Hi all,
I know this is the first post I've written since joining over a year ago, but things have been happening lately that has shook my husband and I awake. Things that should have shook me awake years ago, but better now than never.
For perspective, in the city where I attend church we have several fellowships. One big white conference church, one big black conference church, one small black conference church, one Spanish language church, and one Korean language church. It's no secret that regardless what race you are, if you want to attend a more liberal (i.e. lots less stringent on the standards) fellowship, you go to the small black conference church.
I became a convert in the late 80's, after the worst of the Des Ford debacle. For the most part, I was taught traditional SDA doctrine from the Bible and found it to be sound. I've had my own struggles with SDA standards such as adornment, caffeine, and meat-eating, but there were always good SDA pastors to help me back on track.
That is, until this year. We had a pretty good pastoral couple, Bible based, solid SDAs. Between his solid Bible teaching and his own share of faults, the pastor got on some church members nerves, no big surprise. Then thru a budget crunch debacle at the conference office, they left for a different conference all together. At first, the replacement couple seemed great. But now I wonder.
When the new pastor first arrived, he gave a prayer meeting discussion on adornment. I missed it because I figured it would be the usual Bible- based discussion of why SDAs avoid it. Then the pastor's wife started wearing makeup and jewelery to church, a little more as the weeks progressed, as do their young adult daughters when they visit. You really can't tell them from the world. Then I heard that the pastor had given his blessing on adornment at the prayer meeting.
Early on, the pastor was encouraging me to check into a particular degree program at a local SDA university school of business he was attending. When I asked why he was getting that doctorate, rather than a D.Div., his response was, "When you teach at the school of business, you get paid better than at the school of divinity." I later found out the professor he encourage me to contact was used to be on the Adventist Today board.
What's really frustrating, is on Sabbath morning, the guy has cracker-jack sermons. And they both are truly nice people. But, the church service atmosphere has been deteriorating from happy and respectful, to noisy and irreverent.
When visiting friends of ours two weeks ago, they were discussing the Adventist fellowships they visited while in CA. Now, I've always heard the West Coasters were a bit on the liberal side, but what they reported really bothered me. They said that "everybody" in the congregations went out to eat on Sabbath after church. At one of them, they had a long discussion with a male same-sex couple who were members!!!
So, like any good computer nerd, I got on to Google and started researching what was going on. I gave a good hard look at the progressive, traditional, and fundamentalist arguments, and have been astounded at the what I've read. It's back to the one extremist ditch or the other deception of Satan. The focus is solely on the love of God or the law of God, never a positive balance between both. We've all seen the fundamentalist "cheese nazis." Now the progressives are jumping into their own "tolerate everything and never mind what the Bible says" ditch.
Recently, I found a copy of Joe Crews' Creeping Compromise in our church library and my husband and I are going through it. I've also just finished the first volume of the Testimonies, and between them both, it's like Yogi Berra's deja vu all over again.
Look, God knows (and so do many friends and co-workers for that matter) the issues I struggle with personally. But God forbid that I ever misuse the Bible to rationalize Satan's machinations to keep me lusting after the flesh pots of Egypt. I definitely will be participating in the Global Rain effort, praying for the Lord to keep shaking all of us to wake up.
Thanks for letting me rant,
theharvest
I know this is the first post I've written since joining over a year ago, but things have been happening lately that has shook my husband and I awake. Things that should have shook me awake years ago, but better now than never.
For perspective, in the city where I attend church we have several fellowships. One big white conference church, one big black conference church, one small black conference church, one Spanish language church, and one Korean language church. It's no secret that regardless what race you are, if you want to attend a more liberal (i.e. lots less stringent on the standards) fellowship, you go to the small black conference church.
I became a convert in the late 80's, after the worst of the Des Ford debacle. For the most part, I was taught traditional SDA doctrine from the Bible and found it to be sound. I've had my own struggles with SDA standards such as adornment, caffeine, and meat-eating, but there were always good SDA pastors to help me back on track.
That is, until this year. We had a pretty good pastoral couple, Bible based, solid SDAs. Between his solid Bible teaching and his own share of faults, the pastor got on some church members nerves, no big surprise. Then thru a budget crunch debacle at the conference office, they left for a different conference all together. At first, the replacement couple seemed great. But now I wonder.
When the new pastor first arrived, he gave a prayer meeting discussion on adornment. I missed it because I figured it would be the usual Bible- based discussion of why SDAs avoid it. Then the pastor's wife started wearing makeup and jewelery to church, a little more as the weeks progressed, as do their young adult daughters when they visit. You really can't tell them from the world. Then I heard that the pastor had given his blessing on adornment at the prayer meeting.
Early on, the pastor was encouraging me to check into a particular degree program at a local SDA university school of business he was attending. When I asked why he was getting that doctorate, rather than a D.Div., his response was, "When you teach at the school of business, you get paid better than at the school of divinity." I later found out the professor he encourage me to contact was used to be on the Adventist Today board.
What's really frustrating, is on Sabbath morning, the guy has cracker-jack sermons. And they both are truly nice people. But, the church service atmosphere has been deteriorating from happy and respectful, to noisy and irreverent.
When visiting friends of ours two weeks ago, they were discussing the Adventist fellowships they visited while in CA. Now, I've always heard the West Coasters were a bit on the liberal side, but what they reported really bothered me. They said that "everybody" in the congregations went out to eat on Sabbath after church. At one of them, they had a long discussion with a male same-sex couple who were members!!!
So, like any good computer nerd, I got on to Google and started researching what was going on. I gave a good hard look at the progressive, traditional, and fundamentalist arguments, and have been astounded at the what I've read. It's back to the one extremist ditch or the other deception of Satan. The focus is solely on the love of God or the law of God, never a positive balance between both. We've all seen the fundamentalist "cheese nazis." Now the progressives are jumping into their own "tolerate everything and never mind what the Bible says" ditch.
Recently, I found a copy of Joe Crews' Creeping Compromise in our church library and my husband and I are going through it. I've also just finished the first volume of the Testimonies, and between them both, it's like Yogi Berra's deja vu all over again.
Look, God knows (and so do many friends and co-workers for that matter) the issues I struggle with personally. But God forbid that I ever misuse the Bible to rationalize Satan's machinations to keep me lusting after the flesh pots of Egypt. I definitely will be participating in the Global Rain effort, praying for the Lord to keep shaking all of us to wake up.
Thanks for letting me rant,
theharvest
