Here are 100 of the most quotable quotes from AdventUprising.com so far. I hope you don’t take the title of this post the wrong way. In case you did, let me help you: there’s hell in the Adventist church and it’s time for it to go.

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1
Despite it’s tax-exempt status, are there times when the (Adventist) church is more of a business than a blessing? | Source

2
I know there are those in the church who want to continue going through the same old motions but the world is no longer the same old place. | Source

3
Even though I don’t want to leave the church, is it possible that the church is leaving me? | Source

4
I think that the Adventist church is not very useful to you. If it were useful to you—on a personal level (including being useful to your community of friends)—there wouldn’t even be a question of whether or not you would want to engage with the denomination. | Source

5
But...

Adventists like to compare the world before Jesus comes again to the world
before the flood. So far so good.

But I wonder if Adventism has thought long and hard about one of the flood story’s most interesting aspects: God creates (at the creation) and then uncreates (at the flood). God essentially starts things over. Things got ruined somewhere along the way and He presses the reset button.

Is there any way this could relate to the Adventist church—the institution? Adventists believe that if their denomination was sanctioned in the first place, it will be sanctified forever. That because it has existed it will always deserve to exist. That because Ellen White was around and participated in the Adventist organization—a sure brush with the divine—that the divine imprint will forever grace the organization. That the Adventist church could never become so oblivious, useless or just plain...

Paradise by Coldplay. Ever heard it? Seen the video? This song does a better job of priming people to hear about the gospel than any Adventist evangelist or ministry ever has or probably ever will.

Paradise is the story of a kid who expected a great world to live in (when she was just a girl, she expected the world), has their hopes dashed by reality (life goes on it gets so heavy, the wheel breaks the butterfly) and ends up longing for something better (she’d dream of paradise). In other words it’s the story of every single person who has ever lived—ever. I mean COME ON. “The sun must set to rise”… are you kidding me? This is Christian gold…

It’s emotional. It succintly and powerfully captures the essence of the situation we each find ourselves in here on Earth. Listeners are left with the unasked question (to which Christianity has a very important answer): why?

Why is there...

Until recently (after I started this blog) I hadn’t realized that EGW wasn’t satisfied with the structure of the Adventist organization she had helped to pioneer back in 1901. It’s a thought that has been consuming my mind because so many young people I know—myself included—aren’t satisfied with the Adventist church structure in 2015. This inspires me that real change is not only possible—but more necessary than ever.

Most young Adventists today probably don’t realize that the Adventist church hasn’t always “been this way.” Back in 1861 the Adventist church “got structured” (with the formation of the Michigan Conference). In 1863 the “General Conference” was formed. Fast-forward a bit and you find that Ellen White was already pushing for a reorganization (she also referred to it as a renovation) in 1901.

Why?

• She had a desire to see power and authority shared among several rather...

I was speaking with a friend recently about the state of the Adventist church and they said something that was hilarious (and sad) all at the same time. I almost died laughing. They said Dan Jackson and various other NAD and Union leaders were “Professional Committee Attenders.” LOL! As harsh as that sounds… I couldn’t agree more.

It’s true. What do Adventist leaders do? They attend committees! The NAD president, for instance, professionally attends over 60 committees! Other NAD employees aren’t far behind.

Now a lot of people like the NAD president. I’ve met him—ya, he’s nice. And yes, he inherited this denominational framework that he finds himself working in. But still, under his leadership the Adventist church continues to serve me cold food. Not useful.

What is it all for? What is it all accomplishing? In short—what is the point?

Have you ever attended an Adventist committee...

Begin rant.

Being caught between the past and the future is not the same as being of the present. If you are an Adventist employee (and especially if you’re a “leader”), please re-read the previous sentence about 100 times.

This sentence perfectly describes Adventism in the here and now. It’s caught between the days of Ellen White and the second coming. It embraces the past and the future and is meanwhile struggling to understand the present.

One time when I was at an Adventist conference a keynote speaker talked about what Facebook was and how to use it—at a time when Facebook had already been around for some 8 years.

I wasn’t surprised at how lame the conference was—sadly, by now I am used to a lame denomination. I’m feeling like a broken record here but, as I have said before here on this site, most Adventist church websites look like they came from the beginning of the...

I recently read this article about a girl named Natalie who “became a driving force” behind the development of the NAD Youth Retention and Involvement Summit. The article made me really upset… Not at Natalie, of course. I’m just so tired of seeing young Adventists get their hopes dashed over and over and over by church leaders—without even realizing it.

Here’s what I wish I could tell Natalie (and college-age Adventists like her everywhere who are beyond frustrated with how absurdly anemic the church’s usefulness has become to their generation):

Dear Natalie,

So you want to change the church—that’s AWESOME. I wish more young Adventists felt like they could make a difference within the church. Clearly, you are tired of waiting for the church to change. So am I. Clearly you have seen some things that are not okay. Me too. I bet you’ve asked yourself these 20 burning questions about the...

This is exactly how many Adventist youth (and former Adventists) feel about the church:

Me and all my friends

We’re all misunderstood

They say we stand for nothin

And there’s no way we ever could

Now we see everything that’s going wrong

With the world church and those who lead it

We just feel like we don’t have the means

To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting

Waiting on the world church to change

We keep on waiting

Waiting on the world church to change

It’s hard to beat the system

When we’re standing at a distance

So we keep waiting

Waiting on the world church to change

Now if we had the power

To bring our neighbors home from war just knocking on people’s doors**

They would have never missed a Christmas the age of the Internet

No more ribbons on their door Wouldn’t rely solely on public evangelism anymore

But when you trust your television The North American Division

What you...

The case for trading missionally-bankrupt Adventist hospitals for free health clinics and tuition-free education.

To provide true Christian healthcare, Adventist hospitals need to go.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we own and operate a number of non-profit hospitals. We’ll, we don’t, as members, but the church as an institution does.

These hospitals bring in A LOT of money. Oversight of the Adventist hospitals has been divvied up between umbrella organizations like Adventist Health and Adventist Health System.

Get this: in 2013 AHS revenue topped $7,500,000,000 dollars! No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you; that’s over $7.5 billion!!! Here’s the annual report you can glance at.

What about Adventist Health? According to their 2013 annual report, received net revenue was $3,052,099,000. WOW. $3 billion—a year! That’s a lot of money. Check out their annual report to get the full picture.

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