BY JENNIFER JILL SCHWIRZER

Y E-MAIL IN-BOX this morning is stuffed full of politics. My Republican mother sends me a right-wing rant, allegedly written by Andy Rooney.¹ My almost-socialist brother sends his very left-wing response to the rant. Something called "Strait Gate Ministry" gives links to news items that are "hidden away from the establishment press that most Americans will never see."

Then there's a forward that deals in church politics. It's called "Separation and Unity," and it bears a sobering message on the condition of our denomination. It laments the spiritual demise of our schools, saying that "it has come to be regarded as 'legalistic' . . . to preach on Christian standards such as dress, recreation, and even diet," and that because of this, "members often prefer teaching their own children at home" rather than "subjecting them to the constant influence of even their 'Adventist' peers."

Ouch! Although I too fear creeping compromise, I still believe in our church and its institutions. I have high stakes in my belief, as my own teenaged daughters are in an Adventist boarding school. Ironically, it is located in the Amish-Mennonite farmlands of Pennsylvania. I muse on the fact that those little communities have done a far better job of preserving an idyllic lifestyle than we have. There is a comparative uniformity among them in their efforts to resist the incursions of the world. Although Adventists tend toward the simple and plain, we don't have a strictly enforced dress code, and in fact, more and more Adventist women are using colorful cosmetics and even jewelry. Modesty is encouraged, but not enforced in the form of bonnets and regulated skirt lengths. While materialism is technically discouraged, there are those among us who enjoy a very lush and opulent lifestyle. Worship and music styles in our churches range from high-church classical to bouncy Pentecostal praise. In scores of other arenas, the church is a vortex of varying approaches that range from safe and traditional to wildly experimental. Not the plain, predictable simplicity you would find in an Amish or Mennonite enclave. I fear at times that we have corporately failed to "come out from among them and be separate" (2 Cor. 6:17, NKJV).

But before I wring my hands unduly, I must acknowledge a major difference between Adventism and these religious groups that maintain such a high degree of separatism. Adventism is evangelistic—intentionally, officially, and perpetually. We desire to please God in the way we live, but we also desire to reach people. This two-sided mission of reverence and compassion, of God-glorifying and soul winning, compels us to reject sin while embracing sinners. This demands a spiritual juggling act that leads us to constantly reassess our standards. As we ask others to embrace the Adventist lifestyle, we must know that the rules we present to them as God's standards are truly grounded in the Scriptures, and not in mere religious custom. Because of our evangelistic calling, Adventist traditions must be subjected to vigorous scrutiny, lest we find ourselves requiring what God does not. After all, we are asking people to part ways with the world's culture where it conflicts with the Word of God. How inconsistent it would be to merely impose upon them another man-made culture! If we ask people to play by God's rules, we must demonstrate to them that we are doing the same.

The multiculturalism of our church makes it especially imperative that we not make commandments out of preferences. Global evangelism has brought with it great cultural and ethnic diversity, and continually requires of us decisions about which cultural expressions are acceptable and which are not. Every culture has practices and traditions that are prohibited by God's Word, as well as some that are either ignored or blessed by it. The fact that something is "cultural" neither automatically baptizes nor condemns it. We must corporately wrack our brains and search our hearts to know where to draw these potentially painful lines.

We summarize our relationship to this world very neatly in the expression "We are to be in the world, but not of it."² Shunning evil, we love people. As Lot fled Sodom, we are to leave the world. As the disciples of Jesus were commissioned to go into all the world, we are to enter it. The two supporting pillars of our relation to the people of this planet are just what Jesus' were: we hate sin, but we love the sinner. The great danger is that we will mix our motives. On one hand, out of hate for sinners we could leave the world. On the other, out of love for sin we could enter it.

And this is just where the greatest battle must be fought. Before we take up arms against fellow church members over worship, music, lifestyle, doctrine, or relational standards, we need to allow God's Spirit to pierce our own hearts. The first and greatest warfare is fought on the battlefield of heart motives. Do we wish to be "not of" the world because we don't want to bother with the world's people? Because we shun the task of reasoning with them from the Word of God? Are we traditional conservatives out of emotional and intellectual laziness? Or, on the other hand, do we wish to be "in" the world because we lust for it? Are we gobbling up progressive modalities and relishing contemporary methods out of a desire, not so much to reach the world, but to fit in with it, to compete with its glitz and glamour?

Scrutiny of Motives
My own local church had a struggle two years ago over a creative evangelistic endeavor. Some members envisioned a small café in the church's fellowship hall, because the church is located on a street that hosts a string of shops, banks, and restaurants. This vision was borne out of a concern that there was a great gulf between the church and the local community—we hardly knew each other! Bridges needed to be built, and what better building materials than veggie burgers and wraps, we thought. As a conservative church we were slow to adopt such an unorthodox method, but our desire to connect with the local people overrode that caution. Looking to inspired counsel, we found no evidence that would condemn running a small mission-focused business in the fellowship hall. And so the ministry was launched.

Even as the café continues, we must constantly subject our heart's motives to the scrutiny of God's Spirit. One day I joined some non-Christian friends for lunch in the café. My custom was to pray before a meal, but I didn't want to seem "holier than thou." In a split second I opted to eat without praying. My conscience smote me for the rest of the week.

I realize that the Bible doesn't explicitly mandate praying before meals, but I knew in my soul that in that moment I had been ashamed of my religion. True soul winning will move us into a foreign country where we will be confronted constantly with temptations to compromise in order to fit in. If you are never tempted to veer from your standards, you probably aren't making an effort to reach the world.

How does a committed church negotiate the unpredictable, danger-pitted road to reaching people? The complexities of Christian life become straightforward when we simply observe Jesus' example. How did He mingle with the array of people groups that populated His world? Paupers and kings, prostitutes and devotees, priests, pagans, and everyone in between swam around Him in a sea of diversity. How did He probe into the depths of the human heart in a way that reached everyone, all the while glorifying His Father? So clear was His sense of God's favor that He could say, "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him" (John 8:29, NASB).

Reverence in Work Boots;
Relevance in All Its Glory
Jesus ministered to their physical needs. The better part of Jesus' active ministry was spent in healing, feeding, and otherwise helping people. A woman stopped bleeding after 12 years. A crippled street person walked again. Peter's mother-in-law, a leper, a nobleman's son, and a centurion's servant were all healed by His word. He even engaged in acute care when He reattached an amputated ear!³ He supplied food to crowds of tired, hungry people. In giving them relief from their suffering in the physical realm, He illustrated His ability to feed and heal them spiritually. Material things are the currency of this world. Our Master used them to gain the confidence of those He wanted to bring into the next.

Our church has built much of its reputation upon what we call "medical ministry." Large health-care institutions are the pride of our denomination. But we should never underestimate what more humble efforts can do in reaching the lost. Author Clifford Goldstein received his first copy of The Great Controversy from the manager of a small health food store. Evangelist David Asscherick learned the Adventist message through a vegetarian restaurant ministry. Countless others have met Jesus for the first time through humble Adventists engaged in sharing the message of better health.

Jesus ministered to their social needs. We are made in the image of a triune God, and so are innately social. Jesus felt a normal, healthy drive for companionship that led Him to mingle among people "as one who desired their good." He "manifested an interest in their secular affairs" and had "strong personal sympathy."⁴ He attended weddings (where there may have been dancing!) and funerals (where He sometimes raised the dead-and then there was more dancing!). He was found "in the home of the lowly, and in the mansion of the great; at the hospitable board, and in gatherings for innocent social enjoyment."⁵ He had personal friends with whom He spent quality time. And as much as it vibrated the gossip vines, He chilled out with all kinds of people!

For the past two Christmases my husband and I have thrown a party for our unchurched friends. We put a few lights up around the house, make some eggless eggnog, and open our home. Everyone brings something to eat, and some bring a guitar or other musical instruments. While our local church might spend thousands of dollars on high-tech flyers to get people to come to an evangelistic series, the party outreach is basically free. Yet both times we have done this, we have finished off the night singing Christmas carols and having intimate, often spiritual, conversations. Dwight Moody said, "Of one hundred men, one will read the Bible; the other ninety-nine will read the Christian." Social ministries are low cost, and often the only way to reach certain classes of people.

Jesus ministered to their psychological/emotional needs. Much of Jesus' teaching was nondoctrinal, what we might call "practical" teaching. It dealt with people's relational problems, their felt needs for help at home, in the business world, and in social circles. The Sermon on the Mount is such an example. In it Jesus shared timeless mind-charming truths that traverse the barriers of culture, rank, and religion. Most people sense a need for simple, clear answers to the complexities of life. Jesus supplied them, and so can we.

Seminars on marriage, parenting, financial planning, and stress management are wonderful forms of first-contact evangelism. But even more effective is the impartation of truth that happens spontaneously within the context of a relationship. "It was by personal contact and association that Jesus trained His disciples. . . . He did not sermonize as men do today. Wherever hearts were open to receive the divine message, He unfolded the truths of the way of salvation."⁶

The true barrier against the incursions of spiritual compromise is not found in physical or social separation from the world. After all, the world's unrighteousness finds its source in the human heart. Author Paul David Tripp has said, "The great mistake of monasteries is that they let people in."⁷ The Holy Spirit's heart-fortification program is our only hope. And this program involves a mission focus that will lead us to be "in" the world out of love for people, and "not of" the world out of hate for sin. This is reverence in work boots. This is relevance in all its glory.

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¹ This was denied in a follow-up e-mail.
² Ellen White said this numerous times, but I don't think it's in the Bible verbatim. See John 15:19 and 17:11, 14-16.
³ Some of Jesus' healings are found in John 4:46-54; John 5:1-9; Matt. 8:14, 15; Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38, 39; Matt. 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16; Matt. 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10; Matt. 12:22; Luke 11:14; Matt. 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48; Matt. 9:18, 19, 23-26; Mark 5:22-24, 35-43; Luke 8:41, 42, 49-56; Luke 22:49-51; John 18:10.
⁴ Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 151.
⁵ Ibid., p. 152.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Heard in a class at Westminster Theological Seminary.

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Jennifer Jill Schwirzer is a wife, mother, musician, and published author who writes from Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania.