ne does not lobby for an assignment to write a yearlong series of columns for the Adventist Review. One can pursue the possibility of writing an article here and there, but it is rare to be asked to write an entire series for the general paper of the Adventist Church. The offer to do this came seemingly out of nowhere: an e-mail, a phone call, a confirmation, and here I am--or there I was.

For about five minutes I was ecstatic. What an incredible opportunity! My "15 minutes" had finally come. Never one to be reluctant about sharing an opinion or two, this was right up my alley. It all sounded great. That is, until the full magnitude of my commitment hit me.

It was a blinding glimpse of the obvious--the consummate "aha" moment. The editors at the Review were actually expecting me to write something about something. How did they so seductively put it? "Brother Russell, write about anything you want to," they said as they handed me just enough literary rope to hang myself. Then just moments prior to becoming completely unglued at the prospect that I had nothing to say, disjointed thoughts and ideas slowly, but grudgingly, began to take shape. Why don't I write about the greatest passion of my life (superseded only by God and family), the church, specifically the local church?

There's nothing that compares to the church on earth. It has the greatest potential of impacting the culture for the good, more than any other entity known to humankind. Hyperbole? Not on your life.

Some years ago, in an effort to celebrate and affirm the local church, denominational leaders started describing it as the "driving force" of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I'm not convinced that we all embrace that description, but it's true. The Seventh-day Adventist Church, to a significant degree, rises and falls on the health and vibrancy of the local church, or what I like to call the "frontline" church. Over the next year I'll be sharing my observations as to how I think we might ensure that the frontline church is in fact healthy and vibrant. I do not come at this subject as a theoretician, but as a practitioner, currently serving on the front lines.

Over the next 12 months I have no intention of writing puff pieces that gloss over the real challenges that face many frontline churches today. Neither will I waste time criticizing and attacking. Instead, I will focus exclusively on what the church can be.

About a year ago I picked up Erwin Raphael McManus's insightful book An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind. McManus envisions the church as "an unstoppable force created to change the world. A church that is active and engaged with its community. A church that dares to cut itself free from atrophied practices and programs to flourish in creative and compelling worship. Where teachers of the Word risk reaching out to our multisensory, multilayered culture with music, the arts, and other unique expressions of love and faith. A church that prospers in the life of Christ."

The church's best days are before it. In a culture that is crumbling at its core, people are searching for a place of belonging that speaks comfortingly to their deepest fears, and challenges them to live on a higher plane. Dr. Phil and Oprah, twin icons of pop culture, can't do it. The sordid agenda of the political process is impotent to do it. Even pursuing the temporary fix of an "extreme makeover" will not do it. And certainly, burying oneself under a mountain of debt to keep up an image of success will not do it. How did Solomon put it? "When you look at this earthly life only, futility is written on everything a man does. The efforts of generation after generation will pass away. In fact, life itself is futile, for it doesn't last" (Eccl. 1:2, Clear Word). The church is the only entity that can tell people the truth about the lies of this culture, and then speaking with relevance, help people face their deepest fears, as well as showing them the path and the plan by which they can live on that higher plane. The local church: truly an unstoppable force.

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Fredrick Russell is senior pastor of the Miracle Temple Worship Center and Ministry Complex in Baltimore, Maryland.