By Nathan Brown
At the beginning of the year, I happened to be visiting a nearby church on the Sabbath a researcher was collecting local responses to the General Conference’s worldwide survey of members’ beliefs and attitudes. Interested in seeing what was being asked and happy to take the opportunity to “have a say,” I sat with a group of friends as we each worked through the near hour-long process of completing the survey.
As Sabbath lunch beckoned, our enthusiasm for the task waned with each tedious page. The questions we ask say a lot about our focus and priorities—and these questions spoke loudly, albeit monotonously. The question that most stands out in memory was a list of distinctive “Adventist” topics and how often each had been addressed in local church preach- ing in the previous year. Conspicuously absent from this list was Jesus.
We commented and grumbled to each other as we stubbornly completed the last few pages of questions. Then we returned the surveys to the researcher with some feedback on how uninspiring—even dispiriting—the process and the questions were. And then we were freed to enjoy a sunny Sabbath afternoon.
Complicating Adventism
It used to be that the Fundamental Beliefs were a useful shorthand for describing what it meant to be Adventist. With their broad engagement with the truths of the Bible and their wholistic implications for mission and for living well, most of us identified with most of them—and that seemed to work for most of the relatively short portion of our church’s history for which they have been used. The preamble to the Statement of Fundamental Beliefs functioned as a vital reminder that we may expect these statements to change from time to time, and that we should continue to seek better ways to understand and explain what we might know about God.
But it seems it is becoming increasingly complicated to be “Adventist.” This has been a trend across the history of Adventism. The earliest doctrinal statement was a few sentences, then a few key points, then a few pages, then 27, then 28, then . . .
A couple more recent examples:
In April this year, General Conference leadership issued “An Invitation to Uplift Jesus,” a 13-point guide to assessing whether a group or ministry is “authentically Adventist” in their portrayal of Jesus. Most of these 13 points had little to do with the life, teaching, or ministry of Jesus, and most of them were add-ons to the church’s official statements of doctrine.
More recently,* the worldwide headquarters of the church has established five committees to investigate questions of unity and compliance with church beliefs, policies, and practices. One or two of these committees are focused on the distinctive beliefs of the church, the remainder are tasked with investigating compliance with policy and practices among church entities and constituencies.
The forest of Adventist doctrine, policy, and practice is growing increasingly dense. Where once a stand of fresh young trees of the forest sang for joy before the Lord (see Psalm 96:12, 13), pointing always to the central tree on which He died and the tree of life He calls us to, the forest is now something we can become lost in. It seems it is harder to see the tree for the forest.
Why this trend is disturbing
Such attempts to define Adventism more tightly are distinctly anti-Adventist. Many early Adventists were rightly cautious about setting out a statement of doctrines for fear that they would become a creed that might be used to enforce uniformity, restrict freedom of thought and con- science, and stifle theological exploration and discovery.
Second, we are tempted to focus on building the walls higher. But the longer the list of doctrine, policies, and practices—especially when they are increasingly complex—used to define “Adventist,” the harder it is to get “in” and the easier it is to be defined “out.” By contrast, the Jerusalem council recorded in Acts 15 concluded that their growing understanding of the kingdom of God meant that, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, some of the peripheral and symbolic rules and practices could be discarded, that “we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19).
Third, our focus must be on the center, not on the edges, which is what eccentric means—focused on something other than what’s central. Holding to a strong center is more important than building walls where we think the edge should be. Theologically, we are tempted to consider the distinctive doctrines most important, as evidenced by the survey we completed earlier in the year. It was a temptation that Jesus diagnosed in the religious leaders of His day: “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life” (John 5:39, 40). Adventism’s distinctive doctrines have biblical and historical underpinnings—but Jesus must ever be our doctrinal, devotional and practical center.
Out of the forest
He is the tree that must tower over the forests we have allowed to grow ever thicker. The complications on our path to Him are usually of our own making—or those who would conspire against us ever getting to Him. When we find Him and hear the doctrine He preached, we realize that His is a much simpler way. In many ways, more difficult—we are called to be righteous, not merely right—but so much simpler.
At the end of this long and tortuous journey, through forests, thickets, and swamps, we emerge into a clearing—or perhaps it’s a mountaintop—and find Jesus there waiting for us, shaking His head but with a smile on His face. “So you finally got here,” He says. “Not that I haven’t been with you in the forest, but I’ve been waiting quite a while. Now you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen God. So, go. Love God and love your neighbor—even love your enemies. In fact, to sum it all up, do for others what you would like done for you.”
And, in Him, we will find rest. (See Matthew 11:28–30.).
–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]
Bible quotations are from the New Living Translation.
*This article was written in September, before aspects of this process were to be considered at the Annual Council meetings of the General Conference Executive Committee. Whatever the outcome of these meetings, these processes and proposals are evidence of a trend being championed by some within the church toward greater complexity and the imposition of uniformity in the name of unity.