Adventist Church leadership urges focus on prayer, spiritual renewal this Christmas, New Year's

Dec. 13, 2010 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

ANN staff

Amid all the gifts given and gotten during the holiday season, Seventh-day Adventist world church leadership is inviting membership to focus on the gift of God's spirit.

The world church's Revival and Reformation initiative is gearing up for several televised events this month, meant to join membership in prayer and seeking spiritual renewal.

The broadcasts are scheduled to begin December 25 with a Christmas sermon and program shown globally on the church's official television network, Hope Channel. They'll culminate in a global day of prayer beginning New Year's Eve.

The programs will feature messages from world church President Ted N.C. Wilson, interviews with church leadership worldwide and daily sermons from some of the denomination's prominent speakers.

"We hope to inspire a global movement among church members and leaders to earnestly seek a dynamic spiritual relationship with God," said Brad Thorp, president of Hope Channel.

The broadcasts are among a growing number of initiatives launched by the world church's Revival and Reformation Committee and produced in conjunction with Hope Channel. Another initiative asks Adventist membership worldwide to join together each morning at 7 a.m. and evening at 7 p.m. to pray for an outpouring of God's spirit.

For more, visit revivalandreformation.org. For a broadcast schedule, visit hopetv.org.

Comments (28)

Comments Policy

ANN encourages quality conversation and welcomes your thoughtful comments. All comments must be limited to 500 words and are subject to approval. Comments Policy

The opinions expressed in ANN Comments are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Adventist News Network® and/or the Seventh-day Adventist® Church.

i agree. my congregation is decorating more and more for it and in 2010 added a tree of sorts, and now this year they're going to be in a parade and give out stuff to advertise for the spring evangelistic series.

if we're not going to 'come out of babylon', we may as well go back!

as a 'still new sda', i may just start worshiping at home.

Posted by elizabeth on 2011-11-07 05:27:00

Listen people, I tell you the TRUTH: Christmas and Easter are not biblical. It is however, just another "clever deception" to turn your eyes and more importantly, your heart and emotions to unbiblical, worldly things to which God never commanded us to do. Do keep your eyes from turning to the left or right (the straight and narrow way), because broad is the way that leads to destruction and MANY walk therein.

Posted by E. Ekimi on 2011-11-05 15:38:00

Do you know any believer of SDA church, who has the power to heal the sick?

Posted by Bojana Horvat on 2011-06-11 18:02:00

Ndayizeye, which lesson are you referring to? The current Sabbath School quarterly is on clothing. Have you checked the Revival and Reformation website? Perhaps what you're looking for is there: www.revivalandreformation.org. If not, you might be thinking of a local resource, in which case you should check with your local church or conference.

Posted by Elizabeth Lechleitner on 2011-06-01 12:04:00

Please can you send me to complete lesson on Revival and Reformation which we are suppose to study within 10 days?

I do have one in Kinyarwanda and I need the lesson in English. it is very urgent.

Thanking you very much and God bless you.

Posted by NDAYIZEYE GERVAIS on 2011-06-01 07:40:00

i am worried that things of the world are swallowing us the adventist rather than we attracting them.

Posted by magaka on 2011-01-30 22:22:00

To the best of my understanding, the SDA church very much believes in the special birth of Jesus, which is what the christmas celebration is really all about. However, the point of departure lies in the actual date that event occured, as we dispute the December 25 date. Beyond that,we believe that rememberance of the birth of Christ should be a daily event which motivates and propels us into service for the Master, rather than a once in a year event. Having said that however, I believe that especially when this special day falls on the sabbbath, there is every need to celebrate it and use the opportunity to reach out to the world for Jesus.We can mark ourselves out by focusing on outreaches to the poor, hungry and lonely, sending them gifts, visiting them, praying for them and generally showing love.This way, we promote the ideals of Adventism, and are better able to impact the world around us more effectively than if we ignore or run down christmas celebration. The special programmes are therefore very much in order.

Posted by Adejoke on 2011-01-06 13:10:00

There is no reason for this confusion in God's remnant church. We have lots of references in the Spirit of Prophecy books on how the Lord wishes our conduct to be on this subject of Christmas, and others as well. The reason why there is so much aparent division is that we are not reading the information the father has sent us through his prophet.

Posted by Cherry on 2011-01-03 20:49:00

Sheila, regarding this Christmas initiative, to me personally, i don't see the danger or our GC leaders are heading onto the heresy or something bad. It might be a bit confusing to the some Adventists but, i would like everyone of us to really use this Christmas day(although 25th Dec) is a pagan celebration. but let's look a little deeper & through the literal perspective where Christmas could be a day for us to unite every Adventist(irregular, regular, never - church goers/believers) in the worship of our Lord Jesus & as a venue to contemplate & expouse the Message of the Scripture to them. Yea, we here in SAUM(SouthEast Asia Union) were also not celebrating it but since church members are having their public holidays in the own local church, why not having the church revival meeting/cottage meeting? as in this case(the GC leaders/Hope channel), they are trying their best to preached the truth through this tv stations, and it's a great opportunity to preach His truth. thanks & Happy New Year 2011! God bless

Posted by Justin on 2011-01-03 02:23:00

From my understanding and what I have been taught, Seventh Day Adventist do not celebrate christmas. But, we do not speak against it or destroy the holiday because this is the time that the world chooses to acknowledge Jesus Christ. So Adventist should be using that oppurtunity to further spread the message of Christ.

Posted by Mischka Scott on 2011-01-01 00:33:00

Seventh-day Adventists have always celebrated the birth of Christ. The objections suggested here are vague and seem intent on attack rather than revival. Some would object to singing about Christ or wearing red? Ellen White even suggests every woman should own a red dress (YI, Dec 5, 1961). Jesus cannot come a 2nd time if he never came the first time... so let's celebrate his birth with spiritual consideration.

Posted by Gregory on 2010-12-31 09:06:00

My dear brothers and sisters, if it is not in the Bible then it is not required. If we keep what God has not commanded, then pretty soon we will reject what God has commanded. How can anybody find time with human traditions when we have so little time for God's commandments? You will receive no reward for following what God did not command. That goes for Christmas and Easter. The only thing that we have to remember is the event of the cross, not the day; the life of Jesus, not His birthdate (especially that the Bible is silent about it).

Posted by Mike on 2010-12-30 22:09:00

Sorry, just for my own benefit. Why in the text above the word "spirit" is in small letter? I think it should be "God's Spirit" because He is the only One thant can give gifts to the church and to bring reformation among us. If not ... our own doing will be just a human made reform.

Posted by Valerian on 2010-12-29 09:04:00

I am between two churches. One has refused to have any kind of Christmas program and the other church put up a one and a half hour Christmas program. I felt unhappy with both. One of them is not having any sensitivity to the world around it, and the other has to understand the reason behind the 'celebration'. Both have not understood that we have to be shrewd and use the event to promote the Kingdom of God. Standing out as a weird church will not help our mission in the world and not match with the lesson that we have received for Mrs. White’s example. If we conform to the norms of society and ‘celebrate’ Christmas as such, that would prepare the way for our own demise. In the same way the Early Christian Church has started accepting step by stem things into the church until total apostasy.

Posted by Valerian on 2010-12-29 08:55:00

This initiative was mentioned some weeks ago on ANN. At that time it was introduced, the concerns were that 'The ( SDA)Church's growth rate was not in keeping with the world population .A second concern was that inspite of the church’s best efforts, plans and strategies, they wouldn’t finish the work in this generation.

The present article focuses on spiritual renewal and prayer. These ideas are all fine and good, but again the same mistakes will recur until we change the idea of spiritual revival from administrative directives.

For spiritual revival to take place it must be an individual effort. People must feel the need for personal revival and reformation in their lives personally, and then they will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to work for the Lord.

Too often in Adventism, we keep hearing of special days for this activity and that activity, special times usually scheduled by the administration at the General Conference to do this or, that, to join them in doing a specific activity. All such attempts are doomed to fail, because the revival and reformation process is an individual work, not a church, or administrative function. Each person must seek the Lord first, to be cleansed from sin, covered by the righteousness of Jesus and then, in accordance with the teachings of His word witness to those around them.

A good example of reformation and revival is found in the experiences of the disciples when they waited for ten days in the upper room prior to receiving the Spirit. The Bible teaches that they continued in one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. Ellen White adds that wrongs were made right among them etc before the Holy Spirit was poured out. I think we can learn much from the disciples experience and apply it to ourselves individually. Revival and reformation must begin in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.

Another factor relates to the motivation for the experience. What is the reason for the revival /reformation as promoted now? Is it only to carry out another church- sponsored programme that will last for a certain period and then end?

We need to go back to the way the disciples worked. For them, evangelism was not single programme or a series of programmes. It was an integral part of their lives. This was especially true of Paul, because his one theme, his one desire was to preach the gospel to people everywhere. Wherever Paul was, he was interested in letting people know of a risen Saviour- Jesus, pointing them to Him, encouraging them to believe the gospel and place their faith at Him. Whether in Greece, Thessalonica, Ephesus -anywhere, His one determination was to lead people to know and accept Jesus as Saviour, The life of Paul and the other apostles demonstrates true revival and reformation. I think this is what the Lord requires of all of us.

Posted by Andrew on 2010-12-26 02:43:00

Please dont allow our heritage 2 die off.Why are we celebrating wat we dont believe in.Our leaders should stop all this heresis&nt misleadin d young ones

Posted by Atakiti Sunday on 2010-12-25 13:18:00

I am amazed at the happenings myself.When have we started embracing Christmas.Are we ignoring the old land marks.

I know that Jesus is coming soon

Posted by Nellian on 2010-12-25 01:52:00

I don't think that our leaders are moving away from the teachings of the church, they are just being enlightened about what the Spirit of Prophecy has to say about Christmas. I just read it again as a reminder for my husband and two young daughters. I'm hoping that our church leaders will insist on having a christmas tree to generate items for the poorer community members or for church projects.

The problem I think we have as SDA Christians is that of the hundreds of reading material the Lord has provided for us, some of us prefer not to read them but to act on their preference or the traditions of the forefathers.

Brethen, let us not perish for lack of knowledge

Posted by Jacqueline on 2010-12-24 23:16:00

May God forvive us.

Posted by grace on 2010-12-24 22:51:00

Joseph,our elders already open-up their mind and heart for many changes,we can´t live forever inside the closet of old,conservatives style of worship that founder EGW has taught us,if you are concerned enough about SDA doctrines and belief then stick with it and don´t let changes of times and new trend for worship affect you.

you´ve got to realized that many of SDA members are former catholic,protestant etc.etc.as saying goes:a crocodiles even baptized for hundreds times still a crocodiles.

anyway what are the difference between the roman catholic people,protestant people,muslim people,buddhist people,hindu people,jewish people from SDA people?

all are classiffied as mankind(sinners)everyone will be judges according to each individuals deeds,take note:the sin of Paul is not a sin of Peter.

God tolerates mankind to sin,He even died for our sin however there are sin that unforgivable and that everyone´s should be aware of.

Christmas if celebrate religiously and properly brings wisdom,happiness,hope and good memories for everyone but if celebrates the devils way it brought chaos,loneliness,stupidities even death to many.

Posted by Benno on 2010-12-24 16:36:00

Frankly, I'm confused!I was born in SDA Church and today First Elder of a big church;I always know that Chrismas is a pagan party.I wonder what's happening to my leaders?

I deeply need to be clear. Help me!

Joseph

Posted by Joseph on 2010-12-24 03:36:00

I see the end of world are Nealy to come which articles in the bible allow seventh day to celebrate Christmas??? Or the roman Catholic has already inserted his people in our church. You leaders do not put us in a wrong way please.

Posted by WILLIAM AMOS on 2010-12-21 16:46:00

Sheila, you are Correct.Adventists do not celebrate Christmas, I don't know where is this movement comming from!

Posted by Muze on 2010-12-21 14:35:00

I sensed that we are nearing the end.May God give us the grace to follow the path where He is leading.

Posted by Nwagboso chisom on 2010-12-20 18:48:00

Thank God for prayer! I'll be at a midnight prayer meeting with Adventist students here in SE Asia bringing in the New Year with prayer for the Holy Spirit and worldwide revival. What an exciting way to start 2011. The world will be partying but we'll be praying, Praise God!

Posted by Andrew Michell on 2010-12-20 14:16:00

Thanks for this programme and initiative, may our good LORD continue to bless you and pour HIS Holy Spirit upon us, amen.

Posted by Emeka Abaribe on 2010-12-17 16:27:00

This is a wonderful move. I pray that this type of presentation will be carried out continually as we approach the end of this earth's history and await the coming of our Saviour.

Posted by Errol Lloyd Dunkley on 2010-12-15 09:01:00

since when as Adventist did we start 2 celebrate christmas? are we slowly leaving the way of our fathers. i ve seen even on hope channel songs about christmas & the wearing of red where are we heading to

Posted by sheila on 2010-12-15 05:38:00