Toronto, Canada ... [ANN]
In a penetrating speech this afternoon, George C. Knight, Andrews University professor, encouraged delegates to make plans for the church’s future. “Success will not come about by accident, but will be the product of deliberate thought, planning, and action,” he said.
Knight’s speech, titled “If I Were the Devil!,” was the first of five “Windows on Mission” that Pastor Jan Paulsen initiated for this Session. Delegates broke into small groups after the speech to discuss challenges and opportunities facing the church.
Some of Knight’s more memorable lines:
* “The first thing on my agenda would be the upcoming generation of Adventists. If I were the Devil I would put my best energies into getting the church to reject the ideas and plans of the coming generation. That shouldn’t be too difficult since in most areas they don’t dress like their elders, sing like them, or even think like them. When I get older people to frown on guitars, I will at the same time help them forget that early Adventists didn’t allow organs in their churches. While I take a shot at their so-called drama, I will help their elders forget that Jesus used fictional stories such as the rich man and Lazarus and that Ellen White used the term drama to refer to what we think of as soap operas.”
* “If I were the Devil I would get people to believe that there is only one way to do something and that everybody has to do it that one way.”
* “If I were the Devil I would make pastors and administrators the center of the work of the church.”
* “If I were the Devil, I would undermine the importance of the local congregation.”
* “If I were the Devil I would create more administrative levels and generate more administrators.
* “If I were the Devil I would get Adventists fighting with each other. Any old topic would do–worship styles, theology, dress standards. Anything would do for my purposes, if I were the devil. After all, if the Adventists were busy shooting all their bullets at each other, they wouldn’t have many left over for me.” |
