Total Commitment to God
1996 Annual Council Keynote Address
By: R S Folkenberg
Open your Bibles with me to 2 Corinthians 13:5-8: "{5} Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test? {6} And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. {7} Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Not that people will see that we have stood the test but that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. {8} For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
What was the most difficult test or evaluation you've ever experienced? A geometry examination in academy? A calculus or German test in college? An anatomy or physical chemistry test at the university? A Greek or Hebrew test at the seminary?
I've experienced quite a few tests in life that spring to my mind when I think of challenges I've faced. One in particular stands out.
(ILL) Events leading up to this particular test began about four o'clock one morning about 125 miles out over the Pacific Ocean while I was flying an Aztec, (a small, twin-engine aircraft) on my way to California from Guatemala. Due to inadequate weather information, I found myself in big trouble. I had ended up on the wrong side of a line of thunderstorms, which I learned later was the tail of a hurricane, and they were pushing me toward Hawaii, not my destination, California!
While I was penetrating the line of storms, and just after a flash of lightening had momentarily blinded me, I promised myself that if I survived this flight, I was going to trade in the poorly equipped Aztec for a plane with radar and engines that would help me fly over violent storms and that I was going to get advanced flight training.
I knew advanced flight training was going to be difficult, very difficult, because the next step up was the "big one" -- the Airline Transport Pilot's rating. For years I had heard horror stories about the difficulties of passing the examinations to get this coveted license.
Furlough was approaching, so I shared with Anita the safety reasons why it was important to get this license -- with which she agreed, since she and our children frequently flew with me. Then I began to make plans. I found a highly qualified Seventh-day Adventist instructor, Aubrey Kinzer, who lived in Southern California and was willing to accept me as a student and provide me with intense flight training.
I knew the date when our furlough ended and we needed to return to Central America, so I marked on my calendar that I should try to schedule my oral and flight tests for two days before our departure. Then I worked my way back on the calendar as I figured out when I would have to take the challenging, eight to ten hour written examination and the number of days it would take the Federal Aviation Administration to grade my written test and send me the results, because passing the written test was a prerequisite to taking the oral and flight tests.
Finally, I crossed off the weeks I would have to study and fly daily with Aubrey Kinzer, the instructor, and the weeks I would fly with him every day and study for the written.
Bottom line: nearly every day of our furlough would have to be devoted to studying and taking these series of written, oral, and flight tests. But the safety of our family guaranteed that I would devote my highest level of effort to this great challenge.
The days seemed a blur as I became engulfed by my study program. Almost before I knew it, I had taken my written examination -- and passed.
Then, THE day arrived for my oral and flight examinations. I drove to the Ontario, California, International Airport, where I was to meet the examiner. He was a tall, thin, pleasant gentleman, but everything in his dress, demeanor, and conversation was no-nonsense.
All morning I sat across the table from him in a well-lighted but very simply-furnished office as he plied me with a never-ending series of questions and asked me to explain FAA rules, regulations, and the flight characteristics of a Boeing 727 aircraft. Finally, with the oral test also now behind me, we made our way out to the twin-engine, 10-passenger, Piper Navajo in which I was to take the flight test. I had already traded the Aztec for this better equipped model.
While we were at the end of the runway, ready to take off, the examiner said, "I tell every person I am testing that if, by chance, there should be an actual in-flight emergency, not the simulated problems I will cause to happen as part of the test, but an actual in-flight emergency, how you handle that emergency will be part of the test! If I touch the controls," he warned, "you fail!"
Then, sweating in the plane that had been heated by the intense Southern California sun, we took off to the west, on runway 27, toward Los Angeles. Immediately after lift off I put on my "hood," a device which, like blinders on a horse, only permitted me to see the flight instruments until we were ready to touch down at the end of the test. My most difficult test was under way.
We turned southwest and climbed up through 10,000 feet, to the point in the sky to which the examiner had cleared me. I put the plane into the holding pattern he had prescribed.
Then, while I was doing some precision maneuvers, just as he asked me to shut down one engine, the cockpit filled with smoke! Just what I needed ! An actual emergency! And one that every pilot fears -- the possibility of an on-board fire!
Since the smoke smelled like burning rubber or the insulation on electrical wiring, I immediately reached down and shut off the master electrical switch and the two alternators -- which charge the battery. Suddenly, I had no communication or navigation radios. The radios were dead, as were most of the instruments on the panel.
In a few seconds the smoke thinned a little and I turned the master switch back on but left the two alternators turned off. My instruments came back to life--but they were operating on the battery, and I knew it would soon be out of power. But I was relieved, what might have been a fire apparently had been contained.
The examiner turned to me and asked, "I presume we will cancel the test and return to the airport?"
My thoughts raced. If we canceled now, I would still have to fly back to Guatemala in two days without my license. How many years would it be until I could go through the process to again prepare for and take this test!
"No," I responded. "Let's continue. I still have battery power." I quietly hoped the examiner would have mercy and maybe shorten the test ... just a little. He agreed to continue the test, but I soon realized he had no plans to shorten it at all!
We were shooting a back-course approach into Corona, California. This is a complicated approach since all your instruments appear to be reversed. We were descending very close to the minimum altitude when I would either have to land or go around when, suddenly, all my radios quit -- both those through which I was talking to the tower as well as my navigation radios. My battery power had run out!
"Why don't you continue and land here and now we'll cancel the test?" the examiner asked.
"No," I responded. "I've been thinking that one of the two alternators is good and the other is bad, so I'm turning the left alternator back on." And, without waiting for his response, with a quick movement I turned on the left alternator. Instantly, all the instruments and radios came back to life -- and no smoke flooded the cabin! I added, "Let's continue this test."
It was with an enormous sense of relief, after several hours of flying, that the examiner told me to lift the hood and I saw the Ontario Airport just ahead of me. And, as I taxied the plane to the ramp in front of the FAA offices, I heard those sweet words I will never forget. The examiner looked at me with a slight smile and said, "Well done. You've passed the test."
"You've passed the test." Mission accomplished! What joy! What relief!
But, the test wasn't really my objective -- safer flying was my goal. Preparing for the test helped me improve the quality of my flying -- and evaluate progress toward my real objective.
Tests. Evaluations. Life seems to be full of them. We take them for granted -- usually. Children in our schools meet the challenges of arithmetic, spelling, language, social science, and Bible tests.
Evidence of some type of evaluation can be found in just about everything we do in life. We are concerned with getting good quality for our investment, whether it be our time or money.
And to a degree, within the church, we're used to certain kinds of evaluations and reviews of our work. Many of our employees are periodically evaluated on their job performance. And our elected church leaders are evaluated in another way -- by constituencies that periodically meet and review the progress of the work and the job performance of their elected church leaders.
Yes, everyday life is full of tests and evaluations. And, as Christians, we know from our study of our Bibles that there will be ultimate spiritual evaluations too! Revelation 14: 7 tells us: "'Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come.'"
Yes, God too in the judgment will do some evaluating! Matthew 25: 31 and 32 tells us that "When the Son of Man comes in his glory," "he will separate the people one from another."
And He will do the separating by determining whether each has trusted Him as Savior and submitted to His authority as Lord.
Since the scriptures make it clear that this day will come, is it appropriate for us to examine ourselves in advance? Should we do, or can we handle, a "reality check?"
The apostle Paul's counsel which we read at the outset was: "{5} Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test? {6} And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. (2 Cor. 13:5,6)
Our real objective is be certain that Jesus Christ is in us.
The Spirit of Prophecy contains unnumbered statements that set standards and clarify objectives for our church, its members, and institutions and suggests some of the evaluations we might be doing. From the scores and hundreds of statements available, here are a few samples:
What kind of evaluations should pastors be doing? I quote from volume two of the Testimonies, page 512: "If ministers would make the actions of each day a subject of careful thought and deliberate review, with the object to become acquainted with their own habits of life, they would better know themselves."
What kind of evaluations should conference presidents be doing? I quote from the Review & Herald, April 22, 1884: "It may be far easier for the president of a Conference to labor himself than to direct the work of others; but it is his duty to take an oversight of the field, and see that all are working to the best advantage."
How could we measure the success of our elementary schools? "When very young, children should be educated to read, to write, to understand figures, to keep their own accounts. They may go forward, advancing step by step in this knowledge. But before everything else, they should be taught that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Counsels to Parents, Teachers & Students, pages 168, 169).
And how about this spiritual standard: "The children are to be trained to become missionaries; they must be helped to understand distinctly what they must do to be saved" (Counsels to Parents, Teachers & Students, page 168).
Yes, life is full of spiritual priorities, measuring and evaluating. Yes, the Bible speaks of the final judgment. Yes, the Spirit of Prophecy instructs us to measure ourselves, our work, what is done in our institutions.
And, just as in everyday life, you and I know that the members of our church have a right to assume that all of us are doing our very best to achieve God's ideals. We all want to make sure things are functioning well and that the tithes and offerings do, in fact, fulfil the Gospel Commission, to "go .. teach .. baptize ... make disciples."
We can approach such evaluations in several ways. We can assume everything is functioning as it should. Or we can demonstrate our commitment to the Lord's command by simply asking ourselves if we are as effective as we should be in reaching His objectives.
It seems to me that as church administrators we sense that many of our members, many of our church leaders, feel we need to be more accountable to God's desire for us, and that we develop a more principled way of evaluating the effectiveness of our ministries and activities.
For example, a few minutes ago I read two quotations about schools from Ellen White's book, Counsels to Parents, Teachers & Students. Together, the quotations indicate we should be teaching our children in our schools reading, writing, and arithmetic -- but more importantly and more distinctly an understanding of what they must do to be saved.
We evaluate our students regularly on their advances in reading. We evaluate our students regularly on their advances in writing. We evaluate our students regularly on their advances in mathematics. But do we periodically check to see if our students are learning what they must do to be saved?
And if they are not learning that most important objective of Christian education, are we adjusting our educational program to ensure that they not only learn this subject, which is eternally most important, but that they experience the joy of salvation in Christ?
Yes, we want to make sure our ministries are accountable, that they are doing what our Lord expects and our church members assume they are doing. But, at the same time, we must be sensitive, we must be careful, when assessing spiritual outcomes.
While we must approach our self-evaluation from a positive perspective -- let us not avoid reality, just because it is painful. Cynics may object and say that we have no business trying to assess spiritual outcomes of our congregations, organizations and ministries. Cynics may cry, "Oh, this will upset everyone, will destabilize our members or institutions and cause divisions among the people or workers." While those who object deserve a sensitive response, we must do what God clearly calls us to do. "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves" (2 Cor. 12:5).
As we review and restate our spiritual objectives and assess our current state of affairs, Let's do our best to be positive in our perspective, while seeing with brutal clarity the realities we look at every day. We must honestly ask ourselves whether we are "Totally Committed to God" or whether we are trying to make God after our image and after our likeness.
But we dare not be more committed to being "positive" than "Totally Committed" to God's will as revealed in His Word.
A rich byproduct will be an increasing trust and respect by our members for their church and the mission it is accomplishing under God's blessing. If we are careful to apply God's criteria -- as revealed to His church through Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy and as He sends His Spirit to move on our minds -- and not to apply mere human standards -- we will please both God and the millions of our members who want each of our ministries to be what God wants them to be.
And so one key agenda item for this 1996 Annual Council is a pastoral call for every element of our church: every member, every employee, every institution, and every church organization to demonstrate a "Total Commitment to God."
To be systematically and appropriately accountable ...
This proposal attempts to unite the beliefs and values that define this movement, that we enshroud in our Mission Statements, with the realities of life as we live it both individually and organizationally. This proposal calls for increased accountability within the church to meet God's expectations.
If we positively and prayerfully seek to discover and accomplish God's will for each of us and the organizations we lead, I am confident we will see God's power explode, effectiveness blossom, resources increase, and under Christ's leadership the day of His coming hastened..
Briefly, the proposal asks the basic question,..
In short, the Annual Council proposal regarding our "Total Commitment to God," asks some key questions:
And then it proposes ways in which we as a church, working together as members, congregations, conferences, unions, the General Conference and its divisions, and all our ministries and institutions can assess whether we are meeting God's expectations.
Our Lord has given each one of us; every member, congregation, institution and organization, a mandate. We call it the Gospel Commission. It's a commission that fires the souls of Seventh-day Adventists everywhere. Our Lord Himself said, as recorded in Matthew 28: 19, 20: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."
Another version states: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations."
Our resurrected Lord told the Apostle Peter, John 21; 15-17: "Feed my lambs.... Take care of my sheep.... Feed my sheep."
Our mandate is clear. Go ... teach ... baptize ... make disciples ... feed my sheep!"
Pray for this Annual Council and the work we will do here. Pray that the Holy Spirit will move among us in a strong way, that He will impress on our minds our Father's will for the church in these last days.
Let's ask ourselves the heart-wrenching question: Am I individually, and the organization or institution I lead, honestly "Totally Committed to God," to "Go ... teach ... baptize ... make disciples ... feed my sheep?" Or, am I more committed to my agenda than His? May God's will, and not our own, be done during every minute of this council.
Copyright © 1996 by R S Folkenberg