ASI 2011: Inspired to Finish Strong

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Ted N.C. Wilson

AMEN Luncheon at ASI

AMEN’s Role in the Church’s Mission


Thank you very much Mark and what a privilege it is to be with you today and to see such a large group of people who are absolutely committed to God's way of evangelizing this world. Truly, the Lord is calling us to a very precious last work to be done on this planet. Jesus is coming very soon, I believe. Things around us are indicating that, and I believe that the Lord is preparing the Seventh-day Adventist Church for the final loud cry. And amen is gonna be part of it.

And I am so grateful. Let me tell you a little interesting anecdote. My administrative assistant prepares a very detailed itinerary and information packet for me when I go on all of these trips. And believe me, we have been on a lot of trips recently. As Mark mentioned, it was a great privilege to travel with some of my colleagues in Central Europe, particularly in Germany, just recently.

We prayed a lot about this trip ahead of time. The Lord really opened the way. We met a lot of challenges, but the Lord was very gracious. I was privileged to travel with Mark, who focused his messages on the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a prophetic movement and the 3 Angels' Messages. Mike Ryan was with us focusing upon the outreach and the mission aspect of the Church.

Williams Costa was also with us from communication. And we were able in many different venues to talk with our brothers and sisters in Germany and help them to understand that they are very much a part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide and that God has a very special mission for them in Germany. I want you to pray for our brothers and sisters there. They face some unusual challenges, very secular and materialistic setting, which certainly has found its way into the church as well and of course the devil's busy doing that everywhere but we had some wonderful meetings and we have many wonderful faithful Seventh-day Adventists in Germany who are very committed to the Word of God and to the Spirit of Prophecy. I want you to pray for them.

I reminded them that They have a double heritage that most people do not. That is that they have the wonderful heritage of the Seventh-day Adventist church and God's last day message. But in addition to that, they have the heritage of Martin Luther. And what an incredible heritage of the Protestant Reformation. It was just thrilling to be in a few places where we realized God used Martin Luther in a very specific way.

Tomorrow I will mention 1 of them in my sermon. But I want you to pray for those dear people in Europe and realize that God is going to use medical missionary work not only in the United States but all over the world to reach people who are resistant in so many ways. Now I want to just share a little anecdote with you because I have these nice printouts of all kinds of things and it said here for 1215 to 130 speaker at amen luncheon 10 minutes I may take 15 but anyway It was interesting because you know how computers are? When you put spell check onto things, usually the word pastor comes out pasture, like you're gonna take a sheep out to the pasture. Well, it's somewhat related to pastor, but in any case, you always have to change it.

There are other things. But then it had this title of what I was supposed to speak about. And you won't believe what the computer did, and my secretary never caught it again, I guess. This is the Amen Luncheon, all right? But the title of what I was supposed to speak about was A Man's Role in the Church's Mission.

So the computer took Amen and put it, a man's role. Well, I want to talk about a man's role and a woman's role, a man's role in the mission of the church. And all of us, whether we are men or women or children, we have a very specific role to play in the church. I want to thank AMEN for what it is doing in your particular local areas where you are functioning as a physician, a dentist, a physical therapist, a nurse, whatever it might be, a health professional. And I know that God is using that in a very marked way.

The challenge that I want to leave with you is on a bigger scale. You need to work locally, but you also need to think globally. I want you to buy into and accept and participate in 1 of the 2, I should say, of the greatest endeavors that we are going to be looking at in the next 2 years. In a few weeks at the annual council in Silver Spring, we are going to be unveiling the beginning, because this is only the formative part. The beginning of what we hope is 1 of the greatest approaches to reaching the large urban centers of the world.

If there's anything that Ellen White talked about with great earnestness, it was reaching the people of the cities. And about 3, 4 years ago we passed the threshold of more people living in the cities of the world than live in rural districts. Now we know from Spirit of Prophecy Council that God has prepared a beautiful, what I call, in and out arrangement for working in the cities. Centers of influence in the cities, and they can be everything from churches to health centers, to vegetarian restaurants, to reading rooms, to literature evangelists, small groups, whatever it is. And then we have that which is outside, which Ellen White terms as an outpost center, which certainly has the components of a training center for young people, for those who are working in the city, a lifestyle health center, and also a place where people can live or come out to and be rejuvenated, not to escape the city, but to go back into the city and help the people of the city.

God never intended for us to live in the cities that we see today. He is building for us the holy city, the new Jerusalem. But it will be a different kind of city than any city we have seen here. But God knows that the cities are where the people are and he yearns and longs for us to reach them. Now, in the book of Luke chapter 19 it says in verse 41 and I won't go into detail on this I'll be preaching about this on October 8th at annual council but this 1 verse tells us what we ought to do in following Christ's example and as medical missionaries you have that great responsibility Jesus was the chief medical missionary and it says here and when he was come near that is to Jerusalem he beheld the city and he wept over it.

All of us need to cry for the cities. We need to ask the Lord, what is it you want me to do to try and help the city that is closest to me, or some other large city? At annual council, we're gonna be unveiling some plans. How can we reach these huge urban areas? Ellen White has told us very specifically that 1 of the greatest keys to reaching the cities is medical missionary work.

Now 1 year from now, we will be unveiling what we would consider to be today's understanding of what medical missionary work is for every local member. Because you see, medical missionary work is not restricted to just those of you who are health professionals. It is for the entire church. Now it doesn't mean that those of us who don't have medical degrees that allow for prescriptions that we go out and diagnose and make prescriptions, give prescriptions to people, but It doesn't mean that we shouldn't be engaged in helping people to understand health principles and to be sharing privately and personally how people ought to live, thereby pointing them to the true source of life, to Jesus. And this coming annual council, we're going to be unveiling our approach to the large cities.

And then the next annual council, a committee that is chaired by Mark himself, will be unveiling and helping people to fully understand medical missionary work and how individuals can be involved in it. Now where do you fit into this? Let me just share with you 1 of the most powerful quotations that really give us an understanding about the cities and how medical missionary work can fit into it. This is from the book Medical Ministry which is an absolutely fabulous spirit of prophecy book. If you haven't read it recently look at it again.

But page 304 it says there is no change in the messages that God has sent in the past. Now this was probably written about 100 years ago, but I wanna tell you there is no change, even 100 years later. The work in the cities is the essential work for this time. When the cities are worked as God would have them, and a very strong part of it is going to be medical missionary work, when that is the case, The result will be the setting and operation of a mighty movement such as we have not yet witnessed. And we haven't witnessed it yet.

Many things have been tried, many things are being done for the large cities of the world, depending on where on this globe 1 looks. However, we have not seen that mighty movement begin. You know, it's time that we go home. It's time that the Lord fulfill some of these incredible promises in the spirit of prophecy. It's time that medical missionary work took its rightful place again in the church.

It's time that we have a blended ministry. Let me just share with you from Testimonies, Volume 7. It's in a section called Medical Missionary Work in the Cities. But it says here, medical missionary evangelists will be able to do excellent pioneer work. The work of the minister should blend fully with that of the medical missionary evangelist.

And I know that that is 1 of the objectives of the AMEN organization, that you want to work closely with pastors, with the administrators of the church. It goes on to say here that the Christian physician should regard his work as exalted as that of the ministry. That's a heavy responsibility. And it's time again that the Seventh-day Adventist Church honor that special relationship. We want you to feel very much a part of the last final cry that the church is going to be giving.

It says here also they should, talking about the physician and minister, they should labor in perfect harmony, They should counsel together. By their unity they will bear witness that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world to save all who will believe in him as their personal savior. We could go on and read lots of things, but I just wanted to leave with you 2 great things that you can help us with. Number 1, the attack or the effort to reach the urban areas of the world. We're calling it comprehensive urban evangelism.

We don't intend for us to prescribe or to outline a kind of a swooping in and swooping out and say we did our work and that's it. We don't wanna just hold public evangelistic meetings and say we did our job. We want a sustained, comprehensive, continued work that is working with people in a very local way in these big cities. And the health work and medical missionary work is going to be an absolutely vital part of it. How you can relate will be unfolded over the next number of months so that you can know exactly how you might best serve.

It might be on a short-term basis going to a particular place. It might be moving to a place, it might be working in your own large city that's somewhat near you, or it might simply be through prayer and through whatever other means that you might engage in. The other aspect is a blended ministry. To understand that the Seventh-day Adventist Church must again pull closely its health professionals and ministers so that all understand fully that this is truly a blessing that God intends to have for the last day message that's going to go forward. When we understand that the Seventh-day Adventist Church at some time in the future, and I think it is going to be sooner than later, that when some of us who are trained pastors will no longer be able to preach.

We will still be able to do medical missionary work. That's how important this work is. And I'm hoping that this emphasis that Mark will be chairing this committee, that we'll be sharing information with the world in about a year, I'm hoping that this committee will not just focus, and I know it will not, because Mark is chairing and I will be vitally interested in it. We're not just interested in what a large health facility can do, That's important. We don't want to minimize that, but we want to know how individuals, church members, assisted by you as health professionals, can be able to truly utilize the right arm of the message.

And this has to find its rightful place again. We've been waiting for a long time to see a very strong, concerted effort again on a combination of scripture and spirit of prophecy in relation to medical missionary work. I have struggled with many quotations and many various passages that I read in the spirit of prophecy and say, Lord, why haven't these things been fulfilled? Or why have they only been fulfilled up to a certain point and then there seems to be a lapse and things kind of die out? How, Lord, can we really make these things so vibrant that the whole church just becomes so supportive and encouraged about this?

And I believe that we're headed into a time when as we carefully explain how everyone fits into this, personally and then corporately, that there will be a large groundswell of support from the church. And that we again will recognize that health, and physical health and spiritual health are so closely related that you really can't separate them. I'm going to be giving a sermon in the near future about the final cry. And it is interesting because the final cry has as a very strong element to it the health message. And so I foresee organizations like Amen becoming extremely important in helping not just to do medical missionary work, but also to help educate church members as to how they can participate as well.

So don't just think of yourself as some insular, private little part over here that will just do your thing. As the Lord opens things to you, recognize that you, along with many others, will need to help share with the world church what it means to truly be a medical missionary, in the best sense of the word, following Christ, the master physician. I am very grateful to each of you for what you have accomplished so far in the AMEN organization. I know Phil has tried to get me to come to the convention. It kind of is at the wrong timing, especially now because I try to visit at least 2 world divisions and their year-end meetings.

Usually right at the end of October when you have your meeting is when I have to be headed out to another place. But I did visit 1 time. It was in San Diego when I was there. And it was a real privilege to be with you. But I want to encourage you to continue to expand this very special ministry.

And recognize that your role will go far beyond simply having a national convention and a network, but that hopefully we will be able to tap on your shoulder and invite you to participate certainly in our urban, comprehensive urban evangelism and also in how we can train church members at large in how to do practical medical missionary work. And you know I just have to ask the question to the Lord, if not now, then when? If not now, why not? I would ask that you will join with me in praying that the Lord will unfold to us how to accomplish this great task as we come to the very end of time. I don't know how much longer we have before the Lord returns, and I would never make any kind of guess.

I don't think that's wise for any of us as Seventh-day Adventists to set any kind of approximate dates. But I will tell you I firmly believe that it will be soon and that the Lord is preparing his church for this last great effort to fulfill the counsel that he has given to each of us. I wanna thank you for your strong support for the church and I wanna thank you for your prayers. I've met so many people here at ASI and wherever we go, people tell us, we're praying for you, we're praying for you. And you don't know how reassuring that is.

I know that that is 1 of the major reasons why God is sustaining us through all the travel and all the discussions we have with people and all the challenges. The Lord truly allows his people to intercede on behalf of many of us. And through prayers we see the difference. And I think through prayer God will work some miracles when it comes to fully expanding and explaining medical missionary work and how the right arm is truly part of the body and how we can have, as Ellen White terms it, a blended ministry. And That's certainly my prayer and I hope it will be your prayer as well.

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AMEN’s Role in the Church’s Mission

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