Adventism and secularization

Adventism's primary task is to prepare a people for the soon coming of Jesus. Two major obstacles stand in the way of achieving this objective, especially in the Western world. First is a general confusion about biblical teaching. Overcoming this obstacle requires dynamic theological reformation. Second are ideological or conceptual changes which disavow the essence of Christianity and what it stands for. Overcoming this obstacle requires revival of the apostolic spirit and its dynamic mind-set.

This second danger, involving thought change, can be called the ongoing process of secularization. This process began with the Renaissance and the breakup of a thousand years of Western society dominated by the church. During this thousand-year period, the church dominated most aspects of European culture, politics, law, education, art, music, morality, economics, and community life. By contrast, in a secular society, such as today's, church and religious leaders do not control reason and thought processes. There is a free market of ideas that expresses itself in an environment permeated with an array of competitive ideologies.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been reasonably successful in dealing with the first obstacle confusion over biblical teaching. It has brought about doctrinal reformation and highlighted long-neglected, or even repudiated, truths, such as the Sabbath, the pre-Advent judgment, and Christ's high-priestly ministry. However, the church has been much less successful in dealing with secularization and attracting people with a secular mind-set. Adventists have been most successful in reaching religious or semi-religious people, especially those who are already Christians or influenced by Christianity. They have much greater difficulty in reaching secular people or those of other faiths.

Secularization: the phenomenal path

Further complicating this dilemma of the Adventist Church is a by now well established fact: Western culture, the longtime bulwark of Christianity, can no longer be depended on as the bastion that it once was. Christianity has largely lost out to secularization. How has this come about?

First, the Renaissance. This so-called rebirth of learning shifted attention from God to humans, from the world to come to this world. The discovery of Greek philosophy and literature gave an alternative to the Christian worldview, emphasizing the human as the center and measure of the universe. The Swiss historian Jakob Burckhardt said that the Renaissance was the rebirth of the individual person.

Second, the downside of the Reformation tended to make the churches inward-looking and as a result removed church influence from society and directed it to internal theological or church polity issues.

Third, the rise of nationalism helped kill the concept of Christian citizenship, producing competing nationistic states and cultural views. Warfare and conflicts increased, and doubts proliferated about the church and the God it claimed to represent.

Fourth, the rise of science gradually appeared to destroy the church's assumptions regarding the universe and human nature. While Copernicus and Galileo curtailed the existing doctrine of the cosmos, Newton inadvertently raised questions regarding God's control of the universe. It seemed God could be replaced by the cohesion of the law of gravity. Then Darwin arrived to challenge the doctrine of creation by postulating that human beings were essentially little more than advanced rational animals. About the same time, Marx proclaimed a classless society as the coming new world order. Then Freud questioned the doctrine of conversion and religious experience by providing a psychological explanation for these phenomena, making any supernatural experience superfluous.

Fifth, the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, was another force in the secularization process. It predicted that progress would come inevitably through the application of reason, science, and human development. There was no need for divine revelation; natural religion could provide a basis for public morality.

Sixth, urbanization had its influence. George Hunter calls urbanization the Siamese twin of secularization.¹ As people flock to the cities and are up rooted from their traditional religious moorings, a consciousness of God is "reduced."

All these developments have given humankind increased autonomy, longevity, and greater control of their lives, the environment, and even outer space.

And so the secular person asks, "Why, then, do we need the crutch of religion?"

The churches' inadequate response to secularization

The secularizing impact of these movements has been enhanced by the generally ineffective reaction of Christian churches. Traditionally, Christian churches have responded to science by controlling or condemning research and by indexing or banning books. Consequently, the church has been seen as the enemy of research, rational thought, and new discoveries. Also, churches have often opposed, or been unsupportive of, democratic and human rights movements. Christianity has often been seen by its critics as reactionary, and its credibility has been undermined.

It cannot be gainsaid that the churches' response to the cries for justice and the calls for democracy has been irresolute, even hostile. Fortunately, this is less the case today than in the past.

Christianity's response to urbanization has failed seriously. The Western church, especially Protestantism (including Adventism), has generally been uneasy toward cities and urban challenges. It is sometimes said that the churches have lost the cities, but it is clear that the churches never really "had" the urban classes, as John Wesley and William Booth realized. More than ever, today's inner city represents a major evangelistic failure.

The church and culture: a schism

The schism between Christianity and Western society takes at least three forms (from partial to complete), as shown by Martin Marty.²

The first path is "utter secularity." God and the churches are attacked, sometimes bitterly. This is exemplified by the French and Russian revolutions and people such as Voltaire, Marx, Bertrand Russell, and Lenin. Continental Europe is the stronghold of these assaults.

The second is "mere secularity." God and the churches are not attacked directly, but ignored and made to appear irrelevant. Here, contemporary British society is an example. Religion is taught in schools, prayer begins the school day, but generally this is a powerless, even hypocritical formality. Christianity is seen as having some vague connection with good behavior.

The third is "controlled secularity." This path is followed in the United States. The churches are involved in social religion. Traditional American values are proclaimed, and Christianity becomes a kind of civil religion. The religiosity of the Reader's Digest exemplifies this socioreligious picture.

The problems of secularization are not unique to Christianity. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Shintoism, and other religions are similarly challenged. According to one report, this century alone has seen the world's atheistic and nonreligious people jump from 0.2 percent to 21.3 percent. 3 The rise of atheistic or agnostic segments of society has widened the gulf of separation between Christian ity and culture.

Some characteristics of secular people

Such Christian thinkers and distinguished preachers as Lord Donald Soper, Robert Schuller, Donald McGavran, Canon Bryan Green, Sir Alan Walker, and George G. Hunter III make it clear that secularists are not just a religious or amoral people, sophisticated academics, or frustrated materialists. They list various characteristics of secular people:

• They may be described as essentially ignorant of basic Christianity. Christian knowledge has become "the echo of an echo of an echo," as Sir Alan Walker aptly puts it.⁴ The sound is now so weak it can hardly be heard. Secularists have a negative image of the church. They question the intelligence, credibility, and relevance of the church and its spokespersons.

• The secularist is life-oriented. Most sicknesses today are no longer life-threatening crises, but inconveniences. Death is not the ever-present threat it used to be. People concentrate on this life, not on expectations after death.

• Secular individuals are indeed "individuals," alienated and often lonely—alienated from nature, neighbors, politics, and of course the fellowship of the church. They are conscious of doubt more than guilt. Guilt is seen not in self, but in heredity, parents, environment, the system, government, etc. Doubt and suspicion are the common factors, not guilt.

• They are untrusting. God is the distant and demanding tyrant, the policeman, the sugared Santa Claus, the manipulator, or the absentee landlord charging a high rent. There is a total misunderstanding of the character of God.

• They suffer from low self-esteem and the related loss of dignity. "I'm not what I think I am. I'm not what you think I am. I'm what I think you think I am," says George Hunter about the secularist. ⁵
•  The secular person sees the forces of history as out of control; no one is or can be in charge. They envision a chaotic tomorrow, perhaps even a future on a short atomic or pollution fuse. Not only history, but their own personality is viewed as out of control. Hundreds of millions are addicted---from alcohol to nicotine to drugs to money to sex to food to gambling. Addiction is the great new fact of our secular era.

How shall we approach secular people?

But the real question is how we meet the challenge of secularization within the context of our Adventist obligation and hope. How shall we approach the secular person with what we consider the good news about Christ and the greatest event about to happen? How can we reach out across the divide between us? Here are some suggestions:

• Provide basic instruction regarding Christianity. Don't begin in the middle. Assume they know next to nothing. Make yourself interesting. Use more music and drama with excellence and increased audience participation. Use dialogue rather than monologue, participation rather than exhortation.

• Help people find meaning. Communicate life's meaning. Dean Kelley in his book Why Conservative Churches Are Growing suggests that growing churches communicate meaning. They help people make sense of their lives. Meaning gives identity. Identity provides security.

• Engage them in dialogue. You must be a communicator, not just a commentator. It is more effective to quote the living stars than the learned dead! The increasing popularity of radio or television call-in shows indicates the desire for question-and-answer communication. While reaching out in dialogue, you will discover that you do not have all the answers. Hunter is right in predicting this will drive you to prayer and motivate you to study and think about Scripture and its present meaning.⁶ Dealing with the doubts and questions of your interlocutors will confront you with, and help you solve, your own dilemmas.

• Provide opportunities for secular people to meet credible Christians. The legalistic Christians, the conspiracy-oriented ones, won't do. Those who genuinely love God and love people, those who can share their struggles and victories, and those who care about others, not just about their own self-opinionated, theological obsessions, are the ones who can make the contact and the impact.

• Provide opportunities to over come alienation. Many people are alienated from nature, from neighbors, and from political-economic powers. Retreats in natural settings, small group meetings, support activities, and involvement in Christian social causes are some activities that would help overcome such alienation. Such services are parallel to evangelism. They are part of Christian mission.

• Provide opportunities to discover dignity and self-worth. Of course, the stars and universe do not revolve around me. But God has given each person gifts, a capacity to excel in something. An effective convert must discover his or her self-worth, or that individual will live in the secular swamp, never climbing the heights of Christian maturity.

• Provide hope. The second coming of Jesus is the greatest hope. It is not esoteric doctrine or pie in the sky by and by. It does not belong to date setters, prophets of doom, confused Zionists, or crazy people with stars in their eyes. Properly presented, without gaudy pictures, it has appeal. History is not out of control. We have this hope.

• Provide support for addicted people. Art Glasser has called addiction the dominant form of possessive and destructive evil today. We must present Christ and His church as liberation from the demon of addiction in all its compelling forms. We must meet needs and offer freedom, the "glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21).

• Provide and use social networks and contacts. Friendships are bridges. It is so much easier to create our own little separate world of believers. The Adventist Christian must develop "integrity-filled relationships" and be a bridge-builder. Joining service clubs and other organizations with high standards is helpful in networking and serving the community, thus enjoying and reaching all kinds of people.

• Provide and multiply units and services of the church. In the past few years stores and supermarkets have multiplied their offerings and in many places their hours of service. But many churches offer little more than what they did 25 or 50 years ago. People like and expect options. There is need for new groups and new churches "ports of entry" for people. We need, where possible, multiple ministries (not just church worship service, Sabbath school, prayer meeting, and youth meeting). We need to scratch right where it itches. Even secular people "need to be needed," need to come to terms with life, need significance by being helped, and by helping.

Standing by the door

Christianity needs to be relevant and be seen to be relevant. While we are not "of the world," we have a need to join the human race. We need to communicate the gospel persuasively and powerfully. But we also need to minister to people. We need to talk to people about the world they know, or we will talk ourselves out of the world into irrelevance. It is nice and comfortable to be far inside the church, surrounded by good, God-fearing people. But if that is where we choose to be, we will be too far away from secular people. It is better to stand by the door, where there may be a cold draft from time to time, but where we can reach out and easily welcome people in.

"Near enough to God to hear Him, And know He is there, But not so far from people as to not hear them---Outside the door!"⁷