Pastors' Blog

Every year at the end of August, the humidity arrives with the gentle weight of a cozy blanket, albeit a damp one that hasn’t quite dried out. It has always been my subtle reminder that summer will be over in just a few weeks. The end of summer is a ubiquitous time mourned and celebrated by students and parents respectively. On on hand the last week before returning to school means cramming as many hours at the water park, local ice-cream shop, or friends’ house as possible. And, on the other, it means packing backpacks, prepping school lunches and planning kid drop-off and pick-up routines. 

This past Sunday and Monday I had the privilege of working alongside my colleagues here, at Pioneer, as we busily cleaned the church grounds, welcomed new college Freshmen and high-fived parents and Ruth Murdoch Elementary students alike. All weekend, the energy was palpable. The hurried rush to experience the last bit of the carefree summer “vibes” reverberated alongside the frenetic pace of preparation. And, on the welcome days, an air of optimistic trepidation and adventure could be felt as our students walked into their new dorm rooms or 2nd grade classrooms for the first time. 

The Summer is truly over.

The very nature of time is that it moves quickly and we truly do not know how much of it we have. My wife bought me an antique hourglass that was once used by Sir Ernest Shackelton on his 1914 Antarctic expedition. (Ok, it is actually from a Hobby Lobby department store in South Bend but it looks “antique-y”) I know the hourglass holds enough sand for somewhere under 20 minutes but, aside from that I stubbornly refuse to time the slithering sand as it is suctioned downward in the most dramatic visual representation of time slipping away. The Latin poet, Virgil, once coined the phrase fugit inreparabile tempus or, time flies, irretrievable.

Long before the Poet Virgil, another Poet, nicknamed, the “Preacher” in the book of Ecclesiastes shared a similar sentiment in Ecclesiastes chapter 3. 

1 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2  a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,

4  a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6  a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8  a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

And, in verse 11, the Preacher surmises 

 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 

Regardless of where you are at the end of the summer, whether you are celebrating or mourning; building toward you future or reflecting on your past - every day, every hour, every moment is a gift from God. And, God has made each of those moments beautiful because He will meet you in them if you let Him. Time, like the sand in my hourglass, rushes on so quickly. But, even the mundane everyday can be an incredible moment when you spend it in connection with God. 

So, Yes. The summer is over. And, a new season begins and God is just waiting for you to spend it with Him in this new season.

If the best is yet to come—and with all my heart I believe it is—then there are certain values, both human and spiritual, that must be essential in our journey toward that “best.” As I have reflected over the forty years we have been privileged to pastor this beloved Pioneer parish, here are ten such values I choose to embrace.

#1—The Maker of all things loves and wants me. This truth about God and His character may be the most contested truth in the universe (given the rebel angel’s assault against God’s Kingdom). But what truth so compellingly defines God’s reign of love throughout the cosmos than this single line? If we re-embraced this maxim each morning, would we not flourish with daily peace and quiet assurance that all is well between our Savior and us? Is there a greater value?

#2—Be a voice for the voiceless. The marginalized of earth, the alienated, the disenfranchised desperately need men and women to speak up and act up in their defense. In a culture that mocks the weak and disdains the powerless (from the unborn to women to the poor and immigrants), let the Spirit of God raise up brave souls who find new courage to speak out against injustice, who will call the majority to recommit to and recalibrate the priceless value of human life. Should we not be that voice? 

#3—Embrace loyalty. Or has loyalty become old-fashioned, blasé? What ever happened to a personal loyalty to those who lead you, a personal loyalty to those who follow you? Where is that I-got-your-back fidelity to others that means you can be counted on to be the defender rather than the prosecutor of those you know when they are not around? Jesus was One who was loyal to a fault. And while He paid the price, He also modeled the way, the best way.

#4—Remember the Golden Rule. Or to put it another way, the process of Matthew 18 works when you work the process. Do you have a brother or sister who has hurt you or who has something against you? The red-letter admonition is clear: “‘Go and point out their fault, just between the two of you’” (Matthew 18:15). How much heartache in congregations and institutions and even families and friendship circles would be spared if we lived out that “just between the two of you” proviso. It’s the genius of Jesus’ Golden Rule—treat others the way you want to be treated.

#5—“Save them” is our priority mission. The only mission statement Jesus lived by is ours as well: “’The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost’” (Luke 19:10). Everything we do as church or school must ultimately incarnate His saving mission, from the youngest to the oldest. No congregation or school should have to choose between saving lost people and saving the institution. Calvary trumps institutional survival every time. Because if we do it Jesus’ way, He will find a way to keep us doing His way.

#6—Listen to the lady. Over my fifty years of pastoring, I have learned the veracity of this biblical injunction: “‘Have faith in the Lord your God, and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful’” (2 Chronicles 20:20). And so without apology I testify today that any success in my ministry is attributable to my decision to trust God’s ministry through the writings of Ellen White. To choose otherwise, I have observed, is to settle for less than the divine success God still promises. The greatest spiritual leaders I have known listened to the lady and followed.

#7—Leadership is servanthood. What I’ve learned from the church is that the man or woman or teen who volunteers to serve is usually the man or woman or teen who ends up leading. Why? Because followers see something eminently attractive about the person who chooses to serve, and they often make that volunteer servant their chosen leader. Like the Eleven who followed Jesus even more closely after He washed their feet.

#8—The young are what we do. I am always amazed to learn of campus congregations who “opt out” of ministry to students—“it’s not what we do.” Really? Jesus spent three years driving home the compelling truth the Kingdom of Heaven is all about the young—and not only are we to “do” the young, we are to emulate the young—or there’ll be no Kingdom for us. Period. Not to prioritize the young for the church’s mission is to prioritize the loss of that mission, the loss of that church. Period.

#9—Share the credit. Nothing does that faster or better than publicly thanking those who keep showing up to do the work, to fulfill the dream, to carry out the mission. Sharing the credit means acknowledging the significance each has contributed to the accomplishment. No task is disparaged, no contribution too small. Read the end of Paul’s letters celebrating those who kept showing up. “What hath God wrought!” When we share the credit, God gets the glory.

#10—“Even so come, Lord Jesus.” Whatever you do, never lose your Second Coming focus—and never apologize for confessing the imminence of Jesus’ return. “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7) has been the testimony of the church from the beginning. This confession is the fire that must continue to ignite the Seventh-day Adventist church. Those who would persuade you otherwise are battling with their own conscience. The soon return of Christ is not only our “blessed hope”—it is confirmation of the very Adventist truth—the best is yet to come—with Jesus.

While we are having a more formal Care for Cuba report during worship on April 15, I wanted dash this advance word to our Pioneer Family that God heard your many prayers and manifested His blessings in a mighty way. Truth is, over the years we’ve learned the power of Pioneer’s (your) collective praying—and this time was no exception. So—on behalf of the six Pioneer pastors and nearly 30 Andrews seminary students—please receive our heartfelt thanks for your intercessory partnership in this vital mission.

Our hosts for the ten days and nights of our mission—the faculty, staff and students of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary outside Havana—welcomed us with typical Cuban warmth and  hospitality. Add to them the many on-the-ground pastors, Bible workers and volunteers (who really did the heavy-lifting before our team even arrived), and factor in our fearless leader and gifted administrator—Fernando Ortiz, Director of the Master of Divinity program at our seminary here—it truly was a Spirit-anointed team of workers.

Oh yes, power outages and water stoppage are staples of Cuban life these days—but the people of that island (the largest in the Caribbean) resiliently live above such western annoyances. And we brought back a heart-full of memories and new Cuban friends.

It felt like a non-stop wall-to-wall full-court press (to mix similes). We left for Cuba 2AM on a Thursday, and we arrived home 4AM this Monday, exhausted but exhilarated (if you can combine those two realities) with Heaven’s abundant blessings during the ten days and nights of our mission.

And the numbers? Praise God—we’ll make sure to include the statistics, video and pictures in our April 15 report—but suffice it to say the numbers established a new benchmark for Care for Cuba’s evangelistic mission. Which leads me back to our gratitude to God and to you for your prayer partnership with Him and us. 

Yes, it’s true—the best is yet to come—but what has already come is proof of the veracity of Jesus’ promise to Paul regarding Corinth, another seaport city: “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid . . . because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10). Indeed He does in Havana, too. Amen.
 

How sober the satellited video clips emanating from the like-nuclear-bomb flattened landscapes of Turkey and Syria—the concrete ruble aftermath of last week’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake, with its 7.5 magnitude aftershock.  Drone footage reveals nothing but “pancaked” apartments, homes, neighborhoods, stretching as far as the eye can see, the only “structure” left standing, the purpled mountain range in the distance. Authorities now report the number of deaths—of men, women and children—to be climbing well beyond 40,000. The magnitude of both devastation and suffering is simply beyond our comprehension.

While we may feel safer on this side of the world, along comes a new headline to give us pause: “Turkey earthquake a ‘poster child’ for what could happen in Southern California.” The “CU Boulder Today” newspaper for the University of Colorado, reported on Wednesday: “For many Americans, the devastation might seem far away. Experts, however, say the geology underlying Turkey and Syria shares a lot in common with the West Coast of the United States—especially California where the San Andreas Fault stretches almost 750 miles from the northern to southern part of the state” (www.colorado.edu/today/2023/02/14/turkey-earthquake-poster-child-what-could-happen-southern-california). Quoting Karl Mueller, a CU professor of geological sciences: “‘The thing that struck me about the earthquake in Turkey is that . . . [it is] the same type of fault. It's the same magnitude of earthquake that is likely to occur. When you look at the scenes from this earthquake, you might think, “Wow, that could be L.A.”’” (ibid).

That was Jesus’ point in warning His followers, was it not? “‘And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers [various] places,’” is how the old King James Bible reported His warning (Matthew 24:7). It wasn’t Jesus’ intent to to instill fear, but His warning remains a divine alert to flag the one remaining sign of His return: “‘And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come’” (Matthew 24:14 NIV). I.e., since Calvary Heaven has launched a massive global rescue effort to find and resuscitate human beings, buried under the rubble of sin, fear, guilt, anxiety and the plethora of Satan’s other assaults against humanity, natural or unnatural.

It’s a call to action, but what kind of action? Consider what happened to Marut Babaoglu, 26 years old: “I was awake when the earthquake happened, I ran down the stairs of the building—I was on the fifth floor, there are eight floors in total. I reached between the second and third floors, then the building collapsed and I was stuck under rubble in the stairwell. I was in a space big enough so that I could turn and move a little, but my hand was stuck. It was pitch dark” (www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/15/i-thought-i-was-going-to-die-turks-share-their-survival-story). Still pinned after three days and nights, and still “unfound,” Marut reported drinking his own urine until eventually vomiting halted the idea. Eventually he was located in the collapse, but firefighters clawed and dug for nine more hours to rescue him. “I was in intensive care when I opened my eyes. Everyone working there got very excited . . . I was in shock, but people were cheering” (ibid). 

Why were they cheering? One more lost soul saved, that’s why. And that is the motivation that compels the followers of Jesus to refuse to stop digging, to stop seeking, to stop rescue efforts. Victims are pinned all around us—and have no idea they are trapped (or maybe they do). If they knew we knew what we know, how would they react were we to walk past them without lifting a finger to dig for their rescue?

“Are you using all your powers in an effort to [dig the lost out of the rubble]? There are thousands upon thousands in ignorance who might be warned. Pray as you have never prayed before for the power of Christ. Pray for the inspiration of His Spirit, that you may be filled with a desire to save those who are perishing” (In Heavenly Places 338).

Simply ask Him for the desire to rescue one more lost soul—and keep asking until the desire is yours, too.