HUNDREDS OF CUSTOMERS, AS USUAL, AT THE FOOD PANTRY

Tuesday’s visit to the Atlanta Community Food Bank yielded an entire bin full of bread products. The staff at the Food Bank furnished Berean with an empty pallet-sized container, one about four feet high. The bread was transferred from vendor racks into the bin. The capacity had to have been close to 500 packages. It was not a typical acquisition, but was an extremely welcome one.

Free products on Tuesday included twenty cases of organic almond butter (lots of fat, but with protein as well.) Cases of tortilla chips were also free. The ordered items included a few pallets of oranges and sweet potatoes. There were around twenty volunteers available to process these acquisitions, a respectable turnout for a Tuesday. Food packages for the Wednesday gathering of seniors in the chapel at the big church (across the street from Berean Outreach Ministries Center) were delivered Tuesday afternoon. Perishable items are delivered just before meeting time on Wednesday. This Ministry is under the direction of Dorothy Mants. Food parcels for qualifying seniors that reside at Berean Village (a retirement home) are picked up Wednesday afternoons by Elder Benson and his trusty Dodge pickup. Some students from Morehouse assisted him in loading this pickup two weeks ago, but last week the scholars were assigned to do some “brain” work: getting some 10 year old computer gear up and running. This week the Morehouse students helped hand out food to the public.

There was no Wednesday trip to the Food Bank, but enough supplies were already on hand to satisfy Berean Food Pantry patrons. Nobody left without a quart of Miracle Whip.

A SHORT INTRO OF GUEST PASTOR MICHAEL KELLY, WITH DIGRESSIONS ABOUT MARYLAND

Pastor Michael Kelly is currently Lead Pastor at Mt. Rubidoux SDA church, located in Riverside, California. One of his priorities is to try to make Adventism relevant to today’s Youth. Another priority is to motivate those who are currently just warming pews into becoming bona fide Christians (“those who are like Christ”).

Pastor Kelly attended Columbia Union College (now Washington Adventist University) on a track scholarship. Washington University is located in Takoma Park, Maryland. It has a tenuous affiliation with nearby Saint John’s College, located in Annapolis (next door to the Naval Academy). This affiliation is in regard to course LITR 335: the study of the “Great Books.” One of the questions raised by this course is “who decides what is a Great Book?” Adventist should be cautious about what they decide to read. As for me, it is too late! One of my sisters went to St. John’s. They read an awful lot, but don’t teach much practical stuff there. 10% of their graduates go on to study law. That’s what she did.

Maryland was intended to be a a refuge for persecuted English Catholics by Lord Baltimore. The first settlers arrived in 1633, a year after Lord Baltimore’s death, with intentions to strike it rich in the tobacco business. They were envious of Virginia’s prosperity. Nine years later, in 1642, the first slaves arrived. By 1755, 40% of Marylanders were black. Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation did nothing for the slaves of Maryland, as the state was allied with the North. The citizens narrowly voted to abolish slavery a year later.

Writer John Barth is a native of Maryland. His first novel, “The Sot-Weed Factor,” is a picaresque (meaning, basically, in the manner of Don Quixote) epic about the very early days of the state. I strongly urge you to NOT read it! Barth matured as a writer subsequent to this scandalous work. The title story from his convoluted cycle of postmodern yarns, “Lost in the Funhouse,” contains an observation that used to be highly descriptive of my life. The narrator, emerging from a disorienting journey through a carnival funhouse, realizes that his destiny is to construct and operate funhouses for others. But he would much rather be “among the lovers for whom funhouses are designed.” I am over my depression about having been a captive in this scenario. The home page for Pastor Kelly’s church features an observation by Paul (from Romans 15:13) that describes my new and improved attitude: “…may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Pastor Kelly appears to be a speaker who is in demand for revivals and special events. There exists video of his talks that feature him in a variety of Adventist churches, and these recordings are of widely varying quality. As an example of his capability, here is a LINK to a forty-minute sermon by the pastor delivered in 2013 at Community Praise Church in Alexandria, Virginia. It has great production values. The title of the sermon is “True Confession,” one based upon this theme: “What do we need to tell? Who do we need to tell it to?”

THE WAR ROOM COMBINES WITH “ENCOUNTER” FOR A FOUR DAY “INTENTIONAL LIVING SERIES” WITH PASTOR KELLY

“Encounter” is the hub for all youth ministries at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta. I can’t provide a link to it, as my computers don’t get along with the Berean website at all. Here is a LINK to the Twitter presence of one of the guiding lights of this operation, Fredrick Bussey. He offered some remarks at the beginning of tonight’s joint operation in the “War Room,” as this evening also inaugurates a four day series of presentations sponsored by the “Encounter” crew. This series is what has motivated Pastor Michael Kelly to fly here all the way from the West Coast. Fredrick Bussey spoke of “Encounter’s” theme for the new year as being one focused upon “Intentional Living.” Mr. Bussey (or maybe Pastor Busey; I don’t know which, not being one of his youths) listed the proposed installments of the series:

Intentional Worship

Intentional Spirituality

Intentional Living

Intentional Relationship

Fredrick Bussey said that when you set goals, it is the same as if the desired outcome has already happened. This is akin to some recent pastoral admonitions at Berean to “thank God as if you have already received your blessing.” I have listed the categories in the order that they were spoken, but the last in the list, “Intentional Relationship,” proved to be the subject of tonight’s first sermon by visiting Pastor Michael Kelly. Pastor Humphreys introduced Pastor Kelly, and the title “The Hunger Games” was mentioned in relation to the talk that followed. During the course of the sermon, a supplementary title was stated, “More Than Directions.” Hunger Games, while being communicative to the youth that compose “Encounter,” does not mean that much to us old folks. Pastor Kelly relates well to young people, as he himself is but a youth, albeit a highly accomplished one. I regret that I will miss the balance of his Atlanta presentations, unless he happens to step up to the plate Sabbath morning. This is what similarly peripatetic Dr. Emil Peeler does when he visits Berean.

After an interesting rendition of “Our God is an Awesome God!” (one unlike this link to a standard treatment) by the praise team (featuring Pastor Danielle Pilgrim), Pastor Kelly revealed that his church, Mt. Rubidoux, had been interested in acquiring the services of Danielle Pilgrim, but had not been quick enough to catch her. They “snoozed” and they “loosed.”

The Scripture that was source for Pastor Kelly’s comments is Matthew 9:9-13, but verse 9 tells most of the story: “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.” The moral of the story is found in verse 13: “…I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Two words from verse 9, “follow me,” inform the entire talk.

“I am horrible with directions,” Pastor Kelly confessed. He used to have people write down directions form him. Despite this provision, he would still wind up becoming lost. “When it comes to Christianity, there is a direction in which we are headed; the direction of heaven,” he said. The Bible is our set of written directions, but if you haven’t been to seminary (learned Greek and Hebrew) then you have a variety of directions to chose from (different translations of Scripture). But even with these directions, you can still get lost. Friends of the pastor used to tell him, “even though you have directions to where you want to go, we just want you to follow us.” The pastor had someone to follow who knew the direction better than he did.

As Christians, we need a person we can follow: Jesus Christ. The pastor criticized “legalism” (just as I had seen him do in one of his YouTube offerings), and quoted something that began, “you seek to be godly by submitting yourself to external rules and regulations…” He noted that many Adventists are heavily into “rules and regulations.” This is a pattern the pagans utilize. If there should arise a conflict between diferent regulations, then one is lost.

Pastor Kelly returned to his personal experiences with his friends, and incidents of following them for guidance. The pastor would get confused sometimes, but the person who was guiding him would note this. stop, turn around, and come back to where the pastor was. They were aware that he was floundering because they “had their eyes upon him.” Pastor Kelly instructed us that God has His eye on us, and if He sees that we are in trouble, He will “hang a “U” to come to our assistance. To find our way in life, all we have to do is “follow him.” What the law was incapable of doing, Jesus can do. This is why the sermon was titled (partially) “More Than Directions.” The notion of “Relationship” was now introduced.

“When you are in a relationship,” the pastor stated, “the relationship governs your actions.” Matthew 9 is readdressed. The pastor emphasizes the unsavory character and criminal behavior of tax farmers in the days of Jesus. When the tax collector Matthew arose and followed Christ, there was no immediate change in his lifestyle. Jesus simply said “follow me.” All of the changes occurred afterward. Church folk stipulate a lot of prerequisites before admitting new members to the fold. But Jesus did not do this. He only asked the tax collector to “walk with Him.” You do not need to change your lifestyle before you walk with Jesus. Two comments upon this were provided:

We often don’t trust the process of relationship. Pastor Kelly recalled the early days of his marriage. He was out with “the boys” until 3 a.m., then arrived back home. He felt chastened by his new wife simply because of the bad effect that his actions had on their relationship. If we behave in an improper manner around Jesus, then we will adjust our behavior. We will do this, because our relationship to Him is important. When people come into the church, they are told that they cannot do certain things. Sometimes, they may look around and note that some other people are still doing things that they themselves believe to be forbidden. The pastor notes that these people may just be in a different stage of their relationship with Jesus, one not quite as “advanced.”

To come to Christ, being a sinner does not disqualify us. It is, in fact, a precondition. He did not come to save the righteous, but to save the lost. An invitation to follow Christ is an invitation to a relationship. Any changes you may make in your life occur in the context of this relationship. A positive benefit of this relationship is that it forces you to focus on Where I Am rather than Where You Are Not (the beam in your eye, and not the mote in the other’s eye). This statement forms a part of Pastor Kelly’s recurrent criticism of an overly-judgmental attitude by Christians (read “Adventists”) toward those who would like to become better than they are, but are yet imperfect (a volunteer at the Berean Food Pantry steps out to have a smoke occasionally, but he is at least on the right track. I would not dream of taking exception to his zeal for good works, and know that ( should he continue to walk more closely with Jesus) cigarettes will be vanquished in due course).

Pastor Michael Kelly noted that he could tell that someone was not following Christ when they were all “in his business.” People who are “in Christ” don’t have time for this kind of petty nonsense ( the keyboardist, a young virtuoso, began to play, at this point, an old, old song: “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?“). Pastor Kelly, by way of conclusion, made a very wise observation. He related that a mature Christian will see very little difference between themselves and those who may be “lagging behind a little.”

Pastor Michael Kelly’s mission in life is to swell, and not to thin, the ranks of the church. I agree with the notion that we , as pots, should never indulge in calling kettles black. I am sure that his church does not spurn potential members on the basis of pre-existing tattoos and piercings. My smoking was sustained a good six months into my conversion to Adventism. But, as Pastor Kelly described, the fact that it compromised my relationship with Jesus was more than sufficient cause to relinquish this addiction. There was a controversy recently in the pages of Adventist World over the possible provision of “smoking areas” outside of churches. Believe me when I say that there was plenty of outraged reaction. It came from the same class of people that Pastor Kelly claims are helping to kill off the denomination (at least vis a vis the youth of America). I will link one more famous song, “Just As I Am, Without One Plea.”

“Follow” is the key word that terminated Wednesday night’s address. The word “Directions” is also included in the composition. Pastor Kelly advised the congregation as follows:

Follow the One who wrote the directions.

Follow the One who knows the directions.

Follow Jesus!

The closing prayer expressed a desire that we be Christian on days other than just Sabbath or Wednesdays, and restated the act of “following” by citing part of Revelation 14:4: “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” The pastor was referring to the group of people mentioned in Revelation 12:17: “…the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God.”