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By George Crumley

The Apostle tells us in James 1:17 that every good gift comes from our heavenly Father. From the beginning, God designed us to be caretakers of what He has given us (Genesis 2:15). God’s plan for the support of His church on earth, His most precious possession, is the returning of tithes and offerings by those who love Him. He promised to bless us when we are faithful to Him.

One of the primary functions of His church is to teach young people to be lights in a darkening world, to be positive forces for good, and to make a difference in society. It is through our elementary schools, academies, and colleges that this education takes place. It was in these schools that my life and the life of my wife were changed for the better a number of years ago.

As with all things of value, there is a price to pay. Our educational learning centers bear the cost of staff salaries, property insurance, supplies, and utilities. Sharing these costs helps to lighten the financial obligation for families who want more than reading, writing, and arithmetic for their children. My daughter is an elementary teacher in another conference, and I know firsthand of the sacrificial commitment and endless creative energy that our teachers provide to help our young people learn and grow. Parents, local church members, outside donors, and Rocky Mountain Conference members unselfishly invest their money to make Christian education more affordable.

For the year 2017, the Conference set aside roughly $2,220,000 or 13.57 percent of gross tithe for education. This, along with other sources of funding, provides the resources needed to support elementary education, academy education, college education, and educational administration.

Below are a few details on how grades K-16 are funded.

Elementary Education (K–8). Local churches may choose to start their own school or to be part of a group of constituent churches that adopt and financially support a nearby school. The local church budget is one of the primary sources of funding when a church or group of churches decides to support a school. Some churches designate up to 70 percent of their local church budget to help subsidize an elementary school.

The Conference indirectly subsidizes an elementary school by billing the school for roughly 67 percent of salary and benefits for teachers, which means the conference covers around 33 percent of this cost. The majority of that funding comes from the tithe dollar.

Of course, parents or other family members also pay a monthly tuition amount set by the school. Tuition rates can vary based on the school’s geographic location.

Finally, there are other donations processed through the church books or paid directly to the school. These donations are given above and beyond God’s tithe. Local pastors often team up with families to explore ways educational expenses can be shared.

Academy Education (9–12). In the case of our academies, the Conference provides a subsidy that is funded by tithe, Rocky Mountain Conference Advance, and some non-tithe funds. Subsidy dollars provided are around $440,000 per year.

Family members provide tuition payments to the school and many students are able to obtain jobs that provide income to attend academy. Worthy Student Funds are also available for those who meet the criteria the academy has set up. Much of the Worthy Student Funds are provided by outside donations from alumni and church members throughout the conference.

College Education (13–16). The Rocky Mountain Conference sends around 3 percent of tithe to support Union College, our college within the Mid-America Union.

This amounts to around $470,000 per year. Of course, tuition is paid by parents, student loans, student labor, and grants or scholarships. Many donations are given by private individuals who also support the school.

Private education is not inexpensive and it is always a challenge to figure out ways to finance schools within and without the Adventist Church. But the blessing in attending our schools is huge. I have observed many students over the years whose lives have been positively impacted by attending our schools.

Are our schools perfect? No. Do they provide an environment where young lives can be inspired with a mission for God? Indeed they do. I believe our schools can set our young people on a path that will have far-reaching results, not only for themselves, but for society and for the world to come.

–George Crumley is RMC VP for treasury. Email him at: [email protected]

By Ron Price

Have you heard the term “oxymoron?” The official definition I found online at Merriam-Webster is “a combination of contradictory or incongruous words” (such as cruel kind- ness). Some of my personal favorites are “sanitary landfill,” “act naturally,” and “pretty ugly.” My all-time favorite has to be “Microsoft Works,” but that is a topic for another time.

Perhaps the most ludicrous oxymoron I know is “hopeless Christian.” Now please don’t get me wrong. Being a Christian certainly does not guarantee one a smooth and problem-free life. In fact, quite the contrary. In the Gospels, Jesus clearly told us that as His followers we should expect hardships, difficulties, and perilous times. We will experience times when all seems hopeless but we are also told clearly that as believers and followers of the Savior, we can have hope and joy in the midst of unpleasant circumstances and hardships. In Philippians 4:7, we are promised “peace that passes all understanding.”

I believe it starts with being at peace with God. Once you are at peace with God, you can far more easily be at peace with yourself. If the God of the Universe, who knows you better than you know yourself, loves you and considers you to be of such worth that He would send His only Son to die for you, then you have every right to be at peace with your- self. And, once you are at peace with yourself, you can far more easily be at peace with others. This, in turn, will help you to, as Peter says, “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have . . . with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

When you are discouraged and hopeless, I can just about guarantee that your focus is on you, your situation, and your own ability (or lack thereof) to get yourself out of that situation. With that being the case, you have every right to be discouraged and hopeless. But therein lies the problem. In Isaiah 26:3, God tells us that He will keep us in perfect peace if our minds are focused on Him. Space limitations forbid me from quoting other similar verses, but take some time to look up Jer. 29:11, Ps. 3:2-6, Ps. 42:11, Isa. 40:31, Rom. 15:13, and so many more.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we should be daily examples of hope and encouragement. We understand the truth about Jesus’ Second (and soon) Coming. We understand the judgment at which God is both our defender and our judge—it’s not really fair, but I won’t complain. We understand that God will mercifully put those who refuse His love to eternal sleep and not supernaturally keep them alive just for the sport of torturing them forever.

Again, while we have ample reason for hope, we far too often fail to maintain it in our day-to-day existence. So let me leave you with a tip that has helped me in the struggle to keep my focus where it needs to be. I have developed several affirmations which I repeat on a regular basis throughout my day. I have set alarms on my cell phone or smartwatch to vibrate every two hours. The vibration reminds me to take a moment away from whatever I am doing and repeat words to the effect of “I am at peace with God, therefore I am at peace with myself, and so I can be at peace with others.” As a businessman, I am often challenged to have goals for the amount of money I want to earn. That does not work for me, but I do have a specific goal for how much money I want to give away this year. Therefore, one of my affirmations is that “I make, manage, and give away large sums of money.”

Another of my favorites is, “I am joyful, uplifting, and calm.” Many who know me would scoff at the “calm” moniker, but it is something I aspire to and affirm in myself.

No one ever said the battle would be easy—at least not in this life where the enemy has the home-field advantage. But I know we will win in the end, and that it is so important for us to follow this counsel from Hebrews 10:23: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”

–Ron Price is a member of the RMC executive committee from Farmington, New Mexico. Email him at: [email protected]

By Shayne Vincent

“For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:10-11).

For far too long, people have been buying and selling love and approval through the currency of success. We are accustomed to earning acceptance through being “good” or reaching the “top.” We want to know where we stand; we want to fix, to know, to control outcomes. Yet, while success might cloak itself in social fawning and illusions of safety, it is often just a facade for our betrayed inner child.

Trust is terrifying when we are like a dog that was kicked around too much. Rules, structure, hierarchy, achievement, discipline—these all appeal to our brokenness, to our fear; they are forms of salve for the uncertainties of life. The obsession of control is within all of us, flowing from our deepest longings for security and love.

To let go of controllable acts is terrifying because it requires we depend only upon trust, that we’ll be expected to play without having rehearsed, and that we can no longer twist God’s arm until He cries “uncle.” And with a lifetime of betrayal and hardship behind us, our greatest fear is to be “needy.” Our lives are dedicated to avoiding risk, need, and the exposure of our inner vulnerability.

In our fear-laden rush to succeed, we fail to see that there is a place of significance for limitation. That no matter the illusions of our demi-godhood, limitation is a constant; the world remains broken. Therefore, to truly heal, we must embrace the grey turbulence of uncertainty as a normal part of life in a sinful world.

Healing happens when we cast our soul into the fire. The magic of the river of fear purifies the soul. Our pathway to freedom requires us to confront what we have been running from all along . . . the truth. To truly live, to be fully alive, we must be naked before God, and humanity, exposed, vulnerable, needy, [gasp] trusting.

Faith must replace our death grip. Risk must replace walls. Vulnerability must replace resentment. Honesty must replace ego. Wisdom must replace naivety. Action must replace avoidance. Love for others must replace love for things. For in mutual brokenness, we will find acceptance. In embracing one another, we will find the courage to heal. In grace, we will find the certainty of hope.

We must also acknowledge that God is not obligated. Rather, we are the ones who are dependent. And if we’re willing, apparently we are already free, because perfection was only the imaginary goal of an approval addict.  Yet isn’t this the very thing that God was always trying to heal? The broken little kid who only ever wanted love? To know that they do belong? That they have always been a part of God’s family? We have always had something important to offer. We are free to love without secret motives. We are free to rejoice in an unearned redemption. We are free to pursue success without necessity. We are free to just be.

–Shayne Mason Vincent, MSW, is lead pastor for the Casper Wyoming District. Email him at [email protected] or visit his blog: www.baringmysoul.com

By Nathan Brown

It was a strange place to find something so familiar. It was assigned reading as part of a study program: a Catholic theologian reflecting on his church’s response to the state oppression, torture and disappearances in Chile in the 1970s under the Pinochet regime. Titled Torture and Eucharist,

William Cavanaugh’s study is a fascinating reflection of the role that the dominant theology played in “allowing” such horrors and its inadequate response to the abuses—at least, initially—as well as the growing realization of the need for the church to respond in better and more concrete ways.

However, the theological question raised in Cavanaugh’s study that most caught my attention—of course, because of its familiarity—is the critique of the long-held assumption that had been made by both church and state in Chile that the body was the realm of the state and the soul that of the church. It highlights the significance of the Adventist under- standing of wholism and its rejection of the more common theological assumption—drawn more from Platonic Greek philosophy than biblical foundations—of a duality between body and soul.

Cavanaugh goes some small way toward discounting the body–soul duality: “If we understand the unity of body and soul, we must understand that what is really at stake is not body-power versus soul-power, but competing types of soul/body disciplines, some violent and some peaceful.”1 He argues that this should bring understanding that state control of the body is also control of the soul and, similarly, the church’s ministry to the soul must also have bodily implications.

Not only is this significant for the individual, but it has much broader application for the church as “the body of  Christ.” Human individuality and society are not to be sub-divided into different existential realms but considered as a whole, in which the church—or better, the kingdom of God— is “a contrast society, a counter-performance of the body to that of the state.”2 The kingdom of God is not merely a spiritual reality or entity, but a wholly different way of being.

A Whole Gospel

This has dramatic implications for how we understand the heart of the Gospel, the message of who Jesus is and what He did in His life, death, and resurrection. As we seek to understand the fullness of the Gospel and Jesus—including His becoming human with all that entails—we should reflect back on the brokenness of sin in the fall of humanity, including its physical and social damage. If salvation in and through Jesus is to be complete, it must address all aspects of our lives and all the relationships that have been broken by sin.

This is where a wholistic understanding of human nature—“an indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit”3—is valuable. As anyone with experience of violence, abuse or disease will sadly attest, “evil makes no distinction between our bodies and us. How, then, in our call to overcome evil, can we make that distinction?”4 As such, the Gospel must respond to, heal, and restore all aspects of what it means to be human.

Because we are spiritual and physical and intellectual and emotional and social—all at once and together—what Jesus did and does for us, in us, with us, and through us brings healing, restoration, and hope to all these aspects of our lives. Our souls are not disconnected from our bodies; God does not save souls, He saves people. This is why Jesus ministered in the way that He did, and instructed His disciples in this same wholistic ministry (Matthew 10:5–8).

A Whole-Life Response

I recently caught up with an actor friend who is writing a spiritual memoir of her relationship with her body. Her story moves from teen-age eating disorders and self-harm to on-screen nudity and off-screen sexual exploration, then to her conversion, ongoing acting career, and, now, to mother- hood. She asked me about our Adventist belief about bodies and souls—and heard something that felt familiar to her experience. Her finding faith was linked to her learning to better appreciate and respect her body, and vice versa. As we talked, she was enthusiastic about how a wholistic understanding of what it means to be human has so many implications for how we live as people created, loved, and called by God.

This is why the physical and social practices of our faith are as important as those we might consider more spiritual. As Cavanaugh’s book title suggests, communion creates an alternative community to the society around us. It is a physical, social, and even political act that changes us and the relationships with those we celebrate it with. As is foot-washing, kneeling or other physical acts of prayer, singing together, and even the act of gathering itself (Hebrews 10:25).

Our practice of Sabbath is no less physical and social than it is spiritual, which is one of its great strengths and a weekly reminder of who we are. When we stop physically, disconnect ourselves from our everyday routines, and for a day are no longer either slaves or masters (Exodus 20:8–11), we are practicing the reality of the Kingdom of God and are physically and socially recalibrated. Week by week, we practice this reality and, by such practice, it becomes a greater reality (Hebrews 6:11).

In our Adventist tradition, we have expressed this wholism in three key ways that contribute greatly to human flourishing: health, education, and stewardship. By each of these emphases—and the institutions they have built—we have aided the improvement of human beings and their societies. Unfortunately, in our past century, we have been less responsive to the Bible’s call to work directly for justice for others. But this wholistic nature of human beings is one of the rationales for why alleviating bodily suffering, such as poverty, slavery, hunger, imprisonment, displacement, and torture, cannot be disconnected from “saving souls”—if that terminology makes sense any more. Because we are never disembodied souls, the treatment of people’s bodies matters.

An embrace of wholistic humanity also points us toward the greatest hope of resurrection, restoration, and re-creation. We are less interested in floating off one by one as death takes us, even if to a “better” place, and neither are we afraid of everlasting spiritual torment. Instead, we are more deeply engaged with our physical/social/spiritual world—it all matters so much more—and when our current lives come to an end, we await the final defeat of death (1 Corinthians 15:26) and the renewal of all things (Revelation 21:5). This is the largest kind of hope.

From the darkest prisons of 1970s Chile to the glamorous façade of Australian TV screens, our Adventist understanding and practices of wholism help make sense of the best and worst of life in our world. And it prompts the best response to all the people we see hurting around us. This belief matters because it urges that it all matters—and it all will be made new.

–Nathan Brown is a writer and editor at Signs Publishing in Warburton, Victoria, Australia. His recent book is Engage: Faith that Matters. Email him at: [email protected]

References: 1William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1998), p. 197. 2Ibid, page 180. 3Seventh-day Adventist 28 Fundamental Beliefs—“Seven: The Nature of Humanity.” 4Skye Jethani, Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church, Inc. (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2017), p. 178.

By Nigel Abrahams

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). From the very beginning of the universe, words have held immense power. It was through the divine power of God’s words that this world came into perfect existence, and through the evil power of Satan’s words that it began its journey to its current state. Words can build up or tear down, calm a heated argument, or start a revolution. Yet, for all their power, perhaps because of their power, words may be the most misused and overused weapon of all time.

While words have always held great power, they have often been limited in their sphere of influence. The power of the word was felt only by those in close proximity to the speaker. As time continued, words were printed and published, broadcast, and now tweeted and shared to millions around the world in a matter of seconds. It is so easy now to reach millions of people with mean, hateful language while maintaining relative anonymity that many are emboldened to say things they may have been ashamed to say in person. With such great power and such great reach, the potential for damage is enormous.

Sadly, that enormous potential is realized far more often than this world needs. The news is filled almost daily with stories of horrific outcomes that began as bullying or hateful rhetoric. Over and over, the mighty word makes its mark.

For those who follow Christ, this really should be a no-brainer. Christ followers have read James 1:26: “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is use- less.” Christ followers know Jesus Himself said, “Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matthew 15:10-11). It is because the world knows Christ followers should be aware of these things that it is so disappointing to find a proclaimed Christ follower speaking words of anger, division, and even hatred. At times, the very name of God is even used to justify these words.

Not long ago, I was part of a conversation discussing Satan’s systematic plan to assassinate the character of God. By convincing the world that even evil actions and outcomes are somehow God’s fault, Satan can paint a picture of God that few would want to see. The most troubling thought from that conversation was the idea that Christians often unwittingly help paint that awful image. Christians, in an attempt to defend righteousness, end up speaking in ways that alien- ate others from God—ways that the very God they’re trying to defend cannot endorse.

Those who claim the name of Christ have the awesome privilege and responsibility of reflecting God’s character to the world. Shouldn’t we capitalize on that opportunity? There are so many negative voices in the world already. Why not have followers of Christ provide a counterpoint, a balance—maybe even tip the scales in favor of peace, unity, and love? Our best defense of God is accurately reflecting who He is; His love, mercy, and kindness. Proclaim His name by letting “the words of [our] mouth . . . be acceptable in [His] sight” (Psalms 19:4).

There’s an old saying that, “If you don’t have anything good to say, say nothing at all.” But there’s a problem with that. Silence in the presence of evil may be just as damaging as the evil itself. For all the damage words can cause, there is still enormous potential for good in words and we have the opportunity to realize that potential. Proverbs 10:20 tells us, “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver.” And Proverbs 15:4 reminds us that, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life.” Our words hold too much power for us to remain silent.

Maybe it’s time to update the old saying. How about, “If you don’t have anything good to say, find something!” The opportunity to make this world a better place and rightly represent God presents itself every day; we can no longer sit silently as those opportunities pass us by.

Our words are a window into our character and a reflection of the God we serve. What have your words been saying about you?

–Nigel Abrahams is a member of LifeSource Adventist Fellowship. He works as an information technology analyst in the financial services industry. Email him at [email protected]