Participants:
Series Code: GMS
Program Code: GMS001002A
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00:10 The apostle John wrote in the beginning
00:12 was the logos, the word. 00:15 And through the centuries 00:16 that word has been communicated through person, 00:20 through the spoken word, 00:21 through the written word and today, 00:23 now through the internet, TV, radio, 00:26 and so many different ways. 00:27 Communicating the Gospel, coming up next. 00:34 Just before He went up to heaven, 00:37 Jesus gave us a command. 00:40 He gave us a mission. 00:42 Jesus said "Go, go unto all the world." 00:47 Telling them of His love. 00:50 This is our mission. 00:52 This is our "Global Mission." 01:00 Hello, I'm Gary Krause 01:01 and welcome to today's program, 01:03 coming to you today from the city of Mainz 01:06 on the Rhine River in Germany. 01:09 Mainz, of course, is very famous 01:11 for being the home 01:12 for the invention of the movable type press. 01:16 This caused a revolution. 01:19 For the first time ideas were able to be spread 01:23 throughout the region very quickly, very swiftly. 01:27 The inventor, of course, was Johannes Gutenberg. 01:30 It was the early 1450s. 01:33 And it was this invention that helped the ideas 01:36 of the reformation to spread throughout Europe very quickly. 01:41 Of course, the Gutenberg Bible, the first full book 01:44 that was used on these printing presses 01:46 is now a very rare and very valuable book. 01:50 On today's program we'll be looking at publishing 01:53 and how in the 1800s 01:55 the Seventh-day Adventist Church 01:57 began to share its message through the printed word. 02:01 Let's look at the story now. 02:03 The Seventh-day Adventist Church was born 02:05 as a direct fulfillment of prophecy. 02:07 It did not see itself as a denomination 02:09 but as a movement with a mission, 02:12 in fact, a resisted organizational structure 02:14 in restraint. 02:16 The leaders and members 02:17 believed in the soon return of Christ. 02:19 They used every means necessary to spread the news 02:22 of the imminent return of Jesus. 02:24 A lot of people had gotten so excited 02:26 that they abandoned their businesses. 02:29 They left fields and crops untended and un-harvested. 02:32 New England winters require preparation 02:35 and that preparations simply haven't been done. 02:38 People thought they were going to heaven in October, 02:41 instead they wouldn't have food to eat 02:43 or money for several months. 02:46 Disappointment might not be a strong enough word. 02:49 In the words of one Millerite, 02:50 true believers had given up all for Christ. 02:54 But He did not come. 02:55 And now to turn again to the cares, 02:58 perplexities and dangers of life 03:00 in full view of jeering and reviling unbelievers 03:03 who scoffed as never before 03:05 was a terrible trial of faith and patience. 03:09 A Methodist paper called for thunderbolts 03:11 read with uncommon wrath 03:13 upon the head of Joshua Himes and other Millerites. 03:17 Critics accused him of being a liar, a fear mongerer, 03:21 disturber of the peace and a cheat. 03:24 Some said Himes fled the country, 03:26 some said he committed suicide. 03:28 The Boston Post 03:30 called the advent leaders unprincipled men, 03:32 perfectly conscious 03:33 of the absurdity of their opinions 03:35 and reckless of the injury they caused. 03:38 In reality, Himes Miller 03:40 and other leaders of the movement 03:41 had never instructed believers to leave their jobs, 03:44 sell their property 03:45 and neglect their secular responsibilities. 03:48 But their faith turn them into social pariahs. 03:51 William Miller himself wrote, "It passed 03:55 and then next day it seemed as though all the demons 03:57 from the bottomless pit were loose upon us." 04:00 Hiram Edson lamented, 04:03 "Has the Bible proved a failure? 04:05 Is there no God, no heaven, 04:07 no golden home city, no paradise? 04:12 Is all this but cunningly devised fable? 04:15 Is there no reality to our fondest hope 04:17 and expectation of these things?" 04:20 Luther Butale said 04:22 "Everyone felt lonely 04:24 with hardly a desire to speak to anyone. 04:27 All were silent, safe to enquire, 04:29 'where are we and what's next?' 04:33 All were housed in searching their Bibles 04:35 to learn what to do." 04:41 Then, Hiram Edson receives a vision 04:43 while walking through a field, 04:45 reinterpretation offers new hope. 04:48 Early church founders want to share 04:50 that hope with the believers they had lost. 04:53 Ellen Harmon White is shown in a vision 04:55 that James White should start a magazine. 04:58 Penniless but inspired, 05:00 James convinces a publisher to print 05:02 1,000 copies of The Present Truth. 05:05 The magazine helps to clarify what happened in 1844 05:09 and the full cost is repaid by generous readers. 05:13 Publishing ministry quickly becomes central 05:15 to spreading emerging Adventist doctrines 05:17 like the three angels' message and Sabbath truth. 05:20 To keep printers from running on the Sabbath, 05:22 the church starts its own publishing house 05:25 which was literally a house that early church members lived 05:27 and worked in together. 05:29 Hiram Edson sold his farm 05:31 and donated the money to buy a hand press. 05:34 Soon the church began distributing 05:35 the Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald. 05:39 Since there was no paper cutter, 05:41 Uriah Smith trimmed all the edges of the magazines 05:43 with his pen knife. 05:45 In his own words, 05:46 "We blistered our hands in the operation 05:48 and often the tracks in form 05:50 were not half so true and square 05:52 as the doctrines they taught." 05:54 At age 23, Smith would go on to serve as an editor 05:58 and would hold the position 05:59 in some capacity for his entire life. 06:02 As the publishing ministry grows, 06:03 young Canadian immigrant George King 06:06 comes up the idea 06:07 to sell subscriptions of Adventist publications. 06:10 "The Signs of the Times" has born. 06:12 The gospel message spills out of the church 06:14 and meets people right at their front door. 06:17 The beginning of the Seventh-day Adventist Church 06:19 was exciting. 06:21 Was it something the pioneers could keep secret? 06:23 Not a chance. 06:25 Church pioneers assume 06:26 that those who renewed their belief 06:28 would share with their brothers and sisters. 06:30 The brothers and sisters will share with their cousins 06:32 and the cousins would share with their brothers and sisters 06:35 and the whole great commission would fulfill itself. 06:38 But it didn't work out that way. 06:41 My guest is Pastor Klaus Popa 06:43 who is the general manager for Stimme der Hoffnung, 06:46 the Adventist media center here in Germany. 06:48 Thanks for joining us. Thank you. 06:50 And we're actually kind of on the roof of Stimme 06:52 and it's a big building here 06:54 containing many types of ministries. 06:56 Can you explain some of the, 06:58 the ministries you're involved in? 06:59 You know, we're doing television, 07:02 Hope Channel Deutsch. 07:03 We are involved in the radio ministry 07:05 that actually started in 1948, 07:08 so it's right after the World War II. 07:09 Yes. 07:11 Few years later we began with radio ministry, 07:12 then the Bible correspondent school was initiated, 07:15 which up to today is working 07:18 and mainly serving the German speaking countries. 07:25 And then a few years later, 07:27 it's actually about 51 years old 07:29 now this ministry, is the sight impaired ministry, 07:33 that's also wide range of people 07:36 that we serve with audio literature, 07:38 audio books, audio magazines. 07:40 Wonderful. 07:41 Now when you look at the various ministries 07:43 you're involved in, 07:45 how would you describe your audience? 07:47 You know, the audience is actually pretty mixed, 07:50 pretty mixed and it's growing, 07:53 especially due to the Hope Channel. 07:56 We started the production, our audio, 07:58 video production back in the 90s 08:01 during the satellite evangelism period. 08:04 But 24/7 we began seven years ago. 08:08 So I sometimes say, 08:10 when I will finish with pre-schooling 08:12 and starting really, going to school first grade 08:16 after seven years of experience 08:17 So we build a wide, 08:19 wide audience of many, many people. 08:21 But we can say that those that listen and watch us 08:25 and participate in the Bible correspondence schools 08:27 are mostly non-Adventist, 08:29 many of them non-Christian background. 08:32 So how does that affect the type of programming 08:35 that you produce? 08:37 We very intentionally try to reach 08:40 a non-Christians audience, 08:42 which sometimes makes it difficult to translate faith, 08:46 because faith is something that is you know, 08:48 very, very old, 08:49 that has come to us from our forefathers, 08:52 not only our Adventist forefathers, 08:54 but you know, back, back, back way in the days. 08:57 So to translate this faith to modern audience, 09:02 to a postmodern audience, 09:03 to a secular audience is at times not easy 09:07 but this is our intention to speak in a way 09:10 to speak about faith and life in a way 09:13 that people can really adopt it 09:15 and make it practical in their lives. 09:18 Now you've engaged in various types 09:20 of experiments of different things. 09:22 Not so long ago you had a combination of 09:25 some outreach meetings and a feature film. 09:28 Describe that project. 09:30 Yeah, this was, you know, 09:31 the so called "Faith Simple Series" 09:34 and I think the name really says it. 09:36 We tried to make faith very simple, 09:39 very practical to really come from a, from a, 09:44 actually from the streets. 09:46 We were not in a studio setting 09:49 for delivering the content, 09:51 but on the streets in New York, that's, 09:54 that was the iconic place for, actually for the whole world, 09:57 but especially for postmodern people. 09:59 So that's why we were on location 10:02 delivering the different topics, 10:03 we included a feature film 10:05 that we produced as part of that series and, 10:08 you know, little bits of that film of this story 10:12 that we told there. 10:14 We're part of every evening program 10:16 that we had at the beginning. 10:17 So we started with this consecutive story, 10:20 where the story then happened again in New York. 10:22 We were on location delivering short messages of about, 10:27 you know, 12 to 17 minutes 10:29 and then had guests in studio then, 10:33 live production with two, three guests 10:35 that we then discussed the topic of that day 10:38 heavily involving social media, you know, counseling 10:41 and you know, it was a very integrative 10:43 and comprehensive approach to media, 10:45 to evangelism actually, through media. 10:47 So why don't you just stand in front of the camera 10:50 and preach Adventist sermons? 10:53 You know, that's, of course, 10:54 this is a way to speak to people. 10:58 And if it's a good sermon, nothing against a good sermon, 11:01 but, yeah, of course, 11:02 but we felt that being on the streets, 11:05 being where the people are. 11:07 One of the topics, 11:09 I was in a New York taxi and just driving this taxi, 11:12 getting into the taxi speaking like 11:14 I would speak with you here and then, you know, 11:16 getting out after 12 minutes and going my way. 11:19 So it's just, you know, 11:21 people live their life in cities, 11:24 in villages, at work and different settings 11:28 and to be in their settings is like 11:30 just connecting with them much easier than, 11:33 than being in an isolated place 11:35 or in a place that people don't know. 11:37 Because if they don't have a church background, 11:40 they might have never been in a church. 11:42 And for them mentally to make that step, 11:44 it's a huge step for them. 11:46 But on the street or in a taxi or that, 11:48 that's something that they know. 11:49 And I think, maybe the short answer also is, 11:53 many people just wouldn't listen 11:54 if you just preach, right? 11:56 Yeah. Yeah. 11:57 Okay, yeah, yeah, 11:58 that's very short way to put it. 12:00 Yeah, many would say "What is this?" 12:01 They would not be able to connect. 12:02 So you're in the business of translating 12:05 the good news into terms that people will understand. 12:06 Exactly. That's it. 12:08 It's a translation process now. Yeah. 12:09 What's your greatest hope for Stimme 12:11 and the ministry that you're doing? 12:13 You know, my greatest hope and it's actually not only hope 12:16 but we see that in the lots of responses 12:19 that we receive from people daily 12:21 through the phone, email, that we touched their lives, 12:24 but the most important thing really is that 12:27 they get in touch with God, with Jesus 12:29 and that they decide for Jesus Christ, 12:32 for God and therefore, 12:34 live a more meaningful and more fulfilled life. 12:37 And that's what drives us, that's what is really, 12:40 what we're passionate about. 12:42 Yeah. Now you are passionate about it. 12:45 You've been involved in media ministry 12:47 for how long personally? 12:49 Personally, now for at least ten years. 12:50 Yeah. I have a media background. 12:52 I studied graphics designs and communication, 12:54 but the work in a commercial agency, 12:56 that was media, 12:57 but now with the church for ten years, yes. 12:59 Wonderful. 13:00 Well, thanks so much for sharing with us today. 13:02 Pleasure. 13:03 And please remember media ministries 13:05 around the world 13:06 and particularly in places such as Germany 13:09 where so many people are rich and increased with goods 13:12 and they feel as if they have need of nothing. 13:15 And we need the Holy Spirit, we need the power of the media, 13:17 we need human beings who are following Jesus 13:21 to share the love of Jesus in very practical ways. 13:25 We'll be right back straight after this message. |
Revised 2016-03-03