I have overcome my reluctance to directly ask for your help as one of the two thousand-plus readers  of this blog, all over the world.  I have launched a project that I believe is extremely important. But it can only have a significant impact if many others are willing to spread the word.

During the past six months I have written a book that I have called: Facing Doubt, and have given the subtitle: A book for Adventist believers ‘on the margins’. In recent years I have met, and corresponded with, lots of people—of all ages and many different backgrounds—who have given up on the Adventist version of the Christian faith, or are close to doing so. I have listened to, and read, innumerable stories of people who are deeply worried about current trends in Seventh-day Adventism. Many of those who are ‘on the margins’ of the church wonder: Can I, in good conscience, remain in this church or is there no other option than to leave.

In this book I do not hide that I also have many doubts and worries, but I explain why I have decided to stay with the church and to continue working for change in the church and encouraging those who struggle with worries and doubts.

The book is now ready. I am extremely pleased that the publisher processed this as quickly as he did. But there is a problem. The book has not been published though a denominational publisher, but by an independent publishing firm in the UK (though part of the edition is actually printed in the United States). This means that we have no easy access to the usual channels of promoting a book by an Adventist author.  The most important distribution channel will be Amazon.com. For the necessary publicity we must primarily depend on the blessings of the social media. Among other things I will use this blog, my Facebook page and a special page that is created for the book project. I make an appeal to all my Linkedin contacts, my Facebook friends and my blog readers to support this project. Many of you belong, I suspect, to the targeted group. Most of you, if not among the immediate target group, will have friends who are ‘on the margins’ of Adventism.

So, what can you do?

1. Of course, I hope you will buy your own copy. You will find the details on the site of Amazon.com. When you go to that site, simply type in the name of the book [Facing Doubt] or my full name [Reinder Bruinsma]. The price is $ 14,90 plus postage.
2. I hope many of you will also want to buy some copies for relatives and/or friends. If you want ten or more copies, you may contact the publisher (orders@flankopress.com). He will arrange for fulfilling your order at a good discount, depending on the quantity.
3. Read the book, talk about this book with others, and (hopefully) recommend it!
4. Point others to this blog by sharing it with others
5. Visit my Facebook page [Reinder Bruinsma] this weekend and share the announcement of the book with your own Facebook friends.
6. When you share the Facebook page, ask your friends to do likewise.
7. Once you have read it, post a short review on the Amazon.com  site, or on the Facebook page that is devoted to the book [@facingdoubt].

Editions in other languages in preparation. The Dutch edition will follow in just a few weeks from now. But in order to realize other editions also, we first need to make a success of the distribution of the book in English.

Let me stress that this is not a commercial venture. I consider it rather as a ‘ministry’. It is my way of trying to have a meaningful conversation with those who are ‘on the margins’, hoping that it may help many to deal constructively with questions and doubts regarding our faith and our church.

May I count on your help?

Most of us have never been the victim of a terrorist attack. We have never seen how someone blew himself (of herself) up, or started to shoot in all directions with a machine gun. But we are worried. The images stay with us for a considerable time, after seeing the reports of the events in Belgium and France, some months ago; of the carnage in Nice and of the young Afghan man who attacked his fellow travellers in a German train. And we tend to agree when someone remarks that this might also happen any time in our own country. When big events take place—like this week in the Netherlands with the four-day trek of some 50.000 people over 30, 40 or 50 kilometers—security has the highest priority. The organizers are greatly relieved when everything passes withour major incidents.

I am writing this blog while sitting in the intercity train, on my way to a meeting in Brussels (to have a discussion with the person who is currently translating my newest book into French!). The train is mostly empty, but how do I know that no radicalized Muslim, who may have boarded the train in the Hague or in Rotterdam, will storm into my carriage and start shooting while shouting ‘Allah is great!’ I am not overly worried, but I do realize that there are many rather easy targets for any extremist who wants to execute some deadly plan. Airports and airplanes may be reasonably safe, but what about trains and stations, ferries and cruise ships, or even busses, shopping centers, museums and churches?

The senseless violence of terrorism creates a lot of fear. But people realize that their life must go on. They know they cannot stay home, but when they go out they look around whether they spot any suspect parcel or any suitcase without a nearby owner, or whether some person is behaving suspiciously.

Some Bible readers will think of texts that tell us about a time when this world will be in the grip of fear, and underline that this is a ‘sign of the times’,  an indication that the end of history is near and that Jesus is about to come. However, it is not so easy to answer the question whether this heightened concern, because of the threat of terrorism, is truly a ‘sign of the times’. For let’s be honest: Life was not always so very safe in the past. A traveller in Jesus’ days could easily fall victim to the robbers who operated along the roads  between the population centers. Travel in ancient times or in the Middle Ages was not without significant danger, and it has never been totally safe since. Someone could suddenly immobiliz you with his dagger. Your stagecoach could be attacked. Your ship could be the target of organized piracy.

It would seem to me that a person who lived a hundred or two hundred years ago had as much reason to live in fear as we have today. Does that make all talk about ‘signs of the times’ meaningless? Far from it.  However, we must never forget that from a biblical perspective the ‘time of the end’ began right after Jesus’s death, resurrection and ascension. The early church knew it lived in the ‘time of the end’ and looked towards the soon coming of their Lord. The ‘time of the end’ is still in progress. But it will not continue forever. Through the centuries there have been signals (‘signs’) that remind of of the fact that this world is worn-out and must (and will) be replaced by something infinitely better.

For christians this expectation must always reign over their fear. Hope must always have the last word. Also (and especially) in a time when reports of terror so often dominate our daily news.

Many Seventh-day Adventists think that their church is not doing so well. They have no difficulty in listing a series of things which they feel should change. The solution, they feel, is a return to the past. Rather than opting for a ‘progressive’ Adventism they prefer a form of ‘historic’ Adventism. However, when you enter into a discussion with these people, you find that many of them do not really have a clear picture of what the church of the past looked like. They have a rather romanticized idea of the true state of the church of a century or so ago.

My mother was baptized when she was sixteen. This is now more than eighty years ago. At some point in time her father had accepted the Adventist message. I do not know whether this was also true for her mother. Her father—my grandfather—did not stay with his new faith for very long. From isolated statements from him and from  my mother I concluded that he left the small church of which he was a member after a protracted and ugly controversy among the members.

Years later, when I had already been a minister for some time, my mother sometimes said to me: ‘ If people tell you that in the past the church was better than it is now—don’t believe it. I know better.’ During the past week I received strong confirmation of that statement. I read the fascinating biography of Arthur G. Daniells, written by Benjamin McArthur, an accomplished Adventist historian.[i] Daniells was the president of the General Conference from 1901 until 1922—longer than any president before or after him.

Daniells is portrayed as a man with a strong will and a clear vision, a capable church administrator and a tireless promoter of the mission outreach of the church. He played a key role in the reorganization of the church in 1901 and the ensuing years. His experiences in New Zealand and Australia and his extensive travel had widened his vista. He selected strong people for his leadership team and had close ties with both Ellen White and her influential son Willie.

Much was accomplished during Daniells’s period in office and the church owes him a great deal. So much is abundantly clear from McArthur’s book. However, this biography also provides a wealth of information about the problems and challenges Daniells encountered wherever he turned, and the many negative things that came his way. A prominent example of this is his heated controversy with Dr. Harvey Kellogg.

Reading the story of Arthur Daniells by this capable author—based on meticulous research—does not make for unmitigated happiness. It is not just a tale of church growth and faith, commitment and courage, but also an account of lots of strife and unholy competition, of apostasy and bitterness. It tells us about the opening up of new mission fields and the founding of countless new institutions, but also about frequent financial mismanagement and about unchristian tensions between men (yes, almost only men!) with hugely inflated egos.

I realize that a book like this has its limitation. A basic problem is that history (including the history of a denomination) focuses mainly on leaders and the developments in organizations. This is also true for this biography. We learn preciously little about what happened at the grass roots and about how ‘ordinary’ members experienced their faith. But the over-all picture is clear. There is much in this period of our past that may inspire us, but is does not offer a blueprint for the church of today and does not tell us how to meet the challenges of our times. Even the theological views of this period do not offer a standard by which to judge those of today—as if we did not learn anything in the past one hundred years.

If people tell you that in the past things were much better in the church han they are today, this book about Daniells may help you to revise your opinion.

I am not a soccer enthusiast. The number of soccer matches that I have ever watched on tv can be counted on the fingers of one hand. I have not closely followed the European soccer championships that are currently held in France and are now almost ended. That fact that my own country did not qualify for this tournament did not worry me at all.

During the first few days of the event my reactions were dominated by irritation. The clashes between British and Russian fans were in my opinion (and this view was widely shared) disgusting. I was afraid that this would become a feature of the entire tournament. But, fortunately, that was not the case.

I did, however, pay some attention to the role of Iceland and of Wales. The teams of those two very small nations were able to reach the quarter finals. The team of Iceland (330.000 inhabitants) lost 2-5 against France, while the team from Wales (3 million inhabitants) had to recognize Portugal as stronger than they were (0-2).

It would have been quite extraordinary if the two teams had won these two matches. No doubt many Icelandic and Welsh supports hoped for that kind of miracle. But when they returned home, they were given the kind of enthusiastic welcome, as if they had won the world cup. The people were ecstatic about the success of their team.

It makes one think. The people were not sad because their team had lost, but thy were excited about what they had accomplished. The loss in the quarter finals felt in fact like a big success. What they had done far exceeded all expectations. Would it not be great of people in general (ourselves included) would be more like the Icelanders and the Welsh and would much less focus on things that did not succeed and would simply be happy and thankful for the things that did turn out well?

This soccer lesson reminded me of a Norwegian soccer team. A few years ago Sigve Tonstad, a Norwegian scholar who teaches at the American Loma Linda University, wrote a chapter for the Festschrift for dr. Jan Paulsen (the president of the Adventist world church in the 1999-2010 period), which I had the honor to edit.  It was entitled: ‘The Nimble Foot.’ In his creative and inspiring contribution Tonstad tells the story of the soccer team of Trondheim—a Norwegian town with only about 170.000 inhabitants.  At the end of the last century the Rosenborg team won the competition in the national league no less than thirteen (!) times and it played against against some of the greatest teams of Europe, as for instance AC Milan.

Tonstad applied the major elements of the strategy of this successful team with the way in which organizations (such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church) should be led. One of the crucial principles of the trainer of the Rosenborg team was that each player should not aim at being the star of the game, but should do everything possible to build on the strengths of the other players and make them excel.

The accomplishments of the Trondheim team has a great lesson for all of us. We can do more of we do not constantly compete with one another, but do everything we can to ensure that the people which whom we work can excel.

Maybe I should pay more attention to the soccer phenomenon. Who knows how many other wise lessons I might encounter.