AT A seminar, recently held, a young man was discussing the question of renewal within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He stated that what we need is a reassessment of our objectives and mission. In my opinion the young man had the wrong word. What is needed today is not reassessment but reaffirmation. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has known for one hundred-plus years what its objectives are; and further, it has known what the true motivation for service is. Needed now is a resurgence of faith in the motives, mission, and objectives of the church.
In the opinion of this writer, wherever there is waning fervor, it is certainly not for lack of knowledge or a sense of direction; rather, it is a failure to commit one self fully to the mission, objectives, and Christ-centered motivations that the church has embraced in all the ages.
The speaker further pointed out that these objectives traditionally held by the church were not sufficient for now nor would they be adequate for the days ahead. Such language is always vague and those who use it are taking the path of least resistance—that of criticizing with out constructive suggestions, and condemnation without substitution. It is almost like the ridiculously true-to-life com pounded confusion being created by some urban-renewal programs that dislocate thousands of people by condemning and claiming their homes for the sake of right of way while providing no place for these people to live.
Now just what is the mission of the church? It is in essence God's earthly appointed visible agency for the transmission of the gospel whose object in turn is the spiritual reconstruction of man. Having first introduced the candidate to the terms of kingdom living, we then proceed to minister to body and mind through education and health facilities. But the objective of the church is no less than the complete restoration of the paradise that was lost.
And what is the motive of church activity? The simple answer is love.
The young speaker also commented on the methods of the church, suggesting that they were inadequate. Perhaps the young man has a few suggestions as to method; not suggestions developed in a darkroom but methods that have been tested on the general public and that have been found to work. Most of the critics of the present method are men who have not used this method and succeeded with it or any other method. The Bible speaks of "sitting in the seat of the scornful." Interestingly enough, most of the scornful are "sitting," literally doing nothing to advance the cause of the kingdom.
There are few critics of evangelism who are doing evangelism. Most of our criticism comes from untried youth or dwellers in self-created ivory towers or practitioners who have failed themselves and are eating sour grapes. This does not say that our method, whether evangelistic or otherwise, cannot be improved nor that our motives should not be renewed daily through prayer and the study of the Word of God, nor that our objectives do not bear reiteration and continual study. The choice is be tween "reassessment" and "reaffirmation."
There is another word used among us more preferable than renewal. You see, the word renewal is being used today in a connotation that denotes a process now going on in Catholicism, some of which will have a basic effect on its adherents. I speak of the lifting of the ban on individual Bible study and attendance at Protestant services. This is not a surface change. It may indeed have far-reaching consequences above and beyond those anticipated by its architects, but our word is revival.
This is the great need of the church in this hour, but how can the church experience continuing revival if its member ship does not enter into the experience? We know what it takes to have revival. No reassessment of objectives or reassessment of mission will accomplish this. Only prayer, confession of sins, genuine repentance, and total commitment to the spreading of the gospel will kindle these fires that will burn out of control to the third heaven.
Whenever I listen to discussion groups like this, I cannot help wondering, Has this man or woman given a Bible study within the past ten years? Has he or she won a soul to Christ? Not reassessment; revival is the watchword of the hour, and each individual member should pray: "God send us revival, and let it begin with me."
