Agree. After my acceptance of Sabbath keeping as a legitimate Christian practice and certain other doctrines that I had come to believe in which was common with the Adventist church as shown above, it still took me 5 years before I was willing to actually join the church because of what I perceived as 'faults' and 'errors'. And I could use those very same excuses today to leave the church and become one of the great herd that gathers outside the door and criticises the church for its faults as if the great herd itself is now perfect and exempt. But I became an Adventist and committed myself to the church not because it was a perfect church, but because what they
taught, and what they
practiced, to my mind was the most practicable reproduction of the apostolic church to the needs , the pressures, the cultural dynamics and current worldview of this so unique present age. That it is growing faster than any Protestant denomination tells me that while they can certainly do better, they are doing some things right.
I still do not agree with everything that is done...there are disagreements within the church, among our theologians and the more lowly among us, which while dividing us in thought, do not divide us in mission. Women's ordination and issues over the trinity being examples, and in the 1970s the church did divide over the investigative judgement issue...and people still today criticise the church on how that issue was handled. Some still criticise the church over compromising over some minor teachings in order to bring us into more acceptance with orthodox Christianity simply for the sake of removing the then prevalent charges of being 'sectarian' or 'cultish'. Me, I couldn't care less what people think of us so long as they judge us by our fruit, and not by what
they misunderstand concerning what we teach and believe. Those fruit include a second to none worldwide education system in size only second to the Catholic church, and a medical system that has clinics and hospitals all over the world serving communities in the most remote, and the most populated, areas. Unfortunately, some of our hospitals carry out abortions where it is adjudged the life of the mother is threatened. Some of us vehemently disagree with that. Some regret decisions made long ago that resulted in our educational institutions seeking secular accreditation which brought influences into our universities, our medical training centers (such as Loma Linda) etc that were distinctly contrary to the ideals etc upon which our church was founded, and has forced the church since to compromise in some areas. So we have our issues. Yet for a church only 160 years old, but which is almost alone in continuing the reformation, has only 20 million members (recently increasing by 1 million every year worldwide) has been singularly blessed by God and is serving communities all over the globe in numerous ways. Look up
ADRA as an example, in being an organisation that for resources pales into insignificance compared to other aid agencies such as red cross, accomplishes so much more, bringing practical answers to people in need and staying
with them, to ensure they grow. This of course in addition to the many lives radically changed by Christ through the efforts of our evangelists through such agencies as Adventist World Radio and numerous television channels and media outlets all around the world that God is using to reach the lost in areas previously unreachable. For example, local language I-pod recordings of the gospels now offered free to indigenous people in Africa who have never before heard the gospel.
World Church: 'GodPod' Technology to Bring Gospel to Remote Peoples So why do I remain in my church despite it faults and short-comings? Because God is still working in it. And using it for His glory.