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Wholistic Adventist Urban Mission and Centers of Influence Krause: Seeking the Shalom: Wholistic Adventist Urban Mission and Centers 49 GARY KRAUSE Seeking the Shalom: Wholistic Adventist Urban Mission and Centers of Influence The Psalmist captures a poignant moment as Jewish exiles sit beside Babylonian rivers, lamenting a lost Jerusalem. They are alienated emotion- ally, physically, and spiritually from that home. Their captors command them to sing, but they cry out, “How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?” (Ps 137:1-4, KJV). This is a fundamental missiological ques- tion. How do we sing God’s song in new and unfamiliar territories, among different cultural and religious groups, in large metropolises where we do not feel at home, where we have not yet found our voice? In the book of Jeremiah God gives specific instruction to the exiles on how to “sing” in their new alien urban environment. He throws cold wa- ter on any hopes they might have for a quick return to their homeland. Instead, he tells them to settle down, build houses, plant gardens, marry, and seek the shalom of the city: “But seek the welfare [shalom] of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for its welfare [shalom] and you will find your welfare [shalom]” (Jer 29:7, NIV). Shalom, a rich, multi-layered Hebrew word, means, among other things, peace, prosperity, welfare. And God is telling them to pray and work for the shalom of the city. In doing so, he says, they will find their own shalom. This is startling counsel. They are not to set up a separate Jew- ish enclave in the city of Babylon, which would perhaps be their natural inclination. After all, it would be so much easier if they kept together as a cultural and religious family. It would be easier to keep the Sabbath, to eat kosher food, to avoid idolatrous Babylonian practices, and to comfort each other with shared memories and hopes. But God tells them to do the exact opposite—to engage in their society, to bring shalom to the city. Some six centuries later, the long-awaited Messiah worked for the shalom of towns and villages where he ministered. He did teach in syna- gogues, but they were not the focus or center of his wholistic mission. Published by Digital Commons @ Andrews2014, University, vol. 10 2014 no. 2 1 Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, Vol. 10 [2014], No. 2, Art. 4 50 Rather, his healing hand and voice brought shalom to blind men beside dusty roads, women gathered by wells, and tax collectors in trees. El- len White summarizes his shalom ministry as involving five components: mingling with people, showing sympathy to them, ministering to their needs, winning their confidence, and bidding them to follow Him (White 1942:143). This wholistic ministry involves words and action. It cannot be done from a religious enclave, by remote control, from a distance. It cannot be short-term, with only passing contact. It involves rubbing shoulders, touching hands, looking into eyes with Jesus’ compassion (Matt 9:36). It is not just about telling people about the truth of God’s Word, but demonstrat- ing the truth of that Word. So when we look at Adventist urban mission today, the starting point must be our stance, our perspective, our motiva- tion—which can be nothing less than Christ-like love. The question of motivation for service occupied the minds of Adven- tists gathered in Battle Creek on November 2, 1901. TheAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald reported that on that Sabbath they celebrated Missionary Day and A. G. Daniells led out in a symposium on “the true basis for mis- sionary work.” The same issue of the Advent Review carried an article by Dr. David Paulson entitled “The True Motive of Christian Service.” Paulson spoke not just from theory but from experience. A close friend to John Harvey Kellogg and Ellen White, he was personally and intimate- ly involved in inner-city and health ministry. His article distinguishes between those focused on making church members, and those who love people unconditionally like Jesus; between those who aim to “forward the cause or some branch of the work,” and those who are focused on “hu- manity.” Jesus focused on “needs” and not on “results.” It is only “genu- ine love for humanity,” says Paulson, which will win people to Christ. The person who is interested in ministering only to people he or she thinks can become church members actually builds “distrust and suspicion” and “closes more and more doors” (Paulson 1901, 717). In Search of an Adventist Theology of Urban Mission This motivation for ministry has led the church to engage in urban mis- sion at various stages of its history. Toward the end of the 19th Century, for example, Adventists focused strongly on cities. Because of Adventist visionaries such as Ellen White, John Harvey Kellogg, and David Paulson, medical work played a major role in these urban initiatives. The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists published an- nual reports on city missions from 1885 through 1899. The 1886 Report indicated there were 36 Adventist city missions, employing a total of 102 https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/jams/vol10/iss2/4Journal of Adventist Mission Studies 2 Krause: Seeking the Shalom: Wholistic Adventist Urban Mission and Centers 51 denominational workers and 224 lay people serving as interns and train- ees (Warden n.d.). And this was at a time when world membership was only 23,111 (Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook 1887:48). If these numbers had kept growing proportionally to church membership, today there would be more than 79,000 denominational workers employed directly in urban mission. Adventist urban mission appears to have peaked in the 1890s. By the turn of the century, a “medical missionary” project in Chicago, led by Kel- logg and Paulson, included “a small hospital, free clinics, a soup kitchen, visiting nurses program, emergency residences for men and women, and the Life Boat Mission where evangelistic and social work was done” (War- den n.d.). Searching for the best location for their mission, Kellogg asked the police chief to identify “the dirtiest and wickedest spot in all Chicago” (Sheppard 2007:67). Ellen White gave full support to this initiative, but became increasingly unhappy with its direction. She was concerned that it was over-central- ized, investing too much into one city. It was also focusing only on the poor, a work that should be done, but not at the neglect of ministry to other classes. In addition, Kellogg was raising medical ministry above spiritual ministry, and making the Chicago Mission non-denominational (Butler 1970). By 1910 Adventist urban mission was languishing, and it has never really gone off life-support. What motivates Adventist urban mission today? Is the example of Je- sus’ love and compassion for people leading us to the cities, and guid- ing our approach to ministry? For a global church with a baptized adult membership of more than 18 million—a large number of whom live in cities—the Adventist Church has done surprisingly little work in devel- oping a theology of the city, or of mission to the city. Various Adventist theologians have addressed the topic, but a comprehensive theology of Adventist urban mission remains to be developed. In 1980 Adventist missiologist Gotfried Oosterwal claimed in Minis- try, the church’s official magazine for clergy, that “with very few excep- tions, no serious, creative attempts” had been made by Adventists to reach the cities (Oosterwal 1980:19). Later, Clifford Jones wrote an article in the same journal titled, “Toward a Theological Basis for Urban Ministry” (2004:10-13). It addresses Adventist neglect of urban mission, outlines the beginnings of a biblical theology of urban mission, but does not address a specifically Adventist theological perspective. Much of Adventist popular literature regarding mission to the cities discusses Ellen White’s writings on the topic and she continues to be the leading Adventist voice on the topic. In fact, the most influential Adven- tist work on city ministry is her book published posthumously and titled, Published by Digital Commons @ Andrews2014, University, vol. 10 2014 no. 2 3 Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, Vol. 10 [2014], No. 2, Art. 4 52 somewhat ironically, Country Living (White 1946). This compilation in- cludes statements from books, manuscripts, and personal letters. Natu- rally reflecting the compilers’ choices, it focuses mostly on the positive benefits of rural living. So although White actually wrote more about min- istering in cities as she did about leaving them, it is not evident in this compilation. The dominant Adventist discourse about urban mission has followed the emphasis of this book, privileging the country against the city. And the church has paid a high price for ignoring the deeper, nuanced, and balanced approach Ellen White had to urban mission. The evidence of actual Adventist work in cities, which Ellen White encouraged and sup- ported, suggests that her views were more complex than the dominant discourse suggests. For example, when in 1901 Stephen and Hetty Haskell went as missionaries to America’s largest city, New York, they lived in an apartment in the heart of the city—a couple of blocks from Central Park. Ellen White wrote that God “was in your going” (Robinson 1967:194). That same year witnessed the first-ever crash on the New York Stock Exchange. Thousands of small investors limped away bankrupt. And in the summer, New York City withered under the deadliest heat wave in its history. In a one-week period at least 989 people died in weather that Cole Thompson describes as “so hot it melted asphalt and drove scores of New Yorkers insane” (Thompson n.d.).
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