Why We Do and Don’t Need the Church
by Raj Attiken
by Raj Attiken, October 20, 2014
A few days ago I received an announcement about yet another symposium that claims to expose one more heresy within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It prompted me to reflect on why, despite so much of the nonsense happening within our church family, the Adventist Church needs to exist and, in fact, flourish. The reasons are many. The church can be a community where we journey together as brothers and sisters always and everywhere toward the Christ who is always anywhere and everywhere. It can be a community where we support and nurture each other through the various contours of the journey as we learn to go deep with the Divine. It can be a committed community that gives heartfelt emotional support, and welcomes, and forgives. It can be a community that teaches us to love well and live well, and to advance hope and joy to all people.
However, there are a few “not-so-good” (in fact, lousy) reasons why the church should exist. Among them is that it gives a pretext for groups such as those conducting the symposium to claim legitimacy for their conjured-up causes. If the church did not exist, such groups would not have a captive audience to which to market their conspiracy theories (think contemporary Christian music, contemplative prayer, spiritual formation, emerging church, meditation, etc.) and infuse fear, suspicion, mistrust, and insecurity in the hearts of people. It is a twisted irony that these groups derive their life from the very church that they allege is in apostasy. To the informed it is also amusing that the issues these groups warn Adventists about as “hot” issues are those that have been around within Christian circles for decades and centuries!
In the larger geopolitical and geo-religious world today, we see how groups who hold visions of religion that are more “religious” than religion resort to unhealthy and often violent means to establish their visions of religion. In the process not only do they do untold harm to people but they also misrepresent and distort religion.
If there were no Adventist Church, groups such as the organizers of the recent symposium and their ilk will have to find new audiences to feed their need to control, to infuse fear and suspicion. They will also need to find new ways to legitimize their identity and existence. But, if there were no Adventist Church, most of us will not have a community that we call home — a community that gives shape to our faith, our worship, our relationship, and our service.
I don’t expect the Adventist Church to go away, at least not anytime soon! I wish, however, that sanity will prevail in our faith community, and that more and more of us will create new landscapes of faith, hope, and love, rather than of fear, guilt, and insecurity.
Dr. Raj Attiken was born in Sri Lanka, attended the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary at Andrews University and then served as a pastor in the United States. He was elected secretary and then president of the Ohio Conference where he served in denominational administration for nearly three decades. He is the author of a book on leadership which can be obtained from www.adventsource.org, the resource center of the North American Division.
Very interesting. There is clearly a tension within Adventism, more so than other denominations I think, as to a united centralised mission but also our strong tradition of a non-creedal broad Church. The preamble to the 28 FBs reflects this tension in being open to change, but also expecting change to come collectively through a General Session of the GC.
But I don't despair too much. The Adventist non-creedal approach is also apparently not unlike the nature of ‘primitive godliness’ as found in the Early Church. For example, Patristic (non-Adventist) scholar Michael W. Holmes admits about the late 1st and early 2nd Century Church:
We may imagine a spectrum ranging from those who still considered Christianity a reform movement within Judaism to others who regarded it as some sort of new mystery cult, with nearly every imaginable position in between… The concept of normative Christianity was only beginning to emerge during this time, and when it did, it did so in terms that reflect the motto on the great seal of the United States, e pluribus unum: “out of many, one.” The apostles, as it were, had defined the center; it fell to later generations to attempt to define the boundaries.[i]
Raj,
Thanks for an excellent and timely article. Not only in public but also in private I have been bombarded since my school days by "outings" of various conspiracy theories and heresies from both the liberals and the conservatives within our ranks. I have often remarked at how much both the conservatives and the liberals in the church and in society, are animated by their fears, the main differences being what they fear most.
I recently read a saying that "the eyes of fear see danger everywhere". And I must add that the "eyes of fear" are not confined to the laity. In fact they go all the way to the top as evidenced by Ted Wilson's recent Autumn Council speech, a major portion being devoted to various dangers to the Adventist church attributed to Satan and his/her agents.
Satan does indeed attack us individually and collectively. There is nothing new here as the Bible shows this has been happening for many thousands of years. When leaders, followers and outliers (even with the best intentions) focus on our fears more than on our hopes, they play right into Satan's hands.
How many times in the Bible do angels and Jesus Himself, tell us not to be afraid? Recognizing danger can be useful. This world is indeed a dangerous place. Givng way to fear and even paranoia is very destructive. When we focus on our fears we demonstrate that we ourselves are looking away from Jesus and we encourage others to follow our example.
It would be well for all to remember that the Adventist message is primarily a message of hope, not of fear. Our message is called the Blessed Hope for a very good reason.
Raj,
Criticism grows in the fertile ground where dysfunction and failure are already growing because the Holy Spirit is absent. This lack of Divine power promotes development of circular firing-squads where cricits blame church leaders for their real or supposed failings and church leaders blame the critics for opposing them or preventing them from doing what they say needs to be done.
Often I find that the person who is critical of the church on doctrinal issues is the one who is crying-out to be loved is the person whom the church failed to minister to in practical ways in a past time of need. Unfortunately, in far too many cases the church is not a ministering community of believers who are motivated by God's love and empowered by the Holy Spirit. They are so devoted to spiritual correctness and preaching-only that they often have no current experience with God's redeeming, transforming and empowering love. By doing this they have rendered themselves incapable of ministering effectively to others. "Oh, how horrible!" they exclaim while remaining like stone statues in Satan's grand Hall of the Spiritually Dysfunctional.
The only way I've found to break away from the mold that makes people critical of the church is taking individual responsibility for my relationship with God and learning to minister His love in the power of the Holy Spirit. My relationship with God is influenced by my relationship with my church because I receive encouragement from them and help in times of need. But my relationship with God does not depend on my relationship with my church. My church is a nurturing community of believers who are growing together in God's love by ministering together to each other and the community. That ministry of love overpowers criticism and replaces it with praise to God and focus on doing His work.
"I wish, however, that sanity will prevail in our faith community, and that more and more of us will create new landscapes of faith, hope, and love, rather than of fear, guilt, and insecurity."
Indeed.
In the physiology of faith, is condemnation akin to high-fructose corn syrup with regard to fattening fear, guilt and insecurity? A parallel metaphor may be condemnation is akin to non-calorie sodas sweetened by substances that appear to actually fatten people consuming the drinks through increasing the absorption of calories present elsewhere in the diet.
The near universal nutritional advice is to replace industrial food, that is, exhortation-based preaching in the church metaphor, with 'real' foods as in fruits, vegetables, nuts , and the like. In the church, 'real' truth may be simple testimonies of the living presence of faith, hope and love within the community of faith. If what will eternally distinguish the disciples of Jesus is their love one for another, the infection of the community of faith by love is to expose love wherever one finds it within the community of faith.
Perhaps like Ebola, until we are touched by someone symptomatically loving, we will not become infected with love. Think, perhaps, the First Angel's report. One cannot become infected with Ebola by just hearing about it … or humanity would be approaching extinction before Christmas.
When our communities of faith become hot-beds of love, to use a 19th century agriculture metaphor, what might the church-scape look like where the pews used to be?
Please help us become more practical, here, Elder Attiken. In reflecting on what might have been and might yet be, what is your reflection after nearly 30 years in church administration with regard to possibly a more effective role for Local Conference leadership with regard to (struggling) pastors and the (struggling) communities of faith? I hopeful that, In keeping with Elder Paulson's testimony at Annual Council just past, you will be free to share your vision made more clear by reflection from the vantage point of institutional retirement.
Raj,
I appreciate what you have written. I know that I have been disillusioned by some of the messages sent out by church leaders. As you mentioned, they are so against/afraid of new methods (to them) of evangelism, music, prayer; ironically I could call up myriads of EGW quotes that disagree with them.
Of special concern is the blasphemy against some slightly different kinds of Christain meditation and prayer. Because some other religions use these methods, they are considered evil. By that same reasoning, so is the practice of vegetarianism promoted by other cultures/religions.
I am still trying to figure out what Richard Foster has done to warrant such sensor. There are even Adventists who get censored for Christian spiritual practices. All of this time with Christ could bring us to a closer life with Christ (revival) and have for thousands. The church lacks the growth found in periodic spiritual retreats.
Our leaders who have written on this don't even have their facts right–mindfulness is not emptying the mind but has the relaxing effect of deep breathing. It is basically a discipline of the physical and spiritual–the whole person–building our communicaton with God.
It is no wonder certain persons take these ideas and run with them to gain their own followers and promote paranoid conspiracy theories.
Raj, excellent concepts. One of my favorite metaphors is tension. Without tension we would be dead. Muscles develop under tension. Dr. Hans Selye, the father of stress research, divided stress into good, eustress, and bad, distress. You have admirably expressed that tension in the church. So, instead of letting tension make us afraid let us learn how to manage the tensions in a positive way. In Jesus all things are possible