Is Adventism Still Built for the Real World—Or Just Its Own Bubble?
Adventism was born in relevance.
When our movement emerged in the mid-1800s, it wasn’t just another religious echo chamber rehearsing safe spiritual platitudes. It was dangerous. Disruptive. It spoke to the deepest social tensions of the time—and it showed up.
Our pioneers didn’t just preach about justice; they lived it.
👉 Joseph Bates was a radical abolitionist who used his platform to challenge the horrors of slavery.
👉 John Byington, our first General Conference president, ran a literal stop on the Underground Railroad, risking everything to give enslaved people their shot at freedom.
👉 Sojourner Truth, a freed slave and activist, stood shoulder to shoulder with Adventists in calling for both spiritual and social liberation.
These were people who risked their lives because their faith demanded it.
Their message wasn’t just about personal piety—it was a call to disrupt oppression, heal the broken, and stand in the face of injustice.
Adventism was cutting-edge, bold, and culturally awake.
But Somewhere Along the Way... We Drifted.
Today? We’ve lost that pulse.
We’re still passionate—but about all the wrong things.
We debate over how to articulate doctrines instead of showing how those doctrines set people free.
We answer questions the world isn’t asking while ignoring the ones keeping people up at night.
We argue over music styles, jewelry, and whether clapping in church is “holy enough” while the world wrestles with injustice, existential fears, and geopolitical fragmentation.
And all the while? We call it “faithfulness.”
But it’s not faithfulness. It’s preservationism—the slow, quiet death of a movement that has forgotten its mission.
Our Pioneers Weren't Preservationists—They Were Innovators.
They didn’t sit around trying to “preserve” the 1800s. They pushed forward. They translated timeless truths into culturally relevant, cutting-edge ideas that spoke directly to their generation’s struggles.
We need to reclaim that spirit in 2025.
Because here’s the truth:
We will keep growing as a church. Numbers will keep rising. But if we’re growing because we’ve become attractive to those living in nostalgic time capsules—then all we’ll be left with is a shrinking circle of people whose driving force is preserving what was, rather than engineering what could be.
And guess what? That’s already happening in many circles.
The risk isn’t that the church will fail.
The risk is that it will succeed at things that don’t actually matter.
(Thanks, Francis Chan, for that gut punch.)
It’s Time to Turn Things Around.
The world doesn’t need a museum of Adventism. It needs a movement—one bold enough to speak into the raw realities of this generation.
A faith that engages the questions people are actually asking.
A faith that lives out Jesus' justice, compassion, and radical love.
A faith so grounded in truth it can stand in the tension of modern complexity without losing itself.
This is our heritage.
This is our calling.
Let’s stop preserving the past and start shaping the future.
What would it look like for your community to embrace this vision? Let’s talk below. 👇
