We Are Pilgrims – Pain Makes Me Yearn For Home

Hebrews 11:13 speaks of the faithful being pilgrims who only saw the promise from a distance. I think it is important for us to live effective and fruitful lives in this world. It is important to occupy till the Master returns. In that we are to take that which the Master has placed in our hands and get an increase. (Luke 19:12-13). It is important that we do not fall into the trap of thinking that there is nothing for us to do here but wait. The world should be better because we have been here. We should “lighten the corner where we are.”

After having said that, we cannot ever lose the fact that we are still at a distance from God’s incoming Basilea. Things will get worse, and even in places we may see some things get better before they get worse. We may live a good life and then again we may have barely enough to survive. Whatever the case, we are pilgrims and strangers.

I Yearn For Home

Yes I am a citizen of the United States, but I am also a citizen of the Basilea of God. And my ultimate loyalty is to that. And because of that I yearn for the home that I have only been able to see from afar. I yearn for that home when thousands of our sisters and brothers die in an earthquake and the resulting Tsunami in Japan. I yearn for that home when I hear of children, elderly, those with special needs, and the weakest amongst us being abused by those more powerful. I yearn for home when killing citizens is referred to as “collateral damage.” I yearn for home…

I know it’s old school, but every once in a while I just want to think about walking on the streets in glory. I want to think about asking Moses about the exodus. I want to think about the lion lying with the lamb, I want to think about “peace in the valley.” And yes, along with Rance Allen I long to just make it to heaven…that will be good enough for me!

Adventists and Pollution

Pollution is an interesting issue among Adventists. I have heard preachers downplay the importance of taking care of the environment for, they argue, “God is going to clean up everything at the Second Advent anyway.” This attitude seems to be to promote disobedience to God who gave us care over this world. Just as we would not eat anything and destroy our bodies for “God is going to clean up everything at the Second Advent” neither should we cavalierly ignore the cry for a better environment.

Interestingly enough, a youtube channel entitled “Adventists About Life” have discussed this very topic. Here is the video. Dr. Allen Handysides argues “Do We Care? I care, for this is God’s world and it wasn’t meant to be polluted by plastics.”

Is All Growth Good?

fatman2Dr. Phillip Mills writes about the current infatuation with many of the current-popular church growth approaches. Certainly we can question whether it is God’s intention that every church turn into a Mega Church which I sincerely doubt. But what Mills does is question whether we are worrying about the quality of growth as much as simply growing at all costs.

Some have talked about this when speaking about our low-retention rate as well as our proclivity to equate success to putting church hoppers in seats while the total number of adherents to the Second Advent Movement remains the same in the city, but we shuffle folks around. Mills addresses these issues in his helpful way that only a physician could do.

He notes that there are many ways to grow that are not good. For example, there is Girth Growth. This is where our midsection’s simply grow out. This is not “fitness but fatness.” Could our desire to placate to the whims of the unconverted produce people who simply want what they want rather than desire the transforming power of God? Is it valuable to have a church full of consumers of our religious entertainment? Girth growth happens when we simply want people in the seats at all costs. We don’t train them as we should. We don’t love them as we should. We don’t strengthen them as we should. And we don’t expect them to use their gifts for the kingdom as we should. We just are happy with more “behinds in the seats.”

Another means of growth, spoken of by Mills, is Forced Growth. This happens when you grow out of balance. This is like when some weightlifters grow their muscle by any means necessary, without doing the other things that are necessary for health. In our religious life, we can do this by ignoring certain fundamentals that we all need to hear as Christians. When we emphasize justification, love, and salvation, but don’t also emphasize justice, sanctification, and the necessary works that a Christ produced life will bring.

Another type of growth is Neoplastic Growth. Cancer is a growth. We don’t want it, we shouldn’t want it, but some growths are cancers. They often grow fast. They take over good tissue and cause great problems. We can have such growth in our churches when we have more and more members who are not producing. We may grow fast, but what good has it done?

Stature growth is another type of growth. This is the true growth that comes when we are true followers of the most high. When we seek to teach the full counsel of God and growth happens. It is important to note, that not all churches will become mega churches, but they can all grow into the measure of Christ. That is our goal.

In the end, we must recognize that all churches are not supposed to become 20K bohemouths. We need to get out of the trap of thinking that the success of our movement is gaged in number of people sitting in front of us. In addition, we need to see our movement as being more than our local congregation and see it as a integral part of the full Advent movement whose mission has always been “The Advent Message To All The World In This Generation.” We do have a mission! Next, we need to stop judging our ministers and our people by measures that will simply promote some of these unhealthy kinds of growth.