HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2009 / FALL / TOUR OF ENCOURAGEMENT REMEMBERED

FALL 2009
VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4

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D E P A R T M E N T S

Ministry NEWS

(Remembering)

Colleen Tinker

 

This summer's "Tour of Encouragement" impacted Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff and Richard and me profoundly in a variety of ways. On one level, we all enjoyed the break from our respective Southwest desert habitats in Arizona and Southern California. Beginning with the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains in northern California, moving through golden southern Oregon, the cornfields of Nebraska, the fireflies and forests of Michigan and Ohio, and ending in the humid but verdant rolling hills of Alabama, we drank in the green that our country's heartland unfolded before us as we drove farther and farther east.

On another level, the ministry impact of this Tour has marked us indelibly. First, we were mutually encouraged at every stop as we met and shared with brothers and sisters in Christ, many of whom we had never met previously but who shared the bond of the Holy Spirit and the reality of the true gospel. Second, the receptivity of the evangelicals at every venue both surprised and encouraged us. More and more people in the Christian community are becoming aware that Adventism is not the same as "regular" Christianity, and there is increasing openness to knowing how to understand and minister to the Adventists who venture to visit Christian churches.

We will share highlights of the Tour in a journal format to help keep the six-week trek organized.

 

June 9, 2009

Exactly 100 people attended the opening meeting of the Tour of Encouragement held in the First Baptist Church in Auburn, California, close to the capital city of Sacramento and just a few miles from Amazing Facts-owned Weimar Institute. The meeting opened with two praise songs led by a team provided by the church. Richard and I told our faith story, and then Dale gave his talk on the 10 ways Adventism differs from evangelical Christianity. At the end, Dale, Carolyn, and I answered questions submitted from the audience, and Richard moderated the Q & A. Dale gave away copies of his book The Truth about Adventist "Truth" to all who attended.

 

June 10, 2009

This was Dale and Carolyn's 52nd wedding anniversary. After Carolyn shared her faith story at the beginning of the evening meeting, Dale reminisced that almost exactly 52 years ago to the hour, his bride walked down the aisle. He called her forward and pinned an orchid onto her dress; Carolyn was overcome. After the meeting we held a small reception for them and for all those who attended the meeting that night (again about 100 people, a large percentage of whom were pastors and members of local Christian churches). Dale's talk, "What About the Fourth Commandment?" was a powerful presentation of the new covenant and the truth of our rest in Christ. It was the perfect conclusion to his afternoon talk which he delivered to an audience of local pastors and former Adventists: "The Sabbath Trap" and "The Transitional Path" in which he explained the former Adventist's confusion and deep need for inductive Bible study.

 

June 12–13, 2009

Dale and Carolyn continued north to Roseburg, Oregon. Several local evangelicals and former Adventists attended the meetings held at Foundation Fellowship (formerly First Baptist Church). Additionally, several attendees who had never been Adventist but who participate on the online forum at www.FormerAdventist.com drove from as far away as Battle Ground, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, to meet Dale and Carolyn and each other.

Dale delivered the same talks that he gave at Auburn, and people were responsive. One Calvary Chapel pastor told Dale that he had never understood the new covenant that clearly, and he would henceforth be teaching it to his congregation.

 

June 26, 2009

The opening meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska, held at 7:00 PM in the youth chapel at Berean Bible Church, had a turnout of 300-350 people. There was a significant number of Adventists present including several people that appeared to be students at Union College. Local former Adventist Patria Rector led two worship songs, and Richard and I gave our faith story. Dale's talk on the major differences between Adventism and evangelical Christianity was well-received, and the Q & A session after the talk was animated. The panel members included Dale, local senior pastor Bryan Clark, Chris Lee, and me with Richard moderating.

When asked why he was hosting these meetings so close to Union College, an Adventist institution, Pastor Clark responded that when the first "wave" of Adventists came to his church about 2003 and began asking him questions, it took him at least six months to begin to understand their questions, let alone their beliefs. He said that the Bible gives a mandate that every person be fully equipped in Scripture to be able to give an answer when asked, and he was hosting these meetings so his congregation could be equipped to give biblical answers to Adventist questions.

 

June 27, 2009

On Saturday the first meeting was at 10:00 AM and had about 60-80 people in attendance. Patria Rector told her faith story, and Dale presented his "Sabbath Trap" and "Transitional Path" talks.

The crowd swelled for the evening meeting. Chris Lee, leader of the local Former Adventist Life Group Bible study at Lincoln Berean, presented a powerful short talk on Ephesians 2 before Dale gave his final presentation on Sabbath being realized in Christ and appealed to the audience to embrace the faith of Abraham and be counted righteous.

The local former Adventists met at the Lee's house afterward for a potluck supper. One young woman who had driven to Lincoln from Iowa came also. When Chris prayed over the food that evening, she suddenly realized that there were people who were devoting their lives to helping people like her to find freedom in Jesus. The Holy Spirit used that moment to awaken new life in her.

"I can't believe this is real," she kept saying. "I feel as if I was converted tonight. I have passed from death to life!"

 

July 3, 2009

Two visits make this day memorable: a walk around the lake at Michigan's Adventist Camp Au Sable, and a visit to Battle Creek's Adventist Heritage Village.

Our guide at the Heritage Village was a young woman who is a junior at Andrews University this year. Most impacting to me were the Parkhill Church, the actual building in which Ellen White received her Civil War vision prior to the war's outbreak, James and Ellen White's house in which Ellen first wrote out the Great Controversy vision, and a reconstruction of the meeting house in which Ellen delivered the Great Controversy vision from memory, a two-hour feat.

By the time we reached that final meeting house, I was emotional. The impact of Ellen White and the lifestyle and culture that had shaped me as a child overwhelmed me, and fighting tears, I asked our guide if she ever wondered why so many thousands of Christians who live for and love the Lord are never convicted of the Sabbath,

Richard told her that we were former Adventists, that we produce a magazine for former Adventists, and that we have found that Ellen White and the Bible do not agree. Our friend who was with us stepped to the podium and turned to Hebrews 1:1-4 in the Bible resting there, reading to her that God speaks to us in these last days through His Son. This, she said, is why she had decided that she, too, was leaving the Adventist church, and she prayed right then for our guide.

 

July 7, 2009

Paul Carden from the Centers for Apologetics Research joined us, our friend, and Esther Aust, who was the point person for organizing the St. Joseph meetings, for a tour of the Battle Creek Heritage Village. Our guide this day was a young man about to begin Andrews as a freshman. When we finally got to the same meeting house where we had spoken with the young woman the previous Thursday, Paul asked our guide how he would explain salvation. The boy was thrown off guard and floundered. Paul didn't relent, although he was very kind. He asked him if he believed he had to do anything to ensure being saved, if he was obligated to keep the Sabbath, and if Jesus was enough. The young man was uncomfortable and admitted he had to do something to be saved.

When Paul was satisfied that the guide could not articulate the gospel, our friend (as she had the previous week) went to the podium Bible and turned pages—this time to 1 John 5:11-12 and asked him to read it out loud.

When he finished, Paul asked him to read the next verse:

"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."

The young man's face changed, softening.

"May we pray for you?" our host asked.

Paul prayed for him, putting his arm around the boys' shoulders, and when he finished, the boy was crying.

The first meeting that evening at the St. Joseph Evangelical Free Church known as The Chapel was well-attended. Paul Carden opened the meeting with a talk entitled "The Apostolic Imperative", and Dale presented his talk on the differences between Adventism and evangelical Christianity. Around 250 people attended, mostly with a smattering of Adventists and some formers—all attentive with good questions during the Q & A. The panel was composed of Paul Carden, local senior pastor Phil Bubar, Dale Ratzlaff, and me, with Richard Tinker moderating.

 

July 8, 2009

After the morning meeting in The Chapel, we took Paul Carden and Jim Valentine from Christian Apologetics and Research Information Services in Milwakee, WI, on a tour of Andrews University campus, spending time at the "Garden of Grace" built outside the Pioneer Memorial Church.

We also spent some time in the heritage room in the basement of the James White Library. Especially impressive is the large (one wall long) glassed-in collection of books which comprises Ellen White's personal library.

As Richard said, "What 19th century woman (or man, for that matter) would have had a library such as this?"

The final meeting in the evening again drew a crowd of about 250 people, mostly evangelicals, and Pastor Phil Bubar stated that he planned to start a Former Adventist Fellowship study group in the fall. (This group is now meeting every Sunday evening.)

 

July 9–11, 2009

We arrived in Miamisburg, Ohio, on Thursday night. The next morning our host, Ken Christman, took us on a tour of Kettering hospital. In contrast to Loma Linda University, Kettering has contracts with a local coffee company which operates coffee shops in the hospital, and the cafeterias in the hospital serve meat.

Ken had organized the Miamisburg meetings with the help of Rick and Sheryl Barker who co-lead a local Former Adventist Bible study. Because the pastoral staff of the hosting church were away on a mission trip, the local evangelicals had not received the same kinds of personal invitations they had received in the other venues. Nevertheless, each meeting had about 35 people in attendance, almost all former Adventists. In spite of the small size, the meetings were warm and very encouraging.

Because of the smaller crowd and the predominance of former Adventists, Dale changed his second presentation to include a powerful Bible study on the state of the dead.

We also enjoyed a wonderful lunch organized by Cheryl Barker in the atrium of a local mall. We had a memorable time visiting with former Adventists, both local and some who had driven from nearby states. Many of us finally put faces to the personalities we already knew from the online forum at FormerAdventist.com.

 

August 4-5, 2009

The Whitesburg Baptist Church under the pastoral leadership of Dr. Jimmy Jackson hosted Dale's meetings in Huntsville, AL, just a few miles from the campus of the Seventh-day Adventist Oakwood University.

The first night opened with a crowd of about 150 people; perhaps one third of the attendees were Adventists. This crowd was less responsive than previous audiences at other Tour venues had been; while individually many people talked with us and expressed gratitude, the audience as a whole was less responsive —with the exception of a couple of people who tended to be argumentative and tried to ignore our regulation that all questions for the Q & A panel be written on cards.

The second night was smaller—perhaps 80 people—with fewer Adventists present. As always, Dale's presentation on Sabbath in Christ and the faith of Abraham was powerful and convicting.

We learned after the last meeting was over that the regional conference communications director had emailed all the local Adventist pastors to schedule "alternative events" such as fasting and prayer meetings or community inviter events to convene at the same times as Dale's meetings. It further instructed the pastors to tell the "inquisitive ones" who would attend Dale's meetings anyway to observe without getting into dialog.

 

Thank you

In summary, we want to thank all those who organized the meetings at the different venues: Dorene and Jim Arbogast in Auburn, CA; Merwyn Rhoades of Steering Wheel Ministries and Foundation Fellowship in Roseburg, OR; Chris and Carmen Lee in Lincoln, NE; Esther Aust in St. Joseph, MI; Ken Christman and Sheryl Barker in Miamisburg, OH; and Ken and Janice Brantley in Huntsville, AL. In addition, we are grateful to the local pastors who hosted us: Gaylen Smith at Auburn First Baptist Church, Bryan Clark at Lincoln Berean Bible Church, Phil Bubar at The Chapel in St. Joseph, and Jimmy Jackson at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville.

We thank all of you who prayed for this summer Tour, and we thank God for the growing understanding of Adventism in the Christian community. Our Father is faithful. †

 

 

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1. Amusement overcame us when we turned off the freeway into Lincoln, NE, and were confronted by this sign.

2. Richard and Colleen in the entrance hall of the library at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.

3. Pastor Gaylen Smith with Richard Tinker at the Auburn First Baptist Church in Auburn, California.

4. Chris Lee, the organizer of our meetings in Lincoln, NE, and the leader of the local Former Adventist Life Group at Berean Bible Church with Richard Tinker.

5. Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff relax in Chris and Carmen Lee's home after the last meeting at the Lincoln Berean Bible Church.

6. The paper-mache rendering of the seven-headed beast of Revelation 13 stands on display in the heritage library on the campus of Andrews University. It was commissioned in 1906 by evangelist W. W. Simpson.

7. Paul Carden opened the first meeting at The Chapel in St. Joseph, Michigan.

8. Colleen Tinker and Carolyn Macomber stand in the schoolhouse in the Battle Creek Heritage Village, reminiscing that they met in an Adventist school when Carolyn was in junior high and Colleen, having just graduated from Walla Walla College, taught there.

9. Richard and Colleen Tinker on the shore of Lake Michigan.

10. Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff took a ride on a Mississippi River taxi with Richard and Colleen Tinker.

11. Rick and Sheryl Barker helped organize the meetings at Miamisburg, Ohio.

12. The Q & A panel at The Chapel Evangelical Free Church in St. Joseph, Michigan, was composed of Paul Carden, Colleen Tinker, Pastor Phil Bubar, Dale Ratzlaff, and was moderated by Richard Tinker.

13. Ken Christman, one of the organizers of the Miamisburg, Ohio, meetings, took us on a tour of Kettering Medical Center.

14. Dale taught an impromptu class on the state of the dead at Miamisburg where the attendees were almost all former Adventists.

15. Carolyn Ratzlaff managed the book tables at the Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as she did at every venue.

16. Richard Tinker, Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff, and Ken and Janice Brantley do last-minute planning over lunch in the community center of the Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama.

17. The Q & A panel at the Whitesburg Baptist Church in Hunstville, Alabama, included senior pastor Jimmy Jackson, Colleen Tinker, pastor Earla Lockhart, Keavin Hayden, Dale Ratzlaff, and was moderated by Richard Tinker.

18. Richard Tinker hung a "FREE" sign over the Proclamation! table at Huntsville.