Drums, Coke, Jewelry, and the Search for Balance

A little over a year ago I had the privilege of joining a team to hold conduct two Bible conferences for pastors overseas. I won’t say where, but it isn’t too difficult to guess. In each of the regions where we were at we had a large portion of Adventist clergy for each region.

At the time I pastored a small, rural congregation that would proudly consider themselves traditional. We sang from the hymnal every Sabbath, and once, when we sang a praise song, the worship committee was chided for becoming too “liberal” and “lowering the standards.”

While I was traveling in a remote region in the jungle through jungle huts in a place where people would come up to me to touch me–they had only seen a “white person” on the television and some had thought that such people weren’t even real! In one such jungle hut I sat in awe as I listened to incredible praise music. In that part of the world there were no pianos or guitars, only drums. And it was some of the most sacred music to this day that I have ever heard. The only problem was the drums–some as tall as me–that had some of my church members back in the United States seen would have caused several heart attacks.

That is not to say that I’m a huge fan of drums either. But what I learned was that it isn’t so much about the instrument, but about how that instrument is played.

The next morning we ate with the conference president and his family as their guests. I asked them what problems the Seventh-day Adventist Church faced in that part of the world. He proceeded to share with me that what the church struggled with was tolerance over the issue of drinking tea. That particular part of the world produces more tea than anywhere else (now you can get a little closer to figuring out where I was!). And Adventist missionaries taught their converts that drinking tea was bad for their health. And with time it had become not just a lifestyle issue, but a rite of passage. An Adventist, I was told, who was caught drinking tea could face censure, or even worse, being disfellowshipped that same day if he/she was caught.

With that in mind I went to our meetings. Later in the day I had the opportunity to stop by the ABC (which I’m not sure if they knew with the translation what that stood for, but basically amounted to a small store front on the edge of the jungle compound). As I shopped for some souvenirs to bring back home for my family, I incredulously discovered that the ABC sold Coke on the top shelf.

I couldn’t believe my eyes! Here you could be disfellowshipped for drinking tea, but you could buy a caffeinated soda in the ABC!!

When I approached the conference president later that day I asked him if he knew that the ABC sold coke. He looked me straight in the face as he said: “No one has ever really proven that coke has caffeine.”

To his credit in that part of the world there aren’t any ingredients (at least not usually) listed on bottles. But, apparently, ignorance is bliss.

The real problem was that when Adventist missionaries first came to that part of the world they were certain to share with them that tea was bad, but they apparently didn’t do as effective of a job at communicating the reason why. This enumerates the importance of differentiating a principle and its application.

I run into this problem on a regular basis with the writings of Ellen G. White: discerning the principle at stake is absolutely essential.

Of course some of the most obvious cases do not seem very difficult: Ellen White wrote that every girl should know how to harness a horse. Most people can quickly discern that every girl today should probably know how to change a flat tire in our modern world. Then Ellen White writes about the “bicycle craze,” but the problem was a localized one that reflected an infatuation with a trend–not what is today an economical form of transportation.

The biggest challenge when it comes to Adventist lifestyle is that of common sense. And closely related to that is giving other people the freedom of choice. That is not to say that we encourage people to drink caffeinated beverages or to have drums in church: but rather if we can teach them the principles behind a particular application we have a much better chance of growing healthy disciples in our churches.

Occasionally I run into people who think the pastor is the lifestyle police officer in the congregation to mandate how people should eat, dress, and depending on where you are at, just about any aspect of a person’s lifestyle. And lifestyle is important when it is done for the right reason. But I choose to err on the side of letting the Holy Spirit do the work of convicting the heart!

The best example of this was once when I had a church member in tears come to me that they were so disturbed that some of the teenage girls came to church wearing jewelry. They just couldn’t stand it any more. It was my God appointed duty to rebuke these wayward youth. After carefully listening to them I finally told them that I could do not such thing.

Instead I committed it to the Lord as a matter of prayer, and asked that the Lord convict these young girls–if for no other reason that by God’s grace these teenagers would not be driven out of the church. A few weeks later one of the girls came up to me. “Pastor,” she said, “God has really been convicting me that I should be wearing less jewelry.” I was stunned.

Apparently, if we will just get out of the way of the Holy Spirit, then God can do His work. And if we will just give other people a little room to grow, you might just be amazed at what God can do without your help!

Perhaps one of the greatest challenges that each of us face is the search for balance in our own lives (along with exercising more common sense). And what I’ve discovered as a pastor is that those who are the least balanced tend to try to find balance in their out-of-control lives by trying to control others. Instead, each of us needs to study principles and apply them to our own lives. And the next time someone asks you about a lifestyle issue, instead of telling them how they should live their life, perhaps try teaching them the principle and let the Holy Spirit convict their heart. In doing so you will model what it means to live a balanced life and the Holy Spirit will be able to do His work without your help!