WE’D LIKE TO SEE CHANGE….

It’s late Wednesday night and I am watching my friend Dilys Brooks preach at Mt. Rubidoux Seventh-day Adventist Church. (www.mtrubidouxsda.org). By the way, their choir has won the "How Sweet the Sound" National Gospel Competition at LA Memorial Sports Arena on October 13, 2008. It’s an archived sermon from last Sabbath entitled “Promise Keepers”, she commented on Obama’s phenomenal election “He has promised to bring us a change!” We would like to see change. We do not like to change, but we want to see change…

You understand! We do not like the process of change. How is it that we would like to SEE change?!

We had seen a generational shift. American president was elected by the Millennial generation. Two thirds of voters under 30 years of age voted for him, and the majority of them were multiethnic. The world is different from the one you grew up in. This is a new generation that says “Yes, we can!” The newly elect president knows how to express the common hopes of the people, how to use the power of public speaking (preaching)—together with the power of the Internet and community organizing—to mobilize people around a cause, to call people to sacrifice and to care.

As I sat at the Nominating Committee I can’t help but notice same old trends – caution of inviting the youth to lead. Where are they anyway? Where did the youth go?

We need to learn from Obama. We need to engage the Millennial generation. We need to harness the power of hope and mobilize young people to make real change. We need to face the new realities of diversity and connectivity and compassion. We have lost the majority of the Baby Boomers and GenXers who were born into Adventist families. Let’s not do that again! This Millennial generation is more positive about the church and we need them.

The Adventist Church is already more diverse than America. We are the future. Our Church has taken significant steps to use the connectivity of new technology. The Corporate Adventist Church in North America has given every local congregation a web site of its own. There are hundreds of Adventist bloggers. But connectivity is more than technology. It also requires high-quality content; artistic, scholarly sound, creatively written, warmly personal content. Our best voices—inventive, well-grounded people—need to be on the Internet.

We also must put flesh on the message by getting involved in our local communities in compassionate service to the poor, the hurting and the oppressed. The work of our Community Services is the real evangelism. Social justice is just as Adventist as is the Sabbath and the Second Coming!

Candidate Obama has repeatedly said that “we will insure that every young adult who spends at least a year in service ... in the military, in the Peace Corps, in AmeriCorps, in homeless shelters or nursing homes ... will have their college education paid for.” I wonder, are we as committed to our young people? Guaranteeing support and assistance to our youth, so they can achieve for God’s glory?

Will we respond to this moment of hope and energy with new, creative ideas for the mission of the church? Or, will we sleep through the revolution and wake up to find we have oil for our lamps when the bridegroom arrives?