Walter Pearson Jr - "Effective Preaching: An Alternative View of the Writings of Ellen White, Pt. 1"

when I was asked to do the 11 o'clock worship sermon at Miller farm on the hundredth anniversary of the great disappointment we changed it now because of the prolific writer on this campus the great appointment we must call it now I remarked that William Miller might have been surprised at whom it was they chose to be the divine worship speaker I said that with tongue-in-cheek because the fact is that the middle-right movement had some outstanding african-american preachers and some of you I hope are aware of that but it is kind of different you know last night I was thinking about that as I was going along I learned how to adapt adapt to my style and to different audiences I think it is the greatest it is the quintessence of arrogance to say I will always be the same because audience has changed you've got to change the way that you address it but since I've started doing breath of life I have the luxury of being authentically african-american whenever I want to be and I was thinking I wonder what hms richards would say if he was seated in the audience last night I don't know you know I've been around elder Richards I've spent some time with him and I know that he believed in exuberance preaching so I think maybe he had a little twinkle in his eye last night let's let's start with what I've got to do always when I talk about how you ought to preach better you cannot go without saying that preaching is not performing if you don't understand what I'm about to say real fast then you you'll miss the point if if there is in the center of of every authentic communicator of the gospel some inspiration and I do not intend to symbolize any theological point by this please so don't get too deep with it don't write your dissertation on it but if that is so I am not trying to do this to embellish to the outside world to become something that appeals to everyone because I sincerely believe that the most successful communicator will be the most converted and authentic Christian if I were Conference president and I and if I couldn't know that one candidate for ministry was a converted Christian with fair to normal skills and if another work completely charismatic but hypocritical I would always take the Christian because in the end this stuff won't work people will discover that that's that's not really what I want to try to do is to remove what I think is is a blocking system that we have learned from our awareness of what we know about Ellen White's writings and what we've learned from our early Methodists aborning we learned to be a certain way and some of it is not biblical you understand what I'm saying some of what we are we don't teach on a conscious level we transmit subliminally so what I'm trying to do is get rid of this stuff because I think that if if you allow Christ in you to communicate through you you will be effective I believe if you've got a lot of gobbledygook in your head that says I can't do that then you cannot really let Christ shine out it which is what he's trying to do he's trying to shine out the text says let your light so shine it didn't say make your light shine you don't have to make light shine you just let it if it's in you you let it but if you got all this extremist material floating around in there you know we've got to be careful now tell you where mine came from I finally identified it when I was at the white estate a whole lot of it came from what people told me Ellen White said poor Ellen White if people would just read what she said instead of listening to what somebody said she said this woman could be very popular in fact from this very campus Ellen White's writings are on the internet and while I was at the white estate you know we made that decision I'm real proud of that I fact I could almost say if you didn't look at it real hard that flying I was there but we decided to to let Ellen White's writings be put on the internet it was it was really a difficult decision for us to make because the white estate is not known traditionally for being that proactive we are known as holding you know we the vault manuscript releases if we check you out and we assure you our we will release something too well that paradigm is changing I'm happy to tell you that the new director in fact the former director came to understand that we're not about holding the truth we're about letting the truth go and when they finish the next cd-rom or the Edition everything that Ellen might have a role will be on the rock so you can get it all in the last decision we made let me see should I say this long tape yeah I don't work there anymore the last decision we made there was a letter that Ellen White wrote to a trusted friend about some problems that Jim James will have and after after Ellen White that the woman sent the letter back to the white estate we can't watch you're right kids okay so then we had possession of it but it said you know there was every intent expressed I don't ever want this to need to be known so we had to decide do we protect her by not publishing the letter by putting not putting it on the wrong or do we let it go in the interest of them having everything out there because the accusation Ellen White the state gets all the time is you've got more than your Lenten power you're holding stuff so we decided to put it on there so whenever it comes out with the unpublished writings even that little letter that says Ellen and James had a problem it's gonna be on so you know my point is that if you would read everything she say she said and of course that's difficult because she wrote oh but instead of getting what somebody says she said even me when I put my little quotes up here and when you read what I what I will put down there I've got a document I'll pass up to you eventually wait around if you don't believe what I said go read around it and guess what you'll find you'll find that in Ellen White's writings there's a balance now what they told me was Ellen White said no jesting no joking three Ching you should spend if you went through Ellen White's writings and found out how many times she said we should spend less time sermonizing and anything you want to think less time sermonizing and let's send this time sermonizing I have come to believe that what I would like to use the word sermonizing she was not talking about what she did which he was in public I think she was talking about what people do when they fake communicate you know put all those affectation when I was at Oakwood well I'm telling secrets we used to take a hymnal it was a part of the dormitory that we call the Vatican and we would uh if you went down there you would hear something like this preachers blooding Hama laticious walking down all rescue the perishing care for the die search snatch him you know what I mean if you don't have the truth you can make a lie pretty and it doesn't help anybody it really doesn't so we were we were on the periphery of understanding communication but the fact is that the delivery system is not nearly so important as what you deliver so what I want to say to you today it must be understood before we get into technical things number one I believe that a consecrated heart is the greatest tool for communicating the gospel give me a boring monotonous consecrated communicator and I'll go with that one every time over the the one with the silver tongue but the shadowy heart because in time the power of the Holy Spirit will overcome the charismatic obvious one and you will see more happen because of the heart and because of the tongue are we together on that the other thing I must say to you is this when you get my my little document in your hands I want to tell you what it is it is it says it's an alternate view that's what it is in other words I know what they told me and for about five or six years I was limited in my preaching because people would say you mustn't do that just a wife says you mustn't do that you must not tell amusing stories I know a million of music stores and I would say okay I gotta be boring you know I can be interesting but Ellen White says I gotta be boring so you know where I was like running and of that of molasses because of what they told me she said what I discovered is that she did say that but she also said some other stuff so what I'm gonna give you today is the other stuff and if you take what they told you and what I tell you and put it both in the computer and let God work it through the matrix of your personality you're liable to come out being the best you you can be which is what we're trying to get what do you say now that we got that we can make it let's let's do some overview stuff because I'll tell you something whether you know it or not while we were here studying the market has changed okay and I'm telling you all those little things we tell ourselves I don't worry about those guys out there those dynamic preachers don't worry about them because they don't have the truth and they read it in fact someone read it better than we do because we think we know we think we know before we get there the truth that's in there so we read it like on the fly you know the Evelyn wood method because we don't need to read it we got it you know these people because they come without knowing read every word there's there's a guy on television and if you haven't seen him you may have been in an alternate universe his name is Bishop TD jakes okay somebody's heard about this guy reads the Bible every little word of it he did something the other day made me mad because I didn't do it he said that when Jesus was at Lazarus tomb Jesus did not have to say Lazarus of Bethany whose sisters are Mary and Martha come forth he didn't have to say Lazarus who is my friend you know you and I have been friends long time any other Lazarus is in there I'm not talking to you I'm expanding that he said all Jesus had to do is go down and say Lazarus come forth and the right Lazarus got up which is to say that if God's got a blessing for you he didn't have to identify you on a website all you gotta do is say this is yours some good preacher you know Jesus blessings are specific you're not the word somebody else go get you're blessed and afterward some miles go get your job he said being more to the point you know what God has for you nobody else because his blessings are specific now Jake said that because he read that text more analytically than I did cost 7 their lives I have to read that not that I know what Lazarus means Lazarus is another point in our proving the state of the dead it's anecdotal evidence on the side of our position on the state of the Dead so I don't have to analyze last was come forth out so I have to look at it James doesn't think he knows it so he reads it every where every syllable goes back to the original language and incidentally somebody came to me last night and said this and I want to emphasize it sometimes preachers give you the impression that if you got God you don't have to study disabuse yourself of that thought because people are really tired of this this bland overview stuff and you can do it couple of ways you know you can come with the you can do that and they're sick an act and they're sick of the high decibel level non context of it is the tide of non content because in this postmodern era they no longer worship at the shrine of possessions they worship now at the shrine of information come on wake up and smell the poster there's been a paradigm shift information is key so in an information intensive society you can believe that when you stand up with all stuff not even warmed over it's not gonna happen because the people in the audience is now oh you got a few little Saints who have read already you know I went to one church where people were excited all the time I'd get up make announcements and leave hey man I asked one of my illnesses and what it's for all these people is he said pastor these will read the Bible they have a hard time they stick with Jesus all week long they don't care what you say they're just excited when they come you can get up there and some yellow pages well got them they got Jesus already they really don't leave you so you got something like that but then you've got this Liu post 64 generation you know they're not gonna start off with the amen you know you know start off being interested what you got let me see what you get and whatever man are you doing you got to bring it in there okay so here's the other thing you gotta watch out for attention span has changed because this generation came up watching television the people at the water department put put your analytical brain on now because I can't be too specific they're taping this and they'll take you to some genteel society and they'll hate me if I don't say this right the people in the water department can tell when commercials come on not your neighbor if they don't get this yet that's your attention span okay in their minds people in the church every six to eight minutes are saying and trying to get you off and get somebody along that's what they do at home a channel surf so when the commercial comes on here if they don't have picture-in-picture they watch two at a time now I went to a guy's house the other day he had one that will spread how many channels nine nine channels across the big screen you can look at nine channels at the same time and then pick out one and hit it and then go back to the nine and then pick out another woman hit it this is the guy you're trying to preach to on set [Laughter] and every six to eight minutes a commercial comes off and I will tell you this you can almost ship this will install go for nine minutes without some significant change and you're off he can't do it but he's doing it here how come I can't get him off still there especially man you know men you know that's how you know when you're going to house handle the house has controllers I went to one guys I got all along when we turn that music up turn it totally man I live in the life and amazingly I was into it I wanted to sit in this chair when it's controlled I like drapes open up but we are in a control a control where where the where the person in the pew is accustomed to seem something happen every six to eight minutes so you come on in there and get monotone alright so six minutes they give you but round seven they're thinking about whatever they do on Sabbath afternoon it's got interesting I'm gonna go get into that nest up there thinking microwave at home you know make this so so the market has changed now if you don't know that and if you think you're gonna be able to just take the truth notwithstanding what I've said remember the Holy Spirit can override it Holy Spirit override override if your heart is right with God God can perform the miracle of of making all of this nothing because he can make somebody who sounds boring capture the attention of people who would normally be gone in nine minutes but the question is are you close enough to Jesus to get Holy Ghost override he just because God allows power to pass through you this not proved that you are acceptable to God since Jesus left this earth God has been constrained to deal with imperfect people based on your obedience level says the Bible prophecy is the ability of God to use you and none of us I'm afraid to announce to you is in complete surrender to God if you are in complete surrender then God could use you totally and you could be as boring as the day is long as dry as the ills of Gilboa and your words would fall like Earth but if you are not in total surrender to God I rest my case so what we're trying to do is let's let's look at the other side of this let's flip the coin over now give me a person who is dedicated unreservedly to God who also understands how to communicate and so the Apostle Paul can say all day long I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus and him crucified so what did you do Paul forget what Gamaliel taught you come on think about it Paul was not talking about forgetting even though he used that word that translates forgetting he simply means I have put Christ in a priority position in my life so that I don't try to come indicate what I learned as peripheral issues my goal is to communicate Christ but he could not put aside all those tools that he had gathered all of those skills that he had acquired his skills communicate to us through his works and when you read the Pauline epistles tell me that you don't feel the sharp mind of call so if you think that you can come to this task the way you will read it in my little document is that if you are going to communicate for Christ you must you must study to put away every defect what are the defects that keep you from communicating Christ well and that that becomes stuff okay now we got a background let's shock them well we won't shock them earlier we got some nice warm and fuzzy quotes first even though Ellen White says sir less sermonizing and more or less sermonizing and more visitation less sermonizing and more working with me unless you know everything she says she says and I didn't put the quote here because it's in the document the preaching of the word is not to be undervalued and gods appointed means of saving souls it's through the foolishness of preaching she goes on to say I think it's before that that if there's somebody who can't be reached by preaching again then God will reach them in another way but the appointed means of God communicating the gospel is through the foolishness of preaching so don't misunderstand Ellen White my take on it is that sermonizing is something else you have to decide for yourself I believe that when she uses that word sermonizing she is categorizing something other than appropriate effective preaching of the gospel that's my take off but what regardless of that she does in fact say that that's his appointment God makes them channels for the outflowing of the highest influence in the universe now if God inspired her and we won't get in that long discussion but if God is inspired and if God intended for us to believe this then what does that mean about all those commercials between football games or if somebody will pay a million bucks for 30 seconds or a minute or whatever so you're saying then that I can have a power that's greater than that I don't know what do you think I believe that based on your concept of your power you will decide how to communicate the gospel in a pulpit stick with me now we're going we're going is cereal now okay your concept of what you mean in the stream of time will determine how you behave yourself standing at a point if you think yourself to be inconsequential then you will behave as though you are inconsequential and thus become a self-fulfilling prophecy so you're upset artists is nothing I'm gonna get this over with so we can go on potluck and this is not an ethnic thing anymore everybody now knows okay much to to my dismay I think public is bad so so you determine now watch this I believe that what you think about what you mean in the stream of time in the stream in the flow of incidents that control or that represent what life is all about what you think you represent not only controls the way you act but communicates to the people who hear you so give me enough preachers who think they don't matter and I will give you a generation of believers who are convinced that they don't matter and people will start saying let's not have so much preaching let's sing more try to wait for the walls save mmm give me something that counts now I travel enough to hear enough see people won't tell you stuff cuz you're there and there's some stuff they don't tell me cuz I left but they tell me some stuff about what's happening there cuz I'm gonna leave and in a few situations now I am being told after the reason why we say a lot is because this music means something at preaching so I got a little disturbed I went to a certain place I'll never tell you where and it had me for 12 minutes you know I'll do that in 12 minutes William Augustus Jones it's kind of a friend of mine now says that some preachers felt like helicopters they can go straight up and come straight down others are like 747s they need a little runway I tend to be more on the 747 style middle runway but you know twelve minutes is that all I got they said that's it so I sat there and listen to him sing for an hour and 45 minutes I'm sure was that much Maybin - then I got up a bit twelve I say lord help me to do the best twelve I've done in recent times so for 12 minutes so next night they went to the people who ran the thing it said give him a little more time back off me says but your employment I could do 30 by Sabbath they told me now that sound self-serving but let me let me get back to the real point I had people come to me and say bastard if you would just tell the folks to deal with our needs and the Word of God we would quit to sing it because what we want is to be inspired but if the preaching one inspire us then we'll take music that does okay now I know I'm on something now you may not know it yet but I'd tell you that there is a there's a grand shift out there people want to say and they'll tell you Pastor can you take 12 minutes hey really well you say but I can't communicate well miss they say well that's all you got and actually what they gave you was pretty good they gave you two commercial breaks virgins will trust you for two commercial breaks and if you haven't done it in so so if you believe that you got the power well you put it up so you shock them now that's why you acquired you read that menu what you think about that first one now that's against what they told me and in fact that's that's the opposite of what they told me cuz they said you can't be up there entertaining the P&I agree with it but you tell me that Jesus watch this folks I've been in a little place you remember where Jesus spoke get ready to get into the boat where they were gonna face - storm it's an amazing place do you know the acoustics in that place are strange I don't know whether the acoustics are good because Jesus chose the place or because or that they were good and that's why he chose the place but we asked them where Jesus was probably standing some of you have done that haven't you and top and so either because Jesus was there the acoustics decided to change so you some people can't get your mind around that but you know I asked the power of my Jesus do you stand out there kou sticks say hey you know what that is don't yes I'm gonna change I'm gonna let him be heard oh Jesus chose a place where but when you think about it if people in your church were looking out on a lake while you were preaching you know I do mad enough when I'm looking at the back of the church can you imagine your whole congregation you're standing here and behind behind you it's a lake with fishermen out there and all kinds of enterprise going on and you got to hold our attention so you will tell me that Jesus was born he may not have been animated he may not have gone about it like I do because I came from a different background but whatever he said riveted their attention are we together it may have been content it may have been something that moves me I got a couple freaks I can't call their names because people misunderstand so I can't do that well I think that the power of sincerity supersedes every other there's a friend of mine who has won hundreds of souls and if I brought him and split him up here right now if you didn't give him a chance you'd say Oh see he's boring but if you gave him about two minutes he'd have because he has an infectious enthusiastic and you believe that he believes catch it you don't know what to do you're locked in and that translates beyond any barrier it'll catch you so I'm telling you the power is not all see don't try to make yourself I'm not trying to make you an african-american American preacher if you're not you be who you are but just be a better you so take take these boy take these false barriers down let your sincerity show most people now we've gotten into all these traps so we are afraid to be sincere we put on a strain disingenuous mess because it's what we do oh that's how they trained your professor is not going to be there when you hit that church you will not you'll not have helped there'll be you Jesus and your pride will be you know it's amazing your prank it's all caught up and it should when I when I want our first hundred Souls in in the african-american church the proof of the pudding is your first hundred you know that no sir have you heard well some of you you don't even think that way because nobody's winning hundreds so you know he named it but in the African America if you until you want a hundred people at one time you're not an authentic preacher you know so you all your life you're saying Lord give me that 100 you'll baptize anybody to get me the children so I got my first hundred I did it in the authentic way I didn't baptize any votes over again and count them I would not let my children be baptized you know so I did it the old-fashioned way earned it and I was feel pretty good and the next year the president told me to go to a little town where they had had a big tornado laughing yeah tornado in Ohio and it had torn the place apart so here I come out there after my first hundred you know some you know I feel like I weigh a ton we used to call them centaurea I'm a Centurion so I walk in there with my big Centurion badge on you know and start preaching we got about a hundred people under my tent and one night the wind started blowing you know so I did whatever you do don't you know that Jesus still but I was watching the people and their reaction was not what it should be so I I did what every preacher knows to do I stepped poetically to the sign of 30 percent you must know are you poetic cloth you must know that Jesus just about that time in gory ously the back of the tent platform hit me across my shoulder that's why their eyes were getting bigger it was so it hits me I must tell you that my wife was not there that night so you'll understand what I'm about to say everyone got up and rained the only person who stayed in the tent was the Methodist organist and she told me afterwards that the only reason she stayed is because she wouldn't want to send the Abbess to think that she was more afraid of a storm now my Bible counselors my trusted supporters all that I could see was the bottoms of feet and for five more weeks for five more weeks I told the folk if anybody comes here to hear the gospel I preach if one comes yeah be careful which I'm gonna give you the Reader's Digest version of the story but after the big hundred now I got one drop and he shows every night [Music] and I'm up there preaching and my people you don't have to prove this please somebody all you got is him you came baptizing hear Mario five weeks later on the Sabbath warning of the baptism the only one with me now is my wife and one Bible counselor and the Methodist organs I'm a preaching and calling for an appeal a car drives up from the last meeting where I'm baptized a hundred and three people get out who did not get baptized last another car pulls up and two people get out and didn't get baptized last time I got five people sitting in front of me who did not get back last time but who all the truth when I got to the end of my appeal five people got up to be baptized what's God trying to tell me forget about all that extraneous stuff God is in control okay get it you cannot let your emotions control you getting high should not get you too excited although should not get you too depressed because this is not your work this is God's work and if you if if you let your genuine convert itself do what your kanuha genuinely convert itself wants to do okay most of you in here are men and some of the women have now gotten into this fever so I can tell this door you go find an automobile on sale for a price that's too low and after you have bought one you will tell everybody you love right my wife is different if she finds a sale my wife has learned how to go to the big stores where they play a live piano right ladies if you go into a store where somebody is sitting at a piano is playing you should not be there you should take your ministerial salary and go somewhere but that means that you're in highbrow stop shopping country okay so my wife has learned to go to those places go to the sale rack you get better quality in the big store see the lady is nodding her head you know that too huh so sometimes we go to places where we don't belong you know and I know that radar thing where the people know that I shouldn't be there but but but we go to the same place and Sandy will find stuff that it's unbelievably good but it's on sale right the first thing she does when we get out of there is to call her buddy gautama neiman-marcus go down to Nordstrom's you won't believe what they got on sale down the natural reaction to finding a tongue Neal after you have taken advantage of taking advantage of it Amen somebody but as soon as you have taken advantage of your natural reaction is to tell your friends I believe that the natural reaction of a preacher who has studied deeply into the truth is to tell somebody and to tell them with enthusiasm there's a library down in Marietta Georgia if I went there today the people at the library desk would say oh no oh we thought you were gone because I would go to that library have almost Mateusz I've already been through my Bible now and I'm down there now shopping for illustration you know what I got a sermon I'm getting right preach again after we've done my Eagle sir the cassettes killed me oh yeah be careful you preach a good sermon the cassette so go and if you go try to preach somewhere else people's mouths to be moving along with you because they so I'm renewing my eagle sir but anyway the first time I did it I'm down there with our table with books on on eagle's I'm trying to find some you know why did the Lord say as the eagle stirreth up that's why did he choose to make himself a female bad metaphor and many times I would find the thing I was looking for you know I found out that what happens is that those Eagles are in pairs and they are happy-go-lucky there are times the writer said when they'll fly up in the air so far they look like a black suspect against the Sun coming into the ground and all of a sudden they spray those big powerful wings are just sad cuz they can but then when they get when they are about to have when they're planning up to have eaglets they change that you know you learned some regarding hosts and when I would find it I would forget was in the library and they come over this excuse me pastor library I'm sorry sorry found some it was good well see you can't tell me you can't tell me just because you're Caucasian and from Minnesota that you don't get excited cuz I've seen and then you catch er search but your natural reaction to discovering the truth when you see the love of Jesus when you understand the cross Wow when you read the other night about Jesus looking at Peter in pilots judgments and when Peters eyes caught Jesus eyes and Peter was condemned in his own heart but Jesus eyes had no condemnation [Applause] so don't tell me see my culture you know in my culture we don't I was over in England where y'all came from Raleigh okay bro and I was near a stadium with Wimbley scream holler tear the place down all I'm saying to you is why is it that when that spark happens all this extraneous stuff says give me pain formal discourses having them very little of the violence up why why do you go to the people with your heart as cold as an iron wedge I love that get up ed lady good right good g and expect a win souls give me that next one I think the next one is one is go do it yeah you read it I found that one there at the white estate and you know when you go to white it stays real quiet when I first went there I asked him I said beautiful [Laughter] I'll say well I got a question for you if you're so quiet around these documents how about if there's a Bible in the room well when I found that one they heard me all down the hall give me the next one I can eat smoke some of these small got to go to class let me give you this I will give you something to think about while you're gonna see the next one yeah that's the last one yeah don't be mad at him he's doing this for free this is shocking I'm just shocked now I want you to go and check the contacts because you I may be fooling you you know I may be doing that thing to you so go check I'll give you the document you can check it go get on the cd-rom all around it make sure that this is what she meant because she might mean that that's what some people do but we are not involved check it out okay I think I knew I want one more yeah here we go here we go here we go if you haven't had it happen see I believe angels would be way better at preaching I do but there are only two kinds of angels there are the angels who are doing wrong and are not going to stop and there are the angels who have never fallen and don't understand what it is to be picked up neither of those make good preachers I can't use an angel who won't come on the right side he could use a name that has never fallen but there's a certain power in being able to say I was lost but now I'm fine I was blind but now I see okay so that's weird it's okay you fo who gotta go I understand they told me not to take it personally when you got up and left enjoy your next class and think on these things oh yeah that's right I need to give you a hand can you trust me till this afternoon I'll keep them I won't give anybody one until this afternoon hey we're gonna be alone here in a minute kids for those who have a spiritual formation class the others are welcome to stay elder Pierson has a few more things to share okay I'll tell you what I want to do now so we'll be fair to everybody let's do let's do some question answers okay would you do me a favor and come closer I might stop using the mic well can I stop using them I okay now would you mind moving up and we'll do a little shop talk I don't want to be unfair to those who had to leave but you know we can for the next 30 minutes we can do some shop Talk now what I hope you were hearing and the reason why I was very careful to start off the way I did because I don't want you to think that anybody has given you wrong information you understand what I mean tell you what I found out at the White estate I told them I've worked free for them for the rest of my life they didn't ask before I discussed this is not a great racing system is everybody knows compilations right you know the compilation is let's say that you gave your see let me try to get a trying to get somebody who is in a disparate not desperate disparate a different background the most different person in this room I agree with you right off the top it are you from Seattle that kind of makes you a little different let's say I asked you to go through the writings of Ellen White and bring me something on parenting you got two kids yet okay you have a few weeks so if if I let him and you know I'm just picking out something out of the blue now but I want to I want you to see how the person who does the compiling affects what you get in the compilation now they will not at the white estate let you put your name on a compilation you know why instead of only they only put the name of dead people on those books because they know now that that person lived with successful life and it's day and they can't do anything bad otherwise if they put somebody's name on a book and then two weeks later they apostatized we have just ruined the book did you know that I was shocked to hear it I didn't know they would let pragmatics they said we're careful we don't put anybody living put their name this is the compiler because then the guy goes and you know goes amok and now they got a book with his name on arrested here we're gonna read up maybe like so you don't know who did it and most of the time you don't even understand the process and in fact for a long time they didn't worry about the balance of what Ellen White said now let me let me let me run that by you it's important understand all the subject of wedding bands that's a good one Ellen White may have said this much against and this much that sounds pretty affirmative but if if I want to wear a wedding band I'll take my quote from here you got me so there may be oh there I'll take mine from here and you'll read a book and say AHA see now what you discover about Ellen White and I had I had to be in the balloon easier experience of being able to just kind of drink in what she did what she said a lot of what Ellen White wrote she wrote two individuals okay so let me take these two guys let's say this guy right here is lazy are you lazy I don't want to be say anything bad about you okay are you okay just say he's lazy and he won't get up in the morning he just after about 1 o'clock a nap nobody goes out business maybe one person one day a week and then he doesn't prepare a sermon Ellen White right so let it this guy says don't pause to eat don't visit your parents no don't do it you work and many times Ellen White would use figures of speech that could be now this guy right here works all the time so she says you must no matter what you must stop working and you must dedicate more time to yourself into your fam okay she wrote to those two individuals now we come along and do a thing that has a great intent you say let's take those things that I said to people let's pull them into a body of work let's let them speak to everyone but what you gotta understand is that I said stuff on both sides of most issues because she was right limited so it's possible if you don't read all the books and folks if you read all the books you are amazing I hadn't read all the books so then the question comes how can you be most true to what she actually said now in this is interesting I was at the white state when a book called pastoral ministry was conceived so they assigned me because I had the most pastoral experience to be the representative of the white escape to that book it's a walk you look at the book you read the manuscript you find out if there any weak spots in it you point them out to us we make decisions we will not say well at the end of that process I moved from the white state to the ministerial department who was right in the book so what I got to ministerial is since you whites take you to get over book now why don't you put a couple things in yeah so I that's one book I kind of handle something floyd Brizzy what most competent pastors did the research and what boy received was something that I believe is unique he actually looked at the whole body of work and decided to try and make what he put in the book reflect the balance of what she said makes sense to me that so if if 70% of what she said was you need to rest and 30% of what she said was you need to go work he tried to reflect the body of work in the quotations that were in the compilation and I respect him for that into it now you know it's a possible make it exact of course well I think that that was a good way to go at it because if not then you you end up reflecting what I think now I have told you up top when you get effective preaching is what I call it when you get that I I confess upfront that it is an alternate view so I am NOT saying to you anybody who ever told you anything different is a liar that is tentative foolishness because the fact is that Ellen White teaches a balance I say it early in this industry and it's like this let the courts go but they are quotes that I have chosen because for me they represented the other side of what information had come to me in a barrage and if I had listened to what other people said to me about what Ellen White said I would have not ever been as effective in communicating the gospel as I am and I'm not merely where I want to be now but I had to understand what Ellen why to say now this afternoon I'm going to get just a little into the issues of of what kinds of stories does Ellen White actually mean you condemn okay you saw up there she says bring animation into your preach now do you know come on animation that is that is completely opposite what what I was taught opposite of what huh how about you I don't know have things changed you know it's only look you now I'm not saying they're wrong and I'm not saying this count the other side I'm just saying look at the whole thing that's all because I'll tell you what I've discovered as I've traveled around the world in the United States you know we we started thinking that the United States is the world way beyond the borders and what you come against is cultures for instance in Indonesia I'm preaching to people who look just like me but who don't respond at all in fact they told me when I went there a surprise to these people I'm not gonna say Amen don't try to make them because if you ask them to say Amen they will for maybe two or three times but the way they show that they're interested in what you're saying is that they right so if you see this they like you can't live with looking at the tops of their heads well that's what you go see if God blesses you if they're doing this you're in trouble they're looking at you you're in trouble now is anybody here so sure enough I mean I want to just pause for a minute look up let me see because part of my communication style is to read people's faces I didn't see any faces tops and ears and for I stopped it for man say stop stop stop stop writing for just a minute I love you please stop look up for a minute let me face you see you see what I look like no no we kind of look like theyd this lab we did one guy they would like to be my cousin I said do you know how hard it is for me to come and preach to you and you're so different but you look like me because when I look at you I expect you to act like people in North America who would look like you and what I've got to learn is that you cannot go by appearances that's why I start off saying that the quintessence of arrogance is to think that you can communicate with every group in the same way you can't when I went to North Dakota I was I was challenged because really I needed to bring my decibel level down and it's done this is gonna shock you I know that there are people who came up in aid in a written tradition when I came up in an oral tradition okay neither is superior to the other but I have to understand the difference so I have had to learn how when I speak to certain groups I changed my progression from an all progression which is to say more intensity more decibel level or less I use it both ways in other words I pull out the oral progression and simply use an intellectual progression is that fairly clear what I'm trying to say - so in other words I arrange the information so that it goes from the least impressive to the most impressive and I can withdraw all of the all signals I can take them out because these people are not communicating based on all signals they're communicating based on the intellectual progression and that and when I use the word intellectual I do not intend to suggest that one is intellectual and one is not because when I preach to a black audience these days I've got to have all of those elements in I gotta have the intellectual progression and the old progression because I've got people there who got terminal degrees will list me who who will not respond to the old Q's without the intellectual progression okay so it is a very difficult thing in in America to talk to an upwardly mobile african-american congregation because you've got to have all the cues in but you've got to learn that you can take sincerity and intensity which translate in any culture and and those to the intellectual progression and you can talk to anybody and let me tell you this and I'm sorry for keeping on talking you suppose the McDonald's people who are the best predictors of what's the word I want market trends but demographics is the word I was reaching for they are telling us now that I think it's now within seven years that will no longer be Pocket communities now that's my term in other words now you can have a majority Caucasian Church they're saying that if it's based on the community there won't be one because there will be too many people mixed in every community for you to have easily assembled pocket churches so you won't be able to have an oriental Church maybe the language barrier can cause it but if the people have overcome the language barrier you will no longer have the geographical pattern that will facilitate a church that is monolithic now you need to eat it to hear what I'm saying to you because nobody will have the luxury of speaking only to their comfort group are you Willie so you had better start understanding from your fellow students or from other cultures how do you communicate with your particular ethnic group how what is important to you because you will not have the luxury of saying oh I don't talk to those people you're not gonna be able say oh I speak to my people I'll talk let's um I'll stop there you're not gonna be able to do it you're going to have to be able to communicate with all kinds of people now I believe that there will always be a print election from an ethnic standpoint I don't see anything wrong with myself you gotta remember where I came from I'm the guy who they put out remember and if I can say that so blithely then you ought to be comfortable with when I was living in Mobile Alabama I learned that we could not go to certain seventh-day Adventist Church okay tell me if I can deal with it you ought to get over I'm over how was it Oakland College and in the early 60s and we went to a certain church well you know where it was and we went there first four of us dressed alike we were a quartet actually that's why we dressed alike and he welcomes Oh sing for us well we went back next time wear a dress like me a couple other folks with us and then we'll look back a few more looking for a church you want to worship somewhere because you know their churches where you hurting things well you know in the 60s we were a little bit more proactive so now we said so we got moved together with worship with him and then they change their worship time we brought eleven day it was over found out they were worship at 8:00 in the morning and leave then we found out they worship at 3:00 in the afternoon so we started getting our spies to find out when they were because we were gonna worship with these people it sounds kind of silly now as I look back on it because if somebody don't want to working with you I don't know but I guess it was a salvific experience for them and for us so I remember early one morning I think it's about 6:30 we found out they were gonna have Sam school and I remember we were pressed into a small foyer at about 6:30 in the morning and we were going to go worship and one of the fine Deacons now this happened when I write my memoirs this will be in there one of the fine beacons slipped at the base of my neck a piece of metal I did not recognize this piece of metal but it had significance that my mind went quickly through its computer banks I saw the the shiny chromium barrel of a derringer from my dear brother who was telling me expletive deleted you will not worship here so you know I could be the one who would say let's never get that is foolishness and if I allow that incident and instability I could tell you a few more to color my thinking for the rest of my life and I'm not rich I must learn that everybody is not like that derringer and and I must because of crisis reach out to my brothers and sisters regardless of their color because of their whatever amen but I am saying to you I have to tell you all that to help you understand what I must say I think that there will still be people who draw certain others will say Ross is one of best preachers I've ever heard he's the youth director of the North Park division he is Mexican Jose can speak to anybody I arranged last year for him to go down to Oakland and speak at the evangelism council the man helped but I believe that will say will continue to draw extraordinary crowds from among the Hispanic population whichever one you know whatever name I should be saying but because that's his natural constituency but I believe that he is effective because he can communicate to any audience you understand one one so I do not I don't think we can in our minds have the luxury of saying I will just talk to a certain group we must learn that the gospel must communicate across all lines I fully respect for breath of life to draw people from every niche in society I really do I believe it because well based on the invitations that I get at the don't convert office somebody thinks I can communicate to a lot of audiences and I'm flattered but I just think that you've got to get out of the notion that you can be a a preacher to certain segments of the church and ignore others you cannot do so I've got to learn to communicate to Indonesia okay I love languages learn interesting language just add up at a meeting we had over there in but we we had Filipinos Japanese Chinese and there was six languages that Facebook I said I'm going to greet everybody in their language oh all right until we get to Cantonese and Mandarin which one is it it's tall both of them which one is that Cantonese and if you if you get the wrong toe you changed the meaning right so the guy says faster maybe I'll not do this he said well if you mess up these tones here's what he will meet ok so just before I go up would you come and rehearse the tones with me and he did and evidently I didn't say anything insulting because everybody was still smiling when I got through but I love the languages I think there ought to be an intellectual inquisitiveness that makes us thirsty to communicate with everybody you know I'm taking ought to be there while you will have your natural constituency okay and I've talked of all your time I'm sorry give me the hard question worth paratus yes elder person considering what you said yesterday in regards to I think the last question that was asked first session relating to the style of communication in this postmodern air it seems that conductor priest preaching has come to arise in the style of preaching in this day and time and I'm just wondering it seems to be from all the sermons that I've heard you preach that's style of delivery of very comfortable with narrative inductive two questions one is when you're doing doctrinal a doctrinal sermon how would you couch that in an inductive side because it tends to lend more toward deductive preaching and secondly if your style of preaching is primarily deductive your natural style of delivery is more so deductive how can you make the transition because not everyone's a good storyteller I mean that's assault all honesty and we can work toward that but how can you and I've seen maybe two books one being Lowery's political clock but they're not they're more of they're more descriptive rather than that they're very gentle they're not very concrete minute to actually provide a good structure to go about what I do in evangelism is I do many stories MA and I all of you know that when you're doing evangelism you got to get the doctrine communicated Earl Cleveland in my estimation is the master at Evangelist preach and I have heard preachers from every Hill and every ethnic group every racial I just think he what he does is states the proposition gives the the background information and in that I have heard him include sometimes things from Ellen White this that or the other but then he goes anecdotal almost immediately so he does back basically never having seen what I just put up on the board yesterday basically what he does States the premise states the proposition gives the proof the truth text you know that's become a massive on are you sure you're on even supposed to say that proof text but you gotta have something Bible to substantiate what you just said then he goes to the anecdote so that to the story and it's a method that is hard to to beat what I do now in evangelism is that I will try to couch the whole sermon and an overarching story but that come you'll come to some things that you can do that with here's what I knew when I can't I am out of my element that I'm most comfortable with and it's deadly I started preaching the deductive style okay my teacher was a deductive preaching so I started that way but what I do with that is I allow my sincerity and enthusiasm to transmit for the last one make sure I get this number right somebody got me on tape I'll get these two tapes together I think it's the last six evangelistic meetings that I've held on the night I preached about tithing somebody will return tithe right there because what I have done is to take off the blinders and qualifiers let me explain that long ago adventism was so unknown that had venice evangelists had to always be putting pre qualifiers in you know in the black community we would say I'm gonna tell you this and you may not like it but don't blame the mailman for the mail I'm just telling you no you had to cushion the blow well I think in that time you perhaps did after cushion it but now things are far different most people know most things that are floating in there and the religious community and I think now that instead of preconditioning by softening the blow we precondition people to doubt so I have a method now where I take off all the blinders and the preconditions and state the truth in its pristine condition with the belief that truth ought to be accepted now that takes some change in your hand I think because you know we're all not gonna believe this and I'm gonna tell you some I preach tithing and a couple of days he'll perform I believed that when I said you can't eat that people would be angry so I believed that I projected that belief that they would not believe okay that's some pretty heavy stuff but stick with it preaching is not for the addled brain so what I made consciously was take off my blinders because I believe that the Holy Spirit accompanies truth and gives it power and Ellen White says something like and don't give me a quote you'll have to look this up on the ROM if you can if I'm quoting it closely enough but it's something she says that that resembles this that if truth is splashed into the mind it cannot cannot be resisted now that doesn't mean you can't you have to obey it but you cannot resist nor you because their truth has its own power the American Bible Society is based on the pieces that the Bible is powerful enough by itself that if you just let some letter read it it's got power so what I do now is I just preach with the power of the truth and I believe that people will believe it because truth and I get excited about it and I have intentionally started projecting my excitement about truths and I know now that people believe me way more than they did before I did that so when I preach now help it form it's man and it's partly because health reform has come into into currency now but the other part is that I can tell them stuff that they still don't want to hear but I believe they're gonna believe it because it's true and I project belief now instead of doubt so that's one of the things switching from deductive to-to-to-to inductive is only a stretch if you do not have a storytelling ability and let me tell you something we all can tell a story if we believe okay that sounds over simple but it's not some people will never sizzle as a storyteller I agree with you because they don't have enough interesting I believe that you you can do you can tell a story well if you are caught in it and everybody has a story that catches them so start with the ones that you like and shock yourself because some I'm a natural storyteller as my mom was a storyteller my dad is a storyteller I mean our family it's all tradition we we revel in it so it's medical but there's some people who don't understand that if a story touches you and if you can remember the elements enough to be interested in it you will be a good storyteller because the thing that's important to you you will communicate if you start with the ones that are easy transition is not comfortable but it is possible our time is gone

Channel: Richard Martin

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Id: m5cKi-dEx7g

Length: 86min 21sec (5181 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021