The Family of God
1998 Annual Council Keynote Address
By: R S Folkenberg

I. Introduction

Can you name your grandparents? And tell where they were born -- and when? How about your great-grandparents? Your great-great grandparents?

Increasing numbers of people today can tell you not only the names and birth dates of their great-great grandparents, but the names of their great-great-great grandparents! Men and women pour over ancient census records and birth certificates and other documents in courthouses, archives, and increasingly on the Internet. Web sites dealing with genealogy number in the thousands.

Why are so many people interested in their ancestors? Do they hope to find a king or queen in their blood line? I believe genealogical research is popular because the world is becoming increasingly more impersonal.

As life becomes more fragmented, people want something permanent, something that gives them a sense of who they are. They search for their family roots to find refuge and belonging. Every human being has an inner longing for family. There is something within us which longs to belong. Sociologists tell us there are some needs which can only be fulfilled in the context of loving family relationships.

This is true not only of our biological family but also of our spiritual family -- God's church.

II. If we belong to God--if we are His son or daughter--then we belong to His family, the church. (Ephesians 2:19-22).

The Bible speaks of "God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15). Paul speaks of "God's household" and says that its members are. . . "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him [Christ] you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Ephesians 2:19-22).

You see, if God is our Father, if Jesus Christ is our "Elder Brother," then what does that make you and me? It makes us God's children. It makes us part of God's heavenly family that is build on the foundation of Jesus Christ and the apostles and the prophets and all the sons and daughters of God that have lived down through the ages since creation of our world! As sons and daughters of God, we are related to Adam and Moses, Isaiah and Malachi, Matthew and Peter and all the Bible heros of faith.

What do you think about when you hear the word, "family?" All of us have experienced a human family of some kind or another. Some of us have known close, loving families with parents who watched over us and nurtured us in love. So when we hear that we belong to God's heavenly family, we naturally see God's family in those same warm, loving terms.

For others, however, the idea of "family" does NOT bring to mind warmth, love, and security. In this bent and broken world some family relationships have also become bent and broken. Some of us have survived families in which abuse, not love, was the norm. We've had fathers and mothers who have hurt us. When that has been our experience, the idea of "family" is not something we want to belong to at all.

Whether your experience with your family here on earth has been positive or negative--listen to the way John talks about belonging to God's family. He exclaims:  "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! . . . Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he [Jesus] appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:1-3).

Did you hear that? We are God's children--now! You and I are sons and daughters in God's family. We are part of a spiritual family that includes the Godhead, the angels, and the unfallen beings of worlds throughout the universe, as well as God's people here on earth in every age. God's family here on earth--the church--is an extension of His family in heaven.

The English poet, John Donne, was certainly correct when he wrote in his Meditations, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." We are not "island universes" designed to live separately from one another. We are God's children, part of God's family, connected to one another by a common commitment to Christ, a common doctrine and mission. In Christ we are one--we are His children. A mosaic of languages, cultures and customs become one in Christ, because God is our Father.

A. God's church is characterized by love among the members, one for another. (John 13:34, 35).

More than anything else, love is the defining characteristic of those who are members of God's family. Jesus says clearly:  "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34, 35).

That's absolutely clear. Love is the quintessential defining characteristic of God's church. Some of us may have experienced life in dysfunctional families, but the quality of life in God's family is defined by love.

Wherever we find a lack of love for one another in God's church, to that degree we have failed. Wherever there is favoritism, or jockeying for position, or taking unfair advantage or a critical, faultfinding spirit, the church has failed to live up to its defining characteristic of love. You know, at the General Conference I get a lot of mail from church members around the world. I'm happy to say that most of it is very positive. But some of it is not.

I get letters taking the leadership of the church to task, critical of this action or that decision. And I'm amazed sometimes at the acid that drips from some of these letters from people who claim to love their church! Obviously, there is a place for constructive dialogue between brothers and sisters, but we must do so in love, in the spirit of Jesus.

I'm bewildered at how some who claim to love their Lord and love His church--His family--can manifest such an unloving, hostile, faultfinding attitude toward other family members. When I read some of these letters or read what some groups put into print, I think of what the apostle John says:  "Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands." (1 John 5:1, 2).

Did you get what John is saying here? If we love God, our heavenly Father, we will also love His children--our brothers and sisters. You can't love God without loving His children as well. And in case we don't quite understand, John spells it out even more clearly:  "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he [God] has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother" (1 John 4:19-21).

I want to ask you right now: Is love the motivating force behind all that you do--love for God's family? Love for one another?

The love that we must have for each other and for the world is not just any kind of love. It is the same kind of love that Jesus has for you and me--the self-sacrificing, unselfish, totally other-directed love that caused Jesus Christ to leave heaven and give His life on a cross for sinners who misunderstood and mistreated Him. He says, "As I have love you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34).

Here is something to think about! The Bible describes the church as a family. Christ is the husband. The church is His bride. There will be a great wedding--a union of the husband, Jesus, and the bride, His church, when He comes. The husband longs for the wedding.

Let's suppose you are preparing for a wedding and some well-meaning person begins criticizing your bride-to-be. They even print a booklet about her sins. They even get the wedding list of your friends and write a monthly newsletter criticizing your bride-to-be. How will you feel? Hurt, saddened, upset--to say the least. We do no honor to Jesus when we criticize His bride-- even if His bride is not yet perfect. I am convinced Christ weeps when self-appointed critics tear down His church.

So the first thing that characterizes God's church--His family--is the love that exists between the members, one for another.

B. God's church is characterized by unity among the members. (John 17:20, 21, 23).

The second defining characteristic of God's church is unity. Jesus prayed to His Father shortly before His crucifixion:

"I pray also for those who will believe in me . . . that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also . . . be brought to complete unity" (John 17:20, 21, 23).

Just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one--so the members of God's church are to be one. Jesus spent the final precious moments of His life here on earth praying that you and I and all His people would be united in Him--united in our love for Him and for each other. Today the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a world church with 10 million members in almost every country on earth. We speak and preach in hundreds of languages and dialects, live in diverse cultures, belong to many nations and races, and have different educational and economic backgrounds. But we are all one in Christ!

Spiritual unity rejects any form of discrimination within the body, whether it is ethnic, cultural, or racial. Billy Graham was asked during a television interview recently, "If you could wave a magic wand and make one sin disappear, what would that sin be?" Dr. Graham thought for a moment and answered, "racism. I would make the sin of racism go away. It has done so much harm to the human family. In the history of our world, look at all of the people that have been hurt because of racism."

I think Billy Graham is correct. The history of our world is full of examples of how racism has harmed whole nations of people-Hitler's atrocities against Jews during his reign of terror in Germany, or the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans were enslaved and denied their civil rights up until the early sixties.

If I could pray one sin away within our worldwide church family, it would be the sin of racism. Where the racism in a society is mirrored in the church, the church has abandoned its spiritual unity and conformed to the prevailing culture. And as world church leader, based on the authority of the word, racist conformity is sin. Does not God tell us, "be not conformed, but be transformed?" (Rom. 12:1, 2).

In spite of our differences we have one great unifying bond that overshadows all else: We are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord! As I have traveled to various parts of the world to meet with our members, I have been impressed by the underlying unity that holds us together as a church family. . . .

We all love the same Jesus. We all believe the same truths. We all plan to live together one day soon in heaven.

But notice that Jesus prayed for unity among the members of His church--not uniformity. There will always be room for different ideas, different cultures, different ways of looking at things in God's family. Just as the members of our human families here on earth have different personalities and ways of approaching life, so in God's family there will be latitude for differences as well.

God doesn't expect us all to see things exactly alike. He doesn't expect us all to worship Him in precisely the same ways. Our unity does not require a uniformity in which every member is a carbon copy, a clone, of every other member of the family. Oh how I wish we could all understand that better than we do! Our motto should be, "Unity in Diversity."

Unity on the message that we have been commissioned to preach to the world in these last days.

In a drawer of my workbench at home I have two or three locks for which I have lost the keys. I haven't thrown them out, because I keep thinking I'll find keys that fit.

Likewise, I have some loose keys that I no longer know what they go with. Unfortunately, they don't fit the locks! Both a lock and a key are useless unless they work perfectly together as an inter-related unity to accomplish the purpose for which they were created. It's the same with God's church. God is calling for unity of purpose to accomplish our mission--a unity between

So the second defining characteristic of God's church is unity--oneness--the same spiritual oneness that exists between the members of the Godhead in heaven.

C. God's church is characterized by accountability to each other among the members. (Genesis 4:9; Philippians 2:4).

A third defining characteristic of God's church is accountability among the members for each other. Cain asked God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9). And people have been asking that question ever since. "What responsibility do I have for others?" "What accountability do I have to the body?" "What authority does the body have over me and my actions?"

Paul makes it clear that we are indeed our brother's keeper--our sister's keeper--in the sense that we are to be willing to take on responsibility for each other. Paul says:  "Each of you [church members at Philippi] should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Philippians 2:4).

Then Paul immediately continues with the example of Jesus who although He is in very nature God, was willing to empty Himself and become human and die on a cross for the good of humanity. And that, says Paul, is precisely the attitude that we should have for each other in the church--the unselfish, self-emptying attitude of Christ.

Jesus Christ took responsibility for sin although He was not to blame for it. He assumed accountability for the sins of the world and became subject to the authority of sin and suffered the penalty of sin in order to set us free.

"Authority" and "accountability" are not words that most of us like to hear. There is something about human nature that doesn't want to accept authority or to be accountable--especially in the current social environment that questions the establishment and resists authority of any kind. We don't want others to make decisions for us. We resist authority; we resist being accountable to the body.

Authority in God's family doesn't operate on the same basis as does authority in worldly institutions or settings. Authority in God's church is not on the basis of the majority rules. Rather authority in God's church rests on a mutual willingness to be accountable to each other, to be willing to be self-sacrificing for the good of the whole body.

For example, a local conference has a wider role of authority in the church than, say, a local congregation--not because the conference is more important, but because it represents a larger, more comprehensive portion of God's family. The more of the family that is involved, the greater the authority, because of the need to be accountable to one another.

In our human families, the issue of authority becomes a test of our love. Will children love their parents enough to trust them to make right decisions? Will they accept the decisions parents make? Will spouses love each other enough to be accountable to each other; to accept the authority of the other in different areas of their lives?

It's the same in our spiritual lives. God uses the issue of authority as a test of our love for Him. He asks us, on an individual basis, to submit our wills to Him. "If you love me," Jesus said, "You will obey what I command" (John 15:15). Obedience, accepting God's authority, is evidence of the reality and genuine nature of our love for Him.

As God's church, we need to be accountable to each other--we need to take into consideration the larger picture than just our own needs and wants and desires.

Every local congregation must be concerned about both its local needs--and the needs of the world church. Every local conference must be as concerned about the needs of the "world field" as about those of the "local field." Likewise unions and divisions and the General Conference must be concerned about the needs of congregations and local conferences and missions.

D. What God's church is NOT.

Yes, ... love ... unity ... accountability ... define God's church. But there are three things that God's church is NOT.

1. God's church is not just an organization like any other human institution.

God's church is not just a religious version of the Rotary Club or the Chamber of Commerce or the Red Cross. We are not just boosters of God's kingdom in the community, doing good works and providing social services. Certainly, we need to be doing good works and we should be providing services that help individuals and the community. But God's church is more than just an organization like any other human organization.

The church on earth is the visible presence of Christ. It is His body, and we are each individual members of that body. The members of God's church have been called "out of darkness into his [God's] wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9). God's church is not merely a human organization like any other. It is a spiritual institution, the visible presence of God Himself in this world.

2. God's church is not a family to which we can belong automatically by birth.

We are born into a particular human family without any decision on our part. Simply by virtue of being born, we become a part of a particular family. But that is not true in God's family. We aren't simply born into the church.

Now I know the Bible speaks of being "born again," and there is a sense which the new birth is the entrance into God's family. But more accurately, we are "adopted" into God's family rather than simply being "born" into it. Adoption implies choice and decision and action. A baby who is adopted into a family is adopted because someone has made a conscious decision to bring that child into the family and make it a member of the family.

I know of a young pastoral couple who adopted a lovely baby son a few years ago. They tell their experience in picking up their new baby at the airport in these words.

"We looked at the TV flight monitor. Only five minutes to landing. It seemed like an eternity. 4-3-2-1. . . the plane was on the ground. Our hearts beat with anticipation. We were flooded with excitement. Passengers began disembarking. Then we saw her--the adoption agency "agent" carrying our son. We could hardly stand it. We rushed to her and held out our arms."

God rushed to the cross and stretched out His arms on a wooden bar to adopt us into His family. But just as every adopted child ultimately has a choice to be part of his newly adopted family, God has given us the choice of being part of His church.

Being born into a Christian family does not automatically make one a Christian. We are part of the family by choice, not by birth.

3. God's church is not the visible trappings--the buildings, the organizational structure, the institutions.

Too often we identify God's church with the structure--the buildings, the institutions, the committees, the policies. Those things are necessary, and we thank God for them, but God's church is not made up of these things. God's church is people.

A family is not made up of the house in which they live and the car they drive and the things they own.

A family is people and the relationships that exist between them--the love and trust and commitment and taking care of each other. The church is made up of people who are committed to a spiritual relationship with each other and with God.

E. God's church is characterized by mission (Matthew 28:19, 20).

The fourth and final characteristic of God's church is its commitment to the mission given it by Jesus Christ Himself. Just before He left this earth to return to heaven, Jesus solemnly gave his people a special mission: "Therefore go," the Saviour said, "and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:19, 20).

In the early days of the church, as recorded in the book of Acts, "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47).

From its beginning, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has had a zeal to share Jesus and His special truths for these last days with the world. We believe that God has given us a unique message to give before He comes--a message that no other church or group has been given to share. A message of tremendous importance to the well being of men and women everywhere here at the end of the twentieth century. Like the heart and its lifeblood, evangelism and the Seventh-day Adventist Church belong together.

God has called each one of us individually to engage in mission. However, our individual witness is designed to be carried forward in the context of the church in preparation of His coming.

Living the message and giving the message are inseparable. We cannot live it without giving it, and neither can we really give it if we aren't living it. All true witness flows out of our experience. Jesus told His disciples,. . . "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

So God's church is defined by a commitment to mission. The truth is that witnessing is absolutely vital to a growing relationship with Jesus--both individually and corporately.

Just as we cannot be healthy physically if we continue to take in nourishment without expending energy in exercise, neither can we be healthy spiritually if never give as well as receive.

If we know Jesus personally, we will naturally want to share that wonderful experience with others. Witnessing will become an almost unconscious outworking of our love relationship with Him. Our lives will reflect Him. Our church will reflect Him.

We believe that this church is God's remnant church in these last days. We still believe that God has given us truth that the world needs to hear before Jesus comes.

Like God's remnant people in centuries past, we have been given a message that will test the hearts of men and women and require them to make choices. But we must always speak the truth in love. We must lift up the Savior and allow the incomprehensible love demonstrated in His life and death to draw sinners to Him.

III Conclusion

In 1955 John Napoli, an Italian fisherman, carefully guided his vessel through the Golden Gate Bridge approaching San Francisco's harbor. Early one morning in the dense fog, there was a sense of joy in Napoli's heart. He had an outstanding catch aboard --3,000 lbs. of fish that would produce a handsome sum in San Francisco's fish markets. He was weary, tired, and the fog was dense. But suddenly in front of him, Napoli caught a glimpse of a large object. Could it be? It was. A ship had gone aground.

The hospital ship, Netherlands, had run aground in the dense fog of San Francisco Bay. As Napoli strained his eyes even further, he noticed movement in the water. People seemed to be everywhere crying for help. He guided his vessel, and with his strong Italian fisherman's arms pulled one man aboard. Then another and another and still another. Soon there was no room for any other person aboard the boat.

Napoli had to make a difficult choice. He made it immediately. He threw overboard a keg of fish and pulled on another person. And soon 3,000 lbs. of fish were thrown overboard to the bottom of the San Francisco Bay and 38 people were aboard his boat with others hanging on the side as Napoli sped into harbor.

Years later in San Francisco, I'm told, people would come up to John Napoli, throw their arms around him and say, "Thank you for saving my life on that foggy morning in San Francisco Bay." Fathers would come up and say, "Mr. Napoli, thank you for saving my son," as they gripped his hand. Wives would come up and say, "Thank you for saving my husband."

John Napoli made a choice that day. Only one thing mattered--pulling men and women out of the dark, murky, foggy waters to safety.

Is there some keg of fish on your administrative agenda? Is there something that needs to be thrown overboard? The purpose of the church is evangelism and discipling souls for the Kingdom. And if it means throwing some things overboard to save people, I say let's do it. What do you say?

I pray to God that at this Annual Council we will keep focused on the one thing that really matters--saving men and women for the kingdom of God. I pray to God that at this Annual Council our agendas will vote policies that will lead to the saving of souls.

But let me be a little more personal this evening. Is there some keg of fish in your life?

What a privilege it is to be part of God's family. With the apostle John we can only stand in awe at the love of God who has chosen us to be His sons and daughters. John says: "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! . . . Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he [Jesus] appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:1-3).

God has a work to do in us. We are God's children--now! We belong to His family--now! But a day is coming soon when we will see our heavenly Father face to face! The family of God on earth will be merged with the family of God in heaven. We will live with him in our new home on the new earth. Here is how Revelation describes it: "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. . . . He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son" (Revelation 21:3, 7).

Home at last! Eternity in God's family! What an enchanting picture of the future that God has prepared for each of us. But we need to begin living now the kind of Christ-centered life that we will live throughout eternity.

"Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he [Jesus] appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:1-3).

Do you want to join me in expressing your gratitude that even now--right now--God has made you his son or daughter? Do you want to express your commitment to living in His family here day by day and someday soon continuing that family relationship with Him for eternity in the earth made new?

Let's join together as His sons and daughters in prayer right now.

Copyright © 1998 by R S Folkenberg