WYC 2008: Something Better

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GYC West

Don Mackintosh: Something Better -- Present Reality and Adventist History

Don Mackintosh

A Revival of Restoration (Health) Ministry

A Revival of Adoration Ministry

A Revival of Proclamation Ministry

Some early statistics of Adventist evangelism.

The annual rate of membership increase from 1870 to 1880 was approximately 12 percent.

Enlarging the church rolls from 5, 440 members to 15, 570 members.

And this was really led by having these large evangelistic camp meetings.

And by the way, camp meetings were always supposed to be evangelistic.

They weren't supposed to be these myopic, navel-gazing, rotating of the chair on the Titanic, situations we often encounter today.

And I am delighted that there's a new breath of fresh air coming to Camp Means.

I was at a camp meeting recently in Arizona where they had Doug Batchelor there, and they got a satellite truck and they uplinked the signal from that campgrounds in the middle of the Yavapines campgrounds and they uplinked it to the entire – Anyone that was watching on Fox in Phoenix.

That's what we're going to be doing with our camp meetings.

It always makes you, keeps you on the path if you have some non-members who are there.

So, these large of, or you could just come up front.

I mean, there's not like there's many seats missing here.

So, the large evangelistic camp meetings were something else.

Bible work, canvassing, health work coupled with public evangelism really led to the approximate 12% enlargement of the church roles.

However, by 1900, institutional preoccupations were at last depressing evangelistic enterprise in North America despite a continuing advance abroad." So, you know, even though things were growing, North America started to go down.

So the early zeal for camp meetings and evangelistic camp meetings, this is my great aunt May, Even though that was going on, this is my great-grandfather's tents for his camp meeting.

He pitched it next to the seminary here in Clinton, Missouri, the old German seminary.

It was at the same time Conradi was there trying to talk people out of some of their confidence in Ellen White.

He baptized 5 of the seminary professors.

This is my great aunt being baptized way back there in Clinton, Missouri by my great-grandfather Malcolm.

The basic method during this period was a proliferation of small one-man tent meetings.

Adventist tent meetings were characterized more by small group teaching than by evangelistic oratory before large audiences.

So they had this going out with small one-man tent meetings.

We have our evangelists going in smaller meetings and bigger meetings all the time.

The evangelistic results however began to plummet.

Institutional infrastructure continued to expand.

So at the same time the institutions were expanding, evangelism started to fail.

However, the institutions were always spoken of in evangelistic terms, you know, things like Emmanuel Missionary College and College of Medical Evangelists, and at least there was this whole idea that the institutions themselves were to be evangelistic.

When Ellen White returned from Australia, oh sorry, sorry you can't see that.

Remember she had been sent on an extended vacation to Australia.

And you know, she had struggled over that.

The general conference wanted to send her, but they left the decision, final decision up to her.

And she prayed over it and she finally said, I will go where the brethren want me to go.

And she went there, and of course, as you know, Avondale College was started there.

At the same time, there were several colleges started here.

That's why She wrote Testimonies, Volume 6.

So if you're planning on starting a school or, you know, all those different kind of things, Testimonies, Volume 6 is a great thing to read.

Also the sanitarium work, a great thing to read.

Like for instance, if you had like a hands-on medical type thing you were trying to get involved in.

So, which by the way is an excellent school for those of you listening if you want to go somewhere for a great school.

First of all, a streamlining of church organization.

She says, look, we got to dump the plum, so to speak.

And secondly, an aggressive plan of city evangelists.

1901, General Conference, she said, look, we need to reorganize and refocus.

And she went right to the front and said, we must reorganize.

My great-grandfather was there, and I had his notes on that meeting, and he was quite impressed with her presence at that time.

In 1904, of all the North American conferences combined, all the North American conferences combined, had a membership of 60, 000.

Many institutions and they had a tied income of more than half a million dollars and they reported a net increase however of only 1, 300 members.

So even though they had this, all these members, They'd only had 1, 325 members that joined.

And Ellen White was not happy about this.

Her comments seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

6 years later in 1907, White said, we stand rebuked by God because the large cities right within our sight are unworked and unworn.

The terrible charge of neglect is brought against those who have been long in the work in this very America and yet have not entered the large cities.

We have done none too much for foreign lands, but we have done comparatively nothing for the great cities beside our own doors." And White declared explicitly to A.G.

Daniels, voices are to be heard in every city proclaiming the last message of mercy to the world." So she said, look, you need to be in those cities.

2 years later, 1909 General Conference, there was still no change.

Now how many think this lady has been kind of patient?

1902, now 1909, She's kind of patient but she's running out of time with her biological clock, right?

She's getting close to, well, she died at 19 what?

So, astonishingly, with few more than 1, 200 ministerial workers in the entire world, Daniels revealed that more than 500 persons had been drawn since 1901 into the administrative circle for which he believed would render greater administrative efficiency.

This about sent Ellen White as nearly ballistic as she could get, right?

Daniels was content to report that during the quadrennium, world church membership had increased by 16, 000 or 4% growth, but he didn't, he failed to mention it in his little statistical whitewash that the Adventist growth picture in the United States had only increased by 1% per year.

Well, scant lip service was paid to the Whites, to Whites council to work the large cities with the session adopting plans that while good as far as they went did not emphasize systematic public evangelism.

Prescott had their own focuses at that time.

Daniels wanted to focus on organizational issues.

Prescott wanted more scholarly search for theological truth, and he did a lot of work, a lot of good work, but he just was studying away.

The diffident approach of Daniels and Prescott to the problem of city evangelism, their tendency to concentrate on organization and theology, their failure at the 1909 session to respond to her past appeals to do otherwise were too much to bear.

For Ellen White, she sought an immediate audience with the members of the General Conference Committee and spoke to them in severe terms of what she considered to be their duty." How many of you have wished that she could be resurrected today and attend the next conference?

You know, I think there might be a little whitewashing.

By the way, I think it might be different than then.

I think we really do focus on evangelism as a church today.

Series

Don Mackintosh: Something Better -- Present Reality and Adventist History

A Revival of Proclamation Ministry

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

2. Discipline

1h

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

7. Guile

57m

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

4. Antioch

59m

Being Adventist

Born Adventist or Born Again?

1h 2m

Our Soul-Winning Bottleneck

1h

How to Engage People In Our Modern Age With Our Unique Message

1h

Experiencing Righteousness Through Faith in Christ

2. Power of the Word Brings the Righteousness of Christ

41m

Plenary

Our Greatest Need

1h 30m

2. Live

45m

You Know Enough, Part 2

22m

Revival of True Discipleship

1h

Plenary

A Thousand Shall Run

1h 44m

Sound Doctrine