Good-Looking Adventists

I'd like to offer you an invitation. Are you interested in joining a new group called "Good-Looking Adventists"? Let me explain.

A few months ago I happened upon a publication put out by sincere members of the Adventist church. From time to time I peruse this publication to get a feel for what they are thinking. It's always good to stay informed, after all.

There was an article in this particular issue that caught my attention, however. It was talking about being an "Intellectual Adventist." Now, forgive me for being a little slow, but it was the first time that it had been brought to my attention that there was such a group. Reading the article was intriguing, though, and left me quite impressed.

Presumably, the author believed himself to be a part of such an "elite" group. I'm not sure the criteria by which a person can belong to such a group, but I sure wanted to find out. I resisted the urge, however, to write a letter to the editor and inquire how I could become a member of such a group. Instead, I got my undergraduate transcripts from college - complete with my 3.21 cumulative GPA from prestigious Andrews University - and was prepared to send them in as my ticket to becoming an "Intellectual Adventist."

Strangely, the General Conference didn't have any information about this prestigious group when I scoured the church's website. This left me baffled. I could only conclude that it was not an official subsidiary of the church. It must be a self-supporting group.

But before I could proceed any further with my endeavor, something suddenly dawned on me. Why don't I start my own group - something that is more relevant to who I am as a person. Why not start a "Good-Looking Adventists" club? I mean, after all, my wife tells me I'm good-looking semi-frequently.

No, I've never been on the cover of GQ magazine - or the Adventist Review, for that matter - but it's not as though we would need to check any one's GQ quotient before they became a member, anyway. All anyone would have to do to become a member is to think that they're good-looking, and that would be good enough for me.

So what do you say? Are you interested?

"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. . . . Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Cor 1:27; 3:18, 19).

No More Donuts, Please

A short time ago, I was invited to attend a Friday night program at a church that my friends attended. It was geared toward youth and young adults. They had been involved in this program for a few years, and they put a lot of time into it. While the program had enjoyed quite a bit of success early on, my friends were lamenting the fact that attendance had dropped off quite a bit recently.

This resonated with me, since I, too, led out in a Friday night program for more than a year. We, too, met with great attendance at first, but it was virtually nil as time went on, and we ended up scratching the program altogether.

My program and my friend's program was quite different, however. Whereas my program was largely Bible-study-based and had few frills, theirs had all of the bells and whistles that young adults seem to "need" these days. The place where they had the program was complete with dim lighting. There were nice comfy chairs that attendees could lounge in. The music was "contemporary." And, best of all, there was plenty of junk food for everyone's culinary tastes, complete with Krispy Kreme donuts. I, of course, had one.

As I sat there and analyzed the program, something suddenly occurred to me. I wonder how long they had been singing the same songs, eating the same donuts, and sitting in the same comfy chairs. While these things can be attractive in one's programming (though I felt like I almost OD'ed on sugar, between the donuts, soda and candy), there has to be more. People - whether young or old - need to be brought deeper.

Many programs I have sat in have less depth than my kindergarten Sabbath School class growing up - and these are geared towards more "mature" young adults or even older adults. Too many of us are Krispy Kreme Christians, and the unfortunate thing is that those who lead us don't think we are capable of going any deeper. Either that, or they, themselves, lack depth.

As I was thinking about these ideas, I happened to be working with a young man who just graduated from high school at an Adventist academy. Some how or other, we started talking about a program that a local church runs for young people. He attends it from time to time but hasn't been going recently because very few people attend it anymore. I was somewhat surprised because, last I heard, the attendance was high.

When I asked him why no one attends anymore, he replied, "Because people don't think it's cool anymore." Intrigued by his analysis, I prodded him more, "The problem is," he continued, "at these types of programs people are either entertained to death, or they're bored to death." He continued, "We don't want to be entertained. If we wanted to be entertained we would go to a movie. We don't come to church to be entertained." I believe the young man is on to something.

I proceeded to ask him if he had ever heard of the General Youth Conference (GYC), and when he said that he had, I asked him what he thought about it. He told me that there seemed to be a lot of people who attend it, but he wasn't sure why. "People just seem to get together and pray and listen to sermons all the time, but for some reason, a lot of young people want to go." He wondered if it had something to do with the fact that the people who attend these meetings become active and they involve themselves in different types of ministries.

Lest you think I'm trying to plug the GYC, let me just assure you that I have no agenda to push. I have never been to the GYC, nor do I know if I'll ever attend. At face value, there are probably things that I may not agree with, yet I recognize that the GYC must be doing something right. It has had staying power for a number of years now, unlike a lot of our other programs that start with a bang but fizzle out.

What are they doing right? Maybe it has a lot to do with the depth that they are pursuing. Few of them are Krispy Kreme Christians. Are their actions perfect? Hardly. But they understand that young adults are capable of going higher and deeper; that programs don't need to be amped up to draw interest; or that small group discussions don't need to be devoted to trying to find "God in the movies."

This is not a call to attend the next GYC. Neither is it a call to trash the guitars or can the PowerPoint. It's not even a call for legalistic reform that does not proceed from a changed heart.

It is a call, however, to move beyond the donuts. We are all a part of the unfortunate problem. But we can all be a part of the solution. When we uplift Christ and Him crucified, people will be drawn to our programming, donuts or no donuts.

*For an article I recently wrote for the Adventist Review on the issue of music, click here.

Perhaps it's not just us

I had a very pleasant conversation with one of my neighbors a few weeks ago. He has been attending a local Adventist church for some time with his wife, who has been an Adventist her whole life. Their daughter attends the local Adventist academy.

I was actually surprised when he told me that he was not an Adventist. Since I had seen him from time-to-time at church, I simply assumed that he was a card-carrying member of God's "Remnant" people. What shocked me even more, however, was when he told me how much he enjoyed attending this church. "The people are so accepting," he told me. And then he said, "I grew up in the [fill in the blank with any number of non-Adventist churches] church, and I didn't feel as welcome or loved as I do now."

I just about fell out of my chair. Actually, I was standing up at the time, so I almost fell to the ground. I had never heard such a crazy idea. Usually certain groups within our very own church try to feed us propaganda, telling us that Adventists are the only un-loving denomination on the planet. We hear horror stories of the un-countable masses that have been forced to leave our denomination because of this deep lack of love and acceptance.

To be sure, there are definitely hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals that have been wrongfully and un-lovingly treated within our denominational walls. I've heard the first-hand horror stories from people who have been treated in such a way. I do not want to diminish their reality at all.

But why don't we ever hear the positive stories? Why don't we ever hear the stories of other denominations that are just as guilty as we?

The truth is, I've come to realize that this problem is not peculiar to Adventism. We do not have a monopoly on being un-accepting, no more than other churches have a monopoly on love.

Perhaps - and this is still a working theory in my mind -those who feel the least amount of love and acceptance within our own denomination are those who have grown up in the church. The same can probably be said for individuals - like my neighbor - who grew up in other faith communities. As we grow up and mature and search for our own identity, we struggle to find acceptance and love from those who know us best. Or, at least that's our perception.

Many of us want to retain the cultural Adventism that we grew up with, while at the same time taking part in things that we know contradict that which our cultural community seems to speak against. When these two desires clash, we feel as though we are un-loved and un-accepted.

It's probably fairly rare to find a person who has joined the Adventist church later on in life who feels the same way. They have made a conscious decision to join the church, unlike many of us who were born into it and are now searching for our own identity.

It would be well for us all to remember Paul's beautiful words in Colossians 3:14, "But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection."