Why I have trouble attending church

Since retiring from the pastoral ministry I have not attended church regularly. We lived for a few years in Collettsville, NC, which was up in the sticks and the only churches close by were little country churches. I spoke at one of them several times but I did not join that congregation. Not because the people weren't gracious and loving and friendly and inviting us to come, no, it was because of the flavor. I have become quite picky in my choice of worship experience, now that I have a choice where I worship. I guess at times I forget that worship is not about what I get out of it, but what I give. So it makes sense that if I attend church that I don't really want to join and preach there, I am giving. That is why I go to certain churches, I'm invited to speak; Pretty selfish reason. I have found that now, that I am not in full time ministry, where my time was not my own, I am a very selfish person. Today Malia and I are in Portland, OR. We have been in the Northwest for six months and next week we will start heading back east. Our son and his family are in California for a week so we are babysitting their dog and their home while they are gone. In Yakima where we stayed for most of that time, there is a church we attend that is of the flavor we find so pleasing. Yes, I did get to speak there also, but we attend even when I do not speak. When Friday came around I decided to look online to see what churches within an hour’s drive were available. Actually more like a half hour drive. Because of the traffic here it takes time to get anywhere. I saw three or four churches online and of course this coming weekend is Easter weekend. I was hoping for a worship experience that would at least bring up the celebration of Christ resurrecting from the dead and living for us today. I was disappointed. It didn't appear that there would be any church that I could find celebrating the resurrection. Now to be honest they didn't all say what their worship service was going to be, but the few which did say told me that it was something other than the resurrection. That is common in the Adventist Church. It goes back over hundred years ago. It seems very few Adventist churches talk about Easter and the resurrection in the same way as other Christian churches do. When you look back at one of our early founders in the 1850s and 60s, one who was a female, said nothing positive about Easter. To be accurate most of the Easter trappings like the bunnies, the eggs, and even the name itself really do come from paganism. But today I just wanted to hear a rip-roaring sermon on the resurrection of Christ. And it looked like that wasn't possible in my mother domination at this place and at this time. If we were in Collegedale, TN this weekend, the church there has a SONrise service that is magnificent to experience. But on Facebook I can watch the triumphant ending to this play. With tears streaming down my face I witness ‘Jesus’ coming out of the tomb and hugging everyone, including the angels! So Malia and I and some friends are going to a garden, the Japanese Gardens where we can see flowers opening in spring time and think about Jesus coming out of the tomb with light, color and all the brightness of the sunrise itself! Jesus is risen, He is alive!

Could it be wrong to proclaim Jesus. All?

I am a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, retired. And I sometimes have a love/hate connection with my church. No, I was not raised in the church. I was raised Lutheran, then I became a charismatic, Jesus freak in the 60s and 70s. In the mid-70s I joined the Adventist church and later became a pastor. But I have found it increasingly difficult to understand the rhetoric and the position that many Adventist take. Maybe that’s because I was a Jesus freak for quite a while and maybe still am. For the last three years I have attended the One Project. This exciting, spiritually emphasizing, life enhancing experience happens for a weekend in early February. Last one I attended over 1000 people came. At the One Project is organized by Adventist pastor’s and it is a place where Jesus is emphasized, explained, lifted up, taught how to follow, given as an example, shown to be vital to a Christian spiritual life. And yet, many in the Adventist church criticize it as being New Age, immoral, heretical, and dangerous. In order to appreciate this gathering one must be a gospel oriented, Christian Adventist. Unfortunately many Adventists are not gospel oriented. They appear to be last day events oriented, end of the world coming soon oriented, or Revelation 14 oriented. But they seem to forget that Revelation 14:6 talks about an Everlasting Gospel coming to the world. In fact, that’s the first thing that is spoken by the Angels. How can you be an Adventist (Adventist means coming of Christ) and not be a gospel oriented person? Charles Scriven, in the fall issue, 2015 of “Spectrum” mentions that the Adventist Society for religious studies, when recommending to the General Conference about a new study on the doctrine of inspiration, rejected the idea that the centrality of Jesus in the Bible should be stated as important to the process of studying inspiration. If we understand that the Bible is God’s love letter to us and Jesus Christ is the one whom God has uses to show and demonstrate that love, wouldn’t it be important to recognize Scripture in the light of Christology? Apparently it was too controversial to include in the statement. For me, I am thankful for the One Project. I have found it an experience of spiritual refreshment. I intend to continue encouraging people to put Jesus first in their lives every opportunity, pulpit or pen I am given. If we lose the centrality of Jesus in the Bible and in our lives we have lost something that is a focal point of the history of this world and our very destiny.