IV
- CONCLUSIONS:
This
paper has traced briefly the development of drama from its beginning in Eden
until now, with major emphasis on the entrance of
drama into the
infrastructure of our Seventh-day Adventist homes, schools, and churches over
the past eighty-four years. This conclusion will contain two divisions. First,
a list of “some” obvious reasons for this trend and, second, some
suggestions for reversing the trend.
Reasons
for Drama Entering the Seventh-day Adventist Church
1.
Fagal's Faith for Today series of TV theatrical performances, Westbrook
Hospital, that was aired from May 1950, through 1988, swayed many in the North
American Division to accept drama as a legitimate method of “bundling the
Gospel.” In addition, many
church members chose to ignore as old-fashioned, (“That was for their
time.”—ever heard that before?) the counsel given by Ellen White and the
church leadership for over one hundred years, or they never knew it existed.
2.
Many parents of the baby boomers allowed their offspring to cut their
teeth, so to speak, on television.
There
was confusion in the ranks of Adventist parents.
“Don’t oppose your child’s will, he will be damaged for life,”
was the cry of the Dr. Spock generation.
While some parent questioned the decision of some leadership in the
churches, schools, and evangelistic thrusts to use drama, they soon earned the
reputation of being divisive, critical, and troublemakers.
3.
Invariably, history repeats itself. The nominal churches have
demonstrated an uncanny tendency to follow one or two steps behind the lead of
the world’s methodology, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church has not been
exempted. First, the gospel movie with its fictitious acting entered the
church, followed in quick succession by Hollywood feature films, organized
sports, and television aided by VCRs/videos. Soon there followed the church
growth movement, women’s ordination, and the celebration movement
(orchestrated by Vatican II) with its combination of contemporary music,
drama, and Pentecostalism. Unfortunately, the Seventh-day Adventist Church
seems to follow one or two steps behind the nominal churches. Not long after
the celebration movement, centered in the Oregon Conference in the late
eighties and early nineties, drama seemed to spring up everywhere.
A
review of the Union papers will show, even to the casual reader, a plethora of
acting groups in our churches and schools. Today, to oppose drama is almost
like opposing motherhood and apple pie. Anyone who is willing to read Joe
Crew’s books, Creeping
Compromise and Reap the Whirlwind,
from Amazing Facts, will have a better understanding of the compromises
that have taken place in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
4.
Some claim that the old methods of Sabbath morning special features and
a class study of the Sabbath School lessons no longer works. The youth do not study their lessons and are not interested
in studying the Scriptures using the Sabbath School lessons.
When the “traditional” approaches to the Sabbath morning sessions
are used, the youth do not come back.
Therefore,
new approaches are needed. These methods include the use of drama to
entertain, and refreshments to entice them to come on Sabbath morning.
5.
Sabbath School teachers are finding that few parents have family
worship and fewer still neither encourage their children to have or nor have
for themselves a vital and regular daily, personal, private devotion.
Recent surveys in the lower division show that even fewer parents study
the Sabbath School lessons with their children even one time during the week.
6.
Our elementary schools, academies, and colleges are graduating students
who seem to know less and less about the historical development of Seventh-day
Adventist beliefs. They are
either not taught about or are not listening to the Seventh-Day Adventist
Church’s unique “present truth” message in their homes, the church
pulpits, or schools. This is
evident from the lack of knowledge exhibited by our academy and senior college
graduates. Consequently, some parents and many youth see little difference between our
institutions of learning and the secular schools of the world.
In
1986, the Seltzer Dailey Companies were asked to do a study of the attitudes
of the Seventh-day Adventist members concerning our educational institutions.
Surveys were sent to members in general, educators, students, and
ministers. A sober finding was
the attitude of Adventists under 25 years of age.
Less
convinced of the importance of Adventist education.
Lower
opinion of the academic quality of our Adventist schools/colleges.
Higher
opinion of the quality of public schools/colleges.
Have
a strong say on what school/colleges they attend. —Seventh-day Adventist
Education, Planning Research: Preliminary Findings, p. 50.
7.
Many young people are so saturated with the entertainment industry,
that Bible study and church seem dull and boring.
Thus, the clamor for celebration-style worship with its music and
drama.
8.
Today, youth are surrounded and consumed by the materialism that
permeates our Western culture and the relativism that has infiltrated many
avenues of their lives. With
these “isms” have come a blurring of Biblical absolutes.
9.
Higher criticism pervades every secular educational institution and
most of our North American senior college theology departments (This statement
is validated in the book Receiving the Word by Samuel Koranteng-Pipim,
(Berrien Books, PO Box 195, Berrien Springs, MI, 1966). Students
graduating from institutions that teach the “higher critical” method of
interpreting the Scriptures soon accept
and
then expound these concepts. They are taught that the Seventh-day Adventist
Church’s inspired documents—the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, were
culturally influenced. (The reader will more fully understand what is being
taught our college age youth after they read Alden Thompson’s (a
teacher in the theology department of Walla Walla College) book Inspiration:
Hard Questions, Honest Answers Haggerstown, MD, Review and Herald.
Please
compare Thompson’s book with the book Issues in Revelation and
Inspiration, edited by Frank Holbrook and Leo Van Dolson (Berrien Springs,
MI, Adventist Theological Society Publishing). It is not long before
many students taught the concepts elucidated in Thompson’s book, have little
or no confidence in landmarks of truth delivered by divine inspiration to our
pioneers. The usual cliche is, “The concepts and principles developed by the
Seventh-day Adventist pioneers were ‘culturally influenced’ by the
Victorian Age, established for their time, but not today.” In effect, they
have self-fulfilled a prophetic insight given us by Ellen White more than one
hundred years ago. And let there be no doubt but that this is happening today.
In a paper submitted to this
writer, the evidence is clear. This
paper is reproduced in Appendix 34
10.
With A. L. White’s paper circulating after 1963 and the liberal stand
taken by the 1975 committee on Guidelines for Competitive Activities and
Drama, the Seventh-day Adventist leadership capitulated to its constituency.
11.
Some say that drama in Ellen White’s day was more vulgar, obscene,
and crude than it is today. But John H. Hancock puts that argument to rest
when he states:
It
was evil enough then, but what would the servant of God say of today’s
motion pictures and New York stage productions?
Obscenity, vulgarity, sodomy, illicit sex, and violence are portrayed
with abandonment far beyond the plays on stage in Sister White’s day.
—Hancock, p. 8.
12.
While somewhat repetitive, “What’s Right About Drama?” disproves several
other reasons for drama entering
our homes, schools, and churches. It is found in
Appendix 35.
SUGGESTIONS
FOR ENDING DRAMA IN THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
How
Can “GenXers” Become Involved in the Mission of the Church?
Positive
Action on a Negative Note:
They
are part of the computer generation, a new breed that requires new approaches
and new methods. Many have told us that they wanted to put their faith into
action, but they don’t know how. They don’t know the reasons behind many
church doctrines. They know little about Adventist Church history. They say
they want to be challenged when they come to church, not hear the same old
ideas all the time,” says Royson James in “Cityscapes,” entitled “Dear
Pastor
...” in
the May, 1999, World Edition Review.
But
how do you devise new approaches and methods for “computer age GenXers” if
they “know little about Adventist Church history” and don’t want to
“hear the same old ideas” that were delivered to our pioneers?
They
are like the story of Ahimaaz, son of a preacher (a distant relative of Aaron,
the first high priest), friend of King David, and later son-in-law to King
Solomon. The story is recorded in 2 Samuel 18:19-33. When Absalom was killed,
Ahimaaz asked Joab if he could run with a message to King David. Joab said no,
and sent Cushi who knew the facts. Ahimaaz asked again, and Joab let him run.
Ahimaaz outran Cushi, but when he arrived he had no message.
What
difference does it make if a thousand approaches and methods are devised for
GenXers to be involved in the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist church if
they don’t have a message?
1.
Teach GenXers Our Adventist History and Present Truths:
In
order for GenXers to serve the church, they need to know the message they want
to share. Many of this generation of young men and women—some to be our
future leaders, are without a clear knowledge of Adventist history and the
mission of our church. Almost eighty percent of our youth have left the
church. Is it too late for most of them? Is it too late to supply this lack of
knowledge?
A
few years back I attended the funeral of a former member of the youth Sabbath
school class I taught. He was shot and killed under cloudy circumstances after
losing his way in a dense forest of popular music and drugs. I expected to be
weighted down with sadness and guilt at the loss of this young life. But I was
not prepared for the throng of former youth class members who packed the
church to pay their last respects—scores of GenXers, most of whom had not
set foot in our church for years.
We
hugged, we consoled each other, we buried our young friend, and then we went
our separate ways, having little in common after sharing so much for so long...
Is
this a job you want, Pastor [parent, teacher, institutional leader]? Is it the
true desire of your heart to get young people excited about Christ and His
church? If it is, glorious results await you. —Royson James, Review.
2.
Discontinue the Celebration Worship Style and Willow Creek Support:
While
the leadership of the North American Division has recognized that the vast
majority of our GenXers are deserting the church through the back door, what
have they done to reclaim them? They have incorporated into our church the
Willow Creek (an apostate Protestant movement) church growth methods which
include celebration-style worship with its contemporary Christian rock music,
drama, and Dispensationalism (the Moral law was nailed to the cross). And what
are the results? More than seven Seventh-day Adventist celebration-style
churches have broken ranks with our denomination, and certainly more will
follow. Some leave over theological concerns (such as the Sabbath, the
authenticity of the Spirit of Prophecy, church authority, etc.), and others
over the use of tithe. You will
quickly understand where this church growth movement has taken us when you
read Samuele Bacchiocchi’s book The Sabbath Under Crossfire.
Men
like Dale Ratzlaff, a third generation Seventh-day Adventist educator, pastor,
and Sabbatarian, in his book Sabbath in Crisis, attacks the seventh-day
Sabbath by joining the Dispensational and New Covenant theologies. And a
former Seventh-day Adventist celebration church pastor, Clay Peck, who is now
serving as senior pastor of the Grace Place Congregation in Berthoud,
Colorado, has joined Ratzlaff. Peck’s
book is entitled New Covenant Christians.
Perhaps this recent development is a fulfillment of a statement from
The
Great Controversy, p.608:
As
the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third
angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the
truth, abandon their position, and join the ranks of the opposition. By
uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view
matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are
prepared to choose the easy, popular
side. Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth,
employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most bitter
enemies of their former brethren. When Sabbath‑keepers are brought
before the courts to answer for their faith, these apostates are the most
efficient agents of Satan to misrepresent and accuse them, and by false
reports and insinuations stir up the rulers against them.
3.
Initiate an Investigation Why GenXers Have Left the Adventist Church:
Since,
apparently, the vast
majority of GenXers were not taught a knowledge of Adventist History or our
present truth message in their homes, churches, and schools, what can be done?
Are we prepared to lose a major portion of another generation? God
forbid! A complete, in-depth investigation must be undertaken to determine why
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou has rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing
thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children”
(Hosea 4:6).
This
is not a witch hunt, but it portends the survival of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church. This investigation should not be done by leadership alone. The ground
swell must come from the priesthood of believers, the members in the pews, who
should initiate a study on how to save our youth. In a world of E-mail and fax
machines, it can be accomplished rapidly and successfully. God help us!!
Positive
Action on a Positive Note:
Without
doubt, the generation raised with computers is very knowledgeable concerning
hardware and software. My son was ten when we got our first computer, and in
days he had figured out what took me months to absorb. Now children are
punching the keyboard before preschool. Computers have become indispensable in
many fields of endeavor. If you think not, just ponder on the preparation it
took to prevent the Y2K crisis.
And
many people are utilizing computers and the Internet to give to the world the
end-time message given by God to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
One such organization is TAGnet.org located in Mountain View,
California. The masthead of their July-August, 1999, newsletter states:
“TAGnet
stands for Three Angels Global Networking and is an organization operated by a
group of Seventh-day Adventists wanting to use computer technology to benefit
humanity. TAGnet is a member of
ASI. Our purpose is not to be a publishing body but rather to enable and
empower organizations attempting to minister in some way to humanity.”
1.
Encourage Programs to
Harness the Talent of Our Youth:
It
is time to encourage and demonstrate to our youth how to use their God-given
talents in computer technology to spread the good news of Christ’s soon
return. How much more fulfilling to receive e-mails from men and women
describing their conversions to their Lord and Master than practicing lines
for a theatrical play.
In
the March 19, 1999, issue of the Gleaner, Jere Patzer, the North
Pacific Union president, shared just such a happening in an editorial entitled
“Thank-you Heidi¼
You’re an Inspiration.” Here is a portion of this most encouraging
editorial:
A
few weeks ago, an attractive, professional, articulate, and obviously
committed GenXer came to see me in my office. Her name is Heidi Halvorson.
She
shared with me her vision of reaching the world for Jesus through the
Internet. And she isn’t just talking about it! She’s gearing up to launch
a dynamic, interactive, web-based gospel presentation that’s scheduled to
launch May 3rd with full support of her local church and people God has
impressed to contact her.
She’s
on a faith venture, and to date, God has provided and enabled her to use her
talents full-time to “passionately connect the Internet world with the power
and person of Jesus Christ through on-line Bible evangelism.”
As
she shared more of her fascinating testimony, I learned that Heidi had spent a
year as a student missionary. During that time, she began seriously studying
her Bible, reading it through six times that year, in various versions. One
doesn’t have to talk to her long to realize that she is in love with Jesus,
with His Church, and with His mission. Her devotional life is obviously making
a difference.
I’m
not ashamed to tell you that Heidi inspired me. What a thrill to see someone
at the beginning of her professional adult life so unequivocally committed. It
started by spending time in the Word.
Yes,
she made an impact on me. I doubt I’ll get through my Bible six times this
year, but I am committed to reading it more than I ever have before
¼and to
date I’m on track to reach that objective.
2.
Develop a Gigantic Student Missionary Program:
Heidi’s
experience as a student missionary points up another significant way to teach
youth how to “bundle the gospel.” The Mormon Church was founded about the
same time as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It would seem we have let the
Mormons put us to shame. Who hasn’t seen two nicely dressed young men
visiting door-to-door, giving out their literature, and establishing studies
on their religion? These college students are sent throughout the world. As a
result, according to a November 2000, US New and World Report, the
Mormon Church is the fast growing denomination in the world.
No need of Willow Creek church growth celebration tactics here. Yet we
could double this practice because we encourage women as well as men to do
this work. Just imagine! Thousands of college students from every Adventist
college in the world going out as student missionaries.
College
students could be encouraged to participate—or perhaps (forbid the thought)
be required to serve as student missionaries, according to their capabilities.
They could be given abundant opportunity to fill the vast needs throughout the
world teaching in our English language schools,
home-schooling missionary children, participating in front-line
evangelism, assisting elementary and secondary teachers, helping build needed
facilities, serving in hospitals and clinic, or assisting mission- ary
families in such organizations as Adventist Frontier Missions, which sends its
missionaries into previously unentered areas. Again, as Dr. Jere Patzer
described Heidi:
As
she shared more of her fascinating testimony, I learned that Heidi had spent a
year as a student missionary. During that time, she began seriously studying
her Bible, reading it through six times that year, in various versions. One
doesn’t have to talk to her long to realize that she is in love with Jesus,
with His Church and with His mission.
Her
devotional life is obviously making a difference. — Ibid. Gleaner,
March 1999.
As
this small army of students return to their respective colleges, imagine the
spiritual influence, the role models, the changed attitudes and goals of these
young men and women, perhaps as much as one fourth of the student body yearly
returning as another fourth sets out. Just think what might happen to the
college campuses by the end of four years, almost everyone a returned student
missionary, except for the freshman class. If the Mormons do it, we ought to
do it better! After all, don’t we believe we have the last message for the
end time? Or do we
...?
3.
Reestablish an Organization Similar to the Past Very Successful Missionary Volunteer Society:
The
writer has had the opportunity to attend Bill Gothard’s Basic and Advanced
Youth Seminars, as well as his conference for physicians. Mr. Gothard has,
with the blessing of God, developed an army of youth rightly trained.
In addition to his seminars, he has established a home school program
that is producing radiant, dedicated young people who are going into cities
and nations with a new way of life.
The
curriculum is designed so that the entire family can be learners along with
their sons and daughters. The goal of the program is to train entire families
how to be mighty in spirit by becoming wise through understanding universal
principles of life, mature by developing Godly character, knowledgeable by
learning proper and relevant academic content, and successful by acquiring
practical skills.
The
Institute offers a distance-learning law school as well as a program called
ALERT, which teaches young men emergency medicine, building trades, and a host
of other practical skills including apprenticeship courses.
The
opportunities that these young people have opened up around the world are
beyond anything ever imagined possible. They have created a new paradigm in
education. Instead of going to
college to study for an education, they are showing educators how to teach
character. Rather than being limited by secular presuppositions, they are
learning to be wise, creative problem-solvers.
Through
a series of events, shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Mr. Gothard
took 300 young people from his home school program to Russia.
While visiting the government officials in Moscow, they ask to see the Russian Director of Education.
They
were told, later, that she was not interested in seeing any more American
young people. She had not been impressed with the behavior or appearance of
the previous American young people.
The employee giving her the message told her that these young people
were different and she must come and meet them.
The
results of that meeting was beyond all expectations.
Not only was she impressed with the young people, but when she
understood that they wanted to help teach character principles to the children
in the schools and help rebuild Russian families, a written agreement was
later signed to open all 2,000 schools to the Basic Seminar Youth Ministry.
In
addition to teaching in the schools, the students met in the homes with the
parents, and conducted meetings
with families in major auditoriums throughout the city.
The
Russian officials were so impressed with the brightness and dedication of the
students that they granted the organization the use of a five-acre campus and
buildings to start an orphanage. Officials
also entrusted to them orphans, abandoned children, and juvenile offenders and
asked if they would train up thousands of street children.
When
Indianapolis, Indiana, Mayor Stephen Goldsmith heard reports of events in
Russia, he asked the organization to start a similar program in his city.
A 300-room hotel was provided for a training center.
Official invitations have followed from other U.S. cities.
The
first International Conference for Mayors and Government Leaders was held in
1996. In this three-day conference, they caught the vision of Character Cities
and took the concepts back to their jurisdictions.
The growth of this conference and Character Cities is a direct result
of the influence of the students and their families.
The
door continued to open in other countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, and even
China. A delegation of seventeen
government officials from the capital of China, Beijing, received training at
the Institute Headquarters in Illinois, on Biblical principles and character
and were thrilled with what they learned and with the vibrant young people
whom they met. Their leader
stated, “This training is vital for our people. We would like to invite you
to come to China with your Seminar.”
These
young people are making an impact because they are different, different in
their dress, their choice of music and recreation, behavior, maturity, and a
demonstration of concern for others. For example, a fourteen-year-old being
home schooled under the Institute’s educational program had a lawn-mowing
business. He told a widow, “I would like to do this work for you without
charge because this is my way of repaying the Lord for all He has given to
me.”
Why
share this information with you, reader?
Because we have become the tail instead of the head. In 1908, we were
given the following promise:
All
who engage in ministry are God’s helping hand. There is no line of work in
which it is possible for the youth to receive greater benefit. They are
co‑workers with the angels; rather, they are human agencies through whom
the angels accomplish their mission. Angels speak through their voices, and
work by their hands. And the human workers, cooperating with heavenly
agencies, have the benefit of their education and experience. As a means of
education, what “university course” can equal this? With such an army of
workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of
a crucified, risen, and soon‑coming Savior might be carried to the
world! —Youth Instructor, March 3, 1908.
A
modern-day Missionary Volunteer Society is crucial—NOW. There is not one
GenXer who ever attended a live Missionary Volunteer Society meeting. Why?
Because the Societies were allowed to die. Please read Malcolm J. Allen’s
book.
Can
you imagine the spiritual tone and influence upon a college campus student
body when Friday and Sabbath evening vespers would be conducted by return
student missionaries? In just
four years almost three fourths of the student body could be students who saw
the world and our church mission from actual experience. This could resurrect
an organization similar to the old Missionary Volunteer Society. Call the
organization whatever you like, but organize it on the same concepts as the
original. The back door of the Church would almost stop swinging out from our
youth leaving the church.
Perhaps
a genuine interest in the salvation of fellow students, relatives, and their
respective communities would supplant the need for organized sports on our
school campuses. Perhaps students would look to the missionaries they served
with and to each other as role models instead of the latest Hollywood or
sports personality. Perhaps drama departments would be replaced with classes
that would prepare an army of youth, “rightly trained,” to receive the
Latter Rain and give the Loud Cry.
4.
Organized a Worldwide Summer Student Literature Evangelism Program:
While
attending college and graduate school, the writer spent six summers as a
literature evangelist. The Lord was good and each year a scholarship was
earned that covered the cost of schooling. Only eternity will tell of the
silent witnesses that were left in thousands of homes. It was a challenge to
knock on endless doors day after day, especially when returning to work on
Monday morning after spending a quiet weekend with friends on the beach. Ask
anyone who has spent a long summer canvassing for hours on hot, humid days if
it was easy. While the need for a scholarship was ever present on our minds,
the fact that we were leaving a message of hope was the source of our
persistence. The only way literature evangelists survive is to keep a close
connection with their Heavenly Father.
Every
summer throughout the world, hundreds of student literature evangelists place
thousands upon thousands of truth-filled literature in homes and businesses.
This army of young men and women, sustained with the promise of angels
accompanying them, leave books and journals that carry the Three Angels’
Messages to a dying world. Let’s increase this number by hundreds of more student
literature evangelists!
In
Charlotte, North Carolina, the summer of 1999, Cheryl Martin, a student
literature evangelist received some free advertisement. In the September issue
of the Southern Union paper, Southern Tidings, page six, the following
story appeared:
Newspaper
Features Student LEs (Literature Evangelists)
When
the city editor of The Charlotte Observer bought a set of Bible books
from a student literature evangelist, it got the newspaperman to thinking. Who
are these young people and why are they doing this kind of work? The editor
assigned a reporter and photographer to follow up on the story. As a result,
the students were featured in the state’s
largest newspaper, The Charlotte Observer.
Over
the course of the summer the student literature evangelists fanned out across
the city and surrounding areas of Charlotte. When the reporter and
photographer met with the students to do the story, these 16 students had just
completed their biggest week. In only one week these students sold more than
$18,000 of truth-filled literature. Each week the students average 40 Bible
enrollments that they pass along to the Bible worker.
Angel
Chambers was shocked when she opened the door. There stood the girl she’d seen
in her dream. Not just one dream, but three. The girl who’d knocked on her
door was Cheryl Martin, a graduate of Southern Adventist University, who is
working as a Bible worker in the Charlotte area. Cheryl’s visit was in
response to a Bible interest that a student literature evangelist, Michele
Goodwin, developed. As a result of the visit, Angel invited two other friends to
join them and now all three are well along on their study of the Bible.
V
- CONCLUDING
The
development of drama on planet Earth and in the Seventh-day Adventist Church has
been briefly reviewed. The writer’s observations for the gradual drift to the
present “love affair” with drama in the Adventist Church has been described.
And finally, suggestions have been outlined on how GenXers, or any generation
can become appropriately involved in the mission of the Adventist Church.
If
you feel that this paper has demonstrated the need to eliminate theatrical
performances in our churches and institutions, persuaded you to eliminate your
own viewing of TV and video dramas, and convicted you to implement a reformation
in your own home, church, and conference, than share this paper and appendices
with other parents, your pastor, and institutional and conference leadership.
Then, with the help of the Holy Spirit, work with your fellow parents and local
school and church leadership to devise methods to establish the solutions
suggested in this paper, and any additional ideas that God will lead you and
others to develop. Let’s all work and pray for reformation and revival in our
beloved church.
Maranatha,
E-mail:
plclrh@wwics.com
Phone:
509 525-4024
Fax:
509 522-2448
CONTINUE
appendix 1
RETURN
TO TOC
