“All are called to do service for Him, and for the manner in which they have met this claim, all will be required to render an account at the great judgment day” (COL 326.1).
The beauty of variety is that no two beings are alike. We each have peculiarities that are the result of our genetics, of our geographical cultures, and of our societal nurturing. And yet there are macro level delineations within personalities that are indicative of one’s capacity to operate at various levels of stress and demand over another. There are Alpha and Beta males, neanderthals and cerebrals, hunters and gatherers, warriors and nurturers, and Texans and New Yorkers. If stereotyping was no longer considered offensive, we could use it as a mechanism to identify traits consistent among fighter pilots, drill sergeants, schoolteachers, heart surgeons, police officers, department of motor vehicles workers, or institutional administrators. But since stereotyping is not socially acceptable, I will avoid drawing any correlation of personality, to the causation of behavior.
However, I have to believe, if we are completely honest with ourselves, we would conclude that specific traits predispose individuals to be more successful in specific situations than others. That is, the personality traits of an individual, able to successfully navigate a classroom full of 3rd graders on a daily basis is much different than someone who must lead a seal team into a mission critical goal of unknown conditions.
Mission Effort - WWII
Recently a friend of mine called to tell me a story about Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Soon after the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt chose Nimitz (who was then serving as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation) to take over command at Pearl Habor. At that time there were no less than 28 flag officers to his senior that were in line for the “promotion”. Yet FDR would have no other than Nimitz. For this was not an administrative advancement based on a hierarchical meritocracy of company men who navigated their careers embracing idiosyncratic mantras that afforded methodical and predictable advancement. This was a mission, and failure was not an option. FDR gave one simple order, “Get the h__l out to Pearl Harbor and don’t come back until the war is won.”
Why did President Roosevelt choose a German/Texan, a submarine expert, and yet a naval officer with a major flaw on his record? Earlier in his Naval career, Nimitz, then an Ensign, was commanding the destroyer Decatur when it ran aground on a mud bank in the Philippines. Nimitz had failed to consult the harbor tide tables and this oversight left the Decatur stuck, vulnerable, and ineffective. Not until the tides rose again the following day could the Decatur be towed free. The Naval Board investigating the incident found Nimitz was in error but did not recommend any punitive measures, only a letter of reprimand. Clearly this was a significant error for a naval officer and yet grace was extended to this aspiring prospect.
It was a time when the US military was more concerned with results than pronouns. A man could be measured on his prospect, not his adherence of process. This action by the Naval Board, afforded Nimitz to enter submarine command (ironically where knowledge of marine charts is most critical) and become the subject matter expert on all things submarines. A very unforgiving environment where in 1908 a submariner’s life hung in the balance between strategy, resourcefulness, and a sheer determination not to give up. As they say in Navy Seal training, Success is 90% mental and 10% physical.
Why couldn’t any rank qualified leader oversee a mission critical event in earth’s history? Why did FDR pass over all the good men that followed the rules and stroked their superiors in the upward advancement of their careers?
An Existential Moment
Dear brothers and sisters, we are at a Mission critical moment in Gospel eschatology, where a movement church needs to get off the ecumenical couch and decide. Are we simply looking to maintain the 144,000 until Christ’s return or are we looking to run up the numbers? Is it enough for our churches to serve as Faith Maintenance Organizations, doing just enough to keep us engaged and paying our membership dues? Or is our mandate to go forth; build, teach, preach, heal and give comfort? Especially where those activities don’t currently exist. Hard to achieve these when church engagement is limited to prayer meetings, vespers and Sabbath services. I’m not seeking to undermine the importance of those activities in the life of an SDA Christian, but that is Maintenance, not Mission.
FDR didn’t embark into the Pacific theater with military brass leadership raised on a maintenance culture. And we cannot leave our Church’s critical Missions to Maintenance trained clergy. For though we recognize that company men generate little drama, but so are their results outside the routine. Ministry cannot simply have a do-no-harm goal. It must move into unchartered waters without a predestined expectation.
No one is arguing that we should live in a world completely dominated with type A personalities. In fact, one could argue Type A is a personality for use in unique applications that require a level of tenacity beyond formality, process, and consensus. Thank God those individuals exist. People like Conrad Vine (former President of AFM) willing to go to the physical front lines of Christianity where your life is literally at stake for advancing the gospel. Where dodging bullets and escaping in the dark of night in the trunk of a car, is not folklore but a recounting of Gospel Mission events. Now more than ever, Christ’s letter to our present-day Church must resonate loud and clear.
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have no need of anything,” and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, (Rev. 3: 15-17)
To be hot for Christ, means to be charged for his service.—not after a lengthy consultation with Risk Management and the Church Manual, but by the conviction the Holy Spirit places on your heart.
In 2008, I left my father on his death bed to go to Peru to lead an Andrews University team of students building an elementary school. I ignored the counsel of my then senior pastor. “Danny don’t go, someone else can run the trip or it can occur another time. Your father will pass before you return.” There was no wavering in the Holy Spirit’s conviction on my heart. I had to go, even for the sole act, that in my most vulnerable moment in life, I needed the spiritual growth from placing myself 100% in God’s hands.
At the conclusion of the event filled 2-week trip, where my return home included traveling 2 hours through a blizzard. I arrived at my father’s home and was able to spend the final 3 hours of my father’s life by his bedside. God had honored my simple request. Keep my father alive, so I could say goodbye.
The greatest help that can be given our people is to teach them to work for God, and to depend on Him, not on the ministers. Let them learn to work as Christ worked. Let them join His army of workers and do faithful service for Him. (CCh 69.2)
Dear Fellow Believers, some are called to the Mission of the Gospel; to expand, engage, and create circumstances for enrichment and growth, while others are sought to maintain the flock. Both are necessary tasks for God’s endtime remnant Church. However, the characteristic leadership in each role is vastly different and thus the leaders’ temperament, drive, and capacity will vary significantly. To be hot for the Gospel means to be passionate to see it expand where the doors of opportunity are either open, slightly ajar, or closed. Time is of the essence and capitalizing on mission minded men like Pastor Ron Kelly is critical to completing our Gospel service.
Launching the Gospel Mission
One of the greatest love stories ever told was of Christ’s restoration of Simon Peter. Here we are presented with an act analogous of the phrase ‘God is Love’. Where the only Leader humankind was to ever follow, exemplified love, mentorship, and restorative leadership. Where Peter’s sense of guilt, from the closing memories of Christ’s waning moments on this earth, of defiant rejection, would have etched layers of culpability, despondency, and apathy within his human coping psyche. Not once, not twice, but three times did Peter vehemently and profanely deny Christ. By all measures of what is noble and good within Christendom, his banishment was self-signed sealed and delivered. No church administrator or executive committee could be faulted for finding Peter, persona non grata. And yet, Christ saw the source of Peter’s lashing out. Not as a simple act of self-preservation, but a collision of disbelief, mistakes, and panic. A complex intersectionality of passion, misunderstanding, and misapplied love. Christ saw where his capacity to be “hot” (Rev. 3:15) was of greater value than his failures that resulted from it.
The disciple who repeatedly denied his Lord, was now afforded the opportunity to publicly, embarrassingly, and humbly affirm his love, devotion, and commitment for his Redeemer. What could have left a lasting scar of failure was erased by the rehabilitative act Christ offered. For the rest of his days, Peter could reflect on the chance he was given to thrice affirm his love and faithfulness to Jesus, His sheep, and the Gospel charge.
I have often reflected on Christ’s use of the most impassioned and yet unpredictable disciple to launch the human phase of the Gospel Mission. Peter could have been censured, banned, or marginalized, and yet he was rehabilitated by our most loving Mentor, Lord, and King. He was the right instrument, for the heavy work ahead. Neither passiveness, ecumenism, nor compromise of spiritual tenants was optional. Only truth. And the one chosen to lead the movement was arguably the most imperfect.
Conclusion
To our Conference, Union, Division and GC Administrators. The SDA World Church has become a complex composition of various ideologies attempting to reconcile postmodernist egocentric principles through a culturally conditioned theological lens. Nearly every SDA organization has crafted their own balance of fundamentalism to the demands of societal harmony. Issues 20 years ago that were collectively viewed as apostasy, and extreme, are now open to theological debate. As our postmodern culture seeks to redefine right from wrong, Adventism is redefining the understanding of sin, whether an Investigative Judgment is truly underway, or what Ellen G. White may have been. Did the God that was the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, suddenly concede to the modern finite mind some contra Biblical construct because the present-day social demands were unanticipated? When Solomon said, “there is nothing new under the sun,” (Eccl. 1:9) did he exclude the 21st century?
Good leadership does not cede ground for ecumenical benefits. The current Remnant Church Maintenance Program appears to be attempting to run out the clock. SDA used to stand for why the world needs to be different. Today we are embarrassed to call sin by its right name, or to be called names because we believe in the Spirit of Prophecy. For our Church to be Remnant it must be Relevant, and it is in Mission where we are Remnant. Sifting out leaders that are hot for the Gospel Mission, who don’t fit a maintenance profile is not the act of a Remnant Church, but of detached administrators operating from echo chambers guided by risk management.
There cannot be a divide between Maintenance and Mission. We must press together and recognize it takes different characters to serve in different roles. We must rightly accept the Mission solvers are of a different cut. They are not prepared to relinquish ground to endless obstacles placed along the journey. In the family of God there must be room for Mission Men like Ron Kelly and Conrad Vine. One size never fits all and how-to manuals only address predictable circumstances. Where we are heading globally is antithetical to foreseeable, and predictable, routines. The Remnant church gets through, but it will need the work from both the Mission men as well as the Maintenance workers to complete our assigned objective.
May God’s grace rest on each and every one of us as we seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
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Daniel Bacchiocchi is an architect and builder. Today he operates an architectural and construction business in Michigan as well as a non-profit building mission organization, Master’s Builders, Inc., supporting SDA efforts in financially depressed communities around the world.
