Fine Prints: August, 2005

Don't Advertise If You're Not Going to... August 6

The Church Retreat Is Coming Soon August 13

What Must I Do to Be Saved? August 20

Learning When to Break the Rules August 27

Don't Advertise If You're Not Going to...

One Friday afternoon a few months ago I was riding my bicycle home from the church when I had a memorable spiritual experience.

Being one who has a phobia about the respect Orlando drivers show toward cyclists, I ride only on sidewalks and bike trails. It has something to do with enjoying life and finding the alternative rather unattractive.

On this occasion, I was waiting for a car to come out of the south exit of Wal-Mart's parking lot. I noticed that the approaching vehicle bore a Seventh-day Adventist Church "vanity" plate below its front bumper. Due to my role as a pastor, I know a lot of Adventists in the Orlando area, both from Markham Woods Church and from other congregations. So when the car slowed as it drew near, and the driver rolled down his window, I assumed he might have recognized me and wanted to say Hello.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Instead, he simply threw out some candy-bar wrappers, rolled up his window and drove on. I'm sure he didn't look into his rearview mirror to see me get off my bike to pick up his litter.

That incident came to mind during the recent General Conference Session in St. Louis.

A

s I mentioned in last week's Fine Print, those attending the session came out of the evening meetings so inspired that they formed impromptu choirs on their train rides to their respective hotels. As I also noted, I had reservations about subjecting other passengers to such an experience - nice though some might have found it.

Others at the session had similar reservations but for other reasons.

A chance breakfast conversation in our hotel reminded me of the Adventist litter-bug experience at Wal-Mart. A couple, who I discovered were from Orlando, told me about their experience at the train station the night before. A huge crowd - predominantly of Adventists - waited to board the train. As they waited, they sang about Jesus and how He had changed their lives and how He was the Answer.

"But when the train arrived," the woman told me, "they pushed and shoved like animals in their attempts to be sure they got on. It was terrible."

Then she hit me with a clangor: "If they were going to push and shove in such an un-Christian and undignified way, the least they could have done was to refrain from singing so that people wouldn't automatically know who they were."

My immediate reaction to both my story and hers is to smite my breast in self-congratulation and self-righteousness. I thank God that I'm not a litter-bug or pusher-and-shover in train stations. Nor do I sing in situations where others are forced to listen. Nor do I advertise my denominational affiliation via a vanity plate.

But I do call myself a Christian. I am a member of Markham Woods Church. I do advertise in my own way. So the question for me is: Do people see in my life what they have a right to expect from someone who claims to be a disciple of Jesus?

It's a question we all should ask ourselves.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor

The Church Retreat Is Coming Soon

What: Markham Woods Church is hosting its 11th annual retreat October 28-30.

Where: At the Youth Camp at Wekiwa Springs Park.

When: The first official activity will be supper at 6:30 pm on Friday, followed by vespers at 8:00 pm. (Our featured speaker, David Larson, an ethicist from Loma Linda University, will talk about how to make moral decisions. His wife, Bronwen, will attend with him.). For the adventuresome, there will be a night hike after vespers on Friday night. Bring your flashlight.

Sabbath activities will start with breakfast at 8:00 am. From 9:00 to 11:00 am there will be hiking, biking, birdwatching, canoeing and socializing. The morning church service starts at 11:00. (Children, youth and adults will have separate services.) Lunch will be served at 12:30 pm. There will be more hiking, biking, birdwatching, canoeing and socializing from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. At 5:30 pm David Larson will speak again. Supper will be at 6:30 pm. There will be recreation for young and old at 8:00 pm around the campfire. And there will be a movie shown in the recreation/lecture hall.

The retreat concludes with breakfast at 8:30 am on Sunday (followed by cleanup - so volunteers are needed).

At Markham Woods Church, services will be conducted as usual at 9:00 and 11:30 on Sabbath morning. Sabbath School will run at the regular time (10:10 am) but with fewer classes. Jim Appel will be the speaker.

Why: Getting away - to relax, to socialize, to play, to worship can be refreshing for a congregation.

Who: All Markham Woods members and attenders and the guests they invite. None are too young or too old.

How: You can book a cabin, a tent or a site for your personal tent or RV by phoning the church office (407-862-7578). Or you can stay at home and simply come to whatever retreat meetings, meals and activities you choose. Meal sign-up sheets will be at the Welcome Center by mid September, and you must sign up for each meal desired.

Please book your accommodation soon. There is no charge to participants for accommodation, food, activities or admission to the park. We would ask that you simply continue supporting the Church Budget with your generous tax-deductible contributions. You've done wonderfully in the past, so please keep up the good work.

Dress casually. And bring a lawn chair if you can.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor

What Must I Do to Be Saved?

The other day someone said to me, "Tell me: What's the absolute, bottom-line, non-negotiable prerequisite for salvation?"

Having been a pastor for nearly 30 years, and having split theological hairs since at least my days in high school, I was able to respond quickly and unequivocally that... I don't know.

"But surely you must have memorized John 3:16," I hear you say. "How much clearer could it be?"

And you're certainly right.

"You must also be familiar with Ephesians 2:8," I hear you add - a touch of frustration in your voice - that a preacher would say that he's not sure how we obtain salvation. "It plainly says that it's a matter of grace, appropriated by faith."

Again I agree.

"And Acts 4:12 seems pretty straightforward- that all salvation comes through the name of Jesus."

Once more, I shake my head in assent.

"So what's your problem?"

My "problem," as you've so delicately put it, is that the Bible seems to hint at some exceptions to the rule, some alternative avenues to salvation. And I'm not exactly certain how the exceptions - if indeed there are such - fit into the norms that you've just highlighted.

You see, in Romans 1 and 2 we read about people who know they're doing wrong because they compare themselves to God's Law. That's understandable. But the apostle Paul also talks about people who know they're doing wrong because of something they see in nature- even though they don't know about God and His Law.

Now does the "natural revelation" that these people experience produce only condemnation and guilt? Or is there also a "natural revelation" that leads to salvation - for at least some?

Is it possible that by observing nature (in its broadest sense) one might become aware of spiritual inadequacy and reach out to "The Great Whatever Is Out There" in a manner that results in salvation? Is it possible that a person could be saved by Jesus without actually knowing anything about Jesus?

I'd like to think so.

First, philosophically, I find it hard to believe that everyone - absolutely every person - who hasn't heard the name of Jesus is categorically lost. What about those who lived before the time of Jesus? How will they be saved? Or will they? What about those living where the gospel has never gone? No hope at all? Absolutely none? Not even a smidgen?

Second, as already suggested, the Bible seems to hint that there will be people in heaven who don't know the story of salvation. In Zechariah 13:6, we read: "If someone asks him, 'What are these wounds on your body?' he will answer, 'The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.'"

Which brings me back to where we started: What is the absolute, bottom-line, non-negotiable prerequisite for salvation?

In the texts you cited, the common denominator is relationship. In the texts I've cited, it would seem to come down to relationship, as well.

The prerequisite for salvation, then, might not include perfect theological understanding. But it must include a right relationship. In that right relationship a lot of ignorance can be overcome. Without such a relationship, even impeccable knowledge will prove useless.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor

Learning When to Break the Rules

The other day when I came out of the men's room at a restaurant, I saw a little girl of five or six doing an animated dance in front of the door to the adjacent women's room. The enthusiasm with which she gyrated, and the placement of her hands, suggested that she might need the benefit of a restroom urgently.

Since the men's room was of the single-stall variety and the main door was lockable, I said to the little girl, "If you really need to go, you can use this restroom." Before I could get to the part about how she could lock the door so it didn't really matter that it bore the label "Men," she looked at me in utter disgust and dismay.

"I can't do that!" she said as she writhed a little more vigorously and clutched a little harder to prevent the catastrophe that was fast descending upon her. "That's a men's restroom!"

My immediate thought was to reason with her, to explain that in dire circumstances some rules can be broken. Then I thought better of it. I could only imagine what some passer-by would conclude when seeing a middle-aged man trying to convince a five- or six-year-old girl to go into the men's restroom.

I walked on, hoping that whoever was in the women's room would exit quickly. Which she did. And the little girl entered even more quickly. I could only hope that it was quickly enough.

That experience got me to thinking. How many adults view life just like that child did. They know what the rulebook says. But they don't know how to determine the relative importance of competing values.

Recently I read a story written by a former police officer. One Friday night a young man in his late teens was booked into jail on some relatively minor charge. But when he phoned his parents to get them to come bail him out, they obviously weren't warming to the idea.

The boy asked the officer to speak to them. The problem? The woman on the other end of the line explained that they were Seventh-day Adventists, and that Adventists don't do business between sundown Friday night and sundown Saturday night. Since posting bail involved the handling of money, they wouldn't be able to attend to their son's crisis for nearly another 24 hours.

If they had said that the boy needed to learn a lesson and that a night in jail being threatened by the thugs who would occupy his cell might give him a wake-up call, the police officer would have at least understood the logic. But leave a vulnerable teenager in jail with hardened criminals just because you don't do business on your holy day? Hadn't they read what Jesus said about helping an animal that's in a predicament on Sabbath? Then surely they would help their own son.

Unfortunately, the parents knew the rules. Nothing more.

What our church needs are people who not only know the rules, but who understand the principles on which the rules are based, and who know how to decide when the morally responsible thing to do is to break the rules.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor