I was sitting at my desk at the Florida Conference were I served as a departmental director for nearly twenty years. That day the my mail included an inter-office memo from the Secretariat advising me that I, along with several others from the office were being asked to attend a four day training session at the Willow Creek Church which is located in East Barrington, a suburb of Chicago. My concern for the impact that Willow Creek was having on our churches had been growing. I welcomed the opportunity to see the program first-hand.

Our little group from the office arrived at the church along with approximately a thousand others from many denominations and independent congregations. In the days that followed we were systematically briefed on what the ministry of the church was all about. We were able to witness first hand a typical seeker service with its drama production and praise band and of course listen to sermons presented by members of the senior staff.

Toward the end of our stay, Bill Hybels, the senior pastor and founder of the church, in his closing remarks cautioned us that it would not be wise to return home and impose what we had learned on our respective congregations. To do so, he suggested could "split your church".

As a part of the closing exercises Hybels invited us to caucus by denominations. This would provide a time for each group to de-brief what they had experienced.

The de-facto chairman of the Adventist delegation was Richard Fredricks, the pastor of the Damascus church, a constituent church of the Potomac Conference. I will never forget listening as strategy was discussed as to how to introduce and implement the Willow Creek model in our respective churches. I remember our chairman saying that to do this we must work slowly.

A young pastor from Ashville, North Carolina had already done to his congregation what Hybels had cautioned us not to do and as a result the church had split. Sometime later I talked with a young dentist's wife who with tears in her eyes told me how she and her husband along with forty other young professionals convinced that the Willow Creek model was incompatible with what our church was all about, felt constrained to form a new congregation. This didn't seem to have fazed the pastor¹ whose articles in favor the Willow Creek model would later appear in the Adventist Review and the Ministry Magazine. He told me rather succinctly, "We're in charge now."

Throughout the decade of the nineties and into the 21st century pastors and lay leaders from our churches continued to visit and learn at Willow Creek. Those particularly from the North American Division, Western Europe and Australia returned home to implement in their churches and even at the Division level what they had learned. Many churches and even a number of church organizations became members of the Willow Creek Association.

Leading the way in the early years of the Willow Creek influence in our church were Oregon's Sunny Side Church, Maryland's Damascus Church² and Colorado's Christ Advent Fellowship. It is a sad commentary that those churches and a number of others like them later went on to leave the Seventh-day Adventist denomination and became Sunday keeping churches.

While hundreds of Adventist churches that are implementing elements of the Willow Creek model have not left the denomination, it is not unusual to find that significant numbers of them have chosen to play down those doctrines that make our church unique. It is sobering to see how many churches and particularly church plants are even choosing to play down our distinctive name and have taken on the name 'Such and Such Community Church.

Inasmuch as community churches are usually non-denominational one might question the ethic of representing one's self as non-denominational when in fact that is not the case. This name change, however, may accurately reflect the true state of affairs when later in this chapter we consider the trend toward congregationalism.

It is perplexing, observing all that has happened, that up to now we have been strangely silent to sound the alarm. How can we as church leaders and members continue to recommend a program which for so many of our churches, along with their pastors and members, has been fatal when taken as directed?

Perhaps the answer to that question is the great desire shared by so many to discover ways and means to retain our young people³ and also to revive what seems to be a stagnated church particularly among the Caucasian membership.

Based on the perception that nothing succeeds like success, it became apparent to pastors and church leaders in the divisions that have been most affected that we had something to learn from churches whose pastors who preach to from fifteen to twenty thousand people each week.

Somehow along the way we must have forgotten that a little group of Adventist believers in the mid-nineteenth century were used by God to launch a movement that during the following 150 years has carried the Third Angel's Message to most of the countries on the planet.

As we have sat at the feet of the mega church pastors and invited their worship leaders and other church growth experts to our workers meetings a word has begun to be heard among us that until recent years did not figure into our evangelistic vocabulary and that word is 'unchurched'. This word can be problematic for two reasons. The first is that the Bible doesn't see people as being churched or unchurched, but rather as saved or lost.

The other reason is that focusing on the word unchurched can impact our mission as a church is illustrated by an experience that my father had as secretary of the protestant ministerial association in the town where he was serving as pastor.

Later he told me, "Dick, during the year that I served as secretary of the organization I didn't conduct any public meetings because of the perception among the other ministers that in doing so I would have been engaged in sheep stealing.

You see, the word 'unchurched' as used by pastors of other faiths is a code word that means that we will not steal members from each other's churches. While we can understand their professional concern, the message that God has given our church to proclaim to "my people" does not have this ethic. The third angel's message is not a sheep stealing message but a sheep saving message!

In truth, the message that God delivered to the founding fathers and mothers of our church was not a message designed only to save the lost, but one that would actually keep His people in whatever denomination from losing their salvation at that time just before the close of probation when Jesus warned that there would be deceptions so well crafted that they would deceive, if possible, the very elect. (Matthew 24:24).

Another terminology that has been given a major emphasis in recent years is 'church planting' with the accompanying emphasis on 'church growth'. While both of these terms are on the surface benign, they carry with them an inherent danger and that is they are doctrinally neutral.

Pastors of Sunday-keeping churches as did Bill Hybols in establishing the Willow Creek Community Church, will often go door to door in a community canvassing the neighborhood and inviting the people to join them in what they hope will be a church plant.

The creed and doctrines of the new church will be wholly left up to those who will comprise its membership. For this reason a survey of the non-denominational community churches that often are the result of a church plant will reveal that they are by and large doctrinally neutral or generic. It goes without saying that in establishing an Adventist church, the choice of what will be its doctrines is not left up to the members. Being a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church means that the person will have accepted the doctrines that have already been established by our denomination.

Commonly accepted church growth principles are largely based on principles that can be applied to any successful organization be it a bank or a national quick-food chain. Church growth principals are little more than specific applications to churches of the principles which are consistently employed by Madison Avenue and which are driven by the needs perceptions of the target market.

The evangelical churches and their leaders who have in recent years become our templates for church planting and church growth now practically control how we feel we must worship, sing, pray and now what we must do if we are to win the 'unchurched'. But more than this, our churches are beginning to adopt two of the characteristics of the community styled churches which when implemented will challenge the purpose of our very existence as a church. One is, as suggested earlier, their method of governance, which is congregational and the other is their doctrinal emphasis which is generic, not to mention loaded with error. These two characteristics are foreign even fatal to the divine mandate which was given by God to this church.

Continuing to use the community type congregational churches as our models cannot help but to narrow our world perspective and as our local churches begin to craft doctrine to their own liking, will finally result in emasculating the unique message that God has commissioned us to carry to the world at the end-time.

One day I was at Atlanta's Hartfield airport waiting to take a flight to Chattanooga. While in the waiting lounge I happened to recognize John Ankerberg who is a popular evangelical apologist. It was he with Dr. Walter Martin, who, some years before, had debated Adventist doctrine on Christian television with one of our denominational representatives.

I approached Dr. Ankerberg, introducing myself as a Seventh-day Adventist minister. After I referenced the debate of some years before he said, "I have two questions I would like to ask you. The first is, what is the current position of the church on the ministry of Ellen G. White and the other is what is the current position of the church concerning the Investigative Judgment?"

I smiled and asked him if he didn't believe in the gift of prophecy in the New Testament church and as to the Investigative Judgment, I asked him if he didn't believe that before Jesus comes He will have decided before hand who will be saved and who will be lost.

I relate this experience because to me it underscores that fact that though our colleagues in the Evangelical churches appear to be willing to help us succeed in our mission, as a group they have a vested interest in making the unique doctrines that set us apart from them, disappear. There can be no doubt that a church whose message is "come out of her my people" is easily seen in Christendom as being seditious.

While God alone will be the final judge of motives, there is evidence that our continual interaction, with evangelical community church orientated professors and their pastors is resulting in our dumbing down of our unique doctrines and as we increasingly imbibe the spirit of congregationalism, we are narrowing rather than expanding our vision of world outreach.

There is increasing criticism of what is considered to be our top-heavy organization, which at a time when high technology is available is seen by some as being neither necessary or cost-effective. While a case may be made on both counts our organization has until now enabled us as a church to do what all the Willow Creek and Saddleback churches in the world could not have done and that is to carry God's end-time message to practically every nation on earth while, most important of all, maintaining the integrity of our doctrines. The present trend toward congregational church government will put these accomplishments at risk.

One afternoon I received a phone call from a member of a nearby church. His first words to me were, "Pastor O'Ffill, I believe our church has too many doctrines."

My reply to him was, "What do you know about the will of God for your life that you wish you didn't?"

Still he insisted we had too many doctrines. At last I suggested that he might consider finding a denomination that more nearly reflected his views. His reply, " No, I will stay and try to change ours."

It is not unusual to hear members, including some pastors, remark that we ought not be preaching our doctrines, but rather we ought to preach the gospel. This concern is difficult to understand. Inasmuch as the word doctrine means 'teaching' and the word gospel means 'good news' it at once becomes apparent that the concepts express by the words are not adversarial. The fact being that the cross is in and of itself a doctrine.

I hope I am wrong when I say that the point of view that we ought not preach the doctrines but rather the gospel is really saying that we should not preach Adventist doctrines, but the generic doctrines of the first day churches. We are not surprised to hear Baptist sermons preached in Baptist churches. Neither should we be ashamed to hear Adventist sermons preached in Adventist churches.

While there can be no doubt that in our 27 doctrinal beliefs there are certain doctrines that may be considered to be core doctrines. Those doctrines which are considered by some not to be important are actually the ones which God has given to his church at the end-time to protect the core doctrines from being over-run by the enemy of our souls.

For example, our doctrines of the millennium, the manner of Christ's return etc have kept us from becoming victims of the doctrine of the Secret Rapture which will be the platform from which, just before the close of probation, the devil will deceive if possible the very elect. Those who hold fast to this error believe they have two opportunities to be saved and because they believe they will be in heaven during the tribulation many will enforce the Mark of the Beast thinking they are doing the will of God.

Our mandate for earth's last hour is clear and we make a mistake if we feel that visitors to our churches should not be exposed to sermons that reflect our doctrines, which in truth are a life and death issue for this generation.

In wartime, using military parlance, having the correct 'intelligence' is everything to the success of a campaign against the enemy. We are in a war whose results will be eternal. This is not the time to withhold a life and death message from a dying world, which includes our brothers and sisters in Christ in other denominations who otherwise may perish for lack of knowledge.

We are not wrong in trying to be more effective in retaining our children and grandchildren in the church. We cannot be faulted for wanting to revive the church in places where it has seemingly stagnated, but in going to the Willow Creeks and Saddleback churches of the world we have been fooled. Those who we invited to tell us how to win souls and expand our vision have introduced ideologies that if not arrested and corrected will make it impossible for us to do what we have been called to do and that is to preach a message that will prepare a last generation who will be alive when Jesus comes and of whom it has been written here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

Our brethren in the churches which have in recent years have become aficionados of Willow Creek and others like them may have been well-intentioned, but experience has proved that the experiment has been divisive to our church and the causalities to churches, their pastors and members has been significant.

Recently my nineteen year-old grandson who had been a member of the Damascus church where the majority of the membership under the leadership of their pastor broke away to become the Damascus Road Community Church, announced to my daughter, "Mom, I don't believe in the Sabbath anymore."

Friend, in spite of our best intentions, we have been as it were 'Trojan horsed'! The evidence is in and we have been fooled. What we had hoped for is not what we have gotten. Let's ask the Lord to forgive us for unbelief. He who began this church long ago with the little group in New England will finish it in all the world. For lack of faith we have allowed ourselves to believe cunningly devised fables. Our brothers and sisters in other denominations need the message of our church more than we need their methods. God's last message for his people just before He returns to take them home will not be finished by the might and power of marketing methods nor by the mega-churches that are the Willow Creeks or Saddlebacks but by "My Spirit saith the Lord.

ENDNOTES (hyperlinked to their sources in the document above)

1. This pastor would some years later denounce the Sabbath and renounce his position as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. (return to source)
2. Richard Fredricks along with the majority of the members of the Damascus church left and organized a new Sunday-keeping community church. (return to source)
3. A nationally-known youth worker announced at the Promise Keepers Ministers convention held in Phoenix in the winter of 2003 that 80% of evangelical young people cease attending church after graduating from high school. This would seem to indicate that the challenge to keep our children in the church is not denomination specific. (return to source)