Think about this quote from a book called The Charisma Myth:

Once you’ve made a favorable first impression on someone, it will color the rest of the relationship. This is because, as economist John Kenneth Galbraith believes, we seek to reaffirm our first impressions rather than revise them.

Did you catch that? We seek to reaffirm our first impressions rather than revise them.

I think that’s exactly what is happening within the Adventist church right now. Members have a positive first impression of the church (often grafted onto them from a previous generation) and refuse to see the organization in a negative light—no matter how slight.

From Wikipedia:

The boiling frog story is a widespread anecdote describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will...

Adventists in America are drifting. As are those in Canada, Europe and Australia. Continental-drifting, that is—moving further and further away from reaching people on their own continents. People like themselves.

Why are these Adventists adrift?

Because they don’t know what effective (including cost-effective) evangelism looks like in first-world countries. They don’t know how to reach modern people in the Internet age. Basically, when their area of expertise is no longer effective in a region, they go somewhere where what they know—where what they have always done—works better. Where it works like they want it to. Where they can find a success story to tell.

They go for the low-hanging fruit. The fruit that can be picked using pre-Internet evangelistic methods. Namely, “public meetings.” Not that that fruit isn’t valuable. Not by any means. A gold ring that is lost is still a...

People profiting from religion operating under the guise of a non-profit organization. The whole idea bothers me. It’s insincere. Salvation is free. See the disconnect? Notice I didn’t say the idea of supporting a good cause bothers me. But serious reforms are needed before I’ll blindly support or even endorse the initiatives of the Adventist institution. And no, that doesn’t make me anti-Adventist. I’ve stated plainly that I am not.

I’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion (having seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears) that, oftentimes, unbeknownst to members of the public and to members of the church, Adventist “evangelists” are selling Adventism. Not like selling the idea of Adventism. Like literally selling Adventism. For money.

Which disgusts me. And I know for a fact that it turns people off from organized religion—people have told me as much. Why? Ephesians 2:8.

While reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the book often credited with starting the Civil War, I came across an interesting passage where a character attempts to explain how/why slavery was allowed to exist:

“The short of the matter is, cousin,” said he, his handsome face suddenly settling into an earnest and serious expression, “on this abstract question of slavery there can, I think, be but one opinion. Planters, who have money to make by it,—clergymen, who have planters to please,—politicians, who want to rule by it,—may warp and bend language and ethics to a degree that shall astonish the world at their ingenuity; they can press nature and the Bible, and nobody knows what else, into the service; but, after all, neither they nor the world believe in it on particle the more. It comes from the devil, that’s the short of it; and, to my mind, it’s a pretty respectable specimen of what he can do...

The Adventist organization is comprised of members which attend churches which are grouped into Conferences which are grouped into Unions which are grouped into Divisions. This forms “the world church.”

Churches have pastoral staff overseen by Conferences, Unions and Divisions comprised of presidents, vice presidents, trust departments, communication departments, treasury departments, education departments, ministerial departments, HR staff, IT staff and administrative assistants.

At the Divisional level the Adventist organization also has a number of ministries such as Breath of Life, Faith for Today, It Is Written, La Voz de la Esparanza, Jesus 101, Voice of Prophecy and LifeTalk Radio which each mimic the same staffing situations and departments as those listed above.

Meanwhile software is eating the world. It has been.

More and more major businesses and industries are being run...

I don’t want people to think I’m down on everything the Adventist institution does, just because I talk about things that aren’t not okay. Because I only want the best for this body of believers. So I want to take this opportunity to highlight a worthy denominational initiative.

Providing free medical help to people in the San Antonio area is a great thing. It’s action, not talk. And it will make a difference in people’s lives. I would love to see the church to more stuff like this. So good job to everyone involved—especially the volunteers!

That said…

I do like hearing about initiatives that help people but I don’t like Christian’s pulling PR stunts (having read Matthew 6:2 and all). What’s the point of giving away this free health care right before the General Conference session? In the same location the GC session is taking place? It’s not like the denomination picked a random...

The Seventh-day Adventist church has 28 fundamental beliefs. So do I. Those doctrines are my doctrines [1].

Of course, I don’t own the copyright. The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists does. It’s true—you can scroll down to the bottom of that PDF to see that Church employed lawyers have been diligent. If you don’t have the time, here’s a screenshot:

You can add lawyering up to the list of things I have witnessed in the church that are not okay. Remember all those lawyers that Jesus and Paul and Moses and Daniel and Noah had? Happy Sabbath! God bless you! Love your neighbor as yourself! Now here’s your subpoena.

And if you live for defending the institution’s actions, don’t even begin to tell me about how this is a different time than when Moses or Noah lived. You can’t pick and choose when that applies… If I told you that times had changed and we needed to meet people...

Some might be tempted to paint me, and this blog, or even you as a reader, in the light of being “anti-Adventist.”

Let me say this plainly: I want only the very best for this body of believers. If my ideas, questions and intentions are wrong, I’ll happily welcome what is right. But I will seek the truth.

In fact, those who want to continue on like it’s still 1845 (or even 1995) are the real anti-Adventists in my view.

I’m not condemning the Adventist church. The Adventist church itself as done a fine job of that without my help. But neither will I condone it outright.

Let it be known that I am neither anti-Adventist, nor ex-Adventist. I am a person who cares too deeply about my faith to settle, to look the other way when things just aren’t right or to excuse excuses. I care too deeply about doing something meaningful for God, and empowering His followers to do the same, not to ask...

Add this to the list of questions that must to be asked and answered by Adventism now, not later:

How can a church that claims to serve the Creator do so with such an astounding lack of creativity?

Sometimes the truth hurts. But it never minds.

Seriously. How can such an unimaginative denomination, a denomination that takes the Sabbath so seriously—the Sabbath!—a memorial to God’s creativity—even claim to be representing the Creator well? I mean 99% of church websites look like they came from the beginning of the Internet? They’re embarrassing. A website is seen as an expense, rather than an asset. It’s not like anyone would Google a church before visiting, compare it with other websites they’ve been to and make some kind of judgement about the people running it or anything.

This is the age of the Internet, not the dawn of it. Young people out in the world don’t connect with other...

Ask Adventists you know what they think about the content here on AdventUprising.com.

This isn’t for fun. This is a test.

See, the truth never minds when people ask honest questions. It’s the truth. It thrives in the open air. It doesn’t want to, or need to, be covered up.

On the other hand, you know when someone has something to hide, something to cover up or something to lose when they try to prevent an honest discussion.

When the fear and the guilt start getting lathered on real thick, I get suspicious. When excuses make an appearance, I get suspicious. When someone dismisses honest questions about the church with a quick shrug, I get suspicious. When smokescreens are deployed, I get suspicious. When blinders are provided, I get suspicious—and I don’t put them on.

These suspicions are good indicators that someone is trying to hide the truth from me.

But I want to live in...