Personal Ministries Leaflet No. 16 Sabbath School & Personal Ministries Department/ Adventist Community Services International General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Personal Ministries Leaflets No. 1. How to Run a Church-Based Bible School 2. The Missionary Program for the Local Church 3. Motivating Members to Witness 4. Giving Bible Studies 5. Small Group Ministry 6. Personal Witnessing 7. Methods of Door-to-Door Visitation 8. Bringing People to Decisions for Christ 9. The Work of the Personal Ministry Leader 10. Synopsis of Reaching and Winning 11. Health Evangelism 12. Reclaiming the Missing 13. Sermon Preparation 14. Public Evangelism 15. Principles of Church Growth 16. Adventist Community Services 17. Prison Ministries 2 Introduction God has called every Seventh-day Adventist Church be a transforming agent in its community, following the methods of Jesus to bring help and hope through ministries of compassion in His name (see Luke 4:16-21; Ministry of Healing, p. 143). Adventist Community Services (ACS) is the descriptive label for a wide range of public services provided by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is also the name of the denomination’s community action agency that operates at the church level. (See chapter 2 for explanation of the difference between ACS and ADRA.) Even though problems such as poverty, disease, disaster, and other social problems are multiplying around the world, there is a positive side to this challenge. These ever-present problems present unlimited opportunities for God’s people to experience the joy of service in providing compassionate care that alleviates and prevents suffering. This opens doors to reach people with the hope of Jesus Christ in the midst of their struggles. The Seventh-day Adventist Church at the highest level has renewed its commitment to community services and redoubled its efforts to support and encourage this important ministry. The 2001 World Survey of church members revealed, among other things, that only 29% of our members are involved in their community. Findings from the World Survey are reflected in the Adventist church’s “Tell the World Initiative,” which has seven areas of emphasis: spiritual growth, community involvement, personal witness, city outreach, church planting, evangelistic programming, and media ministry. Goals have been set for each area of emphasis. One of the goals is to raise our community involvement to 40% by the year 2010. We are inviting you to join us in meeting that goal. This Adventist Community Services leaflet is a tool for creating an organized response to the needs in your community. It is intended for an international audience. The church in North America has its own extensive handbook— Ministries of Compassion, published by AdventSource—from which this leaflet has been adapted. (We use the term “ministries of compassion” to refer to any kind of helping ministry). The ACS leaflet is intended for guidance on the fundamentals of starting or growing community services ministries and is not a policy book. While it replaces Lay Activities Leaflet No. 10 (1976) it does not replace any policy documents or manuals produced by any division, union, or local conference. Some of the ACS leaflet’s contents may need to be adapted to suit the policies and procedures of the country or Seventh-day Adventist divisions where it is used. The principles of organization described herein are time-tested, so they should be considered a strong basis for establishing an effective Adventist Community Services program and ministry; however, the local situation must prevail. Chapters 1 through 4 and chapter 6 are foundational for any type of program. Chapter 5 discusses specific ministry areas. 3 We affirm those individuals and churches, large or small, who are already involved in the community. It is our prayer that this tool will help you think through how your church can be more involved in the community; bringing hope and healing to people in the name of Jesus. General Conference Sabbath School & Personal Ministries Department/ Adventist Community Services International 4 Table of Contents Chapter 1 ………. Why Adventist Ministries of Compassion? Chapter 2 ………. The Mission of Adventist Community Services Chapter 3 ………. Organization Chapter 4 ………. Starting a Community Services Program Chapter 5 ………. Special Programs Chapter 6 ………. Witnessing through Community Services Chapter 7 ………. Resources 5 Chapter 1 – Why Adventist Ministries of Compassion On Sabbath morning, during Sabbath School and church, skate boarders can often be seen riding past the main doors of the Central Coast Community Church (CCCC) in Wyong, NSW, Australia. The church meets in a community youth center facility, next to a skate board park. The CCCC members were excited about moving in to the centre as the skate boarders were part of the group the church wanted to reach. CCCC is committed to being a church that holistically serves its community. For several years, CCCC church members have provided breakfast five days a week at the local Public Elementary School in conjunction with Sanitarium Health Food Company. This school has many students from needy families. Eventually, the church was asked to provide an Adventist chaplain for this public school. Pastor Wayne Krause and his members believe that the local church should be the place where people with all types of challenges in their lives are made welcome, and feel loved and forgiven. Starting with three individuals, this church now has an attendance of more than two hundred. CCCC members believe that working in the community is just as important as working within the local church. All CCCC members sign a covenant of commitment to their church after attending a membership class. Part of that covenant is that they will be involved in a ministry in the community. Church leadership encourages people to join other organizations in the community rather than set up all of them themselves. Central Coast Community Church has three members who were involved in witchcraft, and at least one former prostitute. Members of a heavy metal band found Christ there. Heroin addicts are attending church. They have a Sabbath School class that is a smoking class. It started by accident with people who felt accepted at their church even though they smoked. Since the community youth center where the church meets is a public area, where smoking is not allowed, the smokers would gather in an outside gazebo to smoke. Someone noticed this and started a Sabbath School class there. Pastor Krause has what he calls his office at a Gloria Jeans coffee shop in Borders Bookstore in the local shopping mall in Australia. He spends quite a bit of time there, doing counseling, Bible studies, and running a small group. The people who run the coffee shop take appointments for him, and he has already been asked to conduct three weddings for the staff. One person from Borders has attended CCCC and the owner of the coffee shop has jokingly said he will put a cross on one of the tables so people know Pastor Wayne is there. . . . Called to Holistic Ministry Those who wait for Christ to return have been given a special purpose on earth. “I have sent them into the world,” Christ declared as He prayed in the garden before His 6 crucifixion (John 17:18). And as He ascended into heaven, He directed His followers to “go and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). The imperative verb in this text is “make disciples.” The other three verbs—”go,” “baptize,” and “teach” are all helping verbs; elements in the key process of making disciples. The fundamental mission of the church is to find, persuade and encourage men and women, boys and girls to be followers of Christ— doers of the word and not just hearers (James 1:22). To make disciples it is necessary first to go “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8), and establish a ministry of presence with “every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelation 7:9). Even before winning a hearing with any people group, Christ’s servants can begin to demonstrate His compassion. Adventists work to “first meet the temporal needs” and “then find an open avenue to the heart” where they can “plant the good seeds of virtue and religion” (Ellen White in Testimonies for the Church, Volume 4, page 227). The display of compassion for the hurting, the poor and the unjustly treated is testimony to the truth about God. Throughout scripture God unfailingly urges compassion for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow. (Deuteronomy 14:29, James 1:27) “Our God is full of compassion,” exults Psalm 116. “He rises to show you compassion,” exclaims the prophet Isaiah, because “the Lord is a God of justice” (Isaiah 30:18). Jesus focused His ministry on the needs of people. In Luke 4:17-19 He makes His first public statement of what His life and ministry are all about. Verse 17 records that “he found the place,”so this was not an accidental selection. Verses 18-19 claim divine anointing of His work, and state several purposes or goals: “to preach good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed . . .” Often we “spiritualize” this text, declaring that the poverty is spiritual, not economic; that the prisoner and oppressed are under religious oppression, not physical bondage, etc. That is not an honest presentation of the text. The original language is very clear. Christ is speaking of real low-income people, real incarcerated criminals, real victims of disease and social injustice. He is reading from Isaiah 61, and it is clearly a passage referring to God’s intention to establish a Kingdom for His people in which there will be no more poverty, injustice, violence, disease, unhappiness and despair. However, the economically poor are not the only ones who have needs that God’s people can address. All populations—poor, middle class, and rich—should be served by Adventist Community Services. Acts of social concern testify to the very core truth of salvation. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives” for others, asserts the New Testament. If a believer sees someone in need “but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in” that believer? Christ’s love must not be portrayed only “with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth” (I John 3:16-18). 7 Demonstrations of compassion for the disadvantaged and downtrodden are a tangible evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence (Isa 61:1-4). They provide the “look and feel” of Christ’s message, just as surely as preaching, teaching and various print and electronic media provide the content. The Adventist Church should be known as a place where those in crisis will find comfort, and those without hope will find a “Blessed Hope.” God has given very specific commands to His people to stand up for social justice. “If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him.… Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. You must not…sell him food at profit” (Leviticus 25:35-37). The prophets repeatedly warn in God’s name, “woe to those who make unjust laws…to deprive the poor of their rights and rob my oppressed people of justice, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless” (Isaiah 10:1-2). In fact, the Bible connects the Christian obligation to work for social justice to Sabbath keeping. Isaiah 58 is a chapter that Ellen White urges Adventists to read regularly. It is addressed to people who are devout believers who, God says, “are eager to know my ways” (verse 2), who fast and pray (verse 3). But God condemns them for “breaking the Sabbath” (verse 13) because they exploit workers, quarrel and seek their own selfish advantage. God says that the kind of worship He demands is “to loose the chains of injustice…to set the oppressed free…to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor with shelter,” (verses 6-7) and promises that “if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday” (verse 10). Social Action in the End Time Christ places special emphasis on social concern as a mark of His people in the end time. In Matthew 24-25 we find Christ’s most extensive teaching about His second coming. At the beginning of the passage, the disciples want to know, “when…and what will be the sign of your coming?” (verse 3) Jesus takes several steps and many verses throughout the two chapters to answer this question, beginning with “Watch out that no one deceives you” (verse 4). Christ speaks a little of signs of the end, but uses many more words to teach us how to wait for His return. In chapter 25, He uses the parable of the ten bridesmaids to teach us to be careful not to become spiritually weary and lax while we are waiting for Him, and then uses the parable of the talents to teach us that as we wait we are expected to use our abilities and resources in continuing His ministry. Christ brings His teaching to a climax by giving us a picture of the great, final judgment. In it He portrays God as deciding who to save on the basis of whether or not his followers fed the hungry, housed the homeless, cared for the poor, treated the sick and visited the prisoner. Those who are lost are quoted as saying that they ignored the 8 problems of poverty, justice and hunger because they did not see God as involved in these issues. God condemns them by saying, “whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me” (verse 45). Truly social justice and the ministry of compassion is an important part of Adventist eschatology. Why is social action so important to Adventists who believe that Christ will come soon to rescue us from the problems in society? Because it is a living witness to our soon- returning Lord. When we take a stand for justice, compassion and healing, we demonstrate the values of the coming Kingdom. Social Action and Adventist Heritage So what is the origin of the common myth that Seventh-day Adventists don’t get involved in social action? So long as Ellen White was alive, she constantly emphasized the balanced, holistic mission of God’s remnant church. (See her books Ministry of Healing, Christian Service and Welfare Ministry.) It’s interesting that Bible Readings for the Home has a section entitled, “Our Duty to the Poor.” There you will find a doctrinal study on social concern that was taught as a regular part of the baptismal preparation of all converts up until the 1920’s. It appears that Adventism has lost this important part of its original teachings through the years, but that does not make it any less a part of historic Seventh-day Adventist faith. The interest of many younger Seventh-day Adventists in social action, the growing ministry of ACS and ADRA, and new proposals for inner city projects and homeless ministries are all a solid part of the Seventh-day Adventist heritage. They are an important part of what the Bible teaches, and thus an important part of what it means to be Adventist. The Ministry of the Laity The mission of Christ is equally the responsibility of every person who believes on Him. “To each one…is given” some ability, and therefore some responsibility, to minister in Christ’s name (1 Corinthians 12:7). The Holy Spirit provides “gifts” that enable believers to engage in “service” (1 Corinthians 12:4-5). To “each” believer “gifts” have been given “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:7-12). Many examples of spiritual gifts are given in the New Testament teaching, evangelism, etc. One mentioned in Romans 12:8 is the gift of “showing mercy.” The Greek word used here is also translated “compassion” elsewhere. (See Matthew 18:33, Mark 5:19 and Jude 22.) God calls the laity to be ministers of compassion just as surely as He calls prophets and preachers. 9 A healthy, Spirit-driven congregation does not wait passively for people to come to the church and its activities, but proactively reaches out to the surrounding community and the wider world. It works intentionally, as Christ did, to “mingle with people…show sympathy to them and minister to their needs.” (Ellen White in Ministry of Healing, page 143.) It provides a range of services that meet the expressed needs of persons in the community. Adventist service projects that are church-sponsored and community-based portray an authentic, Spirit-guided ministry of compassion. Even though they do much good, private projects conducted by individuals do not fully reflect God’s intentions. The process of building teamwork is so fundamental in developing Adventist Community Services activities. Welcome to Our Church! The Adventist Church is increasingly multicultural, and very often the residents in the neighborhoods where a local church reaches out are of a different generation or sub cultural background than the majority of those who make up the congregation. Since Seventh-day Adventists believe that the remnant people of God are made up of “every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev. 7:9), any congregation that wants to reach out must be willing to welcome into its midst men, women and children of quite different cultural experiences than their own. Intellectual consent to this idea and the actual practice of hospitality are two separate steps in this process. A healthy, growing local church will practice real, tangible hospitality that can be felt by newcomers from a variety of backgrounds. The lay leaders in the congregation will be “given to hospitality” (1 Timothy 3:2). Intentional efforts will be made to educate church members, change prejudiced attitudes, and create conditions under which all can be made to feel truly welcome. Be Visible and Active in the Community Adventist Community Services works to foster a strong public awareness of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a caring, Christ-centered resource in the community. A growing, healthy Adventist congregation works to make itself visible in the community and known as an asset to the neighborhood. ACS programs and personnel are key tools in this effort. If a Seventh-day Adventist group really wants to effectively serve in Christ’s name, it must begin with a careful effort to hear and understand the perceived needs of those it wishes to serve. Attempts to “force feed” the public on topics about which it has little or no interest will only widen the gap, rather than bridge it. Needs assessment can be carried out with a wide variety of tools: analysis of demographic and other available information, telephone and door-to-door surveys, interviews or meetings with community leaders, focus group research, etc. (more on needs assessment in chapter 4). 10