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Mission for the City: A Pastor Remembers His Dream Job
Adventist Church President Ted Wilson used his Annual Council sermon to launch a new initiative: "Mission for the Cities." Much of the message reprises quotes and methods connected to his work in New York City in the 1980s—the same place that Wilson has chosen to kickoff this new evangelism push. Thanks to some astute commenters, I was made aware of Pastor John McLarty's written reflections on being a new pastor in Manhattan during this episode in Elder Wilson's past. Pastor McLarty graciously agreed to revise them for publication here. —A.C.
Author's note: This is taken from my memoir-in-progress: God, Rocks, and Souls. It has been written entirely from memory without consulting notes or other actors in the story. The reader is advised to keep in mind the “creativity” of memory.
———————
Out of the blue I got a call from Ted Wilson. It was spring, 1978. I had finished my last test. Graduation was on Sunday. Ted was calling from Metropolitan Ministries in New York City. He had heard I was interested in working for God in Manhattan. He thought maybe they could make a place for me. Was I interested?
I had been dreaming of ministry in New York ever since spending a year there between my freshman and sophomore years at Southern Adventist University. A year working with Colin Cook in the New York Center in Times Square. The year nearly killed me. I lost thirty pounds. But the City had set its hooks in me. From then on my sense of call to ministry was inseparable from my dreams of service in Manhattan. At seminary, I gravitated toward philosophy and theology. The only “practical ministry” class I enjoyed was Benjamin Reeves' class in urban ministry. It was mesmerizing. The books about practical ministry that fascinated me most were written by or about city pastors and parishes. Even church history pointed toward the city of God. Early Christianity was an urban movement. Pagans were country folk.
It seemed to me most of my fellow students regarded my fascination with New York as odd. There was no denominational vision for doing ministry in the heart of cities. In those days “urban ministry” was the province of (non-Adventist) liberals. Proper Adventists lived and worked and dreamed in the suburbs. While at seminary I never met another Anglo student who had the slightest interest in going to New York City. In fact, I had never met any Adventist pastor anywhere outside New York who had any interest in moving to an urban environment. So, while I was eccentric—a maverick as one of my professors put it—I did have this going for me: I had a demonstrated ability to draw people together in spiritual work. I had lived in the City before, so my dreams of ministry there had some anchor in reality. And I wanted to live and work in New York.
Ted's invitation was a bold move. Metro Ministries was just getting started. They did not have a budget for newly minted seminary student. They weren't sure what I would do. It didn't hurt that my father was a generous supporter of the church and a long-time acquaintance of Ted’s father. I'm sure it didn’t hurt that my name was recommended to Ted by a woman who gone to grade school and high school with him. (After getting the job, I married her!) Still, I think the decision to hire me evinced Ted's commitment to reaching New York City. He was himself pursuing a radical vision of institutional ministry. And he was willing to give another dreamer of urban ministry a chance, even if that visionary did not fit the usual profile of Adventist clergy.
In the 1970s, a pastor in upstate New York, John Luppens, self-published book titled, New York City: A Symbol. It detailed the history of Adventist work in the city, especially its early days when White was alive and speaking directly to the persons involved. It also reproduced all of Ellen White's comments pertaining to ministry in the city. He took his title from White's statement,
Those who bear the burden of the work in Greater New York should have the help of the best workers that can be secured. Here let a center for God’s work be made, and let all that is done be a symbol of the work the Lord desires to see done in the world. Evangelism 384-385.
White outlined a specific strategy for working New York City. It included in-town vegetarian restaurants and treatment centers and housing compounds and medical facilities in rural areas outside the city. Among a cadre of devout Adventists with a passion for evangelizing the City, these details became known as “the blue print.”
In the 1970s there were over a hundred Adventist congregations in NYC, some with over a thousand members. Most of these congregations had distinct ethnic identities. In the first half of the 20th Century, Italians, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, French, Japanese Adventists all had their own congregations. Over the decades as immigration patterns changed, these congregations switched to English as the language of worship. New ethnic groups coalesced. In the second half of the 20th Century, the ethnic makeup of the Adventist Church in New York City shifted dramatically, becoming largely Black and Brown—West Indian and Hispanic. All of this happened without any significant structural adjustments by the denomination. Congregations developed as they usually do. Pastors preached and conducted evangelistic meetings. People invited their friends and co-workers and sent their children to Adventist schools. It was church as usual and bore no resemblance to “the blue print."
Occasionally, someone (usually white, usually from the West Coast) would read Ellen White's comments and feel called to come to New York to implement the prophet’s vision. Over the years these dreamers had established vegetarian restaurants and holistic health centers. They didn’t last—neither the people nor the institutions. They never had much impact on the city. But the history of failure appeared to have no impact on subsequent efforts.
Ted had several things going for him when he came to New York. He was not from the West Coast. His father was president of the world-wide Adventist Church and had ambitions for his son. And his base of operations was going to be the New York Center in Times Square.
In the mid-twentieth century, the denomination purchased buildings in the center of several large cities to serve as evangelistic centers. New York Center in Times Square was perhaps the most famous of these centers. (The New Gallery Center in London was the other well-known center.)
While in seminary, I had read all the articles in the Atlantic Union Gleaner and the Adventist Review that mentioned the New York Center. They followed a pattern. A new director would arrive. The papers would publish glowing articles detailing his plans for creative outreach to the city. A few years later, another set of articles would appear detailing another incoming director's dreams and plans. There were never any articles about the realization of any of these dreams.
The New York Center did play a useful role in Adventist life in the Greater New York Conference. It was home to the Crossroads Church, a congregation conceived of as an outreach to "the better classes." The Center also housed two or three tiny eastern European congregations—Hungarian and Ukrainian and one other, I think. There was an Adventist Book Center in the basement. The third floor provided office space for several different Adventist agencies. The fifth and sixth floors were apartments and guest rooms for Adventist workers and missionaries. Greater New York Academy sometimes held its graduation services at the Center. Many Adventist New Yorkers saw the Center as a symbol of their church's engagement with the city. (The conference office was in a wealthy suburb out on Long Island, a universe away from the five boroughs.)
When Metropolitan Ministries was created, its offices were on the third floor of the Center. Its director reported directly to the General Conference, bypassing the territorial jealousies created by the administrative lines that bisected the region. (The New York City metro area was divided among two unions and five conferences.) Ted was appointed head of this organization. He came to his position absolutely persuaded that the key to doing effective outreach in New York City was “the blue print” mapped out by Ellen White (and reiterated in Luppen's book). If we would only implement her vision, the church would experience dramatic, sustained growth. It would become a movement recognized by civic and business leaders as a boon to the well-being of NYC. Ted was assisted by a vice-president and treasurer and the usual secretaries.
I was the first non-administrative person hired. My job was to give Bible studies, assist in the monthly 5-Day Plans to Stop Smoking, do outreach in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood east of the Center and whatever else I was assigned. Ted arranged with the Greater New York Conference president for me to serve unofficially as an assistant pastor at the German New York Adventist Church on East 87th Street. (This is the Upper East Side, some of the wealthiest residential real estate in the city.) I lived in an apartment on the sixth floor of the Center just down the hall from where I had lived in 1972.
I immediately felt at home. The crazy mix of people. Prostitutes and dealers on the corners on Eighth Avenue to the west. The people in tuxedos and evening gowns outside the theater across the street. The kerplunck of the taxis bouncing across metal plates covering excavations in the street. The tiny stores. My windows looked down on the 46th Street Theater which was running “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” The perfect place for ministry.
My first Sabbath at the German Church, I counted the people. Forty two. The occupancy notice posted on the rear wall read 455. The place looked empty. The building was very plain with a very high ceiling. The walls consisted of painted concrete block punctuated by cheap, aluminum-frame windows. The pews were white-blond oak with red cushions on a few of them toward the front. (Why buy cushions for pews that no one will sit on?)
The five English-speaking people there had their own Sabbath School class. During the worship service we sat in the back and Kurt Paulien, the head elder, translated for us. Actually, it was a loose paraphrase. I had no way of knowing whether the preacher was as boring as the translation.
The two things the church had going for it were the warmth of the old Germans—they were delighted to have visitors and made their delight evident—and the warm light flooding through the east windows.
The pastor said hello to me and that was the extent of our interaction. He never talked with me about the church or my work. He never invited me to attend board meetings. “Good morning, how are you?” at church on Sabbath morning was as far as we got. After I had been there a few weeks, the head elder asked me to preach once a month. He explained that the German pastor did not feel comfortable preaching in English. I presumed he was speaking on behalf of the pastor, but the pastor never spoke to me about my preaching.
The congregation was wrestling with reality. They could not continue as a German-speaking church. The immigration which had built the church in the 30s and 40s and filled it with members in the 1950s was over. The last German-speaking person to join their church was a Romanian. Most of the kids who had grown up in the church had moved away from New York. Those who remained in the city no longer considered themselves Adventists. The average age of the Germans was somewhere north of 65. The youngest German was a single woman in her fifties. Still they treasured their German identity. They prided themselves on their industry and organization, their financial generosity, their strictness in observing all the Adventist rules. How could they surrender their church to people who would lower the standard? Still, it had to happen. The German identity and culture of the church could not be maintained without Germans. The English-speaking Sabbath School class and the English translation of the German sermon and now an English sermon once a month were their first steps toward a transition they dreaded.
While the pastor completely ignored me, the members made me welcome at church and in their homes. They loved to tell me about their children–adults older than I was. These children of the German Church were engineers and lawyers, doctors and teachers. They were attentive and generous with their parents. Most of the children were significantly better off financially than their parents. And their parents loved to brag about the ways their children helped to ease the challenges they faced as they aged.
Ursala’s daughter, Brita, was a lawyer. She did a fair amount of pro-bono work for indigent clients. Ursala was a brittle diabetic with frequent medical needs. Brita took her to the doctor. Ursala could get around the city by herself. She even had a car, but Brita insisted on driving her mother to the doctor.
Ursala protested she didn’t need Brita to play taxi. She wasn’t helpless. But Brita brushed her protests aside. Ursala’s husband had left her when Brita was only a year and a half old. Together, they had struggled through lean years. Ursala had sent her to the Adventist school in Jackson Heights, then to Greater New York Academy in Flushing. There was never enough money, but somehow they made it through. Now Brita was a lawyer. She was married and had two boys. They were the smartest boys in the whole world. One played the piano. The other liked to tinker with things. He won first prize in his school’s science fair. She thought he was going to be a scientist.
Brita was a good daughter. “I couldn’t ask for a better daughter.” Ursala said. “I pray for her every day. And for her boys and her husband. I pray that she will come back to church.
“I don’t understand. I sent her to Greater New York Academy and Atlantic Union College. When she was young she learned all her memory verses. She used to sing in church. But once she got out of college she just seemed to lose interest. She used to go to church sometimes, ‘just for you’ she would say. But I don’t know what I did wrong.”
What could I say? I had no children of my own. I wasn’t even married. What did I know about why people grow up in Adventist homes then decide to be good people who don’t go to church? In the world I grew up in, people who quit going to church were bad people. They were people with moral problems—liars, cheaters, adulterers, people who were selfish, greedy and disrespectful of parents. I didn’t have a category for people who were good and no longer interested in church.
Over the months other English-speaking people began attending. Vincent and Marilyn Gardner worked for the “Van Ministry.” This was the brain child of Juanita Kretschmar, the conference president’s wife. Pairs of volunteers drove remodeled RVs to neighborhoods all over the city to offer free blood pressure checks to passers-by. They visited Wall Street and midtown Manhattan and desperate neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx. They offered health information to everyone and urged people with elevated blood pressure to see their physicians. They looked for opportunities to pray with people and offered Bible study guides to those who seemed receptive.
It was the most effective outreach the church had ever done, touching far more people than the New York Center and the Adventist-owned vegetarian restaurants and book stores combined. Not that a lot of people joined the church through this ministry, though some did. The Van Ministry made friends for the church and helped the church turn its face outward.
Vincent Gardner had left a comfortable practice in Colorado to serve God in New York. In New York he did not practice medicine, instead he acted as the medical adviser for the Van Ministry and gave health lectures in area churches and in health fairs and any other place that gave him an audience. He offered Christian counseling by appointment at the Van Center.
At the German Church, Vincent and his wife quietly welcomed visitors. She exuded a gentle, magnetic graciousness. Vincent occasionally preached the English sermon. His sermons were thoughtful and ponderous. They had substantial content, but it was work listening to them.
Not long after I began attending, a young woman in her twenties showed up. In hindsight she was the first sign of the future of the German Church. We didn't know it then, of course. We were just thrilled to have young person among us.
My work at the center was diffuse. I visited with people who came in off the street. Once a month I helped with a 5-Day Plan to Stop Smoking. I followed up with participants. None of them ever exhibited serious interest in the church, though they appeared to value my care, inviting me and my new wife to their apartments and taking us out to eat. A small group of them even attended a series of Sunday afternoon gathering at an artist's studio to discuss the Bible, but they always appeared more interested in conversation than in Bible study. (Curiously, literally, as I was editing this for Spectrum, I received a phone call from a woman who had quit smoking through a 5-Day Plan with us at the Center. She said she was calling to say hi after 33 years!) I gave Bible studies to a few people. I visited homes in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. People seemed happy enough to visit. They told me their stories, opening worlds I didn't even know existed. But they showed no serious interest in Bible study.
John Bennedetto walked in off the street because of our advertising offering Bible studies. I was thrilled. He would be my first convert, my first baptism. It turned out that like so many I met he was far hungrier for human contact and a listening ear than he was for the Bible information I was eager to share. He did have serious intellectual questions. It's just that most of the time they got swamped by the latest crisis in his life. I mention him here because his friendship over the years became enormously formative of my vision of ministry. (See his story at God, Rocks and Souls.)
Under Ted's leadership, Metro Ministries opened a lunch shop near Wall Street as the first institutional component of their master plan. Then, Ted and his vice-president began scouring the close-in upstate counties for a location for their country outpost, a compound where city workers could live while providing ministry when visiting the city. It would provide an escape from the noise, filth and decadence of the city. At the same time Ted was working on a dissertation for a Ph.D. in religious education at New York University. His dissertation was a detailed business plan for doing evangelism in New York City based on the visions of Ellen White, a plan that envisioned a denominationally-funded network of city centers and country outposts.
Ted finally found a defunct Catholic college for sale in New Paltz. I was invited along when the Metro board toured the place. Everyone was talking excitedly about how this could be remodeled into the perfect country refuge for church employees and for patients who would come to the health center they imagined. Setting it up would take millions of dollars, but that was God’s problem. All they had to do was to be faithful to the vision God had given his people through the prophet.
I don't recall what happened to the dreams attached to this particular piece of real estate. The church did not buy it, and within a year, the New York Center itself was sold to the Church of Scientology.
That hurt. How could we relinquish our light house in Times Square to a “spiritual” group as weird as the Church of Scientology? But selling was inevitable. The Greater New York Conference was pumping $25,000 a year into maintenance at the Center. The Atlantic Union Conference was spending another fifty thousand for salaries and maintenance. And, as far as I could tell, the Center was making no impact on the city. It was not producing baptisms. It was not raising public awareness of the church and its mission. Even though I regretted losing my place in the heart of Manhattan, closing the Center made sense for the denomination.
The Center had given me a job—in Manhattan! It had been good for my boss, Ted Wilson. It gave him an administrative position, putting him on a fast track escalator within the denomination. It paid for his Ph.D. at New York University. Over the years it had provided opportunity for a wide variety of people to experiment with urban ministry. It had served as a center of Adventist hospitality for traveling school groups and missionaries passing through. But as an evangelistic center it was a flop—like every other evangelistic center the church had funded in cities around the world.
It seemed to me an “evangelistic center” was wrong-headed in its very conception. Evangelism is the movement of the church outward, away from itself. But the idea of a “center” was the ambition to draw people in. It was hoped that the public would come to us. Time had proven that what we offered was not sufficiently attractive for the Center to work.
—John McLarty is the Pastor of the North Hill Adventist Fellowship in Edgewood, Wash. He edited Adventist Today and was the writer/producer of the Voice of Prophecy broadcast.
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Ted Wilson's sermon last weekend was a huge contrast sompared to last year's Annual Council with his "revival and reformation" theme. I'm disappointed at his use of the writings of Ellen White, not just last weekend, but throughout his presidency so far. I guess his presidency will be based on White's writing than God's Word.
I suspect that the most important thing an urban church can offer the city is community, but it seems to me that to do so you would have to be part of the wider community yourself. If you establish a church outreach center to function like a spiritual soup kitchen for the religiously indigent, I don't see how it could work. I'm a teacher, and part of my credibility has always been that parents and kids run into me at Walmart (mea culpa!) or the library. I'm part of their wider community, I'm not a stranger. Another thing that works against the Adventist outreach to the city is that there is no shortage of entertainment there. If you trot out a menagerie of apocalyptic beasts and exotic calculations and think you can compete with the local entertainment industry, you're bound to be frustrated. In London, the New Gallery Center, from what I heard friends tell me, functioned more as a cross between an intellectual café and the History Channel's more sensational DaVinci-type programs, such as the quest for Atlantis. I can't imagine people watching that kind of drivel on TV, let alone leave home and cross the city to hear it first hand.
It seems to me that the greatest source of interest an urban church could tap into would be the huge pockets of loneliness that are much more characteristic of the modern city than the cesspools of vice imagined by the fevered imagination of outside Christians. People are longing for community, for fellowship, not exotic religious products, of which they already have more than they can deal with.
Aage
Since Ted is so obsessed with New York, he should move and live there.
Can't anyone do us all a big favor and offer him a dream-job in that area?
That would be a "dream accomplished!".......
When I come to the Spectrum site, two bible characters usually come to my mind...Korah and Achan..
I see the Korahs as those who pick on Ted .(He might need some counsel on admin, strategy and/or logistics but at least his heart is for outreach)
...and Achans???
Well, I appreciate that it is a pastor who included the following pertinent comments in this great article..
"The pastor said hello to me and that was the extent of our interaction. He never talked with me about the church or my work. He never invited me to attend board meetings. “Good morning, how are you?” at church on Sabbath morning was as far as we got"
"While the pastor completely ignored me, the members made me welcome at church..."
Would someone at the SDA seminaries try to teach pastors what to say after...."Happy Sabbath"?
>>> White outlined a specific strategy for working New York City. It included in-town vegetarian restaurants and treatment centers and housing compounds and medical facilities in rural areas outside the city
Why would anyone think that advice for how to do anything in New York circa 1900 would be useful circa 1970? 2010?
/Bevin
George Tichy,
Teddy is obsessed with NY because he was a pastor there. Sadly, we don't seem to be remembering that Atlanta, Huston, Chicago are cities too. There is a lot of ministry happening in those cities. But the church will highlight what it wants to highlight. Biased people like Mark Kellner at the GC will highlight what HE wants to highlight.
Today the church in the US is growing because of immigrants, just like Europe. But with immigrant churches we have a lot of issues.
1. Many immigrants do not support the church financially like 3rd or 4rth generation Americans do. Many immigrants send their money to their families abroad.
2. second generation immigrants (children of immigrants) blend into the culture and many of them are leaving the church.
3. Many immigrants are caught up with making ends meet and thus not as involved in ministry.
In the long run when the flow of immigrants slows down to the US. The church in the US is going to be in serious trouble.
At the moment, the Caucasian group is PROBABLY the least evangelized group.
Working in the cities is good and I think it is happening. There is not much to say.
Why would anyone think that advice on how to change/save humans in AD 45-100 would apply in 2011?
Jim,
there is surprisingly little specific advice in the Bible about how to evangelise - and much of what is there is oriented towards individual one-on-one encounters.
/Bevin
Jim,
There is a difference between EGW's advice to the church in the 1900's vs Scripture. Sola Scriptura, not Sola EGW.
I believe if we take people back a hundred years we would have utterly failed. We need to take them back two thousand years and learn from Jesus, where he mingled with sinners, met their needs, mended broken souls.
Thanks for this view of NYC evangelism history, John. If we learn something doesn't work the way we hoped it would, that should lead us to try something different. But who knows? Maybe some seeds were planted there that produced a later harvest.
Thank-you so much for publishing this memoir. It's striking how Ted Wilson is gearing up to do it all over again.
We can't get away from the "blueprint." It keeps us stuck trying to prove the worth of EGW's counsel. It limits our horizon--instead of searching for what really may meet people's needs, we need to be 'good' Adventists following the blueprint. And we believe that it truly is the best heaven expects. Our failures get dismissed as the target groups's rejection of God.
____________________________________________________
"be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good" titus 2:3
Regardless how you do it, reaching the people in the big cities ie New York is going to be an expensive exercise, because most people there don't want to be reached. A lot of time and effort will have to be expended convincing them that they do in fact want to be reached. They have enough going on in their lives. The cost, per convert, is always going to be a lot higher than elsewhere.
At least the desire to evangelise the big cities shows that's it's not just a push for "numbers".
Many mixed messages here. Seems the whole project was doomed by the attitudes typified in that ethnic congregation - if a concept, or a set of actions or behaviours, could not be sanctified by a passage from EGW, it would not work.
There is no hint that anyone bothered to look at the successes and failures of outreaches by other groups. The Scientology logo is a fitting tombstone for "evangelism" that plans every little intervention as a step toward full indoctrination into subservience.
"Regardless how you do it, reaching the people in the big cities ie New York is going to be an expensive exercise, because most people there don't want to be reached." --Pagophilus
Certainly it's not the blueprint's failure. Or is it?
There is no hint that anyone bothered to look at the successes and failures of outreaches by other groups.
**************
Nor does it seem like that this is happening now. Redeemer Church occupied the old German church building on 87th st., now the Church of the Advent Hope, at the turn of the 90's. They outgrew that space within a few years, now hold their weekend services at Hunter College, and have about 9,000 attending. Meanwhile, Advent Hope hasn't shown any real community growth in years.
A satellite congregation of Journey Church, another church that has grown by leaps and bounds in Manhattan, was renting the Manhattan Church, in the heart of Greenwich Village on 11th st. They had people coming in the hundreds, while the ultra conservative Adventist congregation is a sparse presence in that building, by comparison.
With such disparity, one would think that we would look at what these churches are doing to reach people of all stripes in the city. That doesn't seem to be happening from the GC level. Why should we, when we have "the blueprint?" Aside from the usual pablum that we don't draw people because our message is more demanding and difficult, the attitude seems that these churches are the Babylonians who we've been told we can really learn nothing from without peril...at least according to this president.
The definition of insanity...If you do what you always did...you know the rest!
Thanks...
Frank
The best method of evangelism is a loving and lovable Christian. Then - be ready when people ask...
to scratch where they itch.
John, Do you have anything to say about Living Springs?. Did they come around after the events you describe? Living Springs had an outpost, one which was secured in a rather amazing way. To hear Bill Dull talk was to be convinced that God was involved in Living Springs and the work in NY. Didn't they also have a working vegetarian restauant?
Well, right now I am listening to the President on 3ABN.
He is stressing that this effort should be sustained. I am praying that there will be successes. I think he is sincere. What I do think, as well, is that everyone has a role to play. Not everyone will reach everyone else.
Yes there were Country Life vegetarian restaurants in NYC. I worked at one for not even 2 months & lived with the group who ran it in rural NJ. It was a very strange scene. Women & men were strictly segregated,dress code of long skirts etc. Only 2 meals a day allowed for everyone including children!! I left when a horrible incident occurred with the leaders young child who was made to fast an entire day & also made to prepare his meal for the next day. It was cruelty & child abuse..they were obsessed with getting control "over appetite" as Sister White said we must do.I had only been an SDA for 5 months when I became apart of this group.
Renee Hernandez
Living Springs' property was up near Peekskill and Shrub Oak...quite a bit north of midtown, and quite a bit south of New Paltz. They did operate a restaurant, but the outpost has been closed for quite a few years now. It made no great evangelistic impact on the city or the metropolitan area.
Peekskill is far enough from midtown Manhattan. I can't imagine having to trek in and out from New Paltz to midtown everyday. No wonder why someone mentioned burnout.
I fear that this president is set on trying to repeat what has already not succeeded. It just seems like a wooden application of strategy that EGW outlined over a century ago, but that has born no lasting results in every previous attempt.
Thanks...
Frank
frank7,
We'll have to wait and see.
I am torn between two impulses:
1. I wish to see an eradication of all the old attitudes that marred my youth (control by fear, triumphalism, insularity, sternness, stridency and an unyielding--or unfeeling--temperament etc.). In fact I wish to see those attitudes publicly humbled. I am very sensitive to them (maybe too sensitive).
I want to see a transformation of our church into one that buys into Jesus' methods of power and relationships. I want to see a church that listens to people first and that brims with love and understanding and creativity rather than a rigid adherence to formulae.
I want to see a church whose first priority is to convey to people that they are valuable and have worth--rather than giving them information to accept.
I do not wish for faulty methods to be legitimized or else our church will never be rid of them.
2. On the other hand, I want to be fair to the leadership. I believe they are sincere (I was just watching Mr. Wilson on TV) , and do not want them to fail.
It's very hard to admire the passion and deep dedication of the leaders and yet disagree strongly with the emphasis or method. You begin to wonder how God could let such devout people be so wrong (not in everything but in some things you care about).
You begin to question your standing to have any objections. After all, who are you? Clearly these men are more spiritual than you are. Maybe you are deluded?
That's the hardest part for me.
For those who would care to answer:
What would a successful "mission to the cities" look like?
My two main priorities for something like this:
i. A more humble and understanding church that listens, and deals with people and their experiences directly rather than behind a wall of scripture.
ii. An atmosphere of joy, creativity, diversity and discovery rather than fear and systematic suspicion.
I believe that this attitude alone will win people. John Paulien's "salt" model I think fits best rather than the "fortress" model. We have to actually like people and want to make their lives better.
Trinidad...
I hear you. I too want to see us be the type of church you describe, and to successfully reach people in this way.
I'm not doubting Ted Wilson's sincerity. What troubles me is that it seems that he is proposing to do some of the very things you, and many others, wish to see changed. He is proposing a method to reach NYC and other urban areas that is based on a prophetic "blueprint." So far, it has never yielded a lasting evangelistic impact, even during his watch in Manhattan. Yet, he wants this to be a major trust again, because this has been decreed from the "pen of inspiration." What is this other than a "rigid adherence to formulae?" EGW herself had strong words against such rigid adherence and mentality.
His other first priority is to spread 150 million copies of the Great Controversy. What is this but making a first priority of giving people information to accept, regardless of whether they have asked for it or want it? How is this conveying to people that we first care about them and their needs?
This all seems to lead to what you say you, and I suspect many, don't want... faulty methods being legitimized. Or, methods that are trotted out over and over again because they may have worked sometime in the past.
What is most troubling is that Elder Wilson seems to shut off learning from any successful work that has come from outside our denomination, as if we can't learn from others. He has publicly warned the church against going to "polluted well," so to speak. I assume he is living by his own counsel.
Sincerity, yes. But, I question the judgement behind his sincerity, and the openness to sincerely listen to different voices, especially those that disagree with his viewpoints. I hope I'm wrong, and that great success comes. I question whether it will as these courses of action are pursued.
Thanks...
Frank
frank7,
My own views on Ellen White have been shaped by reading George Knight and Alden Thompson. That is where I saw her quote expressing that circumstances altering/changing the relation of things and how God wants us to reason from common sense:
"My mind has been greatly stirred in regard to the idea, ‘Why, Sister White has said so and so, . . . and therefore we are going right up to it.’ God wants us all to have common sense, and He wants us to reason from common sense. Circumstances alter conditions. Circumstances change the relation of things."
Bio., vol. 5, pp. 312-315.
The thing is: how can this understanding spread?
It is not likely that some people will ever be comfortable (temperamentally) with some notions like these.
Maybe there needs to be a parallel (complementary) city ministry following other methods alongside this. It'll be underfunded, but if it meets people's needs then that might be irrelevant.
I liked this part:
"John Bennedetto walked in off the street because of our advertising offering Bible studies. I was thrilled. He would be my first convert, my first baptism. It turned out that like so many I met he was far hungrier for human contact and a listening ear than he was for the Bible information I was eager to share."
This is the understanding I think is missing generally. This world is full of people crying out for human contact and a listening ear--true friends that can travel life with them.
Trinidad...
That's the part that the part that caught me as well. Friendship, understanding hearts, and listening ears.
Thanks...
Frank
Vegetarianism (and even veganism) has become quite trendy in the past few years. Celebrities of many kinds are into plant-based diets.
Perhaps a vegetarian restaurant as part of the outreach endeavors could have worked--if only those running it put a little more creativity into it. Instead of an atmosphere resembling some grandparent's dowdy parlor, the interior could resemble more of a coffeehouse vibe with a tasteful color scheme, a little "mood ligthing," and a well-coordinated, yet eclectic collection of artwork on the walls. Hire a real chef to oversee the food preparation. Emphasize a tempting arrangement of fresh fruits or veggies over some bland mélange of casseroles or barely warmed meat analogs from a can (Worthington isn't Adventist-owned anymore, anyhow!). Get a decent graphic designer to create a corporate identity--from logo to signage to menus to takeout packaging--that would feel at home among the cutting-edge advertising plastered around Times Square.
I think Adventists may have sometimes missed the boat when it comes to building friendships with non-Adventist vegetarians. And from those friendships would come an opportunity to share the Gospel.
Kaj,
I believe you are correct image and presentation when it comes to food is major. The SDA church missed a major opportunity when it did not find an dynamic and appealing way to push its health message to the larger society. Now everyone is on the band wagon ( not that Adventist were the first) when the SDA Church could have been one of the great leaders in this area.
I think part of the problem is in attitude as many have already alluded to. The SDA attitude is still very much steeped in the 19th century, supported by an us against them outlook which, yes, keeps the world out BUT also keeps Adventism away from the world, and that's who we are supposed to be ministering to!!!
As for ministering in Urban settings the Adventist Church is COMPLETELY clueless. Before the Adventist Church can even think to be effect in NYC it must first confront and formulate solutions to:
*The racial divide- as a black Adventist I knew zero of the initiatives John speaks about in this article. AND I have lived in NYC most of my life and I am over 50. If the SDA Church is going to remain divided along racial lines (and I am almost certain it will be) then it needs a strategy to coordinate mission better across racial lines while leaving the racial divide in place. The danger of that is apparent. People are going to question the Adventist mission given that divide and many will ultimately find it wanting.
*The cultural divide-what might appeal to blacks might not appeal to Latinos and what might appeal to Latinos might not appeal to Caucasians. I know of very few white Adventists living in NY; Also I know very few Black Adventists in NYC who are NOT of Caribbean descent (that in itself is a whole nother issue.)
*Take a good look at the demographics-who is being baptized, is it the churched or the unchurched. If you are mostly pulling from other churches and those who used to be Adventists then we have a major problem. Adventist culture has not a single idea of how to speak to the Hip-hop generation who are major in urban settings, or the unchurched. I personally don't think they really want to-way too much work. and would mean coming out of the box to embrace new ideas and concepts.
*Completely revamp how Adventists do evangelism, in particular in urban settings, given ALL of the above. Begin to do this by looking at what does work in NYC, but as others have stated the Adventist Church is loathe to do this. Additionally this would require a huge dose of introspection by the Church and then coming out the other end.
So here we have the dilemma-a church that has a mission to reach out to the world but is structured culturally and organizationally in a way that prevents it from doing so. Something needs to give or we have to leave it up to the rocks.
I have often said that the best thing about Adventism was the recipes!
Renee: I believe there was a Country Life restaurant in Nashville for quite some time into the early 90's. They had the tradventist dishes laid out sold by the lb. It was GREAT. No sign of SDA anywhere inside except the smell. ;) The demeanor of the ladies cooking was very typical old-timey SDA, like the 30's-40's! But the man who weighed the food and took the money reminded me of a stuck-up deacon, very suspicious, watching everyone. I would say rather loudly "it sure smells like campmeeting in here," and the people who immediately turned their heads, gave themselves away. ;)
I sure miss that place.
W O W I made a positive comment. Must be the cottage cheese loaf memories....or the Soyamel.
>>>>> Latomus - Fri, 10/14/2011 - 17:16 John, Do you have anything to say about Living Springs? Did they come around after the events you describe? Living Springs had an outpost, one which was secured in a rather amazing way. To hear Bill Dull talk was to be convinced that God was involved in Living Springs and the work in NY. Didn't they also have a working vegetarian restaurant?
<> <> <> <> <> <>
Latomus,
For the latest on Bill Dull, see:
http://www.outpostcenters.org/ministries/ls_retreat
and
http://www.outpostcenters.org/ministries/living_springs
Bill and his wife are living examples that the strongest argument in favor of Christianity is a loving and lovable Christian.
Cheers,
Mike
For a culture that has always rejected anything of the cities and now looking to evangelize them they haven't a clue! It would take much more training and preparation, even a change of mental attitude before a small impact could be made.
Ted has great ideas, but planning and executing them is a monstrous task. Does anyone believe this can be done overnight? He's reading out of a19th century playbook endeavoring to apply it to the 21st century. What are the chances?
Elaine
Elaine
City folks have too much on their forks now to worry or even consider the next life. They live from one check to the next chick and a line or two. Tom Z
Elaine,
Every new GC President needs to come up with something bombastic, even if it makes no sense. But it has to be something different, peculiar, and with a mark that will distinguish and perpetuate that President's name in the SDA history.
Imagine, 200 years from now Adventists (those left after the persecution triggered...) will be reading about Teddy Wilson and his fantastic/bright plan to evangelize N York and dump millions of GC books on that population. In the next millenium he will most probably be canonized...
The KGC can't even evangelize 20904.
(The ABC 2 miles down the road from KGC had to get out of half of its lease due to underwhelming demand for 1844 made simple.)
How in the Hades can it evangelize NYC?
Try Ward 8 in DC as a lab experiment for Teddy and his Politburo evangelistic zeal.
As a YDSSdAPK in the early '60's living in northern NJ I spent more than a few weekends in NYC and remember the awakening of seeing the FFT headquarters and what a boring dump it was and the emptiness of its environs.
The street preachers around Port Authority would gather a good sized audience who would then throw money into the preachers' hat.
It's where I first learned irony without knowing its meaning.
If you can't fix stupid why recycle a Wilson?.
In discussion with the other half, a wish was expressed "I'd love to do more for the truly disadvantaged". My reply along the lines of "Well, you'd have to toughen up, for a start".
What I meant was, whether you are thinking of doing something off your own bat, or taking part in a well-meaning outreach to the needy, you'd have to be aware it's mighty hard to tell the "deserving poor" from the rest. Like, it's hard enough dealing with the masses of people dispossessed because of mental disorders, but you'd have to deal with those in the queue who are scamming, or worse.
Hands up those who have opened up a soup kitchen, or similar, and had to deal with stolen purses and disappeared PA systems?
Ordinary churchgoers take an awful punch in the midriff when they are taken down as soft touches.
From my experience in the field of substance abuse, a lot of people in the down-and-out category have developed hardened attitudes to any kind of authority. In my opinion, it's best for all concerned not to leave anything - physical possessions and emotional investment - hanging out as ripe fruit.
It's also my opinion that programs designed to cherry-pick from the better-off, to recruit people who are wealthy enough to be independent, are not just a waste of time, but bring a kind of corruption.
I suspect, without any evidence, that the hard-ups who have the gift of discernment, that would make them worthy rehabilitants and then potential participants in reclamation projects, will avoid establishments that are honey-pots for scammers and vultures. My reason for that is, even among the ruined and destitute, there remains the principle that it's bad to contribute to the downfall of the innocent.
Al is correct when he says:
"So here we have the dilemma-a church that has a mission to reach out to the world but is structured culturally and organizationally in a way that prevents it from doing so."
I did not even think about the racial divide when I laid out the issues the SDA Church needs to address when setting out to evangelize the cities.
Al also said:
"Adventist culture has not a single idea of how to speak to the Hip-hop generation who are major in urban settings, or the unchurched."
A culture of separation has bred a distinct ecosystem with its own jargon and arcane concerns not shared by others out there. You are very correct. Here again we see the tension between an outlook and an in-look. City dwellers (particularly urban youth) are looking for a positive identity that embraces creativity--rather than an identity based on separation and "weirdness" and that is expressed by the language of prohibition.
Can the church turn this around?
I think the first step is to become a church that listens. If we do not value the personal experiences of others we will never get where we need to be. Alden Thompson talks about how the conservative impulse can sometimes be so vertically oriented (devoted to God) that some are willing to disregard the value of fellow men (think 9/11 for example).
This is a huge problem in our church, where there are endless stories waiting to be told.
There would have to be a complete re-education of the church before they even began to work in large cities. A time of listening and learning their language and what is meaningful in their life. It is almost totally foreign to the insular culture in which Adventism has grown that it may take another generation, brought up in a different atmosphere to even begin such a massive undertaking. Currently, is that even a process that has begun?
Elaine
It probably has begun.
GYC is made up of a whole new generation of young people. Many think they will be clones of their mentors; but I happen to believe that they are likely to be more willing to learn new things than their forbears simply because they are products of their environment (the modern/post-modern world).
What might have been a solid wall between the church and the word in the past is no longer there; and in many cases that is a good thing.
Where they start out is not necessarily where they will end up.
What am I not getting in Galatians 2? The messengers that caused Peter to back away from table fellowship in Antioch, and were the catalyst for division in the church, were sent from James. It is naive to think that they were coming from Jerusalem to say, "Job well done." It seems much more reasonable to assume that they were coming to convey concern and counsel from James to Peter to fix what was going on at Antioch...maybe with the idea of preserving the integrity of Peter's mission to the Jews.
Thus, Paul's rebuke of Peter was not just directed at him. It seems also to have been a salvo back to Jerusalem that what was happening was not according to the truth of the gospel. Paul was not beyond critiquing the church organization when it came to alignment with the gospel. And, this story seems to reveal that while Peter, James, and Paul may have been on the same page at the Jerusalem Council, they certainly were not at this point afterwards.
The implications of the gospel on an ecclesiastical level were being viewed differently, with James message somehow cowing Peter into separating himself in an attempt to "compel Gentiles to live as Jews," even after Peter had been, "...living in the manner of Gentiles." This is right in the text of Galatians 2, along with Paul's angry response. It is not directed towards the Judaizers at this point. It is directed towards the "pillars," or as Paul puts it, "the so called pillars."
What could this all possibly mean? On an individual level, it couldn't mean that Peter had gotten himself uncircumcised, a physical impossibility. It seems unlikely that James would have been telling Peter to back away until the Gentile believers in Antioch got themselves circumcised, in light of the J. Council's decision in Acts 15 which was partly based on Peter's own testimony from the events of Acts 10. In light of the context of table fellowship, could it not have been the attempt to compel Gentiles to keep kosher in order to maintain equal fellowship? The wording of Paul's rebuke, "Why are you trying to compel Gentiles to live like Jews/to Judaize," would seem to indicate such a lifestyle emphasis.
On an organizational level, I believe it indicates that there was more tension over differing views of the gospel and its horizontal implications within the church and among its leaders after the J. Council, than the above article admits. Paul may have been battling Judaizers at Galatia, but the story from Antioch shows that his disagreement was with church leaders...major church leaders from Jerusalem. While they may have all agreed on justification by faith, it seems that Paul may have had a more radical vision of its practical implications, based on the truth of the gospel.
Whether the issue was circumcision or kashrut, the larger issue was that Jewish outward badges of covenant membership, outward badges that symbolized fidelity to the Torah, were not what justifies a person before God. In fact, no law or law keeping could. Justification was totally through the faithfulness of Christ, that was equally available to Jews and Gentiles through faith and nothing but faith, as Paul indicates in Romans 1:16-17. There is no difference. Agreed on in Acts 15...broke down later in Antioch.
What does this mean for us? While I believe that our emphasis on healthful living is wonderful, and shows God's care for the totality of our beings, I've wondered about our erecting requirements based on ritual food laws of clean and unclean from the Torah as part of our baptismal vows, and as requirement for membership. I also believe that Frank Allen has raised very valid objections to the whole of Lev. 15-22 being made into required observation for Gentile Christians, simply based on his quotations of some of the various requirements there, that no church has ever enjoined on its members. Is not there a reason why Peter said that it was "a yoke that neither we nor our fathers could bare?"
Jews saw the Torah as an indivisible whole...there were ritual aspects of moral requirements, and moral aspects to ritual requirements, all done in obedience to God. The Law of the Lord and the Law of Moses were not divided as we have conveniently done, see Luke 2. We, as Adventists, seem more prone to divide and cherry pick the Torah, in order to support what we deem as still lasting, such as clean and unclean ritual monikers for food.
Thanks...
Frank
Some good points to ponder, Frank, on the differences between Paul and his traditionalist opposition. Would Paul have looked like a Jew as he lugged his weary bones across the Empire? Would he have passed an offer of pizza or paella on the chance it may have been tainted by forbidden meat?
So sorry. I meant to post on the SS thread! Oops!!! :)
Thanks...
Frank
Frank 7 I love your posts! Are you saying that we as a church are not walking in line with the Gospel if we insist on lifestyle changes like smoking etc as a requiremet for being a member.....? I have been thinking about that for a long time already. Of course we could never tolerate a drug dealer to continue his business, but there must be a difference....
Marianne Faust said:
"Frank 7 I love your posts! Are you saying that we as a church are not walking in line with the Gospel if we insist on lifestyle changes like smoking etc as a requiremet for being a member.....? I have been thinking about that for a long time already. Of course we could never tolerate a drug dealer to continue his business, but there must be a difference...."
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You did not address me, but I just wanted to say that I do not believe it's unreasonable to have membership requirements that are not salvific. I think there is a place for some kind of created identity in any organization. Could we perhaps baptize but not enter into membership?
As long as our peculiarities do not swamp us.
Marianne...
I have not clearly thought through the implications of how this NT controversy applies to our vows beyond the specific clean and unclean designations.
In general, I think the principle that James enunciated in the Jerusalem Council is a good guideline. "We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God." We seem to have a history of doing just the opposite. We've moved from over 100 baptismal vows back in the 1930's and 40's to 13 now. There is even a three step condensed version in the church manual, so it seems that we've been moving in the right direction.
Any organization has its right to set entrance requirements. But, I don't agree that we or any church should, especially when attached to baptism, or as an after step to baptism. It sends the message that God accepts you in Christ, but we don't...yet. I don't see this in the early church...in fact, it is the very thing that Paul fights against.
I believe it would be better to welcome people into fellowship who sincerely want to give their lives to Christ, and then would desire to be taught our doctrines and be helped to break addictions such as smoking, etc., rather than always frontloading these things as entrance requirements. I agree that drugs could be another story, simply because one's thinking may be so unclear while actively using. But, even then, the church could be in a position to help people through connections with local 12 step programs and the like.
I'm just thinking out loud. Thanks for causing me to do so, Marianne and Trinidad. I wish there was some way this string of comments could be moved to the SS where they really belong.
Thanks...
Frank
As far drug dealing is concerned...it's a felony. However, if an active dealer really meets Christ, what do we think will happen? Look at Matthew and Zaccheus... the equivalent of 1st c. mobsters, who were transformed by their encounters with Jesus.
It seems that we trust more in spelling out written requirements and prohibitions, than in the transforming power of Jesus, who often makes such things superfluous.
Thanks...
Frank
Frank 7..."However, if an active dealer really meets Christ, what do we think will happen?"
Yes, that's what I'm thinking... Keeping the commandments is what follows, not something that should be accomplished first. But then there is also christian growth, which means that there is space to grow and which also means that we are all growing differently. So if we really walk in line with the Gospel, as Paul put it, we must allow time and space to grow for everybody.
Can I then conclude, if we don't allow this time and space for growing, we are not walking in line with the Gospel? And if this is the case wouldn't this be the point where reformation and revival should begin?
Just thinking out loud like you....
At the same time that the request is made to not make it difficult for the gentiles coming to God, there is a large discussion concerning circumcision and moving from an outward sign to a circumcision of the heart.
The salient issues of circumcision as it applies to the difficulty of joining the church are that there is some pain or sacrifice involved. Commitment issues, giving God authority in your life are all perceived as giving something up in new believers.
That one could join the Christian faith and thereby feel good about themselves all the while planning on no long term commitment and giving God authority in your life is a sham.
The fact is that people with a much larger commitment will eventually be told the same thing as those superficial "I liked the music so I joined the church" believers. "I Never Knew You".
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Besides, after becoming a church member, they will find God requires more from them, not just an original confession that Jesus is Lord. The baptismal vows say nothing about service, either in the church or outside. "What do you mean you want me to work in the children's divisions or serve on the PA team? I come to be "fed" in my pew seat and the sermon better be pretty good, or I might start only coming to SS. I might even withold my tithe if my personal issues are not addressed or if I dont feel like you pay enough attention to what I think."
Michael
"I do not believe it's unreasonable to have membership requirements that are not salvific."
What were the requirements the Gentiles had to make to become Christians? Have we not added many more? Is that not placing a yoke on the new member? Adding many requirements makes certain Adventism will always be a very exclusive "club," in contrast to the rapid growth of the first church. Where might it be had all the Jewish laws been demanded? Yet, Adventism has gone back to the Old Covenant Law and chosen from them to be required of its new members. If the church wishes to be an exclusive and limited organization, this has been achieved.
Elaine
"And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, 'All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.'" Matthew 28:18-20
Donald McGavran, missionary & the father of the church growth movement, had excellently conservative bona fides re: evangelism. Christians, he believed, were required to do good works, but these were not evangelism.
McGavram's passion was understanding & removing the barriers to belief/conversion. He pointed out that this passage in Matthew explains that making disciples involves two steps--in this order--baptism & teaching.
Baptism as initiation, rather than graduation.
Michael...
No one is talking about easy believism here. It's baptism with the idea gotten across that one will then commit to growing in Christ along the lines of joining a small group for fellowship, guidance and help in how to begin walking away from the old and into newness of life and service. Baptism with the idea that one will commit to a guided process of finding and then learning how to use their spiritual gifts in positive service for the building up of the body. Baptism with the idea that one will commit to continue learning and applying biblical truth in a group environment of support and acceptance.
As things stand, we focus on the last point prior to baptism, but are not very good at doing either of the first two before or after. I think a process such as this for new members would be in line with what hopeful posted about making disciples...baptize, then teach practical and relational Christian living.
Presently, we teach a boatload of frontloaded doctrine in our evangelistic efforts, and then leave people on their own. Then we wonder why we don't retain people, despite what we feel are rigorous doctrinal entrance requirements.
Thanks...
Frank
Yes, Marianne...
And growth can only happen in supportive, accepting community. Community that gives grace, truth and time to accomplish the tasks of growing up into the image of Christ. This is the shared journey of discipleship that we all need to walk together...as each others wounded healers.
Thanks...
Frank
This reality story supplies material for a film.
Are we still a world-wide Christian church or an international Adventist Style Cooking Restaurant Chain with a Profit Margin?
"That one could join the Christian faith and thereby feel good about themselves all the while planning on no long term commitment and giving God authority in your life is a sham." --Michael
Why this assumption? Projection?
"That one could join the Christian faith and thereby feel good about themselves all the while planning on no long term commitment and giving God authority in your life is a sham." --Michael
You are personally acquainted with such people? Or, simply assumptions without knowledge?
Elaine
Not just "drug dealers", Frank. Contact with the marginalised quickly reveals children who are in suboptimal care, to put it mildly. So, then, responsible agencies may be bound to report neglect and suspected abuse. Then, it becomes obvious that the help that many need centres around their homes. Volunteer staff (ordinary church members) *may* be invited to enter homes, but would they want to?
How would a congregation prepare its members for the idea that some may need to be ready to take children into foster care?
In most cities there is always a big demand for foster homes and never enough to give these children homes. Isn't it strange that Adventists have not yet developed such a program? In most states there is a stipend paid for each child and they could be self-supporting. Currently, many foster children are being mistreated and abused for lack of invesigative workers. The SDA church could fill a huge need in this area, far more important than distributing millions of the G.C. or trying to establish a presence in New York City. Such an operation to provide foster care could get great publicity for the humane work of Adventists in addition to their hospitals. This is the finest "child evangelism" and far more easy to adopt.
Elaine
If, then, there are congregations sufficiently unencumbered by Selected Messages that they are able to think about fostering children of crack mums, that's what they should do. *Think* about it, prepare to talk about it, for about a year. Because, in any inner-city congregation there may be grandmothers already doing that, and when it comes to asking for volunteer foster homes, the first to answer may be that nice couple - of gay men.
Why *think* about it for so long, why not just start the program? Because the bulk of any established congregation of families will find that they are unable to take on fostering, for physical, financial and emotional reasons. What happens to people who, when presented with an urgent humanitarian need, find themselves recoiling from the demands?
Sorry, Elaine, that wasn't a bait, forgot to finish the thought.
Anyway, as you say, in large cities there are established agencies involved with families with at-risk children. Police, welfare, justice, corrections. Wouldn't it be a little presumptuous of a naive group to think they can just nose into the turf and perform good deeds?
Maybe it would be better for a congregation to do the homework, then suggest individual members find out if they can be helpful somewhere in the system? Then, those people with a couple of years experience as, say, prison visitor, may be able to come back with more information. Or, they may choose not to bother the good folk at church. Because those outsiders, you know, they use language that should never be heard by good, God-fearing folks.
Trevor
I am only familiar with the state of California, the largest state, and with a granddaughter, psychologist, who has worked with dysfunctional families and children for years in this state.
Those "established agencies" adminster, overall, many departments, but depend on individual homes to place these disadvantaged children. No longer are there orphanages where large numbers of children are warehoused, as it is far better for a child to be in a normal home environment when, for whatever reason, he has no safe home of his own. These agencies do not personally take care of children on a day-to-day basis and depend on private homes.
Also, there is a constant call for individuals or families to take foster children and for those with love and care to given, there is sufficient income provided by the state to do this full time, depending on the number of children. Sadly, some very abused people have been foster children, so a good home is a blessing to such children.
As many families today have four or more children, it is not necessarily a burden if one has the time, love, and home to offer. With today's economy, it does offer a better opportunity. There is also never enough quality daycare for children, another wonderful "ministry" if a group would choose to do so. Preaching and send out books is one of the poorest ways to witneses, and it is in helping others, much more than preaching, where Jesus did his work.
Elaine
I remember a memorable Sabbath spent at John's German Manhattan Church when he was the pastor and I was Principal of Takoma Academy. We took an annual National Honor Society to New York City two weeks before Christmas to enjoy the magic of a NYC Christmas -- the best place in the world to get into a Christmas spirit. We would take them to a play and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show enjoying the Christmas windows on Fifth Avenue and a trip to Macy's to shop while sleeping on the classroom floors of Greater New York Academy to make the trip affordable. This particular time we needed to leave on Sabbath morning which is something I tried to avoid so to assuage my guilt feelings arranged for us to leave at 6:00 AM Sabbath morning and drive directly to the John's church. John's wife was a graduate of Takoma Academy so he felt a special connection to our students. After church in the afternoon, John had arranged for a series of presentations highlighting special ministries of the church. A local Adventist furrier who closed his store on Sabbath was featured resulting in our students going to his store where he put together fur coats. Another featured a woman who tried to help women find an alternative to having abortion while taking in the babies to care for them without any pressure on the women not to have an abortion -- just a Christian ministry. I still remember these presentations 25 years later. John provided our bright academy students with practical examples of how Adventists could witness in a large urban area as magical as NYC. And yes, the potluck put on by the warm and friendly members was another example of fellowship. In more recent years, I've spoken to the NYC Forum several times led by Ron Lawson which has twenty or so individuals, many of whom are successful academics, science researchers, artists, and musicians trying to keep alive the vision John had in his ministry.
Every time I visit Times Square, I think of the tragedy of selling the New York Center. When it was sold to help fund other ministries such as the vegetarian restaurant in the Wall Street area open for businesspeople looking for a good deal on a meal during noontime, that area was seedy, filled with prostitution and clubs but today that area has been transformed into some of the most valuable real estate in the city with high end hotels surrounded by Broadway shows. It's the most visited part of NYC for any tourist coming from all over the world. Nearby is an ESPN Center filled with people playing games and watching sports events. I've thought what might have happened if we instead of the Church of Scientology still owned that building. We could have put together an attractive multi-media/sensory experience introducing the millions who throng Times Square to Adventism similar to an experience tourists would pay for called The New York Experience. The way Mormons present their message with its strange beliefs in their Mormon Temples filled with non-Mormon visitors is an example of successful branding. At Christmas time in the Washington, D.C. area, one of the most popular areas to visit is the Mormon Temple just off the Beltway in Maryland on property donated by the Marriott family. People come to see the beautiful Christmas displays and the hundreds of thousands of lights while they also go through a presentation of Mormonism. Musicians from many denominations participate in concerts and the Mormons have a live manger scene. As Adventists, we used to make our annual trek to take in the beauty.
This is the kind of creativity that is needed to get people to even listen but it has to be backed up by members so loving that their differences with each other and other denominations aren't the focus but the beauty that comes from diversity through unity. While we often focus on the non-essentials, today's old and young population are yearning for community that helps them cope with everyday problems they face -- finances, marriage, kids, jobs, weather tragedies, mass murders, war, high gasoline prices, foreclosed homes, bad schools -- not a focus on our views of eschatology with long lectures/sermons filled with pictures of beasts in a time when people want to stay home with their children in the evening to get the kids ready for school the next day or in many families where the parents work two and three jobs just to exist. It might work with a small segment of the population but not with most people. The Christian gospel and Adventism provides answers and a loving Adventist community can be a sanctuary for individuals to get the strength to find answers to these everyday issues.
In order to have a meaningful message to the cities of the world, we have to get our own house in order before we have much credibility in either our private or public evangelism.
Dick, I think you have to look deeper than just "all Christians do it"
In general Christian denominations do not attack other ones like the SDA do.
/Bevin
>>> I've thought what might have happened if we instead of the Church of Scientology still owned that building
Any idea what the annual property taxes, rates, etc. would be?
/Bevin
I would assume that as a religious tax exempt organization there would be no property taxes.
I have only skimmed people's comments so perhaps someone has said this...
I was disturbed by two quotes in this piece:
"Ted had several things going for him when he came to New York. He was not from the West Coast. His father was president of the world-wide Adventist Church and had ambitions for his son."
"It had been good for my boss, Ted Wilson. It gave him an administrative position, putting him on a fast track escalator within the denomination. It paid for his Ph.D. at New York University."
To what extent do our church leaders simply come from the social caste of other church leaders?
Dick Osborne, I love your post! I was so disappointed about the GC proposal concerning revival and reformation. More Bible study, more praying... as if we only hadn't pushed these buttons strong enough in the past While this is never wrong to do as well, what you mentioned comes first and is much more important. It might lead to more praying and more Bible study but to care for a loving community comes first.
...old and young population are yearning for community that helps them cope with everyday problems
A major reason that any kind of outreach gets flak is because there are so many exclusive hypocrites in the church that would be found out by those coming in.
>> I would assume that as a religious tax exempt organization there would be no property taxes.
Not necessarily, that depends on the local regulations.
Also there is still utilities and building maintenance.
/Bevin
Wow, this piece brings back memories. I interviewed John McLarty during his first experience in New York, about 1971 or 72, while I was working as an intern at Insight. He was at an outpost somewhere in the East Village, as I remember.
Then my second vivid memory is that Ted Wilson came with me on a trip in 1969 from Takoma Park to take a mutual friend of ours to JFK, to board a plane for Heathrow (she was heading for a sophomore year at Newbold College). We were all 19; after we made the departure drop at the airport, we drove back through Queens and Brooklyn to the Narrows bridge to Staten Island and the Jersey Turnpike beyond. As we snaked around the freeways, whizzing past towering apartments, we speculated about the people living in them. Ted had a burden for New York even back then.
Another totally off-the-wall remembrance: On the radio, we were listening to Bob Dylan's only Top-40 hit (as I recall): "Lay Lady, Lay."
Jiggs Gallagher,
I am thankful for that insight. I now believe even more in the President's sincerity. I wish him well--even though I wish he were not so formulaic. The church needs a sea change.
It needs to become people-oriented for once in my lifetime.
I really enjoyed reading this piece, John. Thank you.
I was on the board of Living Springs for a short time. I regularly visited their restaurant/bookstore in midtown. Like all other such ventures, to call it a success would require one to ignore any consideration of cost/benefit ratios. Did it touch some individuals? Undoubtedly. Are there far more effective ways to touch people? Undoubtedly.
The primary proven method of touching people is to live where they live and create attractive, warm communities (called churches).
@Jiggs Gallagher. I was at the New York Center in 1972. At the same time, my brother, Arthur McLarty was involved in a coffee house ministry called "The Catacombs" at the Manhattan Church (in Greenwich Village). My guess is the McLarty you interviewed was Arthur. The ministry he was involved in was exciting and would certainly have been worthy of Insight's attention.
Soooo many memories. We were members at 87th St. for several years while working with Juanita at the Van Center. We always left 1 1/2 hrs to get to church - 45 min. to drive and 45 min. to park. It was such a little group then. But the fellowship was special. Thanks, John.
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