Jon Paulien, the new dean of religion at Loma Linda University, published two provocative articles in Ministry magazine last year on the relevance of Adventism in this post modern world. In his ninth point he says, “I have felt for more than a decade that the Seventh-day Adventist Church faces a crisis of identity. On the one hand, we desire a relatively small, focused, doctrinally pure church with consistent standards of lifestyle. On the other hand, we believe that God wants us to go into all the world and reach out to all kinds of people. But reaching out to all kinds of people will require a flexibility and an inclusiveness that will make the first goal rather difficult to attain.
“We face a tension between exclusiveness and inclusiveness, between a focus on pure teaching and the openness of grace. If we concentrate on purity, we will become smaller and more idiosyncratic. At its extreme, such an approach would result in a community more like the Amish than the mainstream culture. But if we concentrate on ‘becoming all things to all people’ (12 Cor. 9:22,23) we may become a ‘great multitude’ that exhibits a wide variety of worship styles and standards.
“It seems to me that we have, as a group, tried to run a route down the middle, thus losing the potential benefits of either approach. Perhaps it is God’s ideal to pursue both sides of this seeming dilemma (and the Hebrew mind often said Yes to such dilemmas). But with God’s hand truly involved in the emerging postmodern condition . . . we will need to become more inclusive and open in the way that we deal with others. We may need to give greater attention to the statement of Jesus, ‘He that is not against us is for us’ (Luke 9:50; cf. Mark 9:40)” April 2006 issue of Ministry.
I think that you can tell that I lean more toward the second option than the first but what about you? Of course you have not read the two articles and they are not yet available on line although I could get them scanned in if you are interested.
How far do you see New Hope go in being inclusive and yet still Adventist?
Let me hear from you.
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7 comments:
FYI, the articles by Paulien are already online at: http://www.secularpostmodern.org/res_art9.php4
They were originally one presentation entitled Post-Modern Acts of God presented during the Presidential Address to the Adventist Society for Religious Study November 18, 2004 but were divided and reprinted as “God’s Mighty Acts in a Changing World” in Ministry Magazine FEB and APR 2006.
Also, if it is helpful, I have them as a PDF document, which I would be happy to relay to you for posting/download.
Yes, please send as a pdf. David
How are we Christ-like if we are not inclusive? Christ was all-inclusive in his ministry. I guess us as adventists have a long way to go before really showing the christ in christian!
New Hope would have reached her pinnacle when she has cemented within hereself a tradition that offers grace to ALL persons, including those that are marginalized by society. How inclusive should New Hope be? The sky should be the limit for our inclusiveness.
I appreciate the comments to date. Could you give specific examples of what inclusiveness means? The principle is wonderful but the devil is in the details. What if someone breathing racial hatred started attending because they wanted to spread their ideas? What would we do? This is just one example.
To say we need to be "more inclusive" sounds as generic as saying that we need to have "more communication". Of course we need more of both, but never do we get enought of either to solve all problems, we always need more and more and more with the need never being satisfied for everyone. Neither inclusion or communication when allowed totally free reign are necessarily a good thing. Even God Himself has given us many instances in the both Old and New Testaments where his people were to keep themselves separated from the bad influences of customs and ideas of the surrounding peoples.
Why should we even feel a need to be all inclusive? We never will be nor can we or should be everything to everybody.
We have a christian agenda at New Hope and anyone that can reasonably sign on to our agenda as expressed in the New Hope Statement of Beliefs (seelookingforachurch.com)should certainly be included. Those that have an agenda or belief system that is diametrically opposed to our stated beliefs should find their home somewhere else. We should not entertain them in our presence especially when observed that their presence here is to promote their own agenda.
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