Evangelistic Priority

We are told that “the church is God’s appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world.” But as time goes on, the church faces two serious temptations.

One is institutionalization, which often leads to the church losing its missionary fervor and focusing only on itself. The other temptation is secularism, which means the church opens itself to the world so much that it becomes like the world.

To avoid these dangers, on October 14, 1976, the Annual Council of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists adopted a resolution entitled “Evangelism and Finishing God’s Work.” The document affirms that the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s objective is “to proclaim to the whole world the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of the Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14, which, in addition to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian church, embodies the distinctive truths of the sanctuary and righteousness by faith.” The same document warns, There are many excellent programs and projects which are most advantageous to use in the pre-evangelistic context, such as those concerned with diet, smoking, welfare and other social benefits.

But, worthy as they may be, if they do not lead to the new-birth experience in Christ and acceptance of the doctrinal tenets of God’s remnant church, they consume time, attention and money of the church and its working force without achieving God’s ultimate objective of saving a man for eternity... Therefore, through administrative action, it must be made clear by precept and example that programs of the church shall be given attention and funding only as they aid in accomplishing the church’s basic mission.

Decades later, this mission must still be our goal.

As Jesus prayed long ago, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15).