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Beginning a Missional Transition in a Seventh-Day Adventist Congregation

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Beginning a Missional Transition in a Seventh-Day Adventist Congregation Please HONOR the copyright of these documents by not retransmitting or making any additional copies in any form (Except for private personal use). We appreciate your respectful cooperation. ___________________________ Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) P.O. Box 30183 Portland, Oregon 97294 USA Website: www.tren.com E-mail: [email protected] Phone# 1-800-334-8736 ___________________________ ATTENTION CATALOGING LIBRARIANS TREN ID# Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) MARC Record # Digital Object Identification DOI # Ministry Focus Paper Approval Sheet This ministry focus paper entitled MISSIONAL CHANGE: BEGINNING A MISSIONAL TRANSITION IN A SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CONGREGATION Written by CAMPBELL PAGE and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry has been accepted by the Faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary upon the recommendation of the undersigned readers: _____________________________________ Tim R. Morey _____________________________________ Kurt Fredrickson Date Received: December 10, 2013 MISSIONAL CHANGE: BEGINNING A MISSIONAL TRANSITION IN A SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CONGREGATION A MINISTRY FOCUS PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY CAMPBELL PAGE NOVEMBER 2013 ABSTRACT Missional Change: Beginning a Missional Transition in a Seventh-day Adventist Congregation Campbell S. Page Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2013 The goal of this study is to reconnect God’s mission with his church in a Seventh- day Adventist context by providing a viable Seventh-day Adventist missional theology for being God’s church to a postmodern Canadian context. The study argues that missional thinking is definitely biblical and also prevalent in the writings of Seventh-day Adventist pioneer, leader, and prophet, Ellen G. White. It maintains that missional thinking is in fact the predominant worldview through which White understood Jesus Christ and the gospel of the kingdom of God. It also explains that the present Seventh- day Adventist Church is not functioning in line with God’s mission to the world. This study contends that in order to follow both the mandate of Scripture and the mission God gave to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Church must return to functioning in a missional paradigm. Contemporary Christian authors are used to understand contemporary missional theology and also to inform a Seventh-day Adventist missional theology. This thesis was explored and implemented through a missional transition process in the New Life Seventh-day Adventist Church in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The process was centered on a congregational study of Reggie McNeal’s Present Future DVD series over a period of nine weeks. It also included the implementation of missional experiences in the community, as well as the formation of missional leaders and communities in the congregation. Overall, these components were successful in terms of the congregation beginning to establish, embrace, and embody missional principles in its everyday practices. This study concludes that missional theology offers Adventism perhaps its only viable lifestyle for making the reign of God visible to a postmodern and secular world. Returning to the missional roots of Adventism is the only way of truly fulfilling the unique mission God has given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Theological Mentor: Kurt Fredrickson, PhD Word Count: 297 To my wife, Colleen, who has always believed in me more than I believe in myself and encouraged me to reach higher and higher in my service to God. You are most certainly “the love of my life and the joy of my existence.” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I want to thank the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for their abiding presence and power in accomplishing my ongoing spiritual formation into Christlikeness through this process. I am glad to say, “You changed me.” I also want to thank Spencer and Dani for all the time they gave up to let Dad pursue one of his dreams. Thank you to the Thompsons and Perrys for becoming our missional community. Thank you to the “doctors who don’t do anything”—Dave Schwinghammer, Sereivudh Ly, Dan Linrud, Dave Baker, and Gerardo Oudri—for all those laughs that saw us through a lot of the hurdles, and for being brothers in Christ when it was very needed. It seems we did something after all! Thank you to the New Life Seventh-day Adventist Church for letting me be a part of your journey for over eight years and being willing to make missional church a part of your thinking. I also want to thank the Ontario and Florida Conferences for their financial support. Last but not least, thank you to Fuller for a journey that was much more than an academic exercise. I came to this looking for answers for my postmodern heart and its yearnings toward God. Through the teachers, staff, and students I interacted with, God set me on a course with Him that has transformed my view and practice of ministry. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: MINISTRY CONTEXT Chapter 1. COMMUNITY CONTEXT OF THE NEW LIFE CHURCH 9 Chapter 2. MINISTRY CONTEXT OF THE NEW LIFE CHURCH 32 PART TWO: THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION Chapter 3. LITERATURE REVIEW 48 Chapter 4. ECCLESIOLOGY 76 Chapter 5. A MISSIONAL THEOLOGY 108 PART THREE: MINISTRY STRATEGY Chapter 6. MINISTRY PLAN 139 Chapter 7. IMPLEMENTATION 154 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 178 BIBLIOGRAPHY 186 v INTRODUCTION Sarah1 is a lifetime Seventh-day Adventist. She has worked extensively in Adventist institutions since she was a young woman. She sent her children to Adventist schools, attended church faithfully, and yet still hungers for a faith that is real and has more impact on her and others. As she nears retirement she is coming to a crossroads where if faith does not become more worthwhile, then she will unplug from it. Still, she is not sure how to make the changes. Nick and Donna, longtime Christians, have lived in the community for years. They recently came to Adventism and have been extremely involved in ministry and leadership. Donna has led the neighborhood center for three years and made it one of the best in the community. Both are prayer warriors and passionate about helping the community more substantially. James and Karen represent a lot of the young people in the congregation. They have been connected with the church for years, having grown up within the Adventist Church culture, and have many friends outside the church. They are believers and love God but are more tied to their friendships than the church. They are involved but also struggle with new ideas versus the traditional forms of church they have grown up with. Because of their friendships outside the church, they know some things need to change; but with strong family ties in leadership, they struggle with how the church should move forward. 1 All names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals. 1 Arthur, a longtime member of the community, is addicted to cocaine, alcohol, sex, and pornography. He is rough, will likely never fully fit into a typical church, and worries about whether God loves him with all that is wrong. He was welcomed into New Life Seventh-day Adventist Church (hereafter, the New Life Church) with open arms about four years ago. He has suffered many relapses but was befriended by the worship band through it all. That friendship and a strong friendship with the pastor have kept him plugged in despite the addictions. Recently, reconnecting with his grown daughter has given him a new motivation for change. Linda represents a large demographic in the community. She is a single mom, living in a run-down building because it is all she can afford. Her kids are her life, but with three of them it is hard to make ends meet. She needs a community where she feels her kids are safe, and that provides after-school opportunities for them so she can work. She appreciates the food boxes and free breakfasts. However, she will very likely never attend church without a substantial relational connection from someone in the church community. Jane is probably the most compelling. Having lost her infant son twenty years ago, she turned to drugs to cope. Over-the-counter medications led to harder substances until she found herself addicted to cocaine and crack, and she eventually became a prostitute to pay for her habit. Years of abuse, violence, and the growing sickness associated with crack addiction led her to admit herself to a drug rehabilitation center in Oshawa, Ontario, where she has begun a new life free of the addictions. Her statement 2 compounds the sadness of her story. She stated that she very likely would have stopped sooner if there had been more support and services in her community.2 For each of these people in this Oshawa community, the church is not what it needs to be. In fact it is far from it. Mired in attractional methods of doing church like most of Christianity, and mired in the proclamation evangelism methodology predominant in Adventism, the New Life Church remains significantly separated from its community. For those who are members of this faith group, the church has become focused mostly on looking after its own. Its worship service is contemporary but very attractional. Even then there is little spiritual growth to be noticed and no significant numerical growth in over ten years. The one ministry that is making any significant impact on the community is the neighborhood center. Leadership has realized that change must come and that many traditional forms of evangelism will not work. Positive discontent is fueling changes in methodology, in the whole paradigm of what church is, and how that impacts the New Life Church and its community in downtown Oshawa.
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