this Advent movement grew in 40 years, okay. 09:55 The Advent movement started, 09:57 you know, somewhere around the 1830s, 1840s. 10:00 So by 1886, 10:01 they're noticing 10:03 how fast this small group of people is growing 10:06 and how this message is spreading. 10:09 And so when a newspaper interview 10:11 was done with Elder Starr, 10:13 this was how he answered the reporter's questions. 10:17 The reporter said, 10:19 "By what means have you carried forward 10:21 your work so rapidly?" 10:23 And then Elder Starr said, 10:25 "Well, in the first place, 10:27 " replied the Elder, 10:29 "we have no settled pastors." 10:32 Are you noticing that theme 10:34 over and over again in these quotes? 10:36 "Our churches are taught to take care of themselves 10:39 while nearly all of our ministers 10:41 work as evangelists, 10:44 " in what kinds of fields? 10:45 "New fields." 10:46 Member of the California Conference, 10:48 they wouldn't send a pastor 10:50 to a place where they're already believers. 10:51 Why? 10:53 Because they functioned as evangelists in new fields. 10:56 And so as the secular newspaper is noticing this in 1886, 11:01 Elder Starr is telling them, 11:02 "This is what we do different. 11:04 We don't send pastors to look over churches, 11:07 like other denominations do. 11:09 We teach, we raise up lay leaders, 11:11 we teach them how to be lay lead, 11:13 to take hold of the mission in their territory 11:17 and we send the few clergy 11:18 that we do have into the unentered areas, 11:22 totally different from the rest of the Christian world, 11:26 but totally in sync 11:27 with what the first century church did 11:30 2,000 years ago. 11:32 In fact, 11:33 Seventh-day Baptists 11:35 were amazed at the growth of Seventh-day Adventists. 11:38 Now Seventh-day Baptist and Seventh-day Adventist, 11:41 their movements 11:43 basically came into being around the same time, 11:46 but Seventh-day Adventists 11:47 far outnumbered Seventh-day Baptists 11:50 and Seventh-day Baptists wanting to know why, 11:53 because they both shared the idea of the truth 11:56 of the seventh day Sabbath. 11:57 So why would one group of Sabbath keepers 12:00 be growing so much faster 12:02 than another group of Sabbath keepers? 12:05 And so when they interviewed Adventists, 12:07 this is what Seventh-day Baptists wrote 12:10 in their own paper 12:11 about Seventh-day Adventists, 12:13 quote, 12:14 this is from 1909. 12:16 They wrote, 12:17 "All Seventh-day Adventist clergymen are, " what? 12:21 "Missionaries, not located pastors, 12:24 and they are busy preaching and teaching 12:27 and organizing churches the world over. 12:31 " So not only 12:32 is the secular world noticing this, 12:34 other denominations are realizing, 12:36 wow, this Advent movement is growing so fast, 12:39 because they are doing something radically different 12:43 from the rest of the Christian world. 12:45 Now, it wasn't radically different 12:47 in the sense that 12:48 that's what the first century church did. 12:51 Remember the Middle Ages, all that was lost sight of, 12:54 and Rome took their priests and made them over parishes 12:59 and that's even what Protestantism did. 13:00 Even after the Reformation, 13:03 pastors were put into districts. 13:06 And the Advent movement, as far as I know, 13:09 was one of the first major movements 13:10 who rejected that 13:12 and went back to the New Testament model 13:15 of the first century. 13:16 That's why you read how they turned their world 13:19 basically upside down. 13:22 Now, you may wonder, 13:23 well, did Ellen White have anything 13:25 to say about this, 13:27 because this was during the time 13:28 when she was alive. 13:29 God gave her many visions and dreams about the direction 13:32 that this Advent movement should go. 13:35 And so you'll find 13:36 she said a lot of straightforward statements, 13:40 some of them very bold statements 13:42 about church planting and lay led churches. 13:45 I want to share a few of them with you. 13:48 She wrote, 13:50 "My heart has been filled with sadness 13:53 as I've looked over the field and seen the barren places, 13:57 " that mean places with no Adventist presence. 14:00 "What does this mean? 14:01 Who are standing 14:03 as representatives of Jesus Christ? 14:05 Who feels a burden for the souls 14:07 who cannot receive the truth 14:09 till it is brought to them." 14:11 And then she says, 14:12 "Our ministers are hovering over the churches, 14:16 as though the angel of mercy 14:17 was not making effort to save souls. 14:20 God holds these ministers responsible for the souls 14:24 of those who are in darkness." 14:25 And then she writes, 14:27 and she's really talking to ministers now 14:29 so this is really directed at me. 14:32 "He does not call you to go into fields 14:34 that need no physician, 14:37 establish your churches with the understanding 14:40 that they need not expect the minister to wait upon them 14:43 and to be continually feeding them. 14:46 They have the truth, they know what truth is, 14:50 they should have root in themselves. 14:53 These should strike down deeply, 14:55 that they may reach up higher and still higher. 14:57 They must be rooted and grounded in the faith." 15:01 Wow, that's 1901 she wrote that. 15:05 And so she was actually concerned that 15:07 there was so much energy on churches, 15:10 people that already know the truth, 15:12 while the barren fields are being neglected. 15:16 See around 1901, what was happening is, 15:19 now some of the churches were starting to demand 15:22 that they wanted to have their own minister, 15:24 they were starting to look out into the Christian world. 15:27 And even though they were growing, 15:28 they were starting to see wow, 15:30 you know, these other popular groups, 15:32 these other popular denominations, 15:34 they have their own settled minister, 15:37 we want to be more like them, 15:38 because then people will be more accepting of us. 15:41 And so where there was this call 15:43 to be like the other churches. 15:45 And so in the early 1900's, 15:47 Ellen White started writing against that, 15:50 because she knew the minute we took the clergy out 15:53 from being evangelists in unentered areas, 15:56 and settle them over churches, 15:58 she knew that the mission focus 16:00 of the Advent movement would die. 16:02 She knew that by the Spirit of Prophecy. 16:05 In fact, she felt so strongly about that, 16:08 she puts it this way. 16:09 She said, 16:11 "There should not be a call to have settled pastors 16:15 over our churches, 16:16 but let the life-giving power of the truth 16:19 impress its individual members to act, 16:22 to carry on efficient missionary work 16:25 in that locality. 16:27 As the hand of God, 16:28 the church is to be educated and trained 16:31 to do effective work. 16:33 Its members are to be the Lord's devoted 16:36 Christian workers, 16:37 the church is too one-sided." 16:41 That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? 16:43 I mean, she comes right out 16:44 and she's answering this call about, 16:47 we need to have pastors 16:48 in districts like other churches. 16:50 She said, there should not be a call 16:52 that have settled pastors over churches, 16:55 because she recognized that when that happens, 16:59 not only will mission die, 17:01 but the spirituality 17:03 of those churches will also die. 17:05 Because what would happen if as a parent, 17:08 you did every single thing for your child, 17:12 and you never let them learn anything, 17:15 you never let them learn how to walk, 17:17 or how to feed themselves, 17:19 or go to the bathroom 17:21 or to make decisions about themselves, 17:22 and you just totally hovered over them 17:25 and you never taught them to do anything on their own. 17:28 What would happen to them when they became adults? 17:31 Well, mentally, they would never become adults, 17:33 they would almost become, 17:35 you know, lifelong perpetual infants. 17:38 And God knew the same is true for the church. 17:41 And that's why He spoke through Ellen White, 17:43 there should not be a call to have settled pastors, 17:46 He knew what would happen to the idea of mission. 17:51 You see how visionary Ellen White was, 17:53 always pointing to the lay lead churches 17:56 telling them we cannot be like other churches, 18:00 because Christ coming 18:01 is not 2,000 years down the road. 18:04 This is the final movement, we have to do things different. 18:09 And she didn't make any bones about saying that. 18:12 In fact, 18:14 she made a quote as to what ministers should do 18:17 if they are in an area 18:18 where there are Advent believers. 18:20 This is what she said they should do. 18:22 She wrote, 18:24 "Let the minister devote more of his time 18:26 to educating than to preaching. 18:29 Let Him teach the people 18:30 how to give others the knowledge 18:32 they have received. 18:34 In laboring where there are already some in the faith, 18:38 the minister should at first seek 18:40 not so much to convert unbelievers, 18:43 "can you imagine that, 18:44 "as to train church members for acceptable cooperation. 18:49 God has not given His ministers 18:51 the work of setting the churches right. 18:53 No sooner is this work done, 18:55 and apparently, 18:57 it has to be done all over again. 18:59 Church members that are thus looked after 19:01 and labored for become religious weaklings. 19:05 " She obviously was not a politically correct person. 19:08 "If nine tenths of the effort that had been put forth 19:12 for those who know the truth 19:13 had been put forth 19:15 for those who never heard the truth, 19:16 how much greater would have been the advancement 19:20 that was made. " 19:22 I mean, she speaks in terms there's no confusing it. 19:25 She said, when a minister is with a group of believers, 19:29 a place where there already exists, 19:31 she's saying 19:32 that he should not be working for unbelievers there. 19:35 That's the church's job. 19:36 When he spends time with believers, 19:38 he should be training them how to do the evangelism 19:41 in their own territory. 19:43 He will convert unbelievers 19:44 when he's in an area 19:46 where there are no Adventist believers. 19:48 If that makes sense so far, can you say amen? 19:51 See, it's totally different 19:53 from the way that we see things today. 19:55 Sometimes people take that quote 19:56 and they say, 19:57 see the minister is supposed to stay 19:59 with the church all the time 20:00 and teach them how to do evangelism? 20:01 No, he's supposed to stay with them temporarily 20:04 and teach them how to do it. 20:06 Eventually he's moving on to unentered areas 20:09 not do their ministry for them in their locality. 20:13 His job was to multiply himself 20:16 by training others to use their gifts. 20:19 And lay ministry not only grows lay people, 20:23 but it grows the lost, 20:25 because the best way for a church to grow 20:28 is really for a church member to grow 20:30 to be involved in service to others. 20:33 Can you say amen? 20:35 See Ellen White says 20:36 there are three things we need to grow spiritually. 20:38 We know the first two pretty well, 20:40 Bible study and prayer. 20:43 But that's not it. 20:45 Because you know, 20:46 you can have Bible study and prayer 24 hours a day 20:48 and never grow spiritually. 20:50 Did you know that? 20:51 If you doubt that, look at the Pharisees. 20:53 They Bible studied and prayed more than anybody. 20:56 But they didn't recognize the Messiah 20:57 when He was right in front of their face, 20:59 because they lacked the third component 21:02 and perhaps so do we. 21:04 And the third component was service, 21:08 being involved in ministry to other, 21:10 that's what the Pharisees didn't have. 21:13 Because remember, their whole mentality was, 21:16 don't become corrupted by the world, don't get closed. 21:19 They were not involved in serving 21:21 and ministering to others. 21:23 And that's why Ellen White speak so much 21:26 that ministers when they spend time 21:28 with Advent believers, 21:29 train them to do ministry 21:31 so that by doing ministry, 21:32 they can grow spiritually. 21:35 And then the minister goes off to the unentered areas 21:38 to function as an evangelist. 21:41 It was good for the lost 21:42 and it was also good for the church. 21:45 That's how the early Adventist Church functioned. 21:48 She went on to talk about 21:50 how dangerous a pastor dependent mentality is. 21:53 And she wrote this in no uncertain words 21:56 in Testimonies, volume 7, she said, 22:00 "The greatest help they can be given to our people 22:03 is to teach them to work for God, 22:06 to depend on Him, not on the ministers. 22:09 So long as church members make no effort 22:12 to give to others to help given them, 22:14 great feebleness must result." 22:17 And she's talking about spiritual, 22:19 you know, feebleness, 22:20 because really, 22:22 if the minister does everything, 22:24 if we're just depending even on elders, 22:27 let's just say to do everything, 22:29 the members of that church 22:31 are not going to grow spiritually very much. 22:34 So in Ellen White's mind, in the Scripture's mind, 22:37 the best way to grow was be involved in service, 22:40 because without service, 22:41 there's going to be spiritual decay. 22:43 That's why she constantly advocated lay led churches. 22:48 It's what the New Testament Church did. 22:50 It's what the early Adventist Church did. 22:53 Well, if that's how the early Adventist Church did ministry, 22:56 and we saw how they grew, 22:59 then something must have happened, 23:01 because that's not how we're doing ministry today. 23:04 The principles we follow today are very different 23:06 from the early Adventist Church. 23:08 So just like the early New Testament Church 23:11 and something changed with them, 23:13 that's when the Roman Empire started 23:15 creating parish priests. 23:17 Something must have happened 23:18 with the early Adventist Church then, 23:21 something must have happened that stopped church planting 23:24 that caused our focus on mission to start dying, 23:28 something that caused us 23:29 to not plant lay lead churches anymore. 23:32 The question is, what happened? 23:35 I'm going to share it with you. 23:36 It's a sad lesson from history. 23:40 In 1912, A.G. Daniels, 23:43 who was the General Conference president at that time, 23:46 he and Ellen White both agreed strongly 23:48 on the idea and concept 23:50 of lay led churches and church planting. 23:52 In fact, A.G. Daniels made a statement, 23:55 a powerful statement 23:57 that just goes in over in my mind over and over again, 24:00 that actually turned out to be prophetic. 24:02 Now I'm not saying the man was a prophet, 24:03 but he made a statement 24:04 that I believe ended up being prophetic. 24:07 He said this in 1912. 24:09 He said, 24:10 "We have not settled ministers 24:12 over churches as pastors to any large extent. 24:16 In some of the very large churches, 24:18 we have elected pastors, 24:20 but as a rule 24:21 we have held ourselves ready for field service 24:24 for evangelistic work 24:26 and our brethren and sisters themselves have been ready 24:30 to maintain their church services 24:32 and carry forward their church work 24:34 without settled pastors." 24:37 And then he says, 24:39 "And I hope 24:40 this will never cease to be the order of affairs 24:43 in this denomination, 24:44 for when we cease our forward movement work 24:48 and begin to settle over our churches, 24:51 to stay by them 24:52 to do their thinking and their praying 24:54 and their work that is to be done, 24:56 then our churches will begin to weaken, 24:59 to lose their life and spirit, 25:01 they will become paralyzed and fossilized 25:04 and our work will be on a retreat. 25:08 " And what's amazing, 25:10 is exactly what he said came true. 25:14 Because by 19... 25:15 because in 1912, 25:16 the Adventist Church was structured 25:18 just like the New Testament Church. 25:21 But something happened in 1915 25:23 that would start to change that. 25:25 You know what happened in 1915? 25:28 Ellen White died. 25:30 By the 1920s, 25:32 Ellen White's voice was silenced by death. 25:35 A.G. Daniels was no longer 25:36 the General Conference president. 25:39 And in the 1920s, 25:41 we started giving into this demand 25:43 to have settled pastors over our churches. 25:47 And as we started going in that direction, 25:50 ever since then, 25:52 our growth has declined 25:53 particularly in the North American Division. 25:57 And what's interesting, 25:59 if you go back to denominational statistics, 26:02 right around the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, 26:06 you will begin to see that decline in the growth rate, 26:09 because it was at that period 26:11 were this call to be like other churches, 26:14 we started getting into, 26:16 and we didn't function 26:18 like we did in the early part of our beginning. 26:21 And what happened to us 26:23 is the same thing that happened 26:24 to the early New Testament Church. 26:27 Let me show you a couple of those statistics. 26:29 Now, these are older statistics, 26:30 but they still prove the point. 26:32 These are some of our divisions, 26:33 I hope you can read that. 26:35 Take the South American Division, 26:38 the South American Division at the time of these records, 26:41 they averaged about 10.6 churches per pastor. 26:46 So each pastor had somewhere 26:47 between 10 and 11 churches each, 26:50 and you notice what their growth rate was? 26:52 Over 16%. 26:55 Let's take North America, 26:57 who was averaging about one pastor 27:00 for every 1.4 churches. 27:02 So on average, 27:03 a pastor would have one or two churches, 27:05 now it's a little bit more because of the economy. 27:08 But you know what their growth rate was? 27:10 1.76, not even 2%. 27:15 And see, here's what happened. 27:17 In those1920s, 30s and 40s, 27:20 when the North American Division started going 27:22 in the direction of all other churches, 27:25 here's what happened. 27:27 Not all divisions did that. 27:30 Other divisions of the world, 27:31 particularly third world countries, 27:33 you know, who were economically repressed at that time, 27:36 they couldn't do that. 27:38 They didn't have the money and resources 27:40 to have a pastor for every one, two, or even three churches. 27:44 Financially, 27:45 there's just no way they could do that. 27:47 Third world countries, some places like in Africa, 27:51 places like in South America, they couldn't do that. 27:55 They had to stick with 10, 27:57 sometimes 20 churches per pastor. 28:00 Now the other divisions may do it 28:01 because they're forced to economically. 28:03 I remember, I went over to Africa, once, 28:05 I think it was Nigeria, 28:07 and remember we're getting ready to do a meeting. 28:09 And one of the guys came to me and he says, 28:12 "We want to be like you." 28:14 What do you mean you want to be like me? 28:16 Me, me or you mean, 28:17 like my country or what do you mean? 28:20 And he had the mindset 28:22 that every church in North America 28:24 was a growing vibrant church. 28:27 And what he was saying is, we want to be like you, 28:30 so we can have, you know, more pastors per churches. 28:34 And I had to share with him 28:35 not every church in North America 28:36 is a vibrant growing church. 28:38 And I tried to tell him, 28:39 you guys are actually the ones who's doing it right. 28:42 Don't follow our example, 28:43 we got lost along the way, somewhere. 28:45 That's why Africa, 28:47 on the continent of Africa right now, 28:49 they have three divisions, 28:51 three Seventh-day Adventist divisions 28:53 in one continent. 28:56 In just a few years, if it isn't already, 28:58 Africa will have more Seventh-day Adventists 29:00 than any continent on the face of the earth. 29:03 And Adventism didn't even begin there. 29:06 It began in North America. 29:08 Now we're the ones 29:09 that are repressed and we're not growing. 29:13 You know, long ago, 29:15 when Samuel was a prophet in Israel, 29:18 God had created Israel to be a theocracy. 29:21 And what that meant was God was their king, 29:24 not a human leader, God would guide them. 29:28 But eventually at the time of Samuel, 29:30 Israel didn't want to be different 29:32 than the other nations around them. 29:33 They wanted to be like those pagan nations. 29:35 And God said, 29:37 "No, I'm not going to give you a king." 29:38 Because God looked at those other nations 29:40 and he saw what happened when they had a king. 29:43 All the power was in one person. 29:45 He saw the abuse, 29:47 he saw the injustice 29:48 because it was basically like a dictator. 29:51 What he says goes, 29:52 and so God said, 29:54 "No, I'm going to be your king." 29:55 By the time of Samuel 29:57 Israel decided and said, you know what? 29:58 We want to be like these other nations, 30:00 we want a king 30:02 and God said to Samuel, 30:03 "Look, they're not rejecting you, 30:05 they're rejecting Me." 30:07 And God told them through Samuel, 30:08 "Okay, I will give you a king, 30:10 I'll work with your method 30:12 because I'm a merciful loving God, 30:13 but I'm going to tell you what's going to happen, 30:15 "You're going to get a king, 30:17 and he's going to lead you down the wrong path. 30:19 He's going to take your property, 30:20 he's going to take your lands, 30:21 he's going to take your sons to be in his army, 30:24 he's going to take your daughters 30:25 to be servants in his palace, 30:26 he's going to do things that you're not going to like. 30:29 And so they accepted Saul as king. 30:31 And though he started out pretty good, 30:33 you know how it ended with Saul. 30:35 And with the exception of David, 30:37 and maybe a few other good kings, 30:39 the vast majority of them lead Israel down the wrong path 30:44 though the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. 30:47 And unfortunately, 30:48 we have run a parallel of what Israel has done. 30:52 And so the question is, 30:54 how in these final days 30:56 can God's remnant movement get back to the biblical model, 31:00 where the mission of the lost is the primary focus, 31:03 pastors are free to evangelize the dark areas, 31:06 and churches are trained to become lay land. 31:09 How do we do that? 31:11 And the good news is, 31:13 I see North America 31:14 now trying to go in that direction again. 31:17 It's taken a long time, 31:19 it's not easy to turn a ship 31:21 that's been doing it one way for 80 or 90 years, 31:24 but I'm starting to see that happen. 31:26 I wish we'd never gone in the wrong direction, 31:28 then we might be where Africa is, 31:30 you know, right now 31:31 and some of these other nations, you know what? 31:33 Praise God. 31:34 Praise God, 31:36 these other divisions are growing. 31:37 You know, praise God, 31:38 they can be a light to show North America, 31:40 you know what? 31:41 You can be like us, instead of we being like you. 31:45 You know, we can have an independent attitude 31:47 sometimes here in North America. 31:49 And though I'm blessed, 31:51 I'm happy to be an American that lives in this country. 31:53 At this point, 31:54 I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. 31:56 But I also recognize there are some things 31:58 that need to change. 32:00 So how could it happen? 32:02 Let's end by giving a few possibilities. 32:05 What if we created districts of let's say, 32:08 five to ten churches each. 32:10 We won't start with 20, 32:12 North America would have a heart attack, 32:13 we'll have to go little by little. 32:15 So let's say we started with five to ten churches, 32:18 each of those churches 32:19 would be lay led either by a lay pastor, 32:21 qualified lay pastor that's trained, 32:23 or by the group of elders, 32:25 and then one or two conference pastors 32:28 would oversee that district. 32:30 And their job is to work the unentered fields, 32:34 while both providing support for the existing churches. 32:38 So that you know when a church has a problem, 32:40 they're not totally left on their own. 32:42 You can't leave them totally isolated, 32:44 because not even New Testament did that. 32:47 You know, Paul and Peter, 32:49 they stopped by those churches 32:50 that they had planted periodically, 32:52 and they kept in touch through letters. 32:54 And I'm sure that the ones in the Bible, 32:56 I'm sure, they're not the only letters 32:58 that they wrote to those churches. 32:59 So there was always still a connection there. 33:02 But they weren't there physically all the time 33:04 with that church. 33:06 So if we had one or two conference pastors to do that, 33:09 we would be much more like the biblical model. 33:12 And really, if you had one pastor, 33:15 let's say even one pastor, 33:17 his job was to work with those churches and train them, 33:20 that would open up two or three salaries 33:23 for other pastors to work solely in the unentered areas. 33:26 Because for 10 churches, 33:28 normally 10 churches would require 33:30 about three pastors, let's say, 33:32 let's say three churches per pastor. 33:34 Well, if one pastor takes care of those churches, 33:37 then you have two 33:38 that can be sent to the unentered areas, amen? 33:41 How is one pastor going to do five or ten churches? 33:44 Not the way we do it today. 33:46 He's not going to be going to every board meeting, 33:47 he's not going to be doing the prayer meetings, 33:49 he's not going to be there every Sabbath, 33:51 he is there simply to train the lay people 33:54 how to become a lay lead church, 33:57 then we'll be heading back to the biblical model. 34:00 I remember in the Pennsylvania Conference, 34:02 when I pastored there, 34:03 before I move, 34:05 they were starting a change effort. 34:08 And they had seen that there were 153 areas, 34:11 cities that had a population of 50,000, 34:14 no Adventist presence, none. 34:16 And then the work had been going on for 100 years 34:18 in that conference, 34:19 and they realized 34:20 we're not going to be able to build 153 church buildings, 34:23 we're not going to be able to have 153 paid pastors, 34:26 153 more salaries, 34:28 because you know, a pastor salary, 34:30 pastor salaries aren't rich, but they're not cheap either. 34:33 Because in North America, you got all these laws, 34:36 you got to have medical expenses 34:37 and you know, 34:38 and thanks to the way things are going right now, 34:40 and the way healthcare is, it's even more expensive, 34:43 you're required to have retirement, 34:45 and all these different things. 34:47 So, you know, when you see a salary, 34:50 you know, when you see someone at a workplace, 34:51 you say, "Oh, he gets 75,000 or 20,000, or whatever," 34:55 that's not the actual cost what it is to have that person. 34:58 That's not factoring in benefits and healthcare 35:01 and all the things that government requires. 35:03 It is not cheap to have a salary. 35:06 And so there's no way 35:07 we're going to have 153 salary pastors. 35:09 And so Pennsylvania started to experiment with something. 35:13 They created what's called Mission Districts. 35:16 Ever heard of that? 35:18 Mission Districts are basically what I just described, 35:21 a district of 5-10 churches, 35:23 one pastor oversees them 35:25 basically as an itinerant evangelist, 35:28 who trains them 35:29 and that opens the door for salaries 35:31 to move people 35:33 into some of the unentered areas. 35:35 I don't know if Pennsylvania, 35:37 excuse me is still doing that now, 35:38 because I've been going from there for about 10 years. 35:41 So let's end 35:43 by just addressing us a few excuses. 35:46 Many people will say, 35:47 "Well, that's all fine and dandy. 35:49 It looks great on paper, 35:50 sorry, but we can't do that today. 35:52 We can't do what these other divisions are doing. 35:54 This is North America, it won't work." 35:57 Well, let's look at some of those excuses. 35:59 Excuse number one. 36:01 We've never done it that way before. 36:03 That's the excuse you hear the most 36:05 in any church board meeting over any new idea, 36:08 or somebody who wants to do something different, 36:11 or change tradition. 36:13 Because let's be honest, at human nature, 36:15 we don't like change 36:17 even if that change 36:18 ends up being something good and beneficial. 36:22 We're used to doing it a certain way. 36:24 I know there's things I don't like to change. 36:25 If you ask me to change 36:27 the way I do evangelistic meetings, 36:29 I can promise you, 36:30 it's going to take more than one conversation 36:32 to change my mind on something, 36:33 because I'm used to doing it a certain way. 36:35 Our nature does not like change. 36:38 But the truth is that statement is a fallacy 36:40 when we say, 36:41 "Oh, we've never done it that way before lay led churches?" 36:43 Yes, we have. 36:45 It's the way we did it in the beginning. 36:47 What we're doing now 36:49 is what we've never done that way before. 36:52 Historical Adventism is church planting, 36:54 lay lead churches. 36:56 And the Gospel Commission is a command, 36:58 it's not an option. 37:00 You know, we say if someone is, you know, 37:02 married and living with another woman 37:03 will say, "Oh, well, that person is living in sin." 37:06 Well, if the Gospel Commission is a command, 37:09 because, you know, it's not a suggestion, 37:11 taking the gospel to the world is a command, 37:14 that it's as much as any of the Ten Commandments. 37:16 So if it's a command, 37:18 and a church purposely and willfully 37:20 doesn't take it seriously, 37:22 could it then be said that the church is living in sin? 37:27 Let me think about 37:29 it, adultery, 37:30 oh, I'm ignoring the Gospel Commission, 37:32 living in sin. 37:33 Could that be said of you or me? 37:36 Or even the church? 37:38 Excuse number two. 37:39 Well, who's going to take care of the church then 37:41 if all the ministers are in unentered areas? 37:44 Well, that's why the New Testament talks about 37:46 elders and deacons. 37:48 That's why the standards are so high, 37:50 they were the pastors of the church. 37:53 And churches aren't left alone anyway. 37:55 Paul returned periodically, so did Peter, 37:58 but the pastor is not going to return 37:59 for every little problem. 38:01 Oh, so and so wasn't at church today. 38:03 Okay, well, I'll come back from the unentered areas, 38:06 and I'll visit that person for you. 38:07 That's not going to happen. 38:09 That's what the church would do. 38:11 Well, so and so is mad about something. 38:14 Great, pray for him and visit them. 38:16 You're not going to take the pastor away 38:18 from an unentered area to do that. 38:20 And that's what Moses learned from his father-in-law. 38:22 Moses in Exodus 18, tried to deal with everything. 38:26 And Jethro said, 38:27 "Man, you're going to wear yourself out, 38:28 you'll never make it this way." 38:30 And so he created leaders over 10 over 50 and 10s, 38:34 you know, and hundreds and thousands. 38:36 And you saw what it did for Moses. 38:38 He was able to be a leader, till he was what, 38:40 I think 120 years old, you know, 38:42 something to that effect 38:43 because he followed God's counsel. 38:45 That was God's counsel back in Exodus, 38:46 it didn't even started 38:48 with the early New Testament Church. 38:49 It started with Israel, a ministry. 38:52 Excuse number three. 38:54 Well, if a church doesn't have a, 38:56 you know, a real conference pastor, 38:58 the church will apostatize. 39:01 Well, that's a blatantly false statement. 39:03 Lay leaders are very capable, if they're trained. 39:07 Not granted, 39:09 you can't just take the church and say, 39:10 you know what? Sorry, you're on your own now. 39:12 Yeah, you're probably going to end up 39:13 with some problems there. 39:15 But if you prepare a church for that point, 39:18 and they have very specific training 39:19 on what to do, 39:21 and for people how to handle it, 39:22 lay people are capable. 39:25 Many lay people have professional jobs 39:27 where they have learned many important skills 39:30 in the secular world 39:31 that can be used for God in the work of the church. 39:35 And I'll be honest, 39:37 there are lay people who have better skills 39:39 than many pastors, 39:40 because the pastor is not meant to be skilled 39:42 in every single thing, 39:43 you know, on the face of the earth. 39:45 We have strengths and we have weaknesses. 39:48 Lay people are capable. 39:50 And the truth is really, 39:53 churches that have pastors 39:54 apostatize just as much as lay led churches. 39:58 I don't think the percentage is any higher. 40:01 In fact, it's those false teachings 40:03 that keep the pastor from doing the things 40:05 that are the most important. 40:07 As long as a church is still connected to someone 40:09 they can go to and has training, 40:11 it can be very, very successful. 40:14 Excuse number four, there's only five. 40:17 I pay my tithe to get a minister. 40:20 This one's a pet peeve of mine. 40:22 Number one, you don't pay tithe. 40:24 There's no such thing as paying tithe. 40:26 Say, what do you mean, no such thing? 40:28 You don't pay tithe in the Bible, 40:30 you return tithe. 40:32 See, paying tithe, 40:34 that infers that you own something 40:36 like when I pay a bill, this is my money, 40:39 I am paying the bill with it. 40:40 No, returning tithe is like a lawn mower that I bought, 40:44 I'm returning to a person 40:46 something that wasn't mine to begin with. 40:48 So tithe, it all belongs to God, 40:51 I'm returning that 10% to Him. 40:54 So that's lesson number one. 40:57 But what we're really saying is, 40:58 I won't return tithe 40:59 if I don't get something out of it. 41:01 If you mean I return tithe, 41:02 and I'm not going to get a minister 41:03 who preaches to me, I'm not going to give tithe, 41:06 I'm just going to keep it for myself, 41:07 or I'm going to send it you know, 41:09 to some other ministry or something. 41:11 Dare I say, 41:13 that is the epitome of selfishness. 41:15 Because what I'm really saying is, 41:17 if I don't get what I want from my money, 41:21 from my tithe, 41:23 I'm not going to give it 41:24 to support the work of the lost in unentered areas. 41:28 That's really what we're saying. 41:29 I'm sorry if that offends you, but it's the truth. 41:32 We've got to look at tithe totally different. 41:35 Tithes sustain clergy in the unentered areas. 41:40 What if the early church had said that 41:41 and never had a pastor? 41:43 What if they had said, 41:44 well, we're not going to give it 41:46 for the Gentiles to receive the gospel. 41:48 Paul and Peter, 41:49 they need to be back here with us. 41:51 Gospel would have never gone anywhere. 41:53 Lastly, excuse number five. 41:56 Well, who will preach on Sabbath then 41:58 if we don't have a minister? 42:00 And that's an honest question for some people. 42:02 We have a lay lead church in St. Louis, 42:04 you know, and we're seeing some of the issues 42:06 that come up, 42:07 and we're learning what to do right, 42:10 and you know what to do wrong. 42:11 And one of the issues is, well, who will preach on Sabbath? 42:14 Because obviously, you want someone 42:16 who is at least somewhat gifted, 42:17 you know, in that area, we all have different gifts. 42:20 But what we found is lay people are capable of preaching. 42:23 Not everyone, but with the right training. 42:26 You know, I've gone into churches, 42:28 and I've seen a lay person up front, 42:29 I thought that person that guy, that girl, 42:31 whoever they could preach a sermon. 42:35 Guy on a camera back there, 42:36 I believe he could preach a sermon. 42:38 Andy, I think it's Andy, right? 42:40 It's Andy, 42:41 see now you're going to be on film, Andy. 42:43 Now lay people are capable of preaching 42:45 or you have testimony Sabbath, 42:47 this is what Ellen White recommended. 42:49 What's that? 42:50 It's the social meeting. 42:52 Instead of having a sermon, 42:53 why not invite three or four people 42:55 to come up and share a testimony. 42:57 This is what Ellen White said about it. 42:58 She said, 43:00 "Let everyone consider 43:01 the value of the social meetings, 43:03 and let not large or small companies of believers think 43:06 that they cannot have an enjoyable season, 43:08 unless they are entertained by a preacher. 43:11 Where this dependence on the minister exists, 43:13 that people fail to obtain 43:15 the vigorous religious experience 43:17 which they need so much. 43:19 They have need to learn how to testify, how to pray, 43:23 how to sing to the glory of God, 43:25 but failing to do this, 43:27 they have only a one-sided experience. 43:30 "Testimony Sabbath, 43:32 try it once. 43:33 When I pastored, 43:34 I had eight people in my district, 43:36 at least eight people 43:37 who I knew could preach, 43:38 who we gave opportunities to. 43:40 She's saying 43:41 we don't need a sermon every week, 43:42 Testimony time are powerful, they involve more people. 43:46 And this is how it would work. 43:48 You might even try it. 43:49 Let's say you try this once a month 43:50 or once a quarter here, 43:52 what you do is during the Sabbath time 43:54 you have your regular service. 43:56 But during the sermon time, 43:58 you ask three or four people ahead of time, 44:01 don't just ask them Sabbath morning, 44:03 you ask them ahead of time, maybe a week ahead of time, 44:05 and say we're going to give you a theme 44:08 and we want you to share your testimony on this theme 44:11 for maybe about 10 minutes, okay? 44:14 If you just have one person come up, 44:16 sometimes it freaks people out, whole 30 minutes, 44:18 what am I going to say for 30 minutes? 44:20 Give them 10 minutes, and then give them, 44:22 don't give them a blank sheet because that freaks people out. 44:25 Give them a theme. 44:26 It might be something like 10 minutes, 44:28 share what Jesus has meant to you in your life? 44:31 Or maybe the theme would be share with us, 44:32 how did you become a Christian or an Adventist? 44:35 What names tell us about something 44:37 that Jesus changed in your life? 44:39 Or maybe one of the themes would be, 44:41 share with us one of your struggles 44:43 that you can share publicly 44:44 and how Jesus Christ has helped you with that, 44:47 or what does the Sabbath mean to you. 44:49 If you give someone that a week ahead of time 44:52 three or four people 44:53 and say we'll give you 10 minutes on that, 44:56 I will guarantee you when those three people 44:57 share their testimonies Sabbath morning, 44:59 it will be a blessing, 45:01 because it won't just be a lecture, 45:02 it will be real people 45:04 sharing real things in their life. 45:06 And they will have had a few days 45:07 to think about it, 45:08 they can write it out if they want. 45:10 And it's 10 minutes, 45:11 you know, and if it doesn't go well, 45:13 and the person's really nervous, 45:15 it's only 10 minutes anyway, 45:16 the next person is going to come up. 45:19 Try it sometime. 45:20 I used to do that on communion Sabbath, 45:22 instead of me preaching a 10 minute sermon, 45:24 I would ask two or three people to share a testimony, 45:27 and I gave them a subject. 45:29 And I was amazed, 45:30 because the church listens to them 45:32 many times more than they would listen to me, 45:36 because it was somebody's testimony 45:38 of what Jesus had done for them. 45:41 Try it sometime here in this church. 45:44 You may say, why should we do this? 45:46 Why should we go through all this effort of changing 45:48 the way that we do ministry? 45:50 For the sake of a lost, whom Jesus loves. 45:53 If lost people matter to Jesus, 45:56 then lost people ought to matter to us. 45:58 And if we're going to be the biblical 46:00 end time movement, 46:01 then we want to put that effort 46:03 to return to Christ's method of ministry 46:07 that He designed for us from the beginning. 46:10 Because time is running out, Jesus is coming. 46:13 And there are still many unentered areas 46:16 that have yet to be reached. 46:19 Let's end with the same quote that we used this morning, 46:22 where she wrote, 46:23 "Those who would be overcomers 46:25 must be drawn out of themselves, 46:28 and the only thing 46:29 that will accomplish this great work, 46:31 is to become intensely interested 46:35 in the salvation of others." 46:38 Can you and I honestly sit here myself? 46:41 Can I honestly say 46:43 that I am intensely interested in the salvation of others? 46:49 That's where it really begins friends. 46:52 Because the truth is, 46:53 you can make a church lay lead in five minutes. 46:57 But if that church is not intensely interested 47:00 in the salvation of others, 47:01 it won't matter what method you follow, 47:04 it would not work. 47:06 It has to start here. 47:08 And so my prayer is that for each of us, 47:10 and whoever may watch this, 47:11 that we might be able to lift our eyes towards heaven, 47:14 and simply say, 47:15 Lord, I'm asking you to create in my heart 47:17 a passion for the lost. 47:19 I'm asking you to help me become intensely interested 47:24 in the salvation of others. 47:27 And when that happens in our hearts, 47:29 the church will be more than ready 47:31 to make that transition back to the way 47:34 God wants us to do ministry, the biblical way. 47:39 Heavenly Father, 47:41 Lord, thank You for Your patience 47:42 with Your church. 47:44 You were patient with Israel, 47:45 You were patient with Your New Testament Church, 47:47 You were patient all throughout the foolishness 47:50 of the Middle Ages 47:51 and all that happened then. 47:53 Thank You for being patient with Your remnant. 47:55 Well, we believe You have a final end day movement. 47:57 And, Lord, we recognize that that we are faulty people 48:00 that we do make mistakes that we are not infallible. 48:04 And so we ask You, Lord, 48:05 to just to write upon our heart a passion for the lost 48:10 that You would continue to help us 48:11 to just turn the ship around 48:13 so that we are doing ministry 48:15 the way that You intended it to be done. 48:17 Thank You 48:19 and we ask You to start by reviving our own hearts, 48:21 we pray in Jesus' name. |
Revised 2020-10-04