May 23, 2014
Why are SDBs so few in number?
by Clinton R. Brown
The Ghana SDB congregation has sacrificed time and funds to build a solid worship facility.
As I visit Seventh Day Baptist ministries in other countries, they will explain how they have a hard time in their communities with people not presuming they are Seventh-day Adventists. They share that the Adventists have built schools, universities, and churches in their region, so when you start to say you are “Seventh Day…” people will expect or even think they hear “Adventist” when you say Baptist. I explain to them that it’s the same way in the USA as well as many countries around the world.
The interior nears completion.
Like the Catholics and Muslims, Adventists have pooled their resources to share their doctrines and establish a global presence. This is frustrating for the local SDB churches in many nations, since they find themselves having to choose on one hand affiliating and worshiping with their convictions as Seventh Day Baptists, and on the other, more educational and financial opportunities.
Recently, someone in the group in Ghana was trying to encourage me to have Seventh Day Baptists adopt the resource management principles of the Adventists since those had been more successful in their eyes. I had to explain that this is what distinguishes Baptists from Adventists in church organization.
The SDB delegation (l. to r.): Ghana Assistant Pastor Justice Wilson, Danny Lee from Colorado Springs, Ghana Pastor Daniel Agyapong, Clinton Brown of the
SDB Missionary Society, and Ghana Conference President Felix Ankrah.
As I understood it, I would have to take away their local church control of resources—as well as those of our other churches around the world—and determine for them where those resources should go. They appreciated that their congregation has the ability to respond to what God is calling them to do and apply their own assets accordingly. But they were still concerned that when they went to other areas there were no other Seventh Day Baptists.
They wanted someone to go and establish the name of Jesus in neighboring areas as “Seventh Day Baptists.” I agreed heartily with them and in light of the desire God had instilled in them, asked who better to do that than their own church?
I encouraged the SDBs in Ghana to build congregations with hearts for reaching their neighbors locally, nationally, and globally. I told them that I would do all I could to urge other Conferences, including my own, to come alongside and assist in the global mission. I also shared that it would be easier for me to inspire others about Ghana if I could hold them up as a God-driven example of how we are all to respond to the Great Commission as God leads us to action. They expressed commitment to do their part.
But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33
