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By Ron Price

Is it just me or does it seem we live in a society that is getting more and more violent with each passing day? Some might argue that this is more a function of nonstop, 24-hour news coverage than an actual uptick in violence, but I’m not so sure. I do believe ours has become a super-sensitive society, quick to see insult or attack when it might not have been intended. And when we feel threatened or attacked, we can far too easily resort to a violent reaction.

As I write in my book Play Nice in Your Sandbox at Work, jumping to conclusions has become America’s favorite exercise. While I say that with my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek, it does seem that people today get really aggravated over seemingly trivial matters and take things the wrong way more often than not. It is certainly not my place to judge, but you have probably heard the expression “pick your hill to die on”—meaning “don’t give all your time, energy, effort and resources to matters that really aren’t all that significant in the overall scheme of life.” I regularly see people getting upset over hills that probably aren’t worth “dying on.”

Along with being super-sensitive, I believe people are resorting to violence more readily than they might have in years past—probably as the result of the seemingly non-stop diet of violent television and video games we are exposed to on a regular basis. We know that by beholding Christ, we become more like Him. Doesn’t it, therefore, make sense that by beholding violence, negativity, and un-Christlike behavior we become changed in that direction as well?

As Bible-believing Christians, none of this should surprise us. Paul wrote to Timothy: “You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, NLT). Doesn’t that sound eerily like what you might read in today’s newspaper?

Violence in our society has become an all-too-typical reaction to anger. Note I said reaction, not response. Reactions are instantaneous and devoid of forethought. Responses, on the other hand, are reasoned and calculated, which makes them more appropriate in most circumstances.

The late Dr. Gary Smalley said that all anger is the result of a blocked goal. We feel someone, or something, is standing between us and what we want. I first heard that statement over 20 years ago and have not yet found it to be wrong.

Unfortunately, when we feel we are being denied something we want, we too easily leave the thinking part of our brain and enter smack dab into the middle of our feeling brain. In his book Soar Above, Dr. Steven Stosny makes the distinction between the adult brain (thinking) and the toddler brain (feeling). Any of us, regardless of our age, can act like children when we don’t get our way. As children, all we knew to do in such situations was to throw a tantrum and hit somebody–perhaps even ourselves. It can be mighty embarrassing when we grownups act like spoiled little children, can’t it?

Dr. Larry Crabb says that at the root of all sin you find self-centeredness. I think he is absolutely correct. At the root of all violence is self-centeredness, and the only way I know to cure that is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and relinquish your rights to Him. I personally believe that we as a nation have turned too far from God and will not return en masse before Christ returns. But in the meantime, we can each do our part to remain in constant contact and communion with Him and let Him help us always respond with love—never with violence.

–Ron Price is a member of the RMC executive committee from Farmington, New Mexico. His new book is Play Nice in Your Sandbox at Work.

By Stefani Leeper

Jesus is coming soon.

This is something we believe as Adventists. In light of recent political and religious turmoil around the world, we could be worried about the future of this planet.

A question could be asked: Are you ready to stand by your convictions?

As a reward for remaining loyal to his religious and moral conscience, Sir Thomas More was beheaded, his head boiled and displayed on the London Bridge for a month, and then removed and kept by his daughter Margaret until her death. The sentence was delivered by friend King Henry VIII after More refused to recognize the king as the Supreme Head of the Church of England and to verify Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

“I die the king’s faithful servant,” More said to those who came to witness the execution, “but God’s first.”

The unfortunate tale is retold in the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons, an adaptation of the play by Robert Bolt, an agnostic playwright concerned with the issue of conscience.

In the film, King Henry admits his sins to More, yet breaks from the Catholic Church as the pope would not grant the divorce. Only by naming himself Head of the Protestant Church of England was he able to divorce Catherine and secure a marriage to Anne Boleyn. More resigned as Chancellor of England in response, thereby pitting him against the king.

More was given multiple opportunities to save his life, but each offer met a refusal. At one point, his friend begged him to sign the petition as everyone else had done, a supplication echoed by the More family. “And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me?” retorted More.

Earlier, More asked his friend if he would keep a secret, even from Henry, and receiving the affirmative, More asked what became of his oath of obedience to England. “When a man takes an oath, he is holding his own self in his own hands, like water,” explained More, “And if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.” According to David Hagopian of the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics, “an oath or promise is simply an agreement entered into between one person and another whereby the one taking the oath (1) explicitly or implicitly appeals to God to witness and sanction what he has said or committed himself to, and (2) calls God to judge and avenge His name if what he said is false or what he committed to do never comes to pass” (So Help Me God: A Biblical View of Oaths).

In other words, by pledging oneself to an oath, one is entering a promise, or a covenant, with God. To further complicate matters, these oaths are based on our convictions, which each of us has an obligation to follow. This concept is beautifully explained by Paul in Romans 14.

Romans 14 discusses the weak and the strong in faith in terms of how fundamentally—rigidly—Christians follow the law. For example, some may eat meat and some may eat vegetables, but neither is wrong, per say, in the sight of the Lord, as long as they follow their convictions in regard to their understanding of the law.

“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. . . . He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks” (Romans 14:6,7 KJV, emphasis added).

“God gives to every soul freedom to think, and to follow his own convictions,” echoes Ellen G. White in “The Law of the New Kingdom,” Desire of Ages, p. 550. We are to answer to God based on our own conviction, or what we feel is right and how we behaved according to that conviction.

What gives Paul the certainty of this claim? God’s revelation, of course, after the Spirit was found in recent converts not yet circumcised.

The Jews claimed Paul a heretic for denying the covenant of circumcision. Seventh-day Adventist pastor and founder of ARISE David Asscherick justifies Paul’s reasoning behind his claim in Acts 21 and 22. On July 16, Asscherick told the Mills Spring Ranch, Casper, Wyoming congregation that circumcision “was to create wounded genitals.” Abraham laughed at God, and was to be circumcised as a result. In effect, Abraham was to recognize that the promise of heirs did not rest on his own physical accomplishments and prowess, but on God’s divinity and goodness.

In essence, circumcision was to be a symbol of not trusting to the self, but trusting that God will deliver on His promises. However, by the time the New Testament was written, the purpose of circumcision diminished and, said Asscherick, “became a symbol of cultural elitism and disdain for Gentiles.”

In the words of Ellen G. White, “The ordinances which God Himself had appointed were made the means of blind- ing the mind and hardening the heart” (“The Fullness of the Time,” The Desire of Ages, p. 36).

Paul and other early church leaders knew that when symbols cease to hold their meaning they become irrelevant.

“And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:7-9 KJV).

And Paul stood for his belief, only to later meet the same fate as Sir Thomas More. Both men believed in the power of prayer over forsaking conscience.

We are called to do the same.

A day may come when we must “face the music” in our lives. Thomas More’s example may be helpful, allowing us to look in the eye of an executioner, and whisper, “I forgive you, right readily. Be not afraid of your office. You send me to God.”

Stefani Leeper was the RMC 2016 summer communication intern, and is a senior at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.

By Jessyka Albert

There’s a statistic floating around that nine out of ten people like chocolate. I took a poll of my circle of friends, family, and colleagues—and found this statistic to be incredibly accurate. I think it’s safe to say that we live in a world where the love of chocolate is a common denominator. The 90 percent of us who love chocolate (my apologies to the other 10 percent) may have enjoyed a dessert or two described as “death by chocolate.” What this means is that whatever dessert this may be, chocolate is the primary ingredient. Delicious right? And although it might be one of the best desserts known to man, you can only eat so much. This dessert is overpowering and rich.

Often we treat discipleship the way we treat chocolate. For the most part, churches and Christians genuinely love discipleship—I’d speculate at least 9 out of 10. The problem is that we love discipleship like we love chocolate. We bring it out for special occasions, and when we do, we overdo it. This creates a fear of discipleship. Discipleship is not a dessert where you can take it or leave it; it’s the seasoning that goes into every meal. It might best be viewed as the “salt” of the table, rather than the chocolate.

Without salt—without discipleship—we are left with bland food and bland Christians. Why are we afraid of discipleship? Because we don’t understand it. There is a reason that almost every table has a salt shaker on it. There is a reason Jesus called his followers to be the salt of the world and not the chocolate of the world. And there is a reason why discipleship is still important today. Salt enhances flavor, much like discipleship enhances God’s children.

So what makes it scary to many people? I believe there are four main reasons for this phenomenon:

1. Discipleship is scary when you have not been discipled yourself. Discipleship is really quite simple because it’s mostly about relationships. The ingredient that causes many to jump back in fear is their lack of experience with discipleship that is not just a two-way relationship, but a relationship that also involves Jesus. That takes any ordinary relationship and turns it into something intentional.

In other words, perhaps we are afraid to use the salt on the table because we have not tried it on our own food. How do we explain to someone else why they should put salt on their meal if we have not put it on our own?

2. We’re afraid others might not like it. Again, discipleship brings Jesus into the picture. And unfortunately many people are afraid of becoming vulnerable and sharing their own journey with God. Discipleship is raw and honest. Remember, discipling is like salt, not sugar. Although it may sting a wound, it is also healing. Discipleship can sometimes be painful. Because it involves Jesus, it is not a normal relationship. Jesus isn’t interested in our “I’m good” cliche answers; he searches the deepest parts of our hearts, and that can be painful.
3. We’re worried it’s useless. If you aren’t discipling because you think the time and energy isn’t worth it, I en- courage you to look at Jesus. Jesus discipled men he knew would deny him and betray him, but that did not stop him. We are not called to be judges; we are called to be fishers of men. To be salt and light to the whole world, not just part of it, and to disciple all people, not just some of them. This does not mean individually we have to disciple the whole world, but neither should we neglect those around us.
4. We don’t disciple enough to be comfortable with it. I cannot emphasize enough that discipleship is a lifestyle. It isn’t a single day event; it is a way of life. It involves both discipling and being discipled. An important part of my life is having a circle of discipleship. In college, we would go on “Jesus dates.” This was a time with close friends where we could reflect on our lives emotionally and spiritually and uplift one another. Jesus dates are still an important ingredient in my discipleship lifestyle.

Discipleship is not supposed to be overpowering or a burden. It is supposed to be the practice of carrying one another’s burdens, of guiding each other to the feet of Jesus, of loving and growing with one another. It is meant to be sprinkled throughout our everyday lives. Discipleship is not the rich death by chocolate dessert of which we can eat only a little, but the seasoning we use at every meal.

Jessyka Albert is discipleship pastor at Boulder Adventist Church.

By Carol Bolden

What do you do when you see the planet you live on cracking down the middle from the disintegration of its people and the loss of peace?

If you’re Derek (34) and Alicia (26) White, you move to Egypt.

With a toddler in tow, the little family picked up and moved last July to Cairo, a massive city of 20 million inhabitants, in order to live the vision they believe God has for them, a vision that encompasses their relationship with their fellow man, their relationship with God, and their relationship with creation.

Leaving behind friends and family, including their church family at LifeSource Adventist Fellowship, they took with them their desire to create peaceful family relationships with people from all walks of life.

“In the past,” explains Alicia, “we tried to make peace in our city of Aurora, Colorado, a city unique because of its diversity with immigrants from around the world including South and Central America, Africa, and Asia.” The family lived in “an area of town with many refugees” so that they could “learn from their neighbors, share life, and seek peace together.”

With Alicia working as a nurse and Derek as a lawyer, they were able to build bridges between people by sharing many meals at their home along with community celebrations, a community garden, and community activism.

Moving to Egypt was the next step on their path toward peace. As rookies in a huge foreign city, they work to build bridges by asking for help. Since they’re just learning the language (Arabic), becoming acquainted with a new overwhelming city, and navigating a different culture, they have plenty of needs. Most often, people are happy to help and, in the process, they often make new friends.

As they develop new relationships on the road to deep community, they’ve taken lessons from their toddler son who is teaching them how to love strangers. “The openness with which he approaches anyone and everyone, fully expecting them to give him the love he deserves and with absolutely no fear of rejection, is beauty to behold,” says Derek.

“Isaiah melts away walls that might take us years to chip away. He is Egypt’s Number One Peacemaker. He will stare with a welcoming smile and intense eyes at the most city-hardened male until he becomes putty in Isaiah’s tiny hands. What we can’t do, he can.”

As a lawyer, Derek serves refugees in Egypt. After much prayer and thought, he has committed the majority of his time (and the family’s time) to migrants in Egypt. The stories of persecution that refugees and asylum-seekers share from their home countries are “raw and fresh” and the hopes that led them to Cairo inspire him.

Alicia volunteers twice a week for half a day using her nursing background to advocate for improved access to medical services for migrants and refugees. She also tutors young teenagers who came to Cairo without their families, and teaches and encourages teenage moms with young children resulting from rape.

It hasn’t all been easy. The “crowds, noise, trash, and pollution” of the city take their toll as did getting their three- month visas renewed at Tahrir Square, Cairo’s large city center that greets 100,000 visitors each day. Then there was the time they rode the metro, not recognizing that the female symbols on the metro platforms designate the females-only metro cars. They had a “very awkward ride” as they slowly realized that Derek was out of place in that particular car.

Not to mention their separation from family in the U.S.!

But there are also many joys—connecting with people at church, sharing meals and playing new games with friends, cultural and language exchanges with neighbors, and the adventure of exploring a new place.

Alicia’s brother, Alex, has joined the family in Cairo, bringing with him his programming expertise and love of Ultimate Frisbee. His contribution to peace includes “spreading awareness of Frisbee throughout Egypt” and “putting enough Frisbees into the hands of youth that the sport becomes as popular as soccer.”

Along with sharing Frisbee with the youth of Egypt,  Alex volunteers his time helping an organization put in a new database management system, He arrived at the perfect time to help with its implementation and, of course, they are very happy to have him.

The friends Derek, Alicia, and Alex have made come from widely differing socioeconomic places. When they sit with friends in their comfortable, air-conditioned apartment enjoying ice-cream, they feel grateful for the generosity, yet “it sparks in us a desire to connect our different relationships that seem worlds apart,” explains Derek.

Yet through all the challenges of everyday living, Alicia and Derek remember that God called them to Cairo to learn, not just to do.

With all the media hype and the current world climate, “there is so much misunderstanding between people living in the Middle East and America as well as much misunderstanding about refugees,” explains Alicia. The result is separation, hatred, fear, and conflict.

“By living among people considered to be dangerous, we hope that we can humanize these people and encourage our American family to see them as family. And we hope we can to show our growing family here in Egypt that Americans may not be what they hear in the news.”

“We earnestly hope and pray for the day when there will be no more need to say, ‘No, I can’t help you,’ when refugees won’t be forced to bear the indignity of standing in long, hot, sweaty lines at place after place, desperate for someone to help them with their impossibly huge problems, when parents won’t send their kids on the terrifying journey with smugglers to save them from the worse fate of being abducted by local terrorist groups, when young girls won’t be raped because there is no one there to protect them,” says Derek with passion.

Maybe this cannot happen, Derek continues, until the poor and the outcast, the refugees and other groups are brought together, when they are finally seen as what they are—family.

Carol Bolden provides administrative support for the RMC communication department.

By Dick Stenbakken

The name “Desmond Doss” is familiar to most Seventh-day Adventists, and will soon be known much more widely because of the Hollywood film Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson. The film quite accurately portrays the life and heroic actions of Doss, and it will undoubtedly raise questions about Adventists and military service.

Desmond Doss grew up in a family of great contrasts. While his mother was a devout Adventist, his dad suffered from what we would now call “post traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD)—which led to bouts of drinking and the abuse of both Mrs. Doss and the children.

When World War II broke out, Desmond had a job in a defense-related industry, but he chose to enlist in the Army to serve as a medic. Because of past experiences, he had vowed to never touch a weapon, let alone kill another human being. His conscience, however, compelled him to serve in the military and to be part of the fight against those threatening freedom. Many of his friends and local young men had already joined, as had his brother. Desmond felt he could do no less.

Basic training went well until it came time for weapons training. Doss explained that his conscience and convictions would not allow him to train with or use a weapon. He had joined to be a medic, in order to save lives, not take them. This stance was not well understood by his commanders nor by his unit. He was branded as a coward or a crazy man. He was subjected to both verbal taunts and physical beating. In spite of the pressures, he held to his personal convictions.

Note that these were personal convictions. While his church background certainly helped shape his convictions, the stance he took was because of his deeply-held personal convictions.

The unit commander wanted to have Doss discharged on a Section 8 (mental instability), but the ensuing interviews with psychiatrists and other medical personnel convinced those examining Doss that he was not crazy. Instead, he was an individual who had personal convictions that formed who he was, and the convictions were both genuine and permissible.

Not content with the medical reports, the command attempted to court-martial Doss for disobeying a direct order to train with a weapon. He was offered an easy way out: train with the weapon. The alternative threat was imprisonment if he was found guilty of disobeying the direct order. Doss, ever true to his convictions, pled not guilty to the charges because he deliberately chose to enlist to be a medic and to save lives, not take lives. He was not a coward, he was not crazy; he was a patriot who wanted to serve his country in a way that would not violate his conscientious convictions. The court case was dismissed and he was allowed to continue training with his unit, only without a weapon.

His fellow soldiers and superiors still branded him as a coward, but Doss shrugged this off and soldiered on.

When the group was assigned to combat in Guam and Leyte, Doss accompanied his troops as a medic, frequently placing himself in harm’s way to bring aid to the wounded. His service was so spectacular that he was awarded two Bronze Stars for what he did to save lives.

Then, the unit was assigned to Okinawa, specifically to assist with taking a Japanese stronghold known as Hacksaw Ridge. The only way to the top of the ridge was up a sharp cliff face via a rope ladder. On top of the ridge, the Japanese had built fortified bunkers, tunnels, and entrenchments. They were not willing to give up one square inch of ground.

When Doss’s unit scrambled up to the top of the rope ladders, all seemed quiet at first. Then all hell broke loose as the entrenched Japanese counter-attacked the U.S. forces in an attempt to push them off the battlefield. In the ensuing chaos, the American troops were ordered off the top of the ridge. After scrambling down the cliff, the commander realized that nearly 100 of his men were still on the battlefield either wounded or dead. Then the commander realized that Desmond Doss, his medic, was still on top.

Naval shelling began to pound the Japanese positions and as those explosives shattered the ground, the Japanese wisely retreated to their hardened positions, but there was one person constantly moving on the battlefield, Desmond Doss. He was looking for the wounded that could be saved.

Doss carried, dragged, and moved at least 75 men to the edge of the cliff. The question was how to get them down safely. Their wounds prevented them from climbing down, and he was alone. Then he saw a rope. In a flash, Doss tied special knots and formed a sling to lower the injured to safety below. It was exhausting work, but his prayer was, “One more, Lord. Just one more!”

The wounded helped provide cover as best they could while Doss lowered others, one by one, down the cliff.

For his heroics that day, Desmond Doss was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. It was the first time in history the highest military award was given to a non- combatant.

The man who was mocked for his conscientious stance became the hero of the unit. His conscience would not allow him to abandon the wounded. They were, after all, “his men,” and he was there to save lives.

Doss was not some kind of “goodie-goodie guy.” He did not see himself as a hero. He was a common man with an uncommon value system. He knew who he was and what he believed, and he stuck to those beliefs through mockery, scorn, threats, and gunfire. It’s who he was, and he did not compromise his convictions.

Desmond Doss reminds us that convictions are what make us who we are. Not the convictions of our parents, our family, our school, or our church, but convictions that have deep roots in our personal soul. Convictions that do not waiver.

Dick Stenbakken is a retired chaplain (Colonel, U.S. Army) and former director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries for the world church. He lives in Loveland, Colorado.

By Alyssa Parker

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016, more than 300 volunteers joined together for the second annual Love Matters Most day of community service throughout south Denver and Castle Rock. The goal of the event was to promote awareness and cultivate resources for mental health in our community through a variety of community service projects.

Love Matters Most is a day-long volunteer opportunity to serve those most in need within our community. This partnership between local hospitals, schools, faith-based and community organizations promotes love as the foundation of how we all work together. We believe that through the principles of CREATION Health, a lifestyle improvement program, we can successfully bring health, wellness, and love to our community.

Led by Centura Health hospitals in South Denver (Castle Rock, Littleton, Parker, and Porter Adventist Hospitals), the day’s projects included painting and retrofitting homes for low-income and low-mobility seniors through Brothers Redevelopment, painting and stocking a local food bank with Southeast Community Outreach (SECOR), preparing baskets of food and personal care items, and assembling kits to reduce stress for area students.

In addition to the community service projects, this year featured a mental health awareness fair comprised of local organizations and businesses focused on providing education and information regarding mental health services for the volunteers and the community as a whole. “As a vendor, this was a very valuable and exciting event to be a part of— but as a participant/community member, etc., I was truly touched,” Bridget Lovett of Lovett Family Chiropractic commented. She adds, “I would love to participate again and will definitely be painting next year.”

An obvious complement to our CREATION Health program, Love Matters Most supports virtually all of the CREATION Health principles. Eric Shadle, manager of CREATION Health throughout south Denver, highlights the importance of interpersonal relationships. “I was over-whelmed by the enthusiasm of the volunteers meeting together in the morning before going to do service in the community,” he states.

The day began with the mental health awareness fair and kickoff event held at Mile High Academy, where volunteers heard from a variety of presenters on the importance of the day and of serving others. After receiving final instructions, volunteers assembled into predetermined teams and left for their projects. Although the day’s events wrapped up by mid- afternoon, the affect continued well after volunteers returned home.

“In my experience,” Shadle affirms, “this event was much more than a simple service project. It inspired me to look for ways to love and serve people around me every day. And then when I visited some of the sites, I saw volunteers having fun painting homes. The spirit among the volunteers was contagious.” Catch the spirit when the event takes place again next fall.

For more information, visit www.centura.org/lovemattersmost.

Alyssa Parker is community outreach coordinator at Littleton Adventist Hospital.

By Craig Carr

You can tell a great deal about a church from the responses you get when you ask about their evangelism. When a church member says, “Oh yes, we do evangelism; I think we had some meetings a couple of years ago,” we learn that their attitude toward evangelism is that it is an event to be done occasionally. When another church member responds, “Oh yes, we are evangelistic; we have community-friendly events that members invite their friends and neighbors to, we have small groups, we have Bible studies going on throughout the week,” we learn that their attitude toward evangelism is that it is a process and a culture.

While traditional evangelistic events create a classroom in which the gospel can be presented through verbal, visual and, predominantly intellectual means, this leaves churches vulnerable to missed opportunities to serve our communities in loving service. It’s not “either/or,” but “both/and” when it comes to evangelistic proclamation and serving our communities.

Even worse than the either/or-both/and scenario is the “evangelistic hook” used in many community outreach programs—the attitude that we are responsible for “fixing” people. Whatever happened to doing good and kind deeds simply from a heart of loving service? Our acts of “doing” evangelism and outreach are outward expressions of our “being” Christ-filled, Christ-centered, and sharing God’s heart for lost people. It’s not what we “do,” or even who we “are,” but who we are in Christ, the hope of glory.

The apostle Peter preached one of his most memorable sermons in Acts 10 in which he proclaimed that Jesus went about preaching the gospel of the kingdom in combination with doing good deeds among the people. While we often see the Spirit’s anointing power in preaching, Peter claimed that, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, [and He] went about doing good and heal- ing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). He brought together the roles of being both a bearer of good news and a doer of good simply be- cause the One Whom we follow is good. This sentiment is likely what St. Francis of Assisi had in mind when he penned, “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”

Let’s be honest, it’s much easier to have one or two people (often the pastor or guest speaker) perform a series of meetings in which the participation of others is measured by simply showing up. Is that the biblical model of fellow disciples of Jesus Christ (aka church members)? Everyone can get involved in finding meaningful ways to serve our communities in loving ways, whether through volunteer service or being so bold as to pray with our neighbor and to share Christ with others. The church is portrayed as the “body of Christ,” because its “members” have a diversity of God-given talents to contribute to the work of ministry. It is this collaboration of involvement in ministry that brings Christian unity “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

When Jesus and his disciples met the demon-possessed men on the shores of Gadarenes, the demonic voices pleaded, “What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” (Mark 5:7). Jesus did not preach a truth- filled sermon there on the beach, but gave true and lasting peace to these men as the unclean spirits departed into a herd of swine and stampeded down the embankment (see Mark 5:13). But Jesus did not permit these men to come with Him. Rather, he put them to work by commanding, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you” (Mark 5:19). For these men, it was a simple message of deliverance, a witness of Christ’s power to save, a personal message of how Jesus had revolutionized their lives! Their experience of Christ’s compassion became their calling in service as they evangelized their community.

We know we’ve made the switch from “doing” to “being” when activities of evangelism and outreach flow naturally from a personal and collective experience with Christ. Work- ing with Jesus in this way comes from being daily “fed” not from being filled with “dread.” In its purest form, witnessing is like telling someone about your best Friend in Whom you have a secure joy of living and hope for the future.

Imagine with me how the following activities are the natural outflow of a vibrant relationship with Jesus:

Marriage and family seminars and depression recovery and support groups mirror the compassion of Jesus;

Cooking schools, community gardens, and health programs take on a holistic focus on people’s well-being;

Housing the homeless, feeding the poor, and stuffing backpacks with school supplies are extensions of the helping hands of Jesus.

It is my hope that the numerous evangelistic and outreach events continue to gain momentum across Rocky Mountain Conference. My earnest prayer is that congregations would sense a deeper longing for Jesus to transform them that transcends events and programs, that a culture of evangelism would stem from “who we are in Christ,” not simply “what we do.” As Paul wrote to Philemon, “I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus” (Philemon 1:4-6).

Craig Carr is RMC ministerial director.

By Michael Dabrowski

I would be too if I knew that it would change my life. Ten years ago, I was a software development executive in Washington, D.C. I was 70 lbs overweight, addicted to caffeine and sugar, and felt constantly anxious and depressed.

Quite frankly, my standards of feeling good were set so low that I had no idea what feeling good could look like. Because I heard acupuncture was good for stress relief, I wandered into a small acupuncture clinic, peeked through the window at the five patients looking relaxed in their chairs, and worked up the guts to go in.

That night I slept better than I had in weeks. In the days that followed, my life at work began to change. Things that would irritate me no longer seemed to, and my cravings for sugar started to subside. I had no idea how a few tiny, pain- less needles made this possible, but I found it easier to start changing my habits. Within several months of treatments, I lost the excess weight, and felt younger and more vibrant.

Fads come and go, but if a profound teaching, as old as the Bible itself, has survived 5,000 years of oral tradition, it must be something truly special. It has remained relevant throughout all of recorded history.

Eight years ago, my curiosity finally got the better of me, and I resigned my position as VP for a publicly traded company to pursue a master’s degree in acupuncture. My continued quest for answers led me to the clinic of Dr. Chieko Maekawa in Kona, Hawaii, where I entered into an apprenticeship.

Dr. Maekawa is a short, 80-year-old woman from Tokyo, Japan, and a devout Christian. She’s a vibrant powerhouse, and stronger than most 30 year olds. She shuffles from room to room in her tiny green shoes and long white lab coat. Her clinic is always full, with people coming from all over the continental U.S., Europe, and Japan to this remote island for treatment.

She says, “I’m just a small person, and I don’t do anything. You don’t have to believe or trust anything I say. Come see for yourself how God heals these people, and how wise He made their bodies.”

Sure enough, I’ve witnessed people standing from wheelchairs, forgetting their canes at the door, recovering from chronic pain and sports injuries. HIV patients’ viral loads drop, failing eyesight starts to return to the aged, and people with chronic depression and grief find a renewed appetite for life again.

I asked her how all this was possible. She said, “Acupuncture is simple. Health results from good circulation of healthy blood throughout the body. When fresh blood circulates to every cell, and thoughts don’t get stuck in the mind, illness has no place to hide. With good circulation, pain disappears, and the body takes care of cleaning up problems on its own. Muscles rebuild, tendons reshape, bones heal, growths and lumps are dissolved, and God’s temple is cleansed. Health is sustained through teaching the patient to move correctly, eat correctly, and think correctly. Their new lifestyle gives illness no place to develop, so everybody gets healthy and stays healthy according to God’s natural laws.”

Western medicine often treats the body as a collection of parts rather than an integrated whole. Eastern medicine looks at the body in terms of tending a garden.

When a gardener looks at a piece of land, they see pure potential. At first, they examine the health of the soil, clean out the weeds, dead growth, and any garbage that’s blown in from the neighborhood. The gardener does not make the plants grow themselves. The sunlight, wind, and rain pro- vide the plants everything they need, and the health of the garden is a natural result of good tending.

We read in I Corinthians 3:16 that our body is a temple for the spirit of God, and “no one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple” (The Message). Let’s consider that rather than a man-made structure, perhaps the temple is better thought of as a garden. Could illness simply be the natural process of decay that takes place when we stop tending and watering it? Conversely, could health be simply the result of following the proper rituals, at the proper time that a living temple requires for a vibrant life to naturally flourish?

When asked how illness develops, Dr. Maekawa says, “Your mind moves your body. Every movement starts with the movement of your mind. People react from their mind and not from what their body is telling them. When the mind and the body are not in agreement about what needs to be done, illness develops. Therefore, don’t compromise with the God-given wisdom of your body, even on small things. If you do, you are creating your own sickness. Listen to God’s small voice in your heart, listen to your body, and it will not lead you astray.”

Her advice to an acupuncture practitioner? “Your job is not done until you have taught each patient how to tend their own garden and follow the natural order of things. After you treat their body, and help clean their garden, guide the patient and instruct them in the ways to heal themselves, to study their own lives, and become good caretakers. Trust that God will do the rest.”

Before each patient leaves the clinic, Dr. Maekawa places her hand on their back and says a silent prayer: “May they turn their heart to You, and be guided in Your ways. Help them heal their life, and their relationships. May they always walk with You.”

As the New Year approaches, and we spend time reflect- ing on our lives, consider the health of your garden. What sacred rituals do you practice to tend it? Can the Holy Spirit find rest in your branches?

Michael Dabrowski, L.Ac., practices outside Boulder, Colorado, specializing in musculoskeletal injuries, chronic illness, and mental health conditions—www.WholePersonAcu.com.

By Emily “Emy” Wood

You’re in the grocery aisle faced with a decision: buy the organic potatoes for $3.50 or the inorganic for $1.50. The price tag alone will complete the decision for most shoppers. But if you’re one of the growing number of people wanting to eat organically grown, non-GMO foods without breaking the bank, solutions exist. Buying organic food isn’t only the smart option for your health, but it can also be a smart option for your wallet. Following these basic tips can help you avoid pesticide-rich products for less.

Make Choices

To avoid GMO foods is to avoid anything containing ingredients that might possibly be genetically modified. Corn, soybeans, zucchini, yellow squash, canola, sugar beets, papaya, and cottonseed oil are all high risk GMO crops. When buying packaged food, always read the ingredients to see if it contains any by-products from one of these (such as fructose corn syrup). If it does, look for the USDA organic label before purchasing.

When eating healthfully, we can’t always afford to over-haul our diets overnight. An easy way to lessen the burden is to make choices. Cutting meat and dairy from your diet is one of the cheapest ways to save money when buying organic. If you’re going to eat animal products, though, make this area the top priority for organic purchases. Conventional animal products are laden with a deadly combo of pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormone exposure. Do not cut costs on meat.

If overhauling your entire cabinet and fridge seems over-whelming, begin with the most important foods and work your way up. The Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides identifies produce with the highest pesticide residue, named their “Dirty Dozen.” This list includes: strawberries, apples, nectarines, peaches, celery, grapes, cherries, spinach, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers. Make buying the organic versions of these products your priority. Conversely, the “Clean 15” lists produce with lowest pesticide residue. Luckily for you, this means you don’t necessarily need to buy organic produce for the following: avocados, pineapples, cabbage, sweet peas, onions, asparagus, mangoes, kiwi, eggplant, honeydew, grapefruit, cantaloupe, and cauliflower.

Buy in Bulk

After prioritizing produce for organic and non-GMO shopping, an easy way to increase the organic food in your life is to buy bulk grains, legumes, and nuts. Even if you can’t swing shopping at Costco or Sam’s Club, many stores now have bulk food dispensers. Buying items like rice, cereals, beans, nuts, and oats in bulk may seem more expensive initially, but it is cheaper in the long run. Also, if you notice a sale on organic potatoes at a farmers market or a huge slash on the price of organic frozen vegetables, buy more! If you’re budgeting weekly, I recommend stashing $5 each week for the “buy bulk and stash” category.

Buy Seasonally and Locally—or Grow!

If you’re looking to buy fruits or vegetables out of season, buy them frozen. Organic frozen goods are typically cheaper. Whenever possible, try attending local farmers markets. While this means you can only buy in-season produce, you can usually score good deals—especially if you go towards the close of the market. Make friends with some of the organic farmers and they may let you in on more deals, too.

Another way to lessen the financial burden of healthy eating is to grow food yourself. Easy gardening ideas include starting a simple window planter filled with herbs. Other easy-to-grow indoor crops include carrots, garlic greens, micro greens, scallions, tomatoes, and ginger. Buy seeds or starter kits organically.

Some General Tips

The easiest and cheapest tip for eating more organic and non-GMO food is to avoid purchasing packaged items. Some companies seem to double the price for anything with an organic label. By limiting your intake of sweets and extra packaged products, you can cut your grocery bill significantly. And, by removing processed foods, you can avoid nearly all GMOs commonly found in ingredients like soy lecithin, high fructose corn syrup, and other additives.

Another way to save is to look for deals like coupons and rebate apps. Ibotta and Checkout 51 are great rebate apps that often give coupons like “$0.25 off produce.” In-store apps (think Sprouts or Target), can get you double savings and more coupons. Instead of buying brand name, try choosing the organic generic version of various products such as Simply Nature by Aldis. Store ads often have sales on organic goods, so make it a priority to watch your local paper or sign up for emails.

Get to Cooking

As time consuming as cooking from scratch can be, it saves buckets of cash. And it typically means healthier meals with greater control over ingredients. An easy way to cut your kitchen time in half is to double your recipe and freeze half for later use. Use the slow cooker to make bulk soups and casseroles. Leftovers? Throw them together to make a hearty casserole or add some flour and flax meal to make quick bake/fry patties.

Do Your Best!

I wish there was a magical way to save money and eat healthy. Just like exercise, eating organically takes time and dedication. In the long-run—and even short-term—buying more organic foods will benefit your health. If you begin to lose motivation or forget why you went organic in the first place, try checking out some great documentaries like Forks Over Knives, Food, Inc., Food Matters, Simply Raw, and The Future of Food, or books such as To Buy or Not to Buy Organic, A Field Guide to Buying Organic, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, and Organic Manifesto. We all need a little reminder of our priorities every now and again. Remember: you’re doing your best, even if it’s just one more piece of organic produce at a time.

Emily “Emy” Wood is a senior communications major with emphases in emerging media and public relations at Union College.

By Kiefer Dooley

Techno-centered culture is stifling the ability of young people to interact in authentic, thoughtful, and sincere face- to-face conversations. More than that, it is changing the way we all live. Rapidly-developing technology impacts nearly every facet of our lives. Technological advancements in communication, specifically the development and use of social media platforms, profoundly affect our social development, education, family life, relationships, job searches, and views of things like politics and religion.

This radical shift toward primarily social-media-driven communication is changing our culture. Are we, as a Church, adapting to this profound change on the basis of how our individual worldviews are shaped, molded, and influenced? RMC’s youth department is grappling with this question in a search for the best way to reach our young people. Communication today is so different than what I experienced as a sophomore in high school at Ozark Academy in late 2008. I remember the first person to own a smartphone in our class. He was the envy of the entire student body. It was an iPhone 3G. This guy could easily access Facebook (then only 4 years old) on his phone! He could play games like Doodle Jump where the onscreen character reacted to the physical position and movements of the device using a sensor called an accelerometer. No one else could post a status to Facebook on his or her phone, much less play a game any more advanced than Screen Snake (a game where the user controls a dot “snake” around the screen with directional arrows. The snake eats other dots’ “food” and grows a pixel in length. When the snake grows so large that the user cannot keep it from running into itself, game over!). The rest of us were using flip-phones or Blackberries with physical keyboards, the greatest function being the ability to send short text messages.

Today, I see 12-year-olds carrying smartphones that have as much computing power as the laptop I used throughout college. The presence and interconnectedness of social media has also increased dramatically. Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram—these things did not exist a mere 5 to 8 years ago. We now see what amounts to the entire world at our fingertips and it may not be all for the best.

Smartphones perpetuate our ability to dive into social media at any time and often take away the need for face-to-face communication. It happens in my life all the time. Potentially awkward situation? Tired and don’t feel like talking to someone? Waiting in line by myself at Chipotle?

Any situation where I might begin to feel a twinge of insecurity, the easy answer is to pull out the phone and become immersed in a world of entertainment, news, likes, hearts, emoji faces, games, pictures, video shares, ads, thoughts, music—the list of distractions could seemingly go on forever. It is a parallel reality that is available at any time, but that ceases to exist as soon as the battery dies. It’s a world of thousands of superficial communications that quickly and easily take the place of substantial real-life interaction.

While the quantity of communication is enhanced by technology, the content remains surface level. A “long” text message is probably 150 words. If a long text message doubles to 300 words, it’s an epistle. Really? That is so short! Yet, most of our communication occurs in this manner. An entire relationship, of the dating variety, can develop and crumble with 80 percent of the communication occurring via text message. The messages fly back and forth, short snippets of thought in a steady stream of consciousness.

And it is not just texting that encourages quantity over quality. While Twitter limits the number of characters per “tweet” to 140, in an unprecedented move, Twitter recently released an update where photos, videos, animated GIFs, and polls will not count against the 140-character limit. Snapchat communication occurs in even shorter statements, utilizing a roughly 80-character limit for photo captions. Facebook allows posts to utilize an unheard of 63,206 characters.

But does anyone spew this much information in a single post? Hardly. According to research done by Maximilian H. Nierhoff, a writer for the Social Media Analytics Blog “Quintly,” the majority of Facebook posts fall between 2 and 103 characters. Nierhoff’s study took into account 13.5 mil- lion Facebook posts, finding that the distribution of posts by character length strongly resembles a bell curve with a peak at 2 characters and a strong drop off in number of posts beyond the 600 character mark.

A highly-managed and intentionally-cultivated image of many of our (young) people lies in these tidbits of information that spew out to the vast reaches of the Internet. As a collective, we only post what we are OK with people seeing. And what we are OK with others seeing largely depends on the target audience. Young people continuously participate in a sort of subconscious filtering of social media posts and are, in effect, continuously advertising themselves to others. Taking a brief look at some of the major social media platforms and the average content as associated with the intended (or perceived) audience substantiates this assumption. A few of the most popular social media platforms include LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.

LinkedIn is highly regulated and very professional (the target user group is those older young people who are look- ing for full-time employment). Only the best about a person would appear on the LinkedIn profile. It is, in essence, a resume on steroids. A LinkedIn profile often has one or two very professional photos, a purpose statement from a recent resume, and a few paragraphs describing one’s academic achievements as well as goals and aspirations.

A Facebook profile tends to let a more “natural” expression of a person appear. The page may include a profile picture taken at just the right angle, a few photos from a weekend get together with some friends, and maybe a “rant’ intermingled among the litany of posts that show the best parts of a person’s life. A hurrah for summiting that most recent fourteener, a picture of an academic achievement, a cheer for a sports team, a lament over the current political atmosphere. These are all posts that regularly appear on my Facebook feed.

For most young people in the Church (and I’d argue that to some extent this extends to Facebook users in general) the Friday and Saturday night parties, the at-fault fender-benders, the loss of temper and ensuing fountain of argumentative and hurtful words directed at a friend, sibling, or significant other, the messier times in life, these surely don’t show up on the Facebook wall. Why not? Because as Facebook posters, we know the potential audience that lies within our online community: parents, teachers, pastors, and employers. It is a highly self-regulated environment.

Instagram is a hotbed of “perfect” pictures. Each one is carefully selected for its attractiveness and then highly edited or filtered to make it look better than reality. In the case wherein someone posts a picture that happened to turn out as post-worthy without editing, the user, as if by some unspoken requirement, will often post “#nofilter” along with the image to ensure the audience is properly enthralled by the sheer perfection of the image in question. Only the best pictures go up, because they can gather the most “likes.”

The regulation of social media breaks down slightly as the audience narrows. Twitter hosts its fair share of heated arguments and troubling posts, yet these still remain cultivated. There are plenty of horror stories recounting involuntary terminations of employment due to ill-conceived or unregulated Tweets. Such stories serve as a warning to the rest of the Twittersphere and the world of Tweeters remain more careful of their future Tweets.

Of all the social media platforms, Snapchat stories show the most authentic view of an individual’s life. Yet even Snapchat allows the user to regulate “real” life. It’s only as real to others as what the user chooses to share.

I believe that this constant, and often subconscious, regulation of our personal image seeps over into real-life interaction and communication. We are highly guarded at all times. On a cultural level, we have lost the ability to participate in real talk. We are not communicating authentically in our everyday lives and it is easy to carry the same guarded, regulated, and cultivated communication into church on Sabbath.

What young people are seeking is a Jesus-centered life. They often don’t know it because it is masked by more of the same brief, surface-level communication. It is all just noise and it gets in the way of Jesus. In church, we do not need to focus on the programming, on the production, or necessarily on scripted events. “The days of the light and fog machines and overly produced church services are a gone era,” says Tony Ranvestel, lead pastor at Clear River Church in Lafayette, Indiana, located near Purdue University. Young people are surrounded by advertising 24/7. They view advertisements and advertise themselves nonstop and none of it feels real. When it comes to church, we’re often striving to produce something flashy and attractive for the young people.

It will never work. Young people crave what they are missing. I strongly believe that we must simplify our approach to ministry and strive to communicate authenticity. It is imperative that young people come to view the Church as a place where they can make and develop open, authentic, and Jesus-centered connections with their peers and community leaders. In youth and young adult ministry, this may take place in a small group, a weekend campout, an open gym night, an evening playing board games, time spent rock crawling and mountain biking on the Western Slope, or at a ski retreat. In our Sabbath schools and church services, it will take place as we dive into and explore tough questions.

We must not be afraid to share our passions, our convictions, and most importantly, our struggles. Young people want to follow authentic leaders who are not afraid to communicate their low points along with the Facebook- worthy moments. They want to worship in an environment that supports the journey; they want to experience real talk.

Kiefer Dooley is RMC assistant youth director.