ASI Scandinavia 2013: Transforming Grace

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ASI Scandinavia

Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

Kim Busl

Part 1: Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

Let's go back and think of God's work in this world from the beginning.

And think about ministries, people God's called to serve for his work.

Because he was working full time for God, building up something special.

Did Noah have a work that God called them to do?

There was no structure of support for ministry as we know today in those days.

Simply God gave this man a call and he had something specific he wanted to do.

In fact, it had never rained and all the intelligent people told Noah it was impossible for it to rain, scientifically, couldn't happen.

And they labored with him and he was faithful.

And part of the interesting reality is when Noah finished the ark, you know how much resource he had left personal finances and resources, assets.

You read in page arts and prophets, Noah invested everything he had in the building of that ark.

He had nothing left in this world that was his.

He had invested everything in the building of that art.

Now we can look back, was that a good decision?

Had he had any investment left in the world as he knew it, what was soon to happen to it?

Now, there's a book out, it's called Another Ark to Build.

And I remember when we printed that book at a little school called Mount Missionary in New Hampshire.

It had been a series of pamphlets that LWZ had done and then it got compiled and put into the book.

And I recommend this reading if you can find it.

I mean, at Wildwood they probably have a digital copy.

Does it still have a little rainbow on the front?

Anyway, you know, Elberge puts out there this concept that there is another ark to build, that Jesus is coming soon, the closing chapters in the history of this world is the time in which we're living and that there's another ark to build.

And as God's people, we can take courage and look at Noah's example as a safe example to follow.

So he could be 1 of our early supporting ministries when we look back historically and see a person who responded to the call of God, had a work to do, and didn't look to other people to provide the resources for that.

He didn't say, well if this organization funds me, I'll build the ark.

He went forward and he took what was in his hand, he took what he had and he invested it.

Do any other names spring up to you as people who would be in a supporting ministry category?

Now, I don't know if Enoch's outpost is in that book that...

Is Emings outpost a chapter in that book, in the Arts of Ill?

What did, what was Emings, what did Emings do?

He, it says that he was, it's actually interesting, in the School of Prophecy, I haven't read it that much, but I've heard it.

That he was actually going to cities, and...

And just, yeah, finding out about needs of people, and serving to these needs, and reaching people's confidence, and then...

Then, being able to come out of the cities and join him in his work, he lived outside of the cities.

And that's the way, brings him back to God.

She uses that as an illustration on how to work the cities.

Now, you know, a lot has changed in a hundred years, but the idea in following Enoch's example was he would go out in nature, out in his outpost, and he would spend time with God and commuting and he would get charged, so to speak.

And then he would go into the cities and labor for people for a certain amount of time.

Then he would leave and whoever he had ministered to that was willing, he would take with him out into the country, out to where he lived, and minister to them there.

And that's where we get our modern day idea of outpost centers.

We'll get to that name a little bit later on, in more detail.

So Enoch would be another 1, I agree, of a supporting ministry type person, who was putting their own resources, their time, their labors into this ministry.

I'm kind of thinking of Nehemiah, but maybe not fits perfectly.

But he did not, because Nehemiah did not really accept any wages, even though he was entitled to it, so he was really putting his own investment into the work which was very specific, which was building the wall.

Now the call came to Enoch different than it came, not Enoch, excuse me, to Nehemiah different than it came to Noah.

How did Nehemiah get this call, get this burden?

Well, he got some news from his Jerusalem.

Part 2: Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

We are before you and we think that we can come and discuss Your will for us your will and how to establish different ministries You have put the burden on our hearts and Perhaps it's a ministry that hasn't been established yet.

But you are here to guide us and to lead us, to learn of your word, and to experience you, and allow you to guide us in our future.

We ask for wisdom and truth now as we're talking, and that you'd be with Kim as well, and bless him.

And I ask these things in your mighty and holy name.

The text I was looking for yesterday in Acts, you will recognize the words as I read them, is the Apostle Paul And he's leaving his friends and he says, Now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them, all them which are sanctified.

I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.

Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me.

I have showed you all things how that so laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive that's Acts 20 start with verse 32 and there's other there's other texts there that Paul we could go to and read where Paul talked about how his hands worked and laboured to supply his needs and the needs of his team that was with him.

And he made it clear, I've coveted no man's silver or gold.

And it ends with the words of Jesus, it's better to do what?

And it's interesting that in a few places Paul mentions the financial aspect of how his work went, of how he labored.

And we'll see as we go along that still today finances and how finances are perceived within the church family is a very delicate matter.

It's unfortunate but It's just part of the struggle in human nature that we have a very difficult time getting away from.

And it's not unique to supporting ministries and church enterprises.

Some of you perhaps will know of a friend or a family member in which someone died and an inheritance was left.

And the people receiving that inheritance become estranged from 1 another.

And they go for years of not speaking and it gets divisive.

I mean, God doesn't, this, amongst Seventh-day Adventist Christians whom I know, this happens.

Some got more, or some got less, and it wasn't fair, and it brings in divisiveness.

And Paul chose, hey, I'm not going to go there.

So yesterday as we were closing, Jan really needs to show up, I hate for him to miss this.

I was trying to share with you a sense of historically where the Seventh-day Adventist Church was at the turn of the century, the late 1880s, 1890s, early 1900s.

The outpouring of the latter rain had begun, and yet it got shut off.

And we saw where a group of people, Ellen White, A.T.

Jones, Wagner, were going around preaching this message of Christ our righteousness, righteousness by faith, justification by faith.

And it was being resisted by church leadership at large in the 1888 conference that took place.

Another message was being pressed upon God's people and that was the health message.

It was building, it was growing, it was being demonstrated and Kellogg was being used by God in a wonderful way.

People from all over the world coming to be cured, to be cared for at the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

It was becoming a preeminent institution, not simply for the church, but within the United States at large.

Ellen White was encouraging a concept of education, again, that was being resisted primarily because it could not be perceived.

And all of us have been, if I started speaking Portuguese, he might know some.

If I started speaking Swahili, anybody here speak Swahili?

If I start speaking to you in a foreign language, you just, hey, or you speak to me in Norwegian, forget about it, you know, hi, hi, talk, that's the beginning, the end, I don't know anymore.

And so communicating concepts is often like speaking a foreign language.

Jesus, when he told the disciples, you know, the Gentiles have a certain way of authority, but it's not going to be that way among you.

He that is greatest among you, let him be servant of all." But still the question comes, when you come into your kingdom, can 1 son be on your left and 1 son...

Jesus is telling him, I'm going to Jerusalem.

Well, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, I want to be right there.

He was telling them things, but they couldn't hear it.

And so often God has this problem with us.

He's trying to give us a message, but we don't comprehend it, we don't hear it.

And so there were these 2 characters I started to introduce you to called E.A.

Now, the reason I brought their names up, and Jan was wanting to know, what have these guys got to do with supporting ministries?

I mentioned to you that McGann started his life at Battle Creek in Ellen White's home and that a very intimate and affectionate relationship developed between McGann.

And his understanding of the gospel was very much formed by his time with Ellen White and his understanding of righteousness by faith, his understanding of the great controversy.

Now, It happened that a man named Stephen Haskell, have you heard of that name?

He was asked to go by the General Conference on a tour around the world to look for mission stations where we could set up places where Seventh-day Adventist ministries could begin.

As he was preparing for that, Ellen White suggested that he take McGann with him.

She said, take this young boy Percy with you, he can carry your suitcases and be your secretary.

And so McGann went on this trip around the world with Haskell.

Haskell actually stopped in Australia to visit with his sister and Percy McGann arrived back in California and he was the first Seventh-day Adventist to encircle the globe on behalf of God's work, on behalf of ministry.

Ellen White wrote a book named Christ Object Lessons.

She dedicated that book to the relieving of debt for our schools.

And McGinn led the push of getting Christ Object Lessons out there to relieve the debt of the school and to get the book out into homes.

And he was such a salesman, 1 night he sold 10 copies of Christ Object Lessons to 1 guy.

And after the guy had paid, and McGann had become friends with him, he's going to leave.

And he says to the man, you know, really, what are you going to do with 10?

And later in life, I can tell you more of the things God used him to do.

These 2 men came into Battle Creek and they started to lead that school.

They plowed up the football field, they planted potatoes, they got a work program going, They got rid of sports.

They started to implement what we call educational reforms because they were in communication with Ellen White, and they grasped what she was saying and what needed to happen in education.

They knew that the school should never have been in Battle Creek.

Part 3: Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

We're so thankful that you provide fresh air and good food.

We take none of the blessings you give us for granted.

We thank you that you sustain us hour by hour, moment by moment.

We thank you for the grace that you offer so freely.

And once again as we come to fellowship, think about the work you've called each 1 of us to, to be your servants, to be lights in this world, to be a channel through which you may bring your blessings to others.

May your spirit be here to guide and to bless, to inspire and to encourage.

I pray a special blessing upon each 1 as they present their lives before you.

We ended yesterday speaking about a school in the southern part of the United States.

And these are, the specific dates aren't so important as the idea of the people that were involved, the way God was working in their lives and getting a sense of the work he had called them to.

It was a very special work, a very specific work, and it was a work that Evan wanted to have go forward.

I was just reading here, I was looking for a few things that I didn't find.

I was reading, Ellen White appealed to the brethren, our church leadership, when it came to Southern McGann, and she says, you know, they work very hard in Berrien Springs.

They shouldn't have had to work as hard as they did in Berion, and now they're starting the school in Madison, and they're working so hard that she feared that their health would be sacrificed, or even their very lives.

She said if they're left to continue under these difficulties, their health and their lives may be sacrificed.

And it's not, God doesn't want this to happen.

Now, I share that because as we look at some of the other ministries and as you enter into a ministry, there's a great temptation to overwork in our supporting ministries.

People feel such a weight of responsibility.

Generally, the financial resources are meager and they just press and they press and they press and it's for a good reason but we need to be careful.

You know I look back when I was your age and I was involved in a ministry, the first ministry I was involved in.

We worked 18-20 hours a day, some of us, and that was normal.

I look back and I was willing to do it, I was caught up in the vision, this was God's work, this is what He wanted to have happen.

And so reading this, I realized it's a heritage that comes on from even Sutherland and McGann, that when you have this burden, when you want to see something happen that you believe God is calling you to, there's a temptation to overwork.

James White had this temptation, if you read the history of Ellen and James White.

James White did the work of 5 men, often.

His wife, this is his wife saying this, and she would rebuke him for it, say, James, you need to stop, you need to slow down.

At the same time, there were other people that could have taken up burdens, And they didn't.

And they were willing for James White to have to carry those burdens.

But you may find, as God calls you into ministry, whether it's a ministry you begin and you pioneer yourself, or it's a ministry that you join, this temptation to overwork will be there.

I understand it, but I just want to at the same time caution you.

God, I read a statement years ago, it said this, be humble.

A lot was accomplished in this world before you were born.

A lot was accomplished in this world before I was born.

And when I say be humble, it's hey, God can make this happen.

And while he wants us to feel the burden, he wants us to feel a responsibility, He doesn't want us to sacrifice our health and our lives.

So we read about Madison, and then we spoke about satellites, little schools that started out from Madison.

What people would graduate, they'd go, they'd start a little school.

Sometimes 4 or 5 families from Madison would go and start a school, start a new institution.

And As I mentioned to you, it's interesting, the South was very poor at the turn of the century.

And these schools were very much appreciated.

These sanitariums that they started were very much appreciated.

And the regulation from the state was not heavy in those days.

And so they were easy, when I say easy, from that perspective, it was easy to start a ministry and people were more willing to see the fruit of your labor than they were eager to see that you had a license.

How you work, the results you got as you treated patients, That's what they look like.

And if you are getting good results, you're getting good results and that is your credential.

Okay, that's what gives you the right to do what you do.

Madison started an organization called the Layman's Foundation.

Okay, the Layman's Foundation the Layman's Foundation.

The Layman's Foundation was an organization that would hold the property to a new ministry.

Madison is producing the teachers, they're producing the leaders for these ministries.

And so you go off and you need to buy a piece of land and you need to build buildings and you need to make a significant financial investment.

And when they purchased the property, they would purchase it under the name of the Layman's Foundation.

And then they would allow the school or the sanitarium or whatever it was there to operate because the resources, the finances were given through Madison.

And then if, say, a ministry didn't work after 5 or 10 years, It didn't have the success they had hoped.

Well, that asset was still available to be sold and then help another group in another place.

Now something I found interesting years later, when I say years later, years, maybe 30 years after I'd been in self-supporting work, maybe 25.

I was in Africa for, we were in Africa for about 15 years and then we went back to the United States, and I sat on the conference committee for the Georgia Cumberland Conference.

And as I sat on that conference, I learned some things.

I learned that most of the church schools, and even the academy in the Georgia Cumberland Conference, had all started out as Madison institutions.

Madison graduates had gone out and started all these schools, and eventually the church, the conference, adopted them and took them over, let's say.

The Conference Academy used to be a Langan's Foundation Academy.

The other thing I found interesting was that the Southern Union, that at the turn of the century was very poor, was now very wealthy.

The United States, this is not, I just want to take this as fact, not as anything else, but roughly 93% of all the money in the Seventh-day Adventist Church comes from the United States.

The majority of the money in the United States comes from the Southern Union.

The Southern Union has the greatest single tithe return and offer return of any other union in the world.

You know, you say, why would this happen?

I would say that many of the people who have generated significant tithes and offerings returning to the Church are people who started their business out of these satellites.

You meet people in the southern part of the United States, many of them have a connection to the Madison School.

No, I'm not saying that that is a direct outlet, but there is a connection between the work that's been done in the Southern Union.

The Southern Union has more supporting ministries, more self-supporting schools than anywhere else in the United States.

It's just kind of interesting that God blessed the economy of the whole area And the Madison School had a part to play in bringing up the level of education, the level of life, the quality of life in those areas, in those states.

So the Layman's Foundation was formed and many self-supporting institutions were part of the Layman's Foundation.

As there were so many supporting ministries, the denomination wanted to find a way to where the workers in the supporting ministries and the workers in denominational work could unite their labors, work together effectively, and to try to break down barriers that would inevitably arise as a result of having quote 2 different systems.

You got people that are paid by the conference, paid by the church and their workers and then you have a network of ministries that are supporting ministries doing a very similar work, but not by the denomination.

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Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

Part 1: Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

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