MV Spring 2017

By Ed Barnett

Recently, in England to assist in a wedding service, I was repeatedly asked, “What is going on in the United States?” Our presidential election was nearing its conclusion and everyone was interested in what was happening. People were concerned about the tenor of the campaigns being waged.

I have to admit that I was embarrassed by the depths that the candidates were willing to stoop in their rhetoric.

As a country, we have slipped far from the Christian ideals we were founded on. It is scary to see the open-faced lies expressed back and forth by politicians and reported in the media. When speeches are made and news agencies do their fact-checking, they often find that less than twenty percent of what is being proclaimed is true. Such communication becomes very confusing.

What are Seventh-day Adventist Christians supposed to do in the world we live in? What do our young people think when they see and hear that it is okay to lie or stretch the truth? I am writing this piece on a day that started with great family news. This morning I became a grandpa for the second time. I can’t help but wonder what our world will be like as Connor Patrick Barnett grows up. These are unique and scary times.

If there ever was a time in our common experience to live the lives Jesus calls us to live, it is now. As Christian Seventh-day Adventists, we have the opportunity to live exemplary lives and become an influence for change. Living openly and uniquely the values Christ taught us is the call of the day.

Today’s social climate offers itself as the opportune time to engage in timely community outreach because what we have to offer as Seventh-day Adventist Christians is not the type of thing we usually see playing out around us. People want to know what is right and true. Many desire to see and to experience old-fashioned love and kindness.

Several verses surfaced in my contemplation about these issues, verses that contain a healthy amount of admonition. They may serve as a reminder for our Rocky Mountain Conference church members of the importance of Christian fundamentals.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians (5:19-21) that “the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Many of the attitudes and the behaviors Paul addresses are prevalent in our world today. Consider those three verses and see what sticks out to you. Much of what is described by the apostle seems to be the preferred lifestyle for many and many more accept it as the norm. God makes it clear that this is not acceptable behavior. The apostle concludes, “That those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (v. 21).

What follows is a list of what the life of a Christian should exemplify. The apostle refers to this as the fruits of the Spirit. He makes a direct comparison between the way of the world and the way of godly living. We notice a prescription for how God’s people ought to be living their lives. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” (Galatians 5:22-26).

What an amazing difference between these two sets of verses. If every Seventh-day Adventist Christian in our conference lived their lives with evidence of the fruits of the Spirit, we would we would soon be known as the kindest and most loving people in our neighborhoods. Our faith community would also be growing by leaps and bounds.

Another set of verses comes to mind. The same apostle, writing to believers in Philippi, said, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:4-8).

What I hear in these verses is that we should not be anxious about what is taking place. Don’t let it keep you up at night, but take it all to the Lord in prayer. And then again the apostle Paul says, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, what- ever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things.”

Again, I hear Paul saying we need to keep our minds on what is truthful, noble, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. In other words, we need to keep thinking about pure things that are far above the things we are seeing in the world around us. Let’s be an example of change for good. Let’s put our words and attitudes into practice.

As Seventh-day Adventist Christians we must allow the Spirit of God to lift us up so we can live our lives on a different plain. When people see Jesus in us, they are drawn to some- thing that is so different, they would want to be part of it.

It reminds me of the words of Jesus: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32).

When Jesus reigns supreme in our lives and His spirit helps us live the beautiful lives He wants us to live, I believe we are lifting up Jesus and it will draw “all men” to Him.

To effectuate this in our lives, our daily life should be a life with Jesus.

Ed Barnet is RMC president.

By Rajmund Dabrowski

When going through my library recently, a book dedication by a friend caught my attention. Sending me a copy of Authenticity, A Biblical Theology of Discernment by Thomas Dubay, S.M., she wrote: “Ray, you taught me more in a conversation about authenticity than I had learned in a lifetime. . . Pam.” Kindness and generosity of thought is what makes Pam a special friend.

Pam ignited a moment of reflection on my own personal pedigree that makes my quest for authenticity my “every breath you take,” as Sting would have it, and conclude that taking stock of what makes me who I am sync with what others seem to see in me as valuable. To start with, of course, I am special to my mother. I am special to Grazyna, my wife. And I am special—unique—to my Maker.

Thomas Dubay explains the meaning of authenticity in a life of a Christian. He identifies authenticity as “reality without sham.” We are “authentic to the extent that [we] live the truth.” The authentic person “conforms his mind, words, actions to what is. His mind reflects reality, and his speech reflects his mind.” Quite a poignant conclusion in a so- called “post-truth era” we have entered into lately.

It’s tough to live up to it all and be called authentic. And there is more. An authentic person “is patient when suffering rejection for he knows that those who live fully in conformity to Christ Jesus are sure to be persecuted.”

The uniqueness of my own identity is a composition of what I inherited from my ancestors—not just my parents but also those who influenced them—and the culture they grew up in and engaged with. On reflection, I have concluded that I lost much of my early innocence, a feature of a once small boy named Rajmund. I was not afraid to express myself freely, not being restricted or confined to what was proper and correct.

The authenticity of the early days was later replaced by grooming, education, by watching and emulating others, as well by a mosaic of influences of the whole environment and culture. But not all was lost. Some influences brought out the tapestry of values that became my own, including beliefs and traditions. My own convictions took root. Rajmund was as authentic as his talents, walk, and talk synchronized.

Barely 14, I recall an event within a couple of weeks of being successfully enrolled in Jan Zamoyski Liceum, a well- known and historic public high school at 30 Smolna Street. The school had nearly 900 students and was located just across from our home and the Seventh-day Adventist church in central Warsaw, where my father worked.

On one September Monday morning in 1962, I was called out to stand in front of a class of 35, to be questioned about my absence from school on Saturday. Answering respectfully, I repeated my convictions about Sabbath observance. The teacher called for Mr. Jan Gad, the school principal, to come and question me, too.

Mr. Gad, who I later found out lived in an apartment building next to our home, was a tall stocky man, and his larger-than-life presence commanded respect—and for us youngsters exuded fear. Later, a school chronicle would refer to him as an “excellent principal,” who said that a “school is like an orchestra. You need a good conductor, good team and a good music score. A melody will then sound beautifully.”

On that Monday morning he exercised his conducting skills on me, and for the benefit of others, it appeared.

Even today, I well recall being slapped across the face. Hot tears appeared—a reaction to this sudden and public humiliation. I was experiencing first hand an act of violence by someone in authority. That moment is etched firmly in my memory.

Among high-pitched angry shouting, I still recall some- thing said about atheism and that my unpatriotic behavior would not be tolerated.

My parents were summoned to hear that I was expelled from school.

Thus ended my enrollment in Warsaw’s premier high school. I was kicked out of school, but for a good and—in my opinion—positive reason. What followed was my parents negotiating a move to a different high school, just a few hundred yards away, and still within walking distance from our home.

My new lease on student life began at the Jarosław Dabrowski Liceum on 1 Swietokrzyska Street. I liked the fact that a Dabrowski would be going to a school named after another Dabrowski. Little did I know it then, but just a couple of hundred yards away was the Holy Cross Church where Michał Belina Czechowski, a trailblazer of the Adventist international church mission, and a precursor to J. N. Andrews and his mission to Europe, was ordained in 1843. His life story became a research project during my university days.

Back to my authenticity. On reflection, the Jan Zamoyski Liceum event was my first lesson in human rights and non- conformity. My Adventist culture no doubt influenced my decision to make a stand that day. My DNA, however, is rich with the building blocks of those who for generations before me chose not to conform—to be authentic whatever the cost. To speak the truth—even the unpopular truth—and not be afraid to do so, .

Such moments like the one when I said “no” to a school’s conformity, continue to allow me to be assured that in authenticity, I am a “total lover of God,” as Thomas Dubay would say.

Rajmund Dabrowski is RMC communication director and editor of Mountain Views.

By Becky De Oliveira

On June 27, 2006—it was a Tuesday—I reached the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington State. It’s 14, 411 feet—the perfect ice-cream scoop mountain that forms the dramatic backdrop of most postcard scenes of Seattle. I was thirty-four years old, and I’d wanted to stand at the top of that mountain all my life. My dad started my training in January of 2006. Every day during that bitterly cold English winter, dad made me run hills in our Hertfordshire town north of London. He instructed me to fill old milk gallon bottles with water and stuff these into my pack until it weighed 50 pounds and then carry it for an hour or two at a time to strengthen my shoulders. We climbed Mt. Snowdon in Wales in the spring, and the week before the big climb, we went to 10,000 feet at Camp Muir to acclimatize, and I practiced self-arrests with an ice axe, hurling myself down a bank of snow and trying to stop my slide.

“The summit is not your goal,” dad reminded me over and over again. Rainier is less than half the height of Everest, but dangerous. Quickly changing weather, combined with crevasses, avalanches and other dangers make this mountain, along with many others of similar size, objects to be approached with caution and respect. Over one hundred people have died on Rainier since the late nineteenth century, including the legendary American mountaineer Willie Unsoeld. “Do not lose respect for the mountain,” my father said. And as for our real goal? “The parking lot,” dad said. “When we’re at the summit, we’re only halfway. We have to make it back to the car. That’s the goal. This is not a hill worth dying on.”

I worried endlessly about our absolute turnaround time—we’d set it for 9 a.m. on summit day. If the clock struck 9, we had to turn around and head down no matter how close we were to the top. Even if the summit were only a couple hundred feet away. I was so paranoid at the idea of coming so far and working so hard and not reaching the summit that when the guy at the front of our four-person team shouted that we could clip out of our ropes, I misunderstood and thought he was saying we had to head down. He repeated himself twice before I finally understood that I had reached the crater. The summit was a twenty minute walk away, across a huge flat volcanic basin. And it was only six o’clock in the morning.

Climbing a mountain is never just about the mountain: It’s about the climber. It’s partly about the problem of goal setting. What is a worthy goal? How do you know when your goals are out of proportion with your values? Is it possible—even likely—that your pursuit of one goal actually compromises your ability to achieve another, more important goal? Back in 2006, I wanted to stand on top of Rainier more than anything. I was the mother of two small children. My family had been through a very challenging and dis- heartening year. We were preparing to move to Berrien Springs, Michigan—a place I’d never even visited—and I was terrified about my whole life. It felt as though if I could climb Rainier, I could do anything. I would have hope again. I could be proud of myself and believe in myself. If I failed, well, the inverse of all those things was true. I needed to climb that mountain. I would have very likely taken foolish risks to achieve that goal if left to my own devices.

Now if you had asked me, “Is reaching the summit of Rainier more important than seeing your kids again?”—if you’d broken it down in those terms, of course I would have said no. Climbing that mountain is less important to me than all kinds of things. But goals are funny; they take on a whole hulking life of their own and they can make you lose perspective unless you get into the regular habit of asking yourself what you’re trying to achieve—really—and whether the things you are most focused on are helping you to achieve your real goals.

Christopher Kayes, a specialist in organizational behavior, wrote a book called Destructive Goal Pursuit that focuses on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster finding in it insights about the dysfunctions that are common in goal- setting. He identifies a problem he calls goalodicy. This word is a combination of the words “goal” and “theodicy”— a philosophical term used to describe the actions of people who hold onto beliefs even when all evidence contradicts the validity of these beliefs.

I would not presume to tell you what your priorities should be—or which hill you should die on, if any. I would only suggest that you remember to check in with yourself about your goals and activities to make sure they really reflect the things that are most important to you as a disciple of Christ. I’m not suggesting you allow yourself to be driven by fear or that you become timid or cowardly. As people of faith, we have every reason to be bold. Live boldly in the knowledge that what you do can make a tremendous difference to other people.

Isaiah 54:2 reads, “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.” This seems like a good place to start as we consider how to make a difference in a big, complex, beautiful, awful, wonderful, tragic, depressing, and exhilarating world. A big tent. Strong stakes. Lots of people inside. What can we do to bring meaning and joy and self-worth and courage to the people around us?

The three rules of mountaineering: It’s always further than it looks. It’s always taller than it looks. And it’s always harder than it looks. The first rule of Christianity: “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness”

By Reinder Bruinsma

Seventh-day Adventists are a people of prophecy. Or would it be more correct to say “were” a people of prophecy? Admittedly, many evangelistic “campaigns” still feature topics of prophetic “truth.” But where past generations of Advent believers could explain the prophetic symbols, point to their historic application and explain the time prophecies, the majority of church members today do not have that kind of knowledge.

On the one hand, there is mostly silence when it comes to prophetic issues. But on the other hand, there is still a vocal minority that is deeply interested in—and at times even obsessed by—the apocalyptic prophecies, in particular Daniel and the Revelation.

In our postmodern times (or whatever label is given to the way of thinking that has developed in the past few decades) many people hesitate to accept a complete system of interpretation that makes absolute statements, in great detail, about future events. After all, as time went by, earlier interpretations often had to be revised and developments did not always follow the path that the “students of prophecy” had projected! And for many, the conspiracy theories and enemy-think that tends to be part and parcel of end-time seminars and of the sensational DVDs and printed materials that mostly originate in independent ministries, are no longer palatable.

Is there perhaps another way of looking at the prophetic books of the Bible that not only make sense to us as twenty-first century men and women but also nourishes us spiritually? I think so.

Experience it

I am a firm believer that diligent Bible reading is the basis for any Bible study. When I (occasionally) present a seminar on Daniel and the Revelation, I challenge the people to first read those Bible books, not once but several times, from beginning to end—preferably in one sitting. I tell them: Do not worry about symbols and statements that you do not readily understand, but get the main gist of what you read. These Bible books tell you about God—how he operates; they tell you about Christ; about sin and victory over sin; they also tell you about radical living, making choices and being committed. And they tell you about belonging to God’s people and about true worship.

Revelation, in particular, is like a multimedia show with sounds, lights, angels, demons, dragons, and beasts. It is a story about good and evil, but victory over evil is a constantly recurring theme. It is pregnant with urgency and calls for endurance.

Catch the message

Before focusing on the details of the symbols and numbers in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, try to catch the overall message. You will only succeed in this when you do not read isolated texts, but allow the underlying message to overwhelm you, as you read long passages. Let me point you to the main elements of the message:

God is in control. This is the overarching theme in both Daniel and the Revelation.
God is at work behind the scenes. This is an essential aspect of the “great controversy” that is still raging.
History is a tale of two cities: Babylon versus Jerusalem. We have the choice where we want our citizenship to be.
Evil is real and ugly but will be totally defeated. The Lamb will triumph over all the beasts!
God’s kingdom will come. Christ is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
While history continues, God looks after his church. It goes through periods of great difficulty but God always pulls his people through.

Present truth

The early Adventist believers were convinced that there was a direct link between the main tenets of their faith and the concrete world in which they lived. That is why they referred to their message as present truth.

When we read Daniel and the Revelation mostly as a record of how these prophetic portions applied to past historic events, and then further speculate what future events may look like, the message of these Bible books is no longer “present truth.” But when we look at the most pressing concerns of people today, and read Daniel and Revelation with those concerns in mind, we discover how the content of these books is indeed “present truth” for contemporary people.

The hope of earlier generations has given place to a widespread pessimism. Daniel and Revelation paint a realistic picture of “troubles and tribulations,” but the last word is always a word of hope. The Revelation opens with a vision of Jesus Christ walking amidst seven candlesticks—symbols for the Christian churches of the first century. The book ends with the hope of a new world, where Christ is amidst his redeemed people. Postmodern people look for a balance between head and heart. The apocalyptic Bible books definitely appeal to the intellect, but also to all senses and to our emotions. Truth is not primarily understood as doctrine, but foremost in relational terms. The problem of sin and escape from sin continues to trouble men and women of the twenty-first century—even though they often have a warped concept of sin. Daniel and Revelation shout at us: the sin problem is solved! Just wait and see!

Daniel and Revelation affirm the fact that life demands tough individual choices, but also emphasize that believing and belonging go together. Different metaphors tell us that God has a people! He has counted them. No one who has made the right choice will go missing! And in the end we all can have the privilege of being part of the great multitude that will populate a brand new world. The emphasis is constantly on authenticity and integrity— values that are also top of the list for postmodern people. The keywords are: suffering, obedience, loyalty, purity, stead- fastness, and commitment Both Daniel and John are role models for us on our way to the kingdom. And, the “present truth” provides us with our mission.

Adventist Christians have found their mission most clearly enunciated in Revelation 14. Key elements are: (a) calling people to worship their Creator; (b) warning them to say “no” to “Babylon,” i.e. to everything that attempts to keep us away from the new Jerusalem; and (3) a total commitment to God, whatever the cost.

Still want to count the potatoes?

When I speak about these prophetic books, I often begin by showing a painting of the famous nineteenth-century Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. I ask my audience to look at the painting of five ordinary farm people in a poorly-lit, sparsely furnished room. They sit around a table, eating from a dish with potatoes. After a few minutes, I turn the projector off and ask, “How many potatoes did you see?” No one has ever been able to answer that question correctly. For what did they see? Most people reply, “Poverty! Misery! Hopelessness!” And indeed, that is the message of the picture. Viewing it is not an exercise in potato counting but an experience of hopelessness and poverty.

Read Daniel and Revelation as you would view an impressionist painting. Try to absorb the overall message. And only after having “caught” the message, feel free to also count the potatoes!

Reinder Bruinsma is a theologian, writer and former church administrator. He writes from the Netherlands.

By Edward Reifsnyder

Recent discussions of the Unity in Mission: Procedures in Church Reconciliation, document voted by the General Conference Executive Committee during their Annual Council Meeting on Oct. 11, 2016, and discussed by the North American Division, offered an opportunity to express views on the importance of what is foundational to how the church is governed. The article that follows is an opinion piece we hope will find interest as it discusses the challenge our church is facing. —Editor

We have a situation. There are events occurring in the Seventh-day Adventist Church with the potential to have a negative impact on our fellowship if not handled with wisdom, prudence, and discretion. Here is a quick background.

For about 40 years, the Church has studied and discussed the ordination of women without coming to a consensus.

During those 40 years, the world Church has voted to avoid the ordination of women.

Large numbers of members, particularly in some parts of the world, believe that God calls women to ministry just the same as he calls men to ministry, and that women experience God’s calling to ministry just like men do. They are frustrated that the Church has not recognized that calling. In 2012, the member constituencies of the Columbia Union Conference and the Pacific Union Conference voted by overwhelming margins to begin ordaining women in their territories. They did so against the direct urgings of the General Conference (GC) President.

The GC President stated that there would be “grave consequences” as a result of their positive votes. In 2014, the Theology of Ordination Study Committee (TOSC) came to a split vote, with the majority in favor of moving toward the ordination of women in some way. The TOSC came to a majority position that the Bible does not prohibit the ordination of women. In 2015, at the General Conference Session, the world Church voted against permitting each division to make its own decision on the ordination of women. It was a split vote of 59% to 41%. (A comment: In volunteer membership organizations, moving forward on badly split votes is nearly always problematic.)

At the 2016 Annual Council, the General Conference Executive Committee adopted, also on a badly split vote, a proposal entitled, “Unity in Mission: Procedures in Church Reconciliation.” This document permits the GC to bypass a division, union, or local conference to intervene directly if an organization of the Church is out of compliance with “fundamental beliefs, voted actions, or policies of a worldwide nature.” The document specified that during the next year, the parties would go through a process of “reconciliation” intended to bring about “unity.” The specific intent was that the General Conference would deal directly with the Columbia and Pacific Union conferences (a course of action outside Church norms) with the intent that those unions would reverse course on their ordination of women or face unspecified “grave consequences” promised by the General Conference President in 2012.  In January 2017, General Conference officers, North American Division officers, and the union presidents met. The union presidents presented a written statement. It said that the union presidents “believe the Holy Spirit calls both men and women into ministry and we see no clear biblical mandate against ordaining women.” The statement also said, “We believe the GC is dangerously overreaching its authority and potentially endangering the current and future unity and mission of the church.” Clearly, the union presidents are taking a position in firm opposition to the General Conference.

So, we have a situation. In essence, the GC says, “Ordaining women is against policy. You must stop and conform.” The unions say, “By Church policy, ordination decisions are within our purview, and our constituents think ordaining women is the right thing to do as we pursue mission where we live.”

This is complicated stuff. It involves several serious factors. Policy. Church governance. Church legal structure. Authority. Power. Control. Maybe even personal feelings.

Each of these factors warrants full exploration, but this article focuses on one factor: Unity. Why? Because the cur- rent discussion has been framed by the GC as a call for reconciliation and unity. The implication is that we can’t be in unity unless we uniformly comply with policies across the world, regardless of culture or missional needs.

Please note that the current struggle is not about doctrine, belief or theology. The GC is not taking the position that the ordination of women is in violation of our doctrines, at least, not openly. It is implied that the problem is lack of adherence to a policy.

Personally, I see this as a contest between (1) a desire for uniformity and organizational compliance, and (2) a desire to take steps that make sense to the mission of the Church in some parts of the world, even if not in others.

My problem with universal uniformity and compliance is that those terms do not imply unity. As a matter of fact, the quest for uniformity and compliance may be counter to unity.

So what is this thing called “unity?” When are Christians in unity? Permit me to tell a couple of personal stories.

I was in Romania on a mission trip with college and academy students. My responsibility was to make sure things ran well. On Friday afternoon, our leader, Bill, a university theology professor, said, “Oh, by the way, Ed. I need you to speak tomorrow for church.” Huh? I am not a preacher. My wife assures me I am definitely not a preacher! But a strange thing happened. Before Bill was through speaking, I knew what I would say the next day. It is the clearest experience in my life when I thought the Holy Spirit was speaking.

We were in Romania to build a new church. There was already a nice, large church in town with a congregation of Romanians, Hungarians, and Gypsies—also known as Roma. The history between the countries of Romania and Hungary is not conducive to good relationships between people. And Gypsies are often not well accepted anywhere. So, three people groups with multiple troubled histories, all in one church. We were there to help the Hungarians build a new church so they could move out.

My few minutes of speaking the next day went some- thing like this. Jesus said in John 13:35 that his people would be known because they loved each other. Why did Jesus pick that particular criterion? Because He knew the gospel would attract many different kinds of people into his infant church. Jews and Samaritans. Tax collectors and small businessmen. Blatantly ambitious people. Gentiles, Romans, Greeks, Asians, Ethiopians, Egyptians. There was bad history between the Jews and just about all those people. And yet Jesus said, “People will know you are my disciples because you love one another.”

If this hodgepodge of new Christians from all over the Mediterranean Basin could love each other in spite of their differences, their cultures, their histories, that would say something remarkable about the power of the gospel! They would be a deviation from the norm. That would be real unity! Jesus told us that the power of love would be most obvious precisely when we have differences. His love holds us together, even in the face of differences of opinion or ancient hatreds. So if Hungarians, Romanians, and Gypsy Christians obviously loved each other, it would be a powerful witness to their community for Jesus.

I sat down. Somebody said something in either Hungarian or Romanian, and three people prayed. I didn’t under- stand what was going on. I noticed that the last man cried his way through his prayer. I learned later that a Romanian, a Hungarian and a Gypsy were each asked to pray. It was the Gypsy who openly wept during his prayer. It was the first time a Gypsy had ever been asked, or probably permitted, to speak in that church. A little unity had occurred.

Let me tell you another personal story.

I was sitting at a large table in a conference room at the old General Conference building in Takoma Park, Mary- land. The meeting was not holding my attention. It was probably about some subject like insurance or retirement. I was an outsider, an executive with Adventist Health System.

An object on the side of the conference table caught my attention. I checked it out. It was the handle of a drawer. I looked inside. There was a book, the General Conference Working Policy. I looked in front of my neighbor. Another handle to another drawer. After the meeting, I checked. Every chair at the table had a drawer in front of it and every drawer contained a Working Policy book. There must have been 20 chairs at the table. Twenty Working Policy books.

I could just envision an internal GC meeting in that conference room. Some subject arises. 20 people pop open their drawers and whip out their Working Policy books, ready for action. Ready to appeal to the authority of last resort—the Working Policy. My next thought? I couldn’t work here! The ubiquity of those books added to my already growing sense that flexibility, creativity, and strategic thinking might not be valued in those premises as much as conformity. I thought the very presence of a Working Policy book for every attendee at a meeting spoke volumes about the GC’s work, its organizational culture, and its value system.

I don’t know if they took that unusual conference table with them when they moved to the new GC building in Silver Spring. But why not? It was the perfect piece of GC furniture!

Obviously, I think each story describes different values.

The first story describes a state of mind that is very personal and is influenced by the Holy Spirit to bring about unity among people. It is about portraying the love of Jesus in the face of human differences. It is about the impact of Christianity.

The second story describes an organization where policy adherence is the big deal.

At the GC, Working Policy seems nearly paramount to truth and doctrine. The “unity” document seems to make no distinction between policy and theology. It refers repeatedly to “biblical principles as expressed in the Fundamental Beliefs or voted actions and policies . . .” I doubt most people see policy as expressing biblical principles in most cases. Most people put policy in a different category of importance.

The GC may value policy adherence more than almost anything because that is its only control mechanism. The GC has no real power or organizational control otherwise. The Church was intentionally set up that way in 1901 to avoid GC overreach.

Importantly, I think the parties come to the table valuing different things. The GC says to the Pacific Union and the Columbia Union, “Get in line.” The unions say, “Our people have voted by large majorities what they think is in the best interest of our mission in the territories where we live.”

How to get out of this impasse? It doesn’t seem likely to me that the two union conferences are going to change their stance. For one thing, these were not decisions of union officers or committees. They were decisions by constituencies,  members of the Church. Those members carry convictions, and are not likely to reverse course.

So perhaps the way forward means that we should look at a new flexibility in which different parts of the world customize their approach to mission. In my mind, mission effectiveness wins over policy, assuming adherence to beliefs and general good judgment. Different approaches to mission need to vary with culture. It is quite clear our 376,000 brothers and sisters in the Pacific and Columbia Unions have a clear view of how mission will work best in their midst. Who am I to say “no?”

Unity is a state of mind toward each other, compelled by the love of Jesus. It is not uniformity. It is not organizational lockstep marching.

Edward Reifsnyder is a healthcare consultant, president of The Reifsnyder Group, and senior vice-president of FaithSearch Partners. He and his wife Janelle live in Fort Collins, Colorado, and have two daughters

By Eric Nelson

As reported in a recent issue of NewsNuggets, the church in the Rocky Mountain Conference is preparing the agenda for our constituency session coming up on July 23, 2017.

In preparation for the event, we would like to share information as to the purpose for having such an event, why it is important to you as a local church member, and what to expect at the meeting and related events.

What is a constituency quinquennial session?

A constituency session, made up of representatives from every church in the conference, is the highest level of authority in the local conference. In the Rocky Mountain Conference, it is held every five years under the guidelines established by the RMC bylaws. At each session, delegates selected from the local church come together to represent their church in the decisions and discussions related to the proposed agenda of the constituency session. In a business, the focus of a constituency meeting would be profit. A conference has a totally different focus, a decidedly spiritual one that includes mission, stewardship, out- reach and evangelism, baptisms, growth, ministries and leadership. Plans for the future of the church are also considered and discussed.

What issues will be considered?

The RMC session will review the way the Lord has led us in ministry by sharing reports of the many conference ministries, representing major mission outreach programs that have taken place over the last five years.

We will seek to focus on the vision for the future toward which He leads and directs, asking ourselves, “What should be the focus of our conference and our churches in the coming years?”

It is also a time to elect conference leadership. The officers of the conference are elected at this meeting, as well as members of various committees who are authorized to carry out the work of the conference between constituency meetings. These committee members are elected to represent their region of the conference and will continue to voice the needs of their unique region of Rocky Mountain’s territory. A nominating committee made up of members and church employees from each region of the conference recommends names for these positions.

Another important agenda item to be considered includes adjustments to the bylaws of the conference. These are the legal directives that guide how the conference operates. All delegates will receive a copy of the proposed modifications presented by the bylaws committee and will have the opportunity to accept or reject these changes.

Regional Town Hall Meetings

Town Hall meetings will be held in each region of the conference in the months leading up to the constituency meeting in July. It is our hope that the town hall meetings will become a venue for listening to each other, for giving valuable recommendations, and for praying together for our entire conference in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico.

Plan for Regional Town Hall Meetings (all scheduled at 6:30 pm)

March 4 Wyoming, Casper Church March 5 NE Colorado, Campion Church April 1 SE Colorado, Colorado Springs Central Church April 2 Denver Metro, Life Source Fellowship April 8 NW Slope of Colorado, Grand Junction Church April 9 SW Region, Pinon Hills Church

It is important that delegates attend the Town Hall meetings in their region where they will elect representatives to the nominating committee from their region. This role can only be filled at their regional meeting. Attendance at an- other regional meeting will not give them this opportunity.

Churches have selected delegates and each delegate will receive information by mail with the details needed to prepare for the constituency session. These materials aim to prepare the delegates to discuss the agenda items prior to meeting with RMC leadership at the regional town hall meetings.

We look forward to a time of sharing what God has done within the Rocky Mountain Conference. We also anticipate a time of fellowship, prayer and working together under God’s leading to strengthen this area of the world that He has tasked us to reach.

Please join us in prayer as this time approaches. We so very much want to recall God’s leading in our past as well as seek His guidance in the future as a conference.

Eric Nelson is RMC vice president for administration.

By Stefani Leeper

What do I do, God?

Perspiration built on my brow, the U.S. presidential election rearing its ugly head (I think it answers to the name of 666). Voting for Trump asked for complete and utter embarrassment to befall my nation, and casting a ballot for Clinton offered support to a crook who nonchalantly dismissed devastating events in Benghazi. Supporting either candidate went against the grain of my moral fiber. However, voting for a third-party candidate equated wasted time and energy, or so I was led to believe. Abandoning the election altogether seemed like the best choice, but my conscience pricked my brain; rejecting responsibility made me no better than these potential presidents.

Is voting for Trump really that bad? I asked myself. Congress wouldn’t let him get away with unconstitutional acts. . . . Besides, the chances of him winning are slim to none.

I prayed His will be done, and cast my vote just after exhaling what was probably the Spirit of God.

The results tallied. The unthinkable happened: Donald Trump, the next president of the United States of America. Feeling like the pending wave of persecution to fall on American minorities was all thanks to me, I confided in one of my closest friends.

“I used to look up to you, but now I don’t know what to think. I’m ashamed of you. Did I even know you at all?” Connie Yeung’s tear-filled words echoed in my mind. “I can’t accept a friend who goes against the causes I care for so much. You’re a racist, sexist, homophobic, white supremacist.”

“I’m not any of those things,” I blubbered as sobs racked my body. “And if you are so blinded you can’t see that, then I guess we were never really friends.”

“I guess you’re right. Goodbye, Stefani.”

Porcelain cheeks stained with rivulets of seeming never- ending tears, I couldn’t accept the loss clutching at my heart. I had prayed. I had done my duty. And now, I suffered the worst consequence I could imagine: the loss of a friend.

Yeung, a South African-Chinese, with whom I had been friends for four years, severed our friendship.

I took away a lesson that day, one my favorite author Louisa May Alcott surmises: “Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be a catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us—and those around us—more effectively. Look for the learning.”

Easier said than done. Some nights I lay awake, my chest holding a thousand searing coals, my mind contemplating death by overdose, regretting my ballot to the point I no longer thought clearly. Seeking refuge from the depression clouding every crevice of my mind, I turned to constant prayer and self-reflection. Could I really be a racist, sexist, homophobic, white supremacist? For two months I sought a way to erase these definitions from my mental record.

When I heard of an opportunity to join others in Lincoln, Nebraska, in speaking out against the Muslim ban, I made my voice heard. What happened to the religious freedom that fueled the beginnings of this great nation? What about unity in diversity? If anything, Trump’s proposed bans only made these values burn anew in our hearts.

On January 29, I had the privilege to protest the unconstitutional proposal at the Solidarity and Community with Refugees and Immigrants rally while standing on the steps of the Nebraska state capitol building among Muslims, Christians, and people of other faiths and races. For the first time in months I no longer felt alone. Several classmates of mine at Union College also attended the event, or voiced their support for it and shared their thoughts with me.

Junior accounting major Angel Phillips, passionate for minority rights and fair immigration policies, as well as the right to freedom of religion and freedom of speech, said, “Our immigration policy definitely needs to be reformed. My family immigrated from Mexico, and I’m a third-generation American with a chance to live the ‘American Dream.’” Believing other immigrants should have the chance to experience the American Dream, Phillips attended the demonstration. The event hosted seven speakers, but the most influential, said Phillips, was a young woman whose family immigrated during the 1990-91 Gulf War. This woman helped Phillips realize how few deserving individuals get the chance to escape humanitarian crises, most of which are human-inflicted.

“God says to love one another as He loves us. When love dictates your actions, you know you’re doing the right thing,” added classmate and second-year pre-med major Guila Medrano, whose family immigrated to the United States from the Philippines more than ten years ago.

Everyone should be given the chance to flourish and make a better life for themselves. No one’s universal human rights should be actively repressed or ignored. However, as the end of time nears, the human condition will continue to worsen. While oppression, destitution, social isolation, and other tribulations will never be completely alleviated, like the church in Smyrna we shall overcome persecution and temptations with patient endurance and the victory of the Lord. John wrote, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, KJV).

Open discussion and conversation is something we need to practice if we are to advance human rights. These are methods I should have more fully embraced before losing a friend. Communication is essential to our community. We don’t have to agree, but we can listen and learn in love. Medrano agreed with me, concluding, “To respect each other means to listen to and consider her point of view. It means to love and be kind to each other.”

For a moment I embodied what some may deem a racist, sexist, homophobic, white supremacist, but in the Book of Life what I hope is written is loving, caring, kind, thoughtful, considerate, and most importantly forgiven.

And when the sun sets on the horizon of my life, I can join Alcott in saying, “Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth’s sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.”

Stefani Leeper is a senior studying religion and communication with emphases in emerging media and journalism at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.

By Michele Conklin, MBA, MSJ

Hospitals are places where health is restored. They have not, traditionally, been places people think of when they’re looking for a delectable, restorative dining experience.

At Castle Rock Adventist Hospital, Chef Dan Skay is changing that. For Skay, food is more than a meal. It’s a passion, a mission, and a path to wellness. For several years, he has been setting Parker Adventist Hospital, and now Castle Rock Adventist Hospital and its surrounding community, on that tasty path alongside him.

Skay was the driving force behind Manna, a sit-down restaurant with wait staff that opened in 2013 inside Castle Rock Adventist Hospital. With a motto of “Bringing God’s Bounty to the Table,” and a menu that this winter included sweet potato red pepper bisque, Colorado lamb, salmon carbonara and maple-glazed duck confit, Manna is a far cry from the standard hospital cafeteria.

Under Skay’s direction, Manna is a place where diners can indulge without guilt. The restaurant supports “humane, sustainable, and responsible farming practices,” and tips and donations support health and wellness projects in the community.

Skay is committed to using fresh, locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. So, at his urging, the Castle Rock Adventist Hospital Community Garden was born. Now, what started as a way to supply Manna’s table has blossomed into a community center of sorts. Each growing sea- son, area residents rent plots in the garden—typically all 95 are spoken for, and waiting lists are common. As residents gather throughout the summer to tend their crops, what they grow in those plots is more than beans, lettuce, and tomatoes. They are nurturing a community, and, quite possibly, souls.

The garden’s popularity doesn’t surprise Skay. “I think society is looking to go back to simpler ways, and there is a big push for more local, more natural food now,” he says.

“Community, health, nutrition, it all ties together for me,” Skay says. “The restaurant, what we’re doing in the garden, the community involvement—it’s all part of being pro-actively healthy, versus working with people only when they get sick. We want to be partners in their health to begin with.”

He may have launched a destination restaurant and a flourishing community garden, but Skay is not finished. This summer, he plans to work with local food banks to provide them any excess produce from the garden. And, at the top of Skay’s to-do list for 2017: an assessment and education pro- gram that will examine the difficulty many in the community face getting access to healthy, sufficient food supplies, and addressing the impacts that food insecurity has on health.

This year, he hopes to launch a community health needs assessment, looking at the nutrition needs of Castle Rock Adventist Hospital patients. With that information in hand, Skay envisions working with the hospital to develop nutrition education programs and even cooking classes.

“We want to be a community partner for wellness, not just providing health care when you’re sick but preventive health care to keep you from getting sick,” Skay says. His goals for the coming year don’t end there. He hopes to build a greenhouse that would provide produce nearly year round. And, he plans to set up a program with a local high school to allow students to work in that greenhouse. As he envisions it, the greenhouse would include an aquaponic fish tank with fish waste supplying nutrients for the garden and the fish ultimately turning up on Manna’s menu.

Skay is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York; he’s a winner of the Great Chefs of America Culinary Competition, a Grand Prize Winner of Custom Foods Golden Recipe competition, and has been named The Wall Street Journal’s Hospital Top Chef.

But his career as a chef, and his appreciation for natural and local ingredients was born far from the kitchens of the culinary elite. Skay grew up on a ranch outside Cody, Wyoming, where he discovered early on the taste difference between eggs gathered on the ranch and their processed cousins bought at the grocery store.

“We had fresh elk steaks, fresh fish, rabbit, deer—it was all natural, all fresh,” he says.

Those experiences inform his cooking and his approach to food and health now. And, they are summed up in Manna’s purpose: Help you stay healthy by treating you—body, mind, and spirit.

Michele Conklin, MBA, MSJ, is president & executive editor of Clementine Healthcare Marketing.

By Shawn P. Nowlan, Esq

My great-grandparents met at a little Adventist school in Hemingford, Nebraska, in the early 1900s. Both my parents graduated from Platte Valley Academy and Union College. My mother taught at Boulder Junior Academy, where I myself was a student from grades 1-10. Today, I volunteer at Vista Ridge Academy. Adventist education is in my DNA.

Still, I often get the question—why spend money on Adventist education when there are so many good schools— and while we pay our tax dollars to support public education? What is it about Adventist education that makes it important?

I answer: Because Adventist education at its best feeds the whole human creature—the mind, the body, and the soul. And it prepares us for life and being a part of the larger society. I found a quote online from Ellen G. White’s Fundamentals of Christian Education. Chapter 9: “The fear of the Lord lies at the foundation of all true greatness. Integrity, unswerving integrity, is the principle that you need to carry with you into all the relations of life.” This is what I learned at my Adventists schools.

For me, that focus on academic excellence combined with personal integrity continued from Boulder Junior Academy through Campion Academy, and on to Union College. I had teachers and professors like Dorothy Simpson and Karl-Heinz Schroeder who both challenged my mind, and taught me what it means to bring God into how I handle everything in my life—not just on Sabbath but in everything I do.

And the sense that one should do one’s best intellectually while integrating God into what happens every workday continued when I left the bubble of Adventist education and began studying law at the University of Nebraska. At the university, I discovered the true value of the education I had received. I can’t say that I was 10 times better than my peers (see Daniel 1:20). I do know that I was in the top 10 percent of my law school class. This confirmed to me that what I had received in Adventist education made me able to compete with my peers who had gone to other schools. Moreover, I gained the confidence of seeing how my values—particularly integrity—instilled in the Adventist setting could survive contact with the larger world.

The sense of ethical integrity excellence guided me through clerking for judges and working as an attorney at the Nebraska legislature. I found all I had learned about Daniel and how he dealt with Nebuchadnezzar served me well when I found myself working for the government.

Today, integrity is what I want to help the current students of Vista Ridge Academy develop. When I watch and listen to Principal Sandy Hodgson, I see that same dual focus on both academic excellence and strong personal integrity that I experienced in my years at school. Recently, I talked to the mother of a new student at Vista Ridge Academy, who couldn’t stop talking about how different being in that environment was for her daughter—someone who had been struggling at another school, but was flourish- ing at Vista Ridge Academy.

At Vista Ridge Academy, we say that we inspire learning for life in a Christ-centered environment by promoting creativity, excellence, integrity, respect, and stewardship. In doing this, we are seeking to:

Create an environment where staff and students view God as the most wonderful Person in their lives and the joy of this relationship is openly shared on campus and  radiated to the community.
Establish a curriculum which addresses the needs of students so all can attain their potential.
Nurture interpersonal skills and emotional growth  among community, family, and peers.
Promote a community of parents and church constituents who work together for the greater good of the school and the success of its individual students.
Make the benefits of Seventh-day Adventist Christian education available to all who desire it while ensuring the financial integrity of the school and the proper maintenance of its facilities.

I see in what is happening at Vista Ridge Academy the same commitments that have shaped my life. This is why I value Adventist education—both because it shaped my life and because I can see it transforming the lives of the students who are currently experiencing it. This is a treasure well worth preserving.

Shawn P. Nowlan, Esq., is an attorney in Denver, lives in Boulder, and is board chairman of Vista Ridge Academy.

By Diane Harris

Looking back, I still remember a ninth grade English assignment where I was asked to write a two-page paper on Henry James. It was a good thing I had plenty of time for this assignment because it involved several trips to the library where I gathered a stack of biographies and encyclopedias and took notes on a stack of 4 x 6 note cards.

Afterward, the typewriter came out along with a supply of whiteout for all the mistakes that happen when young teen is learning how to type while completing a paper. I remember pulling each sheet of paper out of the typewriter ever so care- fully so that it wouldn’t get caught in the roller.

Fast forward to several years (or many) later to a scene that took place in my home. My daughter is doing home-work in our living room while simultaneously watching television. Normally, she’d use the dining room table to lay out her textbooks and work on her school-assigned computer. This time, she was in the living room. “How are you able to do homework and watch TV at the same time?” I asked. Her response? “This assignment is easy since Siri knows everything.”

Now I am not opposed to Siri as I use her often when I want to reach my destination or know how to dress for the weather; however her existence is a large reminder of how education has changed from the days of looking through a card catalogue to find books with answers to asking Siri for quick answers to geography questions. With Siri and Google at our fingertips, Rocky Mountain Conference teachers have had to reevaluate how they create lesson plans and what it takes to challenge our kids.

Two years ago, our education team had the privilege of conducting a teacher in-service to introduce a new concept: project-based learning. Teachers were divided into groups of 6-8 and asked to discover the mission, the vision, and the challenges faced by organizations around the city. They were to incorporate the four Cs of twenty-first century learning: critical thinking and innovation, creativity, collaboration, and communication.

The purpose of the assignment was to give our teachers the opportunity to work as a group to solve a problem and then to present their findings to the other groups. It took them outside their comfort zone and gave them an experience they could use in their own classrooms. During in- service events in previous years, teachers sat at long tables and listened to information shared from the front, passed out in nicely organized binders. No doubt most of that information was forgotten before the first day of school and the binders were nicely displayed—unused—in their offices.

The continual challenge for today’s teacher is to find creative ways to teach twenty-first century learners when many educators were taught using encyclopedias. Today’s preschooler will live in a very different working environment than today’s graduating seniors.

We challenge our teachers to Google job descriptions for the top companies in the country to see what skills they are looking for. It isn’t necessarily the ability to recall statistics, though knowledge is important, but the job skills most sought after are the abilities to collaborate and create. We encourage our teachers to practice failing, not so they feel like failures but so they can celebrate the effort along with their students. My son’s class had a motto last year that gave them permission to fail. It was, “If you are going to fail, fail gloriously!” In other words, accept that not every project will be successful, celebrate the effort, and try again.

I encourage you to check out any of our schools in the Rocky Mountain Conference to see what it looks like to incorporate twenty-first century education. You will discover projects at Campion Academy (CA) and Mile High Academy (MHA) where students are learning about globalization and incorporating the four Cs in amazing ways, along with one-room schools where students are learning how to code and where they also study issues in their communities and look for ways to solve them. They’re erecting greenhouses and building community gardens so that our children not only study healthy living, but also educate their neighborhoods. In the last semester in the current school year, my seventh grade son studied homelessness. During the study, he gathered supplies from local companies to donate to a shelter for women. The students at HMS Richards Elementary School have learned how to create a business and then created a pizza company, produced a commercial, and celebrated their work with a family meal. The first graders at MHA wrote a grant to obtain funds for a composter to support their class garden. Students at Lighthouse SDA Christian School in Fort Morgan, Colorado, can study anything they are curious about during “genius hour” and then look for solutions at their own pace.

The goal of the education department is for all of our students—from the youngest to the oldest—to learn how to solve problems and to be leaders. Using our CHERISH core values—a collection of Christian values that represent the way we treat each other in our schools—we prepare them for a world that is constantly changing, the one they will be living in as adults. We want all our students to thrive person- ally, professionally, and, most importantly, spiritually.

I often ask our teachers, “How do you know you had a successful lesson?” It’s a question I often ask myself. How will we know that our lessons have made a difference? I believe God continues to answer that question in each of our classrooms.

This is an exciting time in education, specifically in our Seventh-day Adventist schools as we educate twenty-first century learners to lead our churches, solve problems, and cast a CHERISH influence wherever they go.

Diane Harris is RMC associate superintendent of education.