Adventist Crossroads
July - September 2003

What Attracts?
Editorial

You would have received with your church bulletin an insert entitled, “Follow-up of Sow One Billion.” It lists the dates and events of several evangelistic seminars to take place in the next twelve months or about one major effort every two months.
Sow One Billion kicks off with the distribution of 500,000 lead tracts inviting people to sign up for free study booklets. Eventually the interests would be invited to attend seminars conducted by reputable and experienced evangelists.
The Church is putting in a huge sum of money. There is also the tremendous logistic that goes with a project of this size.
As you look at this major evangelistic plan what kind of a reaction does it elicit? Would all these be enough to ensure sucesss? “Would people really be attracted? Why would they come? If they come will they stay on?” I mused.Then just last week someone shared an experience with me. Dorothy, a church member had been shopping for some church supplies at a particular Christian bookstore in town. Unbeknownst to her, the sales assistant had been observing. She learned that Dorothy is a Seventh-day Adventist. One day as Dorothy stepped into the store, she was greeted by a spirited friendly voice from behind the counter. In the conversation that ensued the sales assistant let on that she found Dorothy to be extremely friendly and nothing like what her friends told her of Seventh-day Adventists—that they were weird and unfriendly with their strange and peculiar teachings.
This example captures very succinctly Ephesians 5:1 which tells us to be ‘imitators of God’ and to live lives of love.
When Dorothy related to me this experience, I thought to myself—here is what would attract people.
There’s more to just beautiful auditoriums, colorful brochures and reputable speakers; more than the verbal message involved in presenting the gospel. Our lives, our behavior either gives weight to the gospel message or detracts from it. We see this implied in Paul’s words to Titus in Titus 2:9, “. . . in every way . . . make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”
As Seventh-day Adventist Christians we are to live so as to make the gospel attractive. Our behavior is to give weight to our witnessing. And only as we purposefully and carefully balance the two will it bring forth a harvest. It’s not enough to have monumental plans. We need to live such lives of love that unbelievers will see Christ in us and thereby be drawn to Him.
Will people really be attracted? It all depends on you and me!

VOP Rally
Michael Ho, Coordinator
Voice of Prophecy

You don’t need a cuppa to lift your spirit. Just attend the VOP rally. held recently at the Balestier Adventist Church September 21, 2003.
Seventy voices filled the sanctuary with hymns of praise led out by Liza Apostol. The Balestier Filipino Choir presented a beautiful song. Not only that—James See, a VOP student, shared animatedly what he had learned about the Bible through the lessons. He felt so excited when he discoverd God’s plan for His people in the dietary principles found in Leviticus that he even shared this eye-opening teaching with members at his Sunday-keeping church. Then there was Gilbert Lam who volunteered to sing—and sing he did with all his heart and soul. What was so special was that although Gilbert could not walk normally like you and me, he hobbled on to the stage supporting himself with a walking stick in each hand. Then unpretentiously he sang into the microphone “To God Be the Glory.” You could not have witnessed a more sincere offering of praise!
Pastor Dan Walter, the VOP director of the Southeast Asia Union Mission, extolled the need for an intimate relationship with Jesus in his message.

Language of Love
Sherine Perera, Coordinator
Family Ministry

Do you know what the ‘Languages of Love’ mean?
Not, if you missed the weekend of August 8 – 9, 2003 when 24 couples learned from Mike and Brenda Aufderhar how to strengthen a marriage relationship. Mike and Brenda are directors of Family Ministries in the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, USA.
Couples also learned about ‘Understanding before Action’, ‘Getting out of Hot Water’, proper communication, problem solving, forgiveness and commitment. They discovered how to be intentional about scheduling times for just having fun and developing spiritual intimacy in marriage.
At the close of the fantastic weekend the attendees renewed their commitment with their spouse in a special “Grace in Action” communion service with foot washing as couples.
The presentations afforded an opportunity to articulate the issues that are often so hard to discuss between spouses and rekindled the love, joy and excitement in marriage.