Tag: preachers

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Too Many 2300 Days Knowing, Vegemeat Eating Legalists?

While listening to much of the discourse in the sermons from many preachers one can come to a few interesting conclusions. First, vegetarianism must somehow be related to a meanspirtedness. In addition, this meanspirited vegetarianism must be rampant in the church. Why would I make this assumption? Well because often in the illustrations it is the vegetarian who is the foil. He is the one that is upsetting the equilibrium and hurting the new Christians who are seeking to follow God but have not grown to the full stature of Christ. Now certainly there is a place for this type of rhetoric. There are some who use vegetarianism as some sort of “get out of hell” card when it was never meant for that kind of thing. However, my problem is that the proper purpose of vegetarianism is hardly ever spoken of. When you hear about it, it is usually the obviously problematic person in the story that the preacher is speaking of.

Sanctuary and Vegetarianism? Anti Christian?

The Tabernacle
The Tabernacle

The same again with the knowledge of the 2300 days. There are some preachers who never even refer to the 2300 days or the sanctuary message except when saying that a knowledge of it is not necessary for some reason. They may preach that you need to know Jesus more than you know the Sanctuary. OK, I can go along with that to a certain extent, but doesn’t the Sanctuary tell us something about who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing? (but i Digress)…The same preacher may preach a story about the person who studies the Sanctuary doesn’t have the Love of God. Certainly there are those types of people. But when you never balance this rhetoric with either a proper presentation of the Sanctuary (demonstrating the unavoidable description of Jesus) or a proper role for the doctrine in the Christian life, then we end up with a distorted view that seems to think that these doctrines are almost problematic for Christian living.

Never Placing the Doctrines in Proper Context

Certainly many of these preachers are not saying that explicitly. Many of these preachers don’t even mean that at all. However if you only speak of the Sanctuary within the context of the hypocrite and the unloving foil and you never place the Sanctuary in the proper context of a loving Christian experience, then you are in essence teaching that the Sanctuary is a useless appendage. The same with other doctrines and vegetarianism.

Certainly there are some preachers who go to the opposite extreme, and there are some who place all of the doctrines in the context of Biblical Christ-centered Christianity. But in much of the discourse there is a strong undercurrent that seems to imly that the Sanctuary, vegetarianism, and other things that we have been called to teach are actually problematic. In short, if the Sanctuary is not a Christ-centered doctrine, then we either must start teaching it correctly, or openly toss it out, but we cannot continue to badmouth the very doctrines that were given to us to help us understand our purpose in these last days.

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Sabbath and Creation/Redemption

The website 1888 Most Precious Message has posted an article by E. J. Waggoner titled “The Object of the Sabbath.” In it Dr. Waggoner makes the following statement:

The Sabbath is the memorial of creation, but redemption is creation. David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart.” Psalm 51:1. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.” 2 Corinthians 5:17. The gospel “is the power of God unto salvation,” (Romans 1:16), and the power of God is seen only in the things that he has made. Verse 29. So the power of the gospel is the power that created the worlds. Therefore, the Sabbath, in commemoration of creation, makes known to man the power of God to save from sin. As it calls to remembrance the power of God as shown in the works of his hands, it reminds us of the words of the apostle: “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10

Creation and Redemption’s Connection

This statement deserves contemplation. The connection between redemption and creation is an important one. When God seeks to do something with humanity, God is not simply doing a renovation project, God is engaging in creation. God has to begin again as in the original creation. God starts over and creates in us that which is not there. The only real way to understand or see this power of God to do something with us is to look at the creation. Look at how God can take nothing and make something. And to do that we need to look at the works of God’s hands.

God Making a Way

I think it is interesting that just as what God does in us through creation, God does things for us through creation. When the old folks used to say, “God can make a way out of no way,” they were simply saying that the creative power of God will be used to make ways where they were not before. All this is simply to say that when we speak of miracles, we are simply talking about the creative power of God, when we speak of hope in hopelessness, we are simply depending on God’s ability to create.

Remembering the Sabbath

And the only mechanism that God has given us to celebrate this creative power is the Sabbath. God has called us to remember the Sabbath so that we can remember this power that does things in us and for us and through us. God calls us to remember the Sabbath so that we can let the world know that God “can-do…” And we as a people have been called to remind the world of this fact. If it had not been for the creative power of God where would we be? If it had not been for the creative power of God I would be nothing! If it had not been for the creative power of God, I wouldn’t have any hope. This is why the first angel in Revelation 14:6-7 seeks to remind humanity of creation. And one day we as a people will proclaim this message “more fully.”

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Carlton Byrd's Church Growth Method

This afternoon, I attended a seminar on church growth put forth by Dr. Carlton P. Byrd at the Riverside Seventh-day Adventist church in Nashville, TN.

The Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, where he pastors, has experienced tremendous growth since his being placed in the church.

The seminar is the same seminar that he has presented in other venues where he describes his method for church growth. The method centers on creating an “atmosphere” of growth that he calls an “Evangelistic Culture.” Dr. Byrd specifically speaks of three areas where this intentional attention should be made to create this culture.

Worship

The first area that needs to be intentionally rethought with the mindset of growth is worship. Dr. Byrd was quick to state that this is not only about music, but it is about the entire worship experience. He noted that in some churches there is a pleasant experience from the person who tells you where to park, to the usher who seats you, all the way to through the service.

This culture shows itself by intentionally seeking to eliminate anything from the service that works against growth. From the rude usher to the elder who does not know how to read the scripture.

Evangelistic Outreach

The second area is evangelistic outreach. Here we are looking to build up interests by intentional engagement with the community. Dr. Byrd gave some examples that have been done in Atlanta. The first is a block party where hundreds of names were collected. Another was what he calls a “tract attack” where the people go out and pass out tracts. It is interesting that Dr. Byrd goes out with all the rest of the people. Another approach is to have musical services with popular names.

Traditional approaches are also a part of this method. He has included bible workers in his method. Dr. Byrd noted that when he originally came to Berean there was 1 Bible worker, but now he has hired 5 of them. These Bible Workers are always seeking interests and giving Bible Studies. In preparation for his next meeting he is seeking 10K interests.

Public Campaigns

I had to leave early so I did not hear this aspect of the approach, but Dr. Byrd does engage in public campaigns that are essentially reaping meetings. One can be sure that Dr. Byrd believes that they should be put together just as well as the worship service.