Two ministries, one mission

Editor’s note: This article is adapted from the author’s keynote address at the Atlantic Union Conference Pastor/Teacher Convention held in Providence, Rhode Island, in August 2009. The oral style has been retained.

One of the most remarkable things about Adventism is that the only two professional groups, pastors and teachers, who are employed in the local church full time in most congregations, often have little understanding, sympathy, or even contact with each other’s ministries, trials, challenges, and contributions. That fact is more than remarkable; it is tragic.

What can be done to help bring these two crucial professions closer? And why is it important for the mission that we do?

One mission

For starters, in Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts—when he noted that “some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4:11, RSV)—he used a Greek construction that indicates the office of pastor and teacher was held by the same person. Commenting on this passage, F. F. Bruce notes that “the two terms ‘pastors (shepherds) and teachers’ denote one and the same class of men.”¹ On the other hand, the other gifts are listed separately.

The significance of this point is that, in order to remain functional, these two gifts should not be divided. Pastors must not only care for the souls of their flock, but must also be teachers. Teachers, likewise, are not merely expounders of truth but, like pastors, have an abiding care for the individuals under their tutelage. Christian teachers function in a pastoral role to their students, and Christian pastors function in a teaching role to their parishioners.

The major difference between the roles of pastors and teachers today has to do with the current division of labor. In twenty-first-century society, the Christian teacher is usually seen as someone who pastors in a “school” context, while the pastor is defined as someone who teaches in the “larger religious community.” Their function is, however, essentially the same, even though by today’s definitions they are in charge of different divisions of the Lord’s vineyard. There might seem to be two different ministries here, but there is really only one mission.

And what is that mission? Ellen G. White sets it forth nicely in the book Education. “Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.”²

Ellen White gets more specific. In a passage that undergirds her entire philosophy of education, she points out that in order to comprehend the meaning and goal of education, we must understand four things about people: (1) their original nature, (2) the purpose of God in creating them, (3) the change that took place in the human condition at the Fall, and (4) God’s plan for yet fulfilling His purpose in the education of the human race.³

She then explains those four items. First, humanity was created in the image of God. Second, people were to reveal ever more fully God’s image by continual development on the earth and throughout eternity. Third, disobedience badly damaged, but did not destroy, the image in its mental, physical, and spiritual aspects. And disobedience also brought death.

But the fourth item is the focal point of the mission issue. In spite of the Fall, we read, “the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized—this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life.”⁴

The salvation of souls

Scripture presents the same picture. Central to a proper understanding of the Bible is the Fall, described in Genesis 3. Neither Scripture nor daily experience makes sense if we explain away, as legend, the first three chapters of Genesis, which says that God created humanity in His image and likeness—an exalted state (Gen. 1:26, 27). Adam and Eve, however, rejected God and chose their own way. As a result, they became alienated and separated from God (chap. 3:8–10), their fellow beings (vv. 11, 12), their own selves (v. 13), and the natural world (vv. 17–19). Separating themselves from the Source of life, they became subject to death (Gen. 2:17; 3:19). Humanity had become hopeless and lost in the fullest sense of the word.

The lostness of human beings provides the purpose of every type of Christian ministry. Humanity’s greatest need is to become “unlost.” Thus, Jesus said that He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10, KJV). The message of the Bible—from the Fall to the restoration of Eden in Revelation 21—is the story of how, through teachers, preachers, prophets, and other means, God has been attempting to save us. We must see the work of the teacher and the work of the pastor in this context.

“In the highest sense,” penned Ellen White, “the work of education and the work of redemption are one” because both build directly upon Jesus Christ. To lead the student into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ “should be the teacher’s first effort and his constant aim.”5 Here is education’s highest and primary goal, and thus shows how both the work of the educator and the pastor are so closely related.

Thus, Adventist clergy in the church and Adventist clergy in the school have the same salvific function. They need to move beyond the dichotomy that tends to divide them and realize that they have a shared ministry, even if they function daily in different spheres.

A unique message

At the same time, however, if Adventist teachers and pastors limit themselves only to the evangelical function of leading souls to Christ, they have failed in their responsibilities.

Why? Because Adventism is not merely another denomination with a few different doctrines and some countercultural dietary practices. From its inception, the church has viewed itself as a movement of prophecy, a church with a special message to proclaim to all the world, a call centered in the Apocalypse of John, in what we call the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14. For one reason or another, the command to preach those Christ-given messages has been neglected by other religious bodies. In that context, Seventh-day Adventists have viewed themselves as a called-out people with a unique message that must be preached to all the earth before Jesus returns again.

This is the understanding that has literally driven Adventists to the ends of the earth and the islands of the sea until Seventh-day Adventism has become the most widespread, unified Protestant body in history. Adventists have been willing to sacrifice their lives and money to achieve that end. And, in the process, they developed a church organization to spearhead that thrust, and an educational system and publishing ministry to enlighten and convict its membership and prepare them for either going to all the world themselves or sponsoring others to fulfill the denomination’s unique mission.

We dare not become bashful about that mission. It is the only reason for the existence of Seventh-day Adventism. If that vision is lost, Adventism will become merely another somewhat toothless denomination that seeks to entertain its members and do good in its community. The possibility of losing its apocalyptic vision and Adventism’s place in prophetic history is the greatest threat that the church and its educational system faces as they enter the twenty-first century.⁶ This is why I am concerned that an Adventist pastoral ministry and an Adventist educational ministry that has lost its hold on the apocalyptic vision has failed—not just partially, but totally.

An academy principal recently told me that he had gone to an Adventist college and interviewed the graduating education majors for positions. His question to each was the same: What is the different between Adventist education and evangelical Christian education? Not one student could tell him. Somehow that college had failed in passing on our unique identity and mission, even in an institution established to train educational professionals.

The bottom line? A school that no longer understands its reason for being, that has forgotten its message and mission, will eventually lose its support. And it should. A Seventh-day Adventist school that is not both Christian and Adventist is unneeded. Schools in the evangelical, and even the public sector, can achieve all of its functions. Pastor Shane Anderson is right when he wrote that “Adventist parents increasingly aren’t willing to pay the price to send their kids” to institutions that have lost their purpose. “After all,” he writes, “why pay thousands of dollars to send your child to a school that is now no longer substantially different from the average Christian school—or the local public school—down the street?”⁷

A needed harmony

Yet before pastors get too smug, a word of caution: the same disease infects a lot of them as well. Too many pastors have become adept at preaching good evangelical sermons; but they have all too often neglected and avoided the truths and mission that have made us Adventists. In the end, that will lead to self-neutering. After all, why go to the Adventist church, when the preaching is just as good (if not better) down the street?

If Adventism has an important message and mission, let’s hear it in both our schools and churches, for both have the same mission.

The problem is, however, that this important connection between the ministry and teaching isn’t always seen. For example, a church member wrote that “the pastor of my church has decided that Christian education is irrelevant and not soul winning and therefore our local Seventh-day Adventist school should be closed so as not to waste any more of the money that he could be putting into his evangelism to win souls. He has previously sent out emails stating that it is his intention to see the school closed. Last school year the school presented a church service at each of the constituent churches, except ours, because the pastor felt it was irrelevant to the members and a waste of time, and told them they were not welcome.” This pastor even preached against supporting church schools because this had no immediate results.⁸

While that frame of mind has probably always been around, demographic shifts in the pastoral workforce have increased its popularity. In 1965, about four-fifths of the 45 individuals graduating as theology majors in my class at Pacific Union College had been educated in Adventist schools up through academy (13 of them were preachers’ kids). But for the past three decades, fewer and fewer preachers’ kids are entering ministry, as their own parents have downplayed the unique aspects of the message. Also, an increasing number of adult converts entering the pastoral workforce have never spent a day in an Adventist church school or academy. If public school was good enough for them, so the logic runs, it’s good enough for their church members’ children. That mentality undoubtedly contributes to the ongoing proportional shrinkage of the denomination’s educational system. In 1945, the ratio of students in Adventist schools to church membership was 25 per 100. That figure remained somewhat constant until 1965. But since that time, the ratio has dropped off precipitously, to 15 per 100 in 1985 and 9 per 100 in 2000. At the same time, more non- Adventist students are enrolling in our schools, which makes the actual ratio of Adventist students to members closer to 5 per 100.

Some pastors, who see the educational system as antievangelistic, seem to have logical arguments: because the school subsidy is often the largest item in the church’s budget, couldn’t the money from the subsidy and from tuition be redirected to “better” purposes? In addition, the results of education are often not immediately apparent.

Are these assumptions valid, though? One pastor, who has never worked for a school, violently disagrees with these assumptions. “In my experience,” he writes, “Adventist education is one of the most effective ways to prepare young people for the second coming of Christ. Furthermore, I believe that our schools—rightly run—are more successful at doing this than any other single evangelistic method, including Revelation seminars, church planting, felt-needs evangelism, or contemporary worship services. Also I believe that Adventist education has been the key to propagating our unique Adventist mission in the world.” He also argues “that our schools are the legs that ultimately keep the Advent movement running.”⁹

The power of influence

Which one of the two positions is right? For the short answer, we need only to turn to world history. There’s a reason that both nations and churches have sought to control education. Whoever shapes educational policy shapes the future. Thus, it is not difficult to see the logic in early Adventism’s establishing an educational system that would prepare both future members and future leaders.

Moving beyond the social function of the system, we need to grasp the power of teacher influence. Most pastors do well to see their people one or two hours a week, and communicate mostly in large impersonal gatherings to adults who have already formed their characters and have made most of life’s important decisions. In contrast, the average elementary school teacher has faceto- face contact with impressionable students 30 hours per week.

Which leads to a simple question, what kind of person do you want to have such a strong influence on your child? Who do you want to define their attitudes and values? A non-Christian, a Christian with a different understanding of the Bible, or a like-minded, dedicated, believing Adventist? Never forget that teachers are powerful links between your children and God, and between your children and a Christian Adventist way of thinking and lifestyle. Teachers will, in one way or another, influence your children’s understanding of truth and values.

When pastoring years ago in Texas, I had a very dedicated family who desired with all their hearts to educate their only child in the best way possible. They agreed that the public system was not the answer. But there was no Adventist school. They finally decided that a Catholic school was better than secularism. They were somewhat shocked when their daughter chose to become a nun! They had discovered the power of education as a life-shaping event.

There is no doubt as to the evangelistic potential of Adventist education. But what about the finances involved? Do church schools eat away at the financial life of a church? The only longitudinal study on the topic that I am aware of is a five-year study which revealed that churches not related to a school experienced on average a loss of both membership and tithe each year of the study, while those supporting a church school experienced increases in both tithe and membership each year.¹⁰

Two ministries, one mission

It should be obvious by now that Adventists in the pastoral ministry and Adventists in the educational ministry have one message and one mission. They both work to reach a lost world for whom salvation in Christ and belief in His glorious appearing are the only real hope.

Both ministries are educational, both are pastoral, and the health of each is linked to that of the other. Both are frontline operations in the war against sin and evil. And both prosper most when supported by the other. It is therefore crucial for educational clergy to privately and publicly support their pastoral brothers and sisters, and it is crucial for pastoral clergy to energetically support their educational counterparts. Healthy schools have a good relationship with their sponsoring churches; and one of a school’s best allies, in terms of both students and finances, is a supportive pastor.