The 1 Question Adventists Need to Answer

I’ve been a pastor for a decade. In that time, the most common question I hear church leaders and missional believers wrestle with is “why is our church struggling to share its message?”

We are hardly keeping our young people, let alone reaching new ones. And recent surveys have shown that to this day, very few people in the general public know who SDA’s are or what our message is. And of those who do know about us, most have a very poor and unfavorable picture of us. (You can read about that here.)

I don’t have the full answer obviously, but after 10 years of ministry, I have definitely picked up on something that is essential to this conversation. But before I say what it is, let me offer an illustration:

I want you to picture a bookcase. The case is stacked with books. Every book happens to be a story about the meaning of life. And every story is different. Some are thick, 800 page volumes. Others are short, 100 page novels. But again, they all answer the same question (the meaning of life) but tell entirely different stories with entirely different answers to that same question.

As you picture that bookcase, I want you to imagine people coming to the bookcase. Everyone who comes is searching for answers to the meaning of life. Some are old, some are young. Some rich, some poor. When they get to the bookcase they are confronted with hundreds of stories - all of them offering their own narrative - and they choose one, sometimes two or three and read the books hoping to find answers.

Now I want you to walk right up to the book case and begin reading the book titles. One book is titled “The Path of Buddhism”. Another book is titled “The Way of Islam”. Still another is titled, “In the Footsteps of Abraham,” and another, “The Wisdom of the Vedas.” As you scan the book titles you discover that all of them are religions, philosophies and ideologies. Every book on the book case is essentially a story attempting to answer the same question but all telling different stories with their own unique contribution to the search for meaning.

Next, you arrive at the Christian section but instead of finding one book, you find a whole ton of them. “The Puritan Path”, “The Baptist Confession”, “The Methodist Quest,” and on and on.

Each of these books represent different perspectives on the search for meaning - for God. They each tell a different story and offer different insights into that adventure.

Finally, you arrive at a book titled “The Narrative of Adventism.”

It’s there among all the others. But here is my question to you - is there anything in that book that merits it being there?

Does that book have anything to offer, anything remotely important to say that no other book is saying?

Does that one book deserve to be its own book? Does it have anything meaningful, compelling or beautiful that no other book on that bookshelf has?

If the answer is no, then why was the book even written? Why add to the confusion of those who already have to sort through so much by adding an unnecessary story to the shelf?

But if the answer is “yes, it does have something unique to say,” then my question is - what is it? What does it say that no one else is saying?

When it comes to the question of Adventism’s uniqueness - what it is we have to say that is so eccentric and needed in the world - very few Adventists seem to know.

On the one hand, I find people who think they know. They think its the law, or the mark of the beast, or prophecy, or warnings about judgment, Babylon, and the end of the world.

On the other hand, there are people who find the question itself offensive. They want Adventism to be like everyone else and the very suggestion that it may have something unique to say is interpreted as arrogant.

Both groups are wrong.

Now, before you get angry and dart off to the comments section hear me out. Our book isn’t on that shelf to tell the world scary stuff about God. Plenty of churches do that already. In fact, if your driving motivation is doom, gloom, and judgment I can think of denominations that are much better at it than Adventists have ever been. DM me if you want recommendations.

On the other hand, if we are saying the same thing everyone else is saying with a few slightly nuanced doctrines then that means we are nothing more than an unnecessary distraction for those on the search for meaning.

And after 10 years of ministry, I’m convinced the innability to answer this question in any meaningful or compelling way is at the root of our missional inneffectiveness.

Churches that answer it with the doomy-gloomy stuff are toxic, unhealthy, and off putting.

Churches that answer it by ignoring it or saying “we’re the same as everyone else” are missing out on the radical and relevant story we’ve been called to tell the world.

Somehow, we have to come up with a better answer. One that is neither arrogant nor banal. One that points to Jesus but does so in radically beautiful and unique ways that tell a story the world is longing to hear.

So what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!