Blog

By Denis Fortin

There are many biographies of well-known people who explain how reading a particular book had a profound effect on their lives and destinies. For Martin Luther, it was his reading of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans that dramatically changed his life and led to his insights into justification by faith. John Wesley recalled that his moment of religious awakening occurred one evening when he happened to enter the chapel of some Moravian friends in London where he listened to someone reading the preface of Luther’s commentary on Romans. Somehow, this was what Wesley needed to hear to revive his faith in God and his hope of salvation. That moment, listening to the reading of a book’s preface, changed his life, gave him hope, and restored his faith.

Adventist pioneer William Miller had a similar experience in the summer of 1816 while reading a sermon to his Baptist congregation. Somehow, what had escaped him for many years, now impressed him profoundly. Through this experience, he became a different man. His spiritual experience started a movement that led to the establishment of the Seventh-day Adventist church and the conversion of a young teenager by the name of Ellen Harmon (later Ellen White).

Through the centuries, many people have experienced similar religious awakenings by reading good books.

For me, this experience came about forty years ago. That little book was the first Adventist book I read. I was sixteen years old. This book was the beginning of a spiritual journey that has lasted four decades. I was a high school student and nominally Catholic, and I had been watching the Seventh-day Adventist Il est écrit (It Is Written) television program on my local station in Quebec City, Canada.

For months, I watched this program as faithfully as I could each Sunday. After one of these broadcasts, I requested a brochure on what the Bible teaches about death and the afterlife. I still have that small pamphlet, the first of a series of Bible study guides from Amazing Facts. Before I received the next pamphlet, a representative from the program came to my home to visit and to answer any questions I had about the Bible. It was a brief visit, but before leaving, Daniel Rebsomen, the pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Quebec City, gave me a paperback edition of a little book with a picture on the cover of Jesus knocking on a door. That’s how I got acquainted with Vers Jésus (Steps to Christ).

Since then, I have reread it many times. It has shaped my understanding of God’s love for me, my salvation in Jesus in spite of my failings, and my need for spiritual growth. For years each morning, I recited White’s suggested prayer: “Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee” (Steps to Christ, p. 70).

Steps to Christ is a Seventh-day Adventist classic that has been translated into well over 150 languages and has been sold or distributed in the millions. It is obvious that Seventh-day Adventists love this little book.

For its 125th anniversary, in 2017, I prepared a special annotated edition of Steps to Christ. This edition was the result of many years of reflection on the content of this deeply spiritual book. In it, Ellen White clarifies and expounds on many essential thoughts regarding God’s plan of salvation for humanity and how people can personally experience this salvation.

This anniversary edition coincided with the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, which is traditionally considered to be the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. While White’s and Luther’s documents are far apart in content and intent, Adventists owe much to Luther for their understanding of salvation in Christ through faith, for a focus on the Scriptures as the only source of truth and guidance for spiritual life, and for understanding the love of God for humanity. The Lutheran Reformation is thus also part of our shared spiritual heritage.

No other book by Ellen White has been turned into this kind of annotated copy, making it a groundbreaking publication which I hope will be repeated for her other books. An introduction gives a brief history of the book, discusses the controversy over the preparation of its manuscript, and describes how Ellen White and her assistants prepared and compiled her books from prior publications. I hope this information will be helpful in correcting some misunderstandings and to dissipate some misguided views about her inspiration and the purpose of her books. The introduction also gives a historical and theological summary of Ellen White’s understanding of salvation.

Each of the thirteen chapters has a brief introduction, which includes a list of recommended further reading and a brief description of the antecedents of that chapter. Each chapter also includes some annotations to clarify or expand some of the thoughts expressed in the chapter.

In the appendix, this edition provides something never published before: a list of all known antecedent references to Ellen White’s writings used by Marian Davis to compile this book. As explained in the introduction, Adventists have known for a long time that White’s books published after 1880 are compilations and adaptations, for the most part, of her prior publications, but we never knew much about the extent or the intricacy of this process. The recent electronic publication of all of Ellen White’s published books, articles, and unpublished letters and manuscripts has been an essential tool in this research. And I’m sure more will be done in the future.

Whether one is a long-time admirer or a first-time reader of Ellen White’s Steps to Christ, this edition will give a new look at this classic of Adventist literature.

One of the beautiful aspects of the book is the conversational tone Ellen White uses to reach out to her readers. It’s as if she were speaking to the reader in the living room and making earnest appeals. Here’s one that I love very much on the experience of faith and trust in God’s word to us:

“In like manner, you are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins; you cannot change your heart and make your- self holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the promise—believe that you are forgiven and cleansed—God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if you believe it” (Steps to Christ, p. 51).

–Denis Fortin is professor of historical theology at Andrews University and co-editor of The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia. Email him at: [email protected]

By Carol Bolden

The fact that so many of our youth stop attending church after they graduate from high school is a large concern for parents and church leaders, as well as Rocky Mountain Conference youth director Steve Hamilton. I sat down with him to find out what is being done for the members missing from the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“When people talk to me about reclaiming lost members,” said Steve, “one of the most important factors to consider is what ‘missing’ means. If they’re missing from church, are they also missing from our social gatherings, our family interactions? Because, if we aren’t missing them until we notice they’re missing from church, were they really part of our community in the first place?”

Steve identifies the period right after they go missing as a “very awkward” stage. It’s possible that six months or a year could pass before we recognize they’re missing, possibly as a result of running into them at the grocery store or at a community event. Not having engaged with them in any social activity, church is our only reference point, making everyone feel awkward when we say we’re missing them at church. If we don’t know they’re missing until we don’t see them in church, Steve explains, then we don’t have any idea why they’re missing because we haven’t had contact with them. “The greater issue,” he says, “is not that they haven’t been at church for six months, but that they’ve been missing from our lives for six months.” That’s why inviting them back to church is so awkward. “That’s what ‘missing’ really means.”

According to Steve, this entire scenario could play out in a completely different way. Say someone hasn’t attended church for six months, but they are very much a part of our friend group from church. We still go mountain biking together, still see them at car shows, attend festivals together, and eat out with them. In that case, someone could go for years without attending church, yet be connected with the church. In this scenario, you would know if they lost a family member or were going through a rough time because you are in touch with their life. It would be easy, in this setting, to invite them to the Christmas program. You could easily say, “Maybe this is the time to come back and engage in church again.”As Steve points out, “There’s no awkward to that.”

It’s important to establish connection before trying to re-establish church attendance. Steve goes four-wheeling with several guys who no longer attend church, guys who surprised him by stopping by camp after a four-wheeling trip just to say, “Hi!” While touring the camp, he explains, the guys were reliving childhood memories. “This is where I met God as a child,” they said, or, “This is where Mr. So- and-So took us hiking on Saturday afternoons.” These guys remembered being at summer camp. Now their kids go to summer camp, and they’ve contributed in significant ways to the camp.

Connectedness overcomes the feeling of awkward discomfort, a major obstacle when people come back into church attendance.

When he gave a worship talk to RMC office staff weeks ago, Steve Hamilton told the story of his father maintaining a connection with his best friend and classmate from academy even though it took quite a bit of effort. We asked him to re-tell that story.

“My father was best friends with Mike Wilson in academy, but while he was becoming more and more involved with church and God, attending Pacific Union College as a theology major, Mike was moving farther and farther away from God into the secular world of the ’60s and ’70s, encouraged by negative experiences from academy and church,” Steve Hamilton said. “He got involved with drugs and alcohol and, after academy, never came back to church. My father kept in touch with Mike whose family was torn apart by his involvement with controlled substances.”

“As the years passed, Mike was embarrassed to return. Not only had his family been torn apart, but meth had altered his appearance. Still, Steve’s father kept track of him through the years, making a concerted effort to reconnect with him before their 50-year academy reunion, working to build a friendship comfortable enough that Mike could attend the reunion.”

“It worked. Dad and Mike went out to eat together after the reunion and Mike said he really needed to get involved in church again. This was 50 years later. All that time, he was missing from church, but not from my dad’s life, nor from his prayers and efforts.”

One truth Steve learned from watching his dad look out for Mike is that “our love shouldn’t be contingent upon someone walking through the church doors.” Instead, “we should love them because they are loved by their Maker,” he says. Jesus tells us, “Go ye . . . ,” not, “Invite to church.” Seeking and saving shouldn’t be reduced to inviting “that which was lost” to come to church.

Too often, within the church context, people are hurt and, although they once attended, they no longer do—not because no one has invited them, but because they had a negative experience with the church. Steve believes the church needs to learn how to say, “I’m sorry.” We need to recognize that we (the church) bear guilt and to interact with missing members with humility and a willingness to say we are sorry. A dynamic shift happens when we do.

Steve tells the story of a youth pastor from another denomination who had a bad experience with religion and who believes that people don’t usually stop attending church because they don’t want to attend, but because they are hurt. We need to move through that lovingly, he said, in hopes of creating a better experience.

This sounds like Steve is saying that we need to look at missing members in a new way. Indeed he is! He believes that we need to decide where we place our highest value. Is it that people walk through the church door regularly or that we are truly connected with the people around us? Do we value church attendance or do we value connectivity?

“When I value connectedness most,” Steve explains, “they wind up coming to church. Connectedness often equals attendance and involvement with church. Attendance, on the other hand, does not always equal connectedness. Settling in our hearts what we value most is critical.”

After Steve moved to Redding, California, as pastor of the local church, he watched an extreme snowboarding video from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and realized that one of the writers was Donnie Moore from his hometown. Donnie had relatives in the Redding church, but didn’t attend himself, so Steve bought a snowmobile and began riding out of Bass Lake in order to get connected with Donnie. They soon became good friends, with Steve even loaning Donnie his snowmobile so that his wife could go riding with him. Steve doesn’t remember inviting Donnie to church, but he and his wife and kids began attending. He eventually baptized Donnie and Sarah, who are now Pathfinder leaders and help in other ways at the church. Connectedness happened and the whole family came back to church, many of them becoming involved with ministry at Glacier View Ranch.

Recreational ministry brought as many baptisms through his pastoral career as did evangelistic meetings, even though five public outreach events were held each year, including health and prophecy events, introduction to Christianity classes, cooking schools, and overcoming depression seminars. Personal connectedness is key.

–Carol Bolden provides editorial support for the RMC communication department. Email her at: [email protected]

By Mickey Mallory

“The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian.” —Ellen G. White, Ministry of Healing, p. 470

On any given Sabbath, a former Seventh-day Adventist member could show up at your church. Just curious, but what will they find if they come to your church? Will someone greet them? Will someone engage them in friendly conversation? Will they feel loved and accepted enough to want to come back?

Consider the story of Debbie. She was raised in the church and attended the church elementary school and academy for several years. Unfortunately, when she turned eighteen she decided to drop out of church. For the next forty years, she lived a very worldly lifestyle. Yet, throughout her self-imposed exile, she still believed in God.

After a number of very traumatic events, she began thinking about going back to church. At first, it was difficult because of her work schedule, but eventually she was able to find a few Sabbaths off so she could visit a church near her home. Six months later, Debbie visited my church.

When Debbie arrived at church, a number of people greeted her. She eventually made her way to the new member Sabbath School class where she introduced herself and mentioned that she used to attend a Seventh-day Adventist Church but had stopped attending many years ago. The strong smell of cigarette smoke on her clothing and hair was an example of some of the baggage she had picked up while out of the church. Fortunately, the class members looked beyond that and treated her with love and acceptance.

Debbie stayed for the worship service where she was greeted by even more members. As I was preaching about the love of Jesus on that Sabbath, I wondered to myself, what could I say that would lead Debbie to experience the love of Jesus? How could I help her see that Jesus accepted her just the way she was?

As Debbie left the church that Sabbath, I must admit that I wondered to myself whether she would come back again. Had we provided an atmosphere that was safe and loving and that would make her want to come back again? Only time would tell.

The good news is that Debbie did come back the very next Sabbath and she hasn’t stopped since. Wow! The story gets even better. Soon after she started coming back to church, she made the decision to follow Jesus with all of her heart and eventually, because of God’s marvelous grace, I had the privilege of baptizing her. Isn’t God good?

So what made the difference in swaying Debbie’s decision to come back to the Lord and His church? Was it my sermon on the love of Jesus? After talking to Debbie about her journey, she shared with me the thing that impacted her the most. It wasn’t the sermon on the love of Jesus but the love of Jesus she saw in the members of the church that made the difference. She was just so impressed by how the people in the church loved and accepted her.

Just think—there may be another Debbie out there who is being convicted by the Holy Spirit to come back to church. Who knows? They may show up this Sabbath at your church. I pray that you and your church family will love and accept them. If you do, they might come back again, like Debbie did, and never stop.  

–Mickey Mallory is RMC ministerial director. Email him at: [email protected]

By Carol Bolden

“Experience our beautiful, safe Christian campus” touts one Adventist school in another conference. It’s a beguiling picture, but safety in school is not a given for anyone these days. “Violence . . . [can] strike at any minute,” says Genevieve LeFranc in her 2013 article, “Social Unrest is Here to Stay.” That violence extends to schools where shootings are occurring almost daily. One school massacre inspires another, which inspires another, ad infinitum.

It would be a mistake to think that Seventh-day Adventist schools will never be affected, when, in fact, they have been, as in the murder by a student of the principal at a Seventh-day Adventist school in Tennessee.*

What are Rocky Mountain Conference schools doing to protect our children?

Through talking to several RMC schools in Wyoming and Colorado, including a four-year academy, a junior academy, and a grade school, I discovered what is being done in the name of safety and found a variety of readiness levels.

Out of the three schools, two have a safety point person and a safety committee. All hold monthly drills for fires and tornados, while two also practice what to do in case of an intruder.

To keep strangers out of its buildings, Mile High Academy (MHA) keeps its doors locked during school hours and monitors common entrances by camera. All visitors are checked in at the office and are required to wear a visitor badge. Staff members stop and question anyone they don’t know who isn’t wearing a badge. Using the Raptor Visitor Management System, which screens everyone who enters the building against a registered sex offender database for all 50 states, MHA screens visitors and maintains accurate records.

Vista Ridge Academy has front-entry cameras and is addressing other areas that might need cameras. Outdoor activity on and around the campus is monitored by camera, giving the school the opportunity to ward off problems. Visitors must sign in when entering the building.

In a small, two-teacher school like Mountain Road Christian Academy in Casper, Wyoming, having a committee made up of school staff is not feasible, but awareness and training do take place. For instance, the school doors are locked during the day and students are taught not to open them for anyone they don’t know.

In the midst of this preparation and practice, it’s important to help the students feel safe. This is what these schools are doing to insure that feeling of security:

Vista Ridge Academy keeps outside doors and class- room doors locked during the school day. Principal Sandy Hodgson is at the front entrance as students arrive in the morning, giving them a sense of security, knowing that someone is in charge and watching out for them. This scene is repeated at the end of the day when Hodgson calls students as their rides arrive. Teachers also stay with their students until they are picked up or sent to extended care. There is little opportunity for anything unusual to happen.

Mile High Academy reviews safety guidelines at the beginning of each school year and schedules regular drills for practice. These guidelines are reviewed whenever there is occasion for a lock-out. Posters around the school remind students of these guidelines and staff talk to students about the Safe2Tell program which provides the opportunity for students to anonymously report threats.

Out of the tragedy that took place at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, in September 2006, when an intruder killed Emily Keyes, came the “I Love U Guys” safety protocol. MHA uses the guidance this protocol offers to enhance its existing safety plans. It uses action-based responses for any given situation, so when the terms lockout, lockdown, evacuate, or shelter are used during a threat, they hold specific meanings for staff, students, teachers, and first responders.

As part of their preparation, MHA maintains a plastic container with student medications, which can be grabbed at a moment’s notice and often has a bus and driver available to move students away from the campus. Someone on campus knows the location of gas shut-offs, how thick the sheetrock is, whether wooden or metal studs were used in construction, and whether a gas line runs through a wall that they might need to blow a hole through. They also have available sketches of the school’s layout, updated after any remodeling, that responders can use, along with passkeys.

“We have drills regularly at our school for fires, tornados, and lock-out and lock-down drills so that we can be as prepared as possible,” says Brenda Rodie, VP of operations at MHA. “We have done a lockdown drill with Douglas County Sheriff Department and will hold future drills as well.” VRA principal, Sandy Hodgson, says, “We are prepared for various scenarios, but also realize that adaptability is key with any disaster.” Their point person for safety is their maintenance director who “works closely with administration and local safety authorities.”

Preparation for an emergency at VRA includes practice drills with the local police school resource officers who participate and provide recommendations as they continue to improve their plans. “Our resource officers from the Erie Police Department are on campus a minimum of twice a month, conducting walk-throughs and checking in with administration and teachers,” Hodgson explains. “They are part of our safety training and the local fire department also participates in our drills and provides feedback to improve safety.”

Mountain Road Christian Academy principal Traci Pike recently attended active shooter training and is pursuing a plan for the next school year by getting in touch with local law enforcement to ask for staff training and recommendations for emergency protocol. Moving their small student body during an event means loading up teacher vehicles and driving them off campus.

According to Patricia Allison, co-author of a study on private school security, the largest factors in creating a safe environment are school size and low student-to-teacher ratios. “Most private schools are much smaller so you can oversee everything going on within the school at all times,” she says. “It’s harder for safety to be a problem in a small school.”

While this is reassuring, our schools can’t rest on this declaration. It’s encouraging to see that RMC schools are taking the safety of their students seriously.

–Carol Bolden provides editorial support for the RMC communication department. Email her at: [email protected]

*https://abcnews.go.com/US/memphis-teen-charged-principals-murder-seventh- day-adventist/story?id=14283216

By Rajmund Dabrowski

A few years ago, I listened to parents of school kids at Sligo Adventist School in Takoma Park, MD, talk about how much their children’s lives were impacted by caring teachers who demonstrated Christian values in the way they interacted with the kids. This conversation made me reflect on a few individuals who have taken Jesus’ command to “suffer the little children” seriously.

One such example is Dr. Janusz Korczak, a pedagogue and guardian of homeless, neglected, and often abandoned children during World War II in Poland. Korczak refused to leave the Warsaw Ghetto because of these “adopted” children and met his fate in the gas chambers of Treblinka. His forte was “ethical sensitivity” in education—a belief that one should place the emotional development of a child on the same level as his or her physical development.

A journal entry on sparrows gives some insight into his approach: “During the summer, the windows were usually open and they would come into the room and sit on a flowerpot. If I was also sitting still, they were not afraid. But once, when I entered the room unexpectedly, a sparrow flew away and being scared off, it could not find a way out and hit the window glass. It was stunned. Maybe hurt, even. After that, before I entered my room, I would knock on the door.”

“But now, it’s wintertime and I have once again asked the glass-fitter to come and cut out a small [corner] piece of the window, so that sparrows can come in and eat. It’s warmer for them inside.”

When Korczak received psychologically crippled children into his homes for orphans, he treated them as he would the sparrows—aiming to make them feel secure.

Irena Sendler, a “saint” to many and a hero to others, is yet another example of one who “suffered” the little children. A nurse and social worker, Sendler organized the rescue of 2,500 kids from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation of the city. She took great risks to help Polish Jews held by the Nazis—an act that was punishable by death. Once, she was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo but refused to give up the names of the children who had been smuggled out of the ghetto by ambulance, through the sewers, and, once, under her skirt. She declared, “Saving even a single life was worth taking a risk. We are responsible for every life that comes across our lives.”

These days, like in the days of Jesus, His followers should ask themselves how to actively embrace the example of Jesus. His attitude toward the vulnerable was the opposite of that displayed by His disciples. His rebuke, and an example for His followers, is recorded in Matthew 19:13-14: “One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so He could lay His hands on them and pray for them. The disciples scolded the parents for bothering Him. But Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.’”

Life offers us reminders. How would we act if such reminders propelled us into helping someone by being present in their lives? It could be enough at times to just keep them company and cast away the fear.

–Rajmund Dabrowski is RMC communication director and editor of Mountain Views. Email him at: [email protected].

By Jessyka Albert

For the past six years, I have had the opportunity to make many dorm rooms, houses, apartments, and even offices my home. The space I have been inhabiting for the longest amount of time since college has been my office at Boulder Church.

Over the years, walls have been painted and carpet ripped out (bit by painful bit), but it has always felt like my own. It feels like home even when it’s filled to the brim with Vacation Bible School decorations and craft supplies. It feels like home when it’s filled with kids studying the Bible for baptism. It feels like home when commentaries are spread out on my desk. It feels like home when it’s perfectly clean and organized and when it’s dusted with glitter and chaotic.

If you were to walk into Boulder Church, you would be able to tell my office from all the other offices in the building. If the pink heels displayed at the bottom of my bookshelf didn’t give me away, the photos, decorations, and overwhelming amount of craft supplies surely would. You can see someone’s personality shine through the spaces they inhabit whether these be at home or at the office. Maybe even a locker or a car. Who we are oozes out into every corner of every space. What is most important to you on the inside is evident on the outside as well.

The same is true of our churches. What they look like, smell like, are decorated like, and sound like is a reflection of who we are. For example, our church has a ton of young families with kids. This means our church looks like a church that has a lot of kids. We have a check-in station for kids’ Connect Groups. You might hear a few crying babies. Fellowship lunches include games and forts outside after dessert. Oh, and we have balloons for almost everything. Our church looks like a welcoming church for families and it has attracted more and more of them.

Here’s where it gets sticky. Many churches want young people to attend and even feel at home in their churches, but aren’t willing to redecorate. I have a similar reality coming to life for me in a personal way in October. I’m going to be  getting married and, you guessed it, living with a boy! Because we have both begun our professional lives, we have already established how our apartments are decorated, along with a cleaning schedule, protocols for meal preparations, you name it. But come October, we will be building a home together. This means compromise, growth, and something new. For example: Kiefer is not a fan of my velvet tufted headboard and I am not a fan of his giant Razorbacks rug. Both of us will be giving up some things that were “home.” Both of us will be gaining some things that will become “home.” But most importantly, we will be creating a home together.

I hope you’re understanding the metaphor. When I say “redecorate the church,” I don’t just mean changing out the shag carpet. What I mean is being open to a new way of doing church. To make young people, any people, feel at home anywhere, you have to open up space for them. It could mean clearing out some drawers or letting some picture frames go on the walls. It could mean a new worship song or a different order of service. If we don’t create that space, we are simply offering a hotel-like church to people. Hotels are nice, but they aren’t where you live, where you create memories, where you grow.

It wouldn’t seem right if I told Kiefer that when we move in together he had to get rid of all of his stuff and we would only have my furniture and decorations. At that point, we wouldn’t be moving in together.

Take some inventory of your church. Not just the physical look of it, although that might be part of the journey. Ask, “Is there even space here for someone who is incredibly different to feel at home?”

If there is not space for someone to make your church their home, they will treat it like a hotel. Both your church and newcomers will be missing out on creating a community. On creating a home together.

–Jessyka Albert is associate pastor at Boulder Adventist Church. Email her at: [email protected]

By Mickey Mallory

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

According to this text, God wants His people to be healthy. While we have traditionally applied this counsel to an individual person, one can argue that the same wish would also be applicable to a church congregation. In other words, God wants every congregation to be healthy. While that sounds good, what does it really mean? What does a healthy congregation really look like?

At the last RMC Ministerial Retreat, the pastors of our conference were asked that same question and below are their top ten characteristics of a healthy church:

1. Praying Church
2. Holy Spirit-Driven
3. Biblically-Based/Relevant
4. Welcoming
5. Theologically Sound
6. Community-Focused
7. Healthy Leadership/Pastor
8. Evangelistic
9. Intergenerational
10. Loving

If you use this list as an indicator of the current health of your church, how would you rate your church? Healthy or not so healthy? What might a visitor say?

A number of years ago I became acquainted with what I considered to be a very healthy church. They met all the above criteria of what the RMC pastors said a healthy church should be. I was especially impressed by how well they treated a rebellious teenager who demonstrated no real interest in being at church on Sabbath morning. The only reason he attended was to please his mother.

The members of this church began to reach out to this young man. They would go out of their way to make him feel welcomed. You could tell they genuinely loved this young man even with all of his baggage. They even went to the point of inviting him to help with the service. Wow! They had no problem with a young person helping.

The pastor of the church was theologically sound. He would preach Spirit-filled, biblically-based, relevant sermons. One Sabbath he was preaching on the love of Christ and this really touched the young man’s heart—so much that he wanted to surrender his life to Jesus. Eventually, the pastor found out about this and prepared the young man for baptism. The day of his baptism was a special day. Many of the church members were there to show their support. They had prayed for this young man and for this day and now it was time to celebrate.

Believe it or not, shortly after his baptism, the young man went off to school to study to be a pastor. And today he is helping others find the Jesus that he found.

Sound too good to be true? Think again. I know this story very well. That young man was me. God used a healthy church family to help me find spiritual health. Isn’t that the way it is supposed to work? You reproduce who you are.

—Mickey Mallory is RMC ministerial director. Email him at: [email protected]

By Mic Thurber

Most folks don’t think about their health—until they lose it. It’s easy to think of good health as the absence of health problems. But we know better. Good health requires active choices and habits on our part. Good health isn’t an accident.

Church health is not an accident either. Healthy churches require proactive choices and habits to become vibrant and stay that way. While there is no biblical outline, description, or prescription for what constitutes a healthy church, it seems to me that Scripture does describe an environment in the church that received God’s blessing.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Every- one was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs per- formed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47 NIV).

Four Foundational Factors

Of course, 2018 is a different time and place than first-century Palestine, but even so, there are principles we can glean from this passage that might be helpful:

They were devoted to the apostles’ teaching. They listened to those who had been with Jesus and knew Him firsthand. A lot of voices clamor for attention these days, including many who claim to be speaking the real truth, but who are really campaigning for acceptance of their version of truth. When churches listen to the wrong voices, they get off track theologically and health immediately suffers.

They were devoted to fellowship. They loved being together! They went out of their way to be together, and especially seemed to enjoy opening their homes to one another and eating together. They were unselfish and giving. They did more than just say they loved each other —they proved it by giving tangible gifts.

They were devoted to the breaking of bread together. Some only see an allusion here to a simple meal, but many see in these words a description of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper right in their homes. So precious was the celebration of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that this special meal became a staple part of every meal. I see in this a special focus on the life, person, and work of Jesus. He was central to their way of life.

They were devoted to prayer. Prayer was as natural to them as breathing and, evidently, they were praying a lot. So important was it to them to stay close to the heart of God that they devoted themselves to these frequent conversations with the Almighty.

What I like most about this passage is the blessing found in the last sentence: “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Because the early church was about the business of staying devoted to true teaching, fellowship, celebration of Jesus, and prayer, the Lord deemed it to be a safe place where He could bring new people.

Could it be that the Lord is willing to be our evangelist if we will model the healthy choices and habits of the early church? That could just turn our world upside down!

–Mic Thurber is ministerial director for the Mid-America Union Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska. Reprinted with permission from OUTLOOK, June 2018.