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2 Tim 3:12 says, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” I often wonder if I am guilty of talking about myself and about my wife’s and my painful departure from the Adventist ministry with more energy than I point to Jesus Christ. It is my personal conviction that our central focus, energy, and attention should not be our experiences or even the doctrines with which we disagreed in the past; rather, our central focus must be Christ and His glorious Gospel. The most important Person in all the Universe is Christ. Jesus IS the Gospel! Colossians 3:11 says, “Christ is ALL and is in all.” Jonathan Edwards said, “All that a Christian is, he is in and by Christ.” In Colossians 3 Paul admonishes us to set our minds, our focus, our energy upon things that are above, not on, this earth. Other things are unimportant in true reality. I began my ministry as a singing evangelist in the New Jersey Conference. (While the Church insists upon using the term “evangelist,” this word is incorrect. Because the primary motive is not to win souls to Jesus Christ through the preaching of the Gospel but to make Adventists out of those who attend the public meetings, the word “proselytizer” would be more nearly accurate.) I worked with many popular ministers including George Vandeman, Bob Folkenberg, and C.D. Brooks, and I have some great memories of my work with these evangelists. I loved C.D. Brooks! I first worked with him in the first integrated series of meetings in the denomination’s history held in Newark, New Jersey. I was the white song leader/singer. One night following my singing of the song “Ten Thousand Angels,” Elder Brooks paid me a high compliment in a manner I shall never forget. He walked to the pulpit as I was sitting down and said, “Jess may be white on the outside, but he has a black heart.” Over 1200 people applauded. I felt honored, for I understood his compliment to mean that I sang from my heart with emotion and the deep expression of feeling often associated with African American singers. I pastored the Salem and Vineland, New Jersey, churches as well as the church in Alexandria, Virginia, and the churches in Sheridan and Buffalo, Wyoming. I also served as conference ministerial secretary for the Wyoming Conference under Al McClure. My last pastorate was for the Bozeman, Montana Conference headquarters church. Unique DepartureMy departure from Adventist pastoral ministry is, I think, unique because it did not focus upon the controversial doctrines so central in the departure of many Adventist ministers. My only issue during the time leading up to my termination was the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ. It remains my primary issue today! The Holy Spirit led me to purchase a copy of Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans. As I read it, I discovered the authentic gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! After Bonnie and I knew we were saved, I knew the gospel of the Lord Jesus was the primary message my congregation needed to hear so they, too, could smile and believe it when they sang, “Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!” For the next 18 months I preached on nothing—I repeat, nothing—but justification by faith. I must point out that during part of this 18 month time period, the events of Glacier View were occurring in which Des Ford presented his scholarly findings about the Investigative Judgment to a panel of church administrators and theologians. I did not preach a single sermon nor make one statement about Des Ford and his position relative to the Sanctuary doctrine. I did not mention Ellen White nor question her inspiration or plagiarism nor make any comment about the conflict brewing within the church at that time. The only subject I preached for 18 months was the authentic gospel of Jesus, focusing upon its heart of justification by faith alone. Only briefly I will mention the traumatic events which took place during those 18 months. They included: Valley of the Shadow When things reached a climax in December, 1981, the conference president said I must make a public statement of loyalty covering four specific areas or else I could never serve again in the denomination as a minister. He told us not to worship with our congregation as long as we remained in Bozeman. I was to move my family out of the state within three weeks. In the meantime I was to find work, a place to live, pack and move, and enroll our four children in new schools. He wanted that done in three weeks! The urgency, one conference official told me, originated from the conference president’s fear that I would start an independent congregation in the shadow of the Montana Conference Office. Such a move, he no doubt felt, would cast an embarrassing shadow on his role as leader and would be a financial drain on local Adventist membership. The president also feared that, if I started an independent church, young pastors in the conference would be impacted and might, with their congregations, be prompted to make similar moves. I had no intention, however, of beginning a church there. We did not move for six months. It took us that long to find a place to live and to enroll our children in new schools. Being totally ostracized and cut off from virtually all association with those we thought to be true friends was a shock. I was not prepared for the dark valley my wife and I were about to enter, including over ten years of severe, chronic depression. God laid me in a sepulcher of the deepest despondency. We had no support group. I was not prepared emotionally for the trauma not only of being called an apostate and a heretic, but of being treated as one. Charles Spurgeon wrote: “To feel utterly forsaken of the Lord and cast away as though hopelessly corrupt is the very climax of heart desolation. The mind can descend far lower than the body, for there are bottomless pits. The soul can bleed in ten thousand ways and die over and over again each hour.” I praise God today and will not cease, for the freedom in Christ into which He eventually led us, for the unspeakable glory of His grace and the preciousness of the authentic gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Compared to the burden Adventism lays upon a person, Christ’s yoke is as light as balsam wood! Statement of Loyalty Rom 9:5 says Christ is God over all. I have to ask, is He God over all things in my life? Am I progressing in holiness? I cannot coast in my walk with Christ. I must actively examine myself and submit my life to God’s word. Often I am big on head things, but what about heart things? Am I spending enough time watching and paying attention to the motions of the Spirit in my heart? Am I progressing in holiness? All these years after my traumatic departure from Adventist ministry I can still say that being obedient to Jesus is worth whatever trouble may come as a result. Incidentally I did give my public statement of loyalty demanded by the conference president. On our last Sabbath in our church in Bozeman as I finished my last sermon, I told the congregation I would close with my statement of loyalty. Then I repeated the words of this hymn: “On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.” After the benediction I walked down the center aisle of the church where the second love of my life next to the Lord Jesus, my wife Bonnie, stood up from her seat and took my hand. Together we walked out to the front doors of the church where we wished God’s blessing to the people as they left. Praise God for the glorious freedom offered in Christ Jesus our Lord! All other ground is sinking sand. _____________________________________________________________________________________
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