Wednesday, March 1, 2023
by
Melinda Johnstone
"If you’re a Christian church and you’ve got loving relationships at the bottom of your church health results, you’ve got a problem… we, as Adventists, put a lot of emphasis on truth and sharing the truth, but we sometimes forget to love thy neighbour…"
NOTE: Due to sensitive background details, the church at the heart of the following story and its pastor have not been named, though the pastor sees it as very important that the story is told for the strengthening and encouragement of others. The Church will therefore be referred to as "Down Under Adventist Church" and the Pastor as "Pastor John".
The NCD Church Survey asks some pretty probing questions:
The protection of anonymity is crucial to providing safety for church members in telling things as they are—to give raw feedback and voice concerns they otherwise may not have the courage to raise. Because of this provision of safety, there is no reason for the members at Down Under Adventist Church in Australia to have answered some of these very probing questions with anything but raw honesty. And their unfiltered answers reveal a healing and enriching change has been taking place in their midst.
When answering this question 2 years ago, the people at Down Under Adventist were voicing that something was fuelling bitterness amongst them—bitterness was part of their church experience. Not only that, if they had a disagreement with someone, they weren’t likely to go to them directly to resolve it. Even the reliability of their friends at church was proving to be a little shaky in their experience.
Fast forward 2 years and all of these indicators are revealing a whole new level of health. The loosing of the chains of bitterness, taking responsibility to settle disagreements, and a sense of confidence in one another is becoming more and more the new paradigm in which they operate. Love has been doing a work in them.
They have declared that they feel more loved by one another—what a beautiful thing this is!
The international culture of the Seventh Day Adventist movement places great value on reaching out beyond themselves, with Need-oriented Evangelism being one of their highest pursuits. This is also true of the Down Under Adventists. However, this outward focus is often not matched in the protection, enriching, strengthening and healing of relationships within the church family. This is why it is such a beautiful thing to behold the growing transformation of loving relationships within this Adventist congregation, right alongside the pursuit of need-oriented evangelism.
When John arrived as the pastor to this church in 2021, he was made aware of a longstanding issue that was influencing the health of their church, and was even impacting on other Adventist congregations connected to them. Having fresh eyes on an old issue was helpful and it quickly became apparent to John that this was an injustice causing harm to the people he loved and was called to pastor, so he was moved to act. He served as a mouthpiece of God, voicing his heart that leaving this issue to fester, without wrestling through to a resolve, was not the love of God in action. It was not known, however, just how much impact this unaddressed issue was having on the heart and the experience of those in this church family. That was, until the issue was confronted head on and the good news of a fresh beginning shared. The healing peace that radiated from dealing with that issue has had a remarkable effect.
This confrontation and healing process occurred during the mandated Covid mask-wearing period and they found that not only were the physical masks suffocating and restricting a lot of the interaction between members, but the metaphorical masks they had been using to shield and protect themselves had stifled their relationships. But like the passing of the intensive period of Covid, the relational clouds of bitterness, mistrust, and self-preservation started to dissipate and a new atmosphere of trust and fresh air has started to emerge. Even the meeting room door of their church stands as a symbol of the change. It was not long ago that they installed a sensor light so that now, if you approach when it is dark, the light will come on. The darkness is dissipating as the light shines brighter.
Pastor John has said that his desire is to change people’s expectation of what is possible as Jesus followers. In the past, and for various reasons, the people of Down Under Adventist may have been led to believe that, "the bitter orange peels of the gospel,” as John says, was the best they could hope to taste. He wanted to paint a vision and be instrumental in helping them to awaken and taste and see that the real fruit of the gospel, the gospel of love, is sweet, nourishing, and life-giving.
Pastor John states frankly and passionately,
“If you’re a Christian church and you’ve got loving relationships at the bottom of your church health results, you’ve got a problem… we, as Adventists, put a lot of emphasis on truth and sharing the truth, but we sometimes forget to love thy neighbour… we’re not about handing out bitter peelings! We want people to find the fruit so they never want peelings again!”
They are tasting and seeing that the Lord is good and every area of communal life has been affected at Down Under Adventist—every indicator of health and vitality has grown positively.
While leadership initiatives, church prayer meetings, and some changes in influential roles have played a part in the growing health of the church, the most noteworthy influence on this burst of health has been in dealing with the reasons for bitterness in their church community. As an accompaniment to this, there has been clear and intentional instruction given to church members in the art of making peace with one another.
The 99 sheep in the fold and the 1 stray are both on the heart of God. And as the 99 learn the art of loving one another, the 1 will know it is because they belong to Jesus. The 1 lost sheep will witness for themself the 99 walking in the footsteps of Love Himself.
Down Under Adventists, may this fresh experience keep giving you courage and energy to pursue the full height, depth, breadth, and length of God's love.
Thank you for your vulnerability in sharing your story.
need-oriented evangelism loving relationships
