These days it is being said that the world is not rejecting the gospel, it is simply rejecting the way that we are presenting it. In this sermon we will discuss some of the dynamics that are shaping the church of the 21st century and I am not referring only to the churches out there but our very own church.

Our church was established officially not yet a hundred and fifty years ago. If I remember my church history correctly we organized ourselves in about the year 1863. Of course this was about twenty years after the church was born, not as a denomination but as a message. They called them Millerites or Adventists. They were comprised of people from many different denominations but what they had in common was the conviction that Jesus was going to return the second time on October 22, 1844.

When he didn't the majority of the disappointed ones went back to their respective churches or became agnostics. A small group stayed together and before it would be over they would be the founding mothers and fathers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

It is important to remember that in the early years these people had no intention of organizing another denomination. Theirs was a message and this message was, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him."

They soon discovered that although they had been wrong in the detail of their preaching they were not wrong in the essence of what had been preached. They decided to name themselves Seventh-day Adventist because they concluded that they could put the message in their name.

This very small group put their money where their heart was. It would be about a hundred years before their worldwide membership would reach one million, but the amazing thing was that within a hundred years they would have carried their message nearly worldwide. In the meantime they established schools, colleges, hospitals and churches on an international scale.

I have often thought and have stated many times that our church was basically a group of Christians who were sent to warn other Christians of coming events. This is not to say that we would not preach the gospel to the heathen or the unchurched, but in addition to that we had something to say to those who were already followers of Christ and that was, "Fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come." If we had a contribution to make, it was not just to saved the lost but to keep the saved from being lost at the close of probation. Not just to prepare a people to accept a crucified and resurrected Lord but a coming King who was coming to judge the world in righteousness.

This worldwide organization was created to be the basket that would carry a message. A message that they believed was for Methodists, Baptists, Catholics and Pentecostals. This was not a message that would bring members of those denominations to Jesus, it would be taken for granted that they already had accepted the salvation that Jesus had so graciously bestowed on whosoever believeth on him. This message would be like a compass that points to the true North. The millions who had accepted Jesus still had false doctrine which, if not corrected, would make them vulnerable to being deceived as Jesus had predicted would happen and Paul had reemphasized when he said, ", "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth." 2 Thess. 2:11,12

The message of this church is a hard line. It teaches that God has many other people in other denominations but because these denominations espouse false doctrine they are designated in the Bible as Babylon, which means confusion.

But some interesting things have happened in recent years. 1. There has been an explosion of success among the churches that we have long called Babylon. 2. We have discovered that in spite of having false doctrine there are huge numbers of them that love Jesus with all their hearts. These two things have caused us to have to rethink who we are.

In the first place we thought we were going to increase and they were going to, decrease, as it were, but in many countries the facts seem to be just the opposite. In the second place fundamentalists now own television networks. Their ministers have churches of fifteen and twenty thousand members and some believe that the Holy Spirit is being poured out on them in a mighty way.

In the meantime, particularly in the United States, Europe, and Australia our church seems to be stagnating at best or losing ground at worst. We seem not only to be losing members, but the members we are losing are often our own children.

Into this mix are the changes that have come into society. There was a period of unprecedented prosperity. As a result, materialism and love for things of the flesh is in the very air that we breathe. This generation lives to play and for more and more to play means to have sex, no matter be it married or unmarried, men with women or men with men and women with women. The other day I saw a title on the Compuserve Home page on the Internet. It was advertising an article entitled, How to keep the lust alive in your marriage.

This generation is crazy with lust, greed, pride, and bitterness. Television, which glorifies everything for which Christ died and which depicts as entertainment the very things for which ancient civilizations were destroyed, has for all practical purposes taken over the minds of the civilization.

Madison Avenue is now in the driver's seat. There is now what has been called the science of marketing. Advertising is the heartbeat of the modern man. It tells him what to eat, drink, how to dress and what to drive, then it asks him what he wants to eat, drink, how he wants to dress, and what he wants to drive. It fills his plate with the delicacies of the devil and then asks him what he would like for dessert.

All of this has not been lost on the church. A few years ago the evangelical world produced its own George Gallup of Gallup Poll fame, his name was George Barna. He has convinced the Christian church that if it is to survive in the modern age it must market its product just as television markets its products. He has written many books, among which are Marketing the Church, and Guide to Church Marketing.

Mr. Barna defines marketing as all the activities that lead up to an exchange of equally valued goods between consenting parties. In other words, activities such as advertising, public relations, strategic planning, audience research, product distribution, fund-raising and product pricing, developing a vision statement and customer service.

Churches including our own have become aficionados of demographic studies. We now are concerned with our image, we do strategic planning and will spend weeks developing mission and vision statements.

I am sure that it would be trite to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit was not poured out on the day of Pentecost on a committee who had gathered to discuss how to market the gospel of the recently resurrected Lord. Jesus had told them to wait and so they were in one accord praying and confessing their sins when the Holy Spirit fell on them as cloven tongues of fire.

During the days after the Lord returned to heaven, they had not addressed the problem of how to organize seeker-sensitive services. They did not discuss a new paradigm or the challenge of forming user-friendly churches as we do today.

Their goal was not to plant churches or to fill the pews of existing churches. By the way, studies that have been done concerning church attendance during the last two hundred years in this country reveal that overall attendance has varied little. The overwhelming majority of the churches are less than a hundred members.

In recent years a concept that all churches should aim to be mega churches has taken hold. A mega church is one whose membership is in excess of fifteen hundred members. How to organize mega churches has become the gold standard of success.

A closer examination will reveal that generally mega-churches are what you get when you cannibalize small churches. What I am saying is that we should not be tested by a bottom line of "how big is your church," rather our test should be how faithful are we in preaching an unadulterated message.

But unfortunately, in more and more churches, the message generally is not what is the center of our attention. All eyes now are turned on the methods that we will use to attract customers to our product. As a result this market-driven emphasis is beginning to have a profound effect on the message.

Remember I told you at the beginning, the founders of our church saw themselves as called, not to organize a church, but to preach a message. The result was that many accepted the message and churches were organized so that those who had accepted the message could encourage one another and continue the task of preaching the message in all the world.

I am afraid to say that we are finding ourselves less and less preoccupied in carrying a message and more and more concerned about planting churches. Planting churches seems to be the primary goal.

I am convinced that we are somewhat in danger in turning our attention away from our message to that of planting churches. I say this because our Sunday-keeping brothers and sisters are into planting churches. I have been told that to raise up a Community Church, often all you need to do is to find people who in the first place don't have a church home and then tell them you are going to start a church and invite them to join.

Of course, you must demonstrate to them that the new church will have plenty of parking, that it will have exciting things for the children and that it will meet the needs of its members. A study was made of 1,000 churches and it was discovered that growing, successful churches are empowering leadership, have gift-oriented ministries, have passionate spirituality, have functional structures, inspiring worship, holistic small groups, needs-oriented evangelism, and loving relationships. It is being taught that where these principles are employed they will work anywhere in any church and they will work every time.

Notice that a description of a successful church these days says nothing about being true to the Word. What we call "doctrine" now plays a small role if any in the church growth movement. Worse still, it is being discovered that the people are attracted to churches that are non-denominational and where doctrine is downplayed.

Before I go on, let me say a word about doctrine. The reason that people don't like doctrine is that it is dogmatic. A "thus saith the Lord" is just that-a thus saith the Lord. A person in this generation resents doctrine because they prefer something that they can control. These days people think that just because the Lord said it, doesn't necessarily mean that it is good enough for me. In fact, even though the Lord said it, he wasn't saying it to me for the simple reason that times are different now and the Bible was written without all the knowledge we have now.

No matter that the Word of God says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" 2 Timothy 3:16.

You see, the Scripture is at odds with the mindset of the age which says that the consumer is always right. These days a product that has a future at all says right on the wrapper or the box that satisfaction is guaranteed and that if you have any problems with it you can return it for a full refund, or at least there is an 800 number to call for customer service.

Doctrine is also about commitment and the last thing that people of this age are willing to do is to make a commitment. Another thing about doctrine is that it pretty well tells you what you can do and what you can't do. This is a no-no in this generation. What is right to me may not be right for you and, if you think otherwise, you are being either a hypocrite or judgmental, and you know what Jesus said about being a hypocrite.

And so in the market-driven, new paradigm thinking, more attention is paid to market strategy, business techniques and demographics than to New Testament instruction. This methodology stresses experience rather than doctrine. It's true if it works for you. It is practical and personal; more about stress reduction than salvation, more therapeutic than theological. It is about feeling good, not being good. The generation of the new paradigm churches thinks of churches like supermarkets. They want options, choices, and convenience. They consider themselves religious as long as you let them define their own religion.

To this generation church must be fun and fulfilling. This is the reason why so much attention is now being given to the worship service. It is believed that if the worship service is inspiring the members will consider it fun to attend. This should come as no surprise because growing churches are creating an atmosphere of fun. Fun has replaced holiness as the church's goal. Having a good time has become the criterion of an excellent, growing church since fun and entertainment is what the consumer wants.

You may think I don't believe in having fun. I do believe in having fun but I don't believe that the church is where we go to have fun.

As I mentioned in the very first sentence, it is felt that the church is failing because it is failing to present the gospel so that it will be appealing to sinners. If this is the case then how do we explain the text in 1 Corinthians 1:18-23. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness."

How do you market a foolish, repulsive product? Apparently by changing the wrapper. I wish that is all it was. I am afraid that in our desire to increase our market share we are not just changing the wrapper, we are trending toward changing the product itself.

We seem to have convinced ourselves that if we will make listeners feel good about themselves they will be anxious to come to Jesus. Let's take a moment and see what the early church did to market the gospel. Let's take a moment and see how user friendly their presentations were. Let's begin with Peter preaching to the thousands on the day of Pentecost. The sermon is recorded in Acts chapter 2. In the first place, the sermon was not about the people, it was about Jesus. In the second place, Peter accuses them of being responsible for the death of Jesus, and at the end of the sermon pleads with them to repent.

The deacon Steven really blew the opportunity to win the whole Sanhedrin over to the new faith. Why was he so negative? He must not have studied public relations. Toward the end of his discourse he said, "Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers." Acts 7:51,52.

The people who God used to organize the Christian church in the midst of a culture so pagan that it makes your hair stand on end had not been to the seminary, nor had they taken courses in church-planting, but they were full of the Holy Ghost and spake as he gave them utterance.

The trump card that is being used in Adventist circles these days to justify many of the unscriptural methods that many churches are using to reinvent the gospel to fit the listener, is on Ministry of Healing page 143, which says:

"Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, "Follow Me.""

Taken alone, these four sentences are being used as a justification for café church, rock and roll worship, dance, and acting troupes in the worship services. Unfortunately, those who would use this quotation would do well to read the rest of it, which I will do now. "We should do as Christ did. Wherever He was, in the synagogue, by the wayside, in the boat thrust out a little from the land, at the Pharisee's feast or the table of the publican, He spoke to men of the things pertaining to the higher life. The things of nature, the events of daily life, were bound up by Him with the words of truth. The hearts of His hearers were drawn to Him; for He had healed their sick, had comforted their sorrowing ones, and had taken their children in His arms and blessed them. When He opened His lips to speak, their attention was riveted upon Him, and every word was to some soul a savor of life unto life."

Frankly, friends, I find nothing either in tone or substance of this explanation of Christ's meeting the needs of the people that could be construed as giving the green light to so-called Christian rock and rap, dance, theater, clowns, or puppets.

If you liked to tell dirty jokes, then Jesus could not meet your needs. If you liked to go to watch the gladiators cut each other to ribbons, Jesus would not accept the free ticket that your Roman boss gave you and told you that you could invite a friend.

The other day a friend was telling me that when he was a member of the Executive committee of a certain conference, the suggestion was made that the conference should choose Revival as its theme for the year. One of the pastors who uses the Willow Creek model in his church, objected that using the word revival was a put down and implied that there was something wrong with us. I don't know if that pastor had ever read the message to the church of Laodicea. The message by the way is hardly affirming and is definitely a putdown to a mindset that needs to be put down. Listen to what Jesus says:

"And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelation 3: 14-19.

I can assure you this kind of counsel is not welcome in the new paradigm churches. I hope I am wrong but Jesus and Paul would get few invitations to preach in the modern churches of this age.

Friends, With all due respect to our colleagues and fellow ministers. I cannot comprehend why in many places we seem to be persisting in trying to cut our church to fit the sinner instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to give the sinner the robe of Christ's righteousness.

I wish that someone would write a book. It would not be a book that would debate whether we should have rock and roll and drama, dance, clowns, or puppets in our worship services. It would not be a debate as to whether we should continue to follow the lead of those churches which are doctrinally generic and which are congregational in outlook as are the churches of Willow Creek and Saddleback.

We have now been into this debate long enough and enough SDA churches have opted for the new methodology that all we need now is to do a case-by-case study of what happened to those churches in our denomination that have most closely followed the contemporary church model.

In the first place, I have a vested interest in this kind of a project because my own grandson was a member of a Seventh-day Adventist church whose pastor took them down the road as a Willow Creek affiliate and in due time left the Seventh-day Adventist denomination and is now a Sunday-keeping church.

Some could say that this has made me less than objective and I would be the first to agree. My family has suffered casualties as a result of the new paradigm, market-driven approach to Adventist church craft.

A number of years ago the conference in which I work sent me to Willow Creek. I asked the president why he wanted me to go and he told me he wanted to hear another viewpoint.

While I was there I met the Adventist delegation. I remember meeting a young minister who had recently imposed the contemporary model on his church. It split. He was not ashamed but boosted to me, "We are in charge now." I was sad, but not surprised to hear that not too long ago, he denounced the church and has left the denomination.

I cannot accurately count how many Adventist churches have left our ranks and joined the side of the Sunday Keepers but their numbers are significant, especially if your grandson was on board one of the churches that went down. Those churches which continue with us but which are Willow Creek Associates have developed a worldview that often does not reflect the stated positions of the world church.

As members, Pastors, and Administrators, we should put aside the debate and simply examine the facts. The data is in. Those churches which most clearly are following the contemporary patterns are those who either have left us or who are running near the out of bounds line.

Someone has said to the effect that a person is crazy who expects that by doing the same thing each time he can expect different results. I don't mean to say that anyone is crazy, but when will we wake up? If we fail to do so we may discover one day that we were our own worse enemies.

When I was a little boy, my mother taught me the little rhyme, This little pig went to market. How sad it is that in these final hours, as the close of probation is upon us that we have turned to the world to be our model for how we should preach the gospel instead of turning to the New Testament. How can we expect that God will pour out the Latter Rain upon a church which has decided that it will let the listener determine what he or she wants to hear? How can God pour out the Latter Rain on a church that is more concerned with technique than with holiness?

It is not too late. It's late, but not too late. Too late for those who have left the faith and returned to the world but not too late for all. I pray for my grandson. What a shame that his pastor would, in effect, be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

I believe as a pastor that, when the time comes in which I can no longer uphold the doctrines of this church, it is time for me to move on. Ethics demand it. We are not forced to become member of our church. That is up to us. But once we agree that we want to join ourselves to this church, it seems to me that we should be true to the principles for which it stands.

I am not saying that as individuals we will never disagree. Neither do I believe that we ought to be blindly led by the blind. What I am saying is that this church has chosen that it will have twenty-seven doctrinal beliefs. They are not secret but public. When we became members of this church, we agreed with these doctrines either implicitly or explicitly. When the time comes that we no longer feel that the doctrines of this church are scriptural, we ought to be man enough or woman enough to move on.

This sounds hard but we are here by our own choice. To me it isn't fair for us to be disloyal to our doctrines, and I am talking about the twenty-seven fundamental beliefs.

I do not think we necessarily know everything that is to be known about what the Bible teaches, but I do not believe that what we teach in our twenty-seven fundamental beliefs is error.

At issue these days are not insignificant details but fundamental issues such as Creation, the significance of the Sabbath, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment. The days are gone in which we debated whether or not we should eat pickles and mustard.

Speaking of the health message, I was talking with a man who had recently been baptized. He was invited to attend the new members class. It would seem to me that the purpose of the class would be to establish the new members in the principles and practices of the churches. In this case the teacher instructed the class that the church position on clean and unclean foods is not correct.

Brothers and sisters, please forgive me for saying this. I am convinced that while a person may for some reason or another not be living up to all of the teachings of this church, though he should be trying to, but when the time comes when he feels in his heart that the twenty-seven doctrines of this church are not correct and teaches others so, it seems to me it is time for him to seek a greener pasture.

Someone may think, Pastor O'Ffill, who do you think you are? Friends, this is not about me, it is about us. We must decide if we will be faithful to the task that God has commissioned us, and this task is not to ask the people what they believe and then change the church to fit their tastes, rather it is a commission to preach a message not only to the unchurched but to the church, and that message is, "Fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come."

Ours is not to be a Baptist message, though we love the Baptists. It is not to be a Methodist message, though many of our founders were members of that church. It is not to be the message the Pentecostals are preaching, it is to be the unique Adventist message.

By the way, I don't know if you are aware of it, but our friends the Pentecostals now profess to have prophets and apostles in their midst. I kind of like that. We can now find out who are the true prophets and who are the false, and it will not be by miracles they do, but to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them. And "according to this word" is not a text here or a text there but a message that is consistent to the Bible in its entirety.

We are living in the last days. This is no time for this church to go to market to discover what we should be preaching, but we must go to the Word and then to our knees. Jesus' method was primarily healing the sick and encouraging the downhearted. Yet in everything He did His method was based on the Word of God. As He was wont to say, "It is written" and so it must be for us.