HOW TO GO FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY IN ONE EASY LESSON

by Vance Ferrell

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Note by Ron: Every member of the SDA church who knows of the following debacle is corporately responsible for supporting an apostate organization that would imbibe such forbidden fruitage as would result in the loss of at least 70 souls who were led to Babylon. This becomes even more serious when one considers that Jesus would have died for one faithful soul. End note.


HOW TO GO FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY IN ONE EASY LESSON

— AND BE WELCOMED BACK AFTERWARD

 

Alex Bryan Plants a Church

 

In the early 1990s, when Gordon Bietz was president

of Southern Adventist University, at Collegedale,

Tennessee, Alex Bryan was in attendance as a theology student. The two became friends.

 

By the time Bryan had graduated, Elder Bietz had

become president of the Georgia Cumberland Conference. Bietz arranged for Alex to be appointed as pastor of a new, experimental church in the large city of Atlanta.

 

This was one of the “church plantings” that was

heartily encouraged by the leadership of the North American Division and frequently praised in the 1990s byleaders in Review articles. These “planted churches” use entertainment as the means of bringing people in off the streets, having them accept Christ by faith, and then baptizing them before they change their minds; all the while it is hoped that, by providing them with continued entertainment, they will hang around and help the denomination “grow.”

 

The church planting arrangement, which started in

the mid-1990s, differed from the celebration church pattern of the late 1980s in only one way: new churches are started, and only hard-core liberal Adventists are invited to attend and help.

 

In contrast, under the celebration pattern, Adventist

pastors tried to change existing Adventist congregations into entertainment centers. But that had the effect of causing faithful believers to leave those churches, while bringing in few new members to replace them.

 

In order to receive training for conducting celebration

churches, Adventist pastors all across America were

sent, at conference expense, to the Milwaukie SDA

Church, on the south side of Portland, Oregon. There

they received instruction from its pastor, David Snyder, in the intricacies of turning a staid, historic Adventist congregation into a semi-Pentecostal affair. Sabbath morning meetings consisted of somewhat wild band music; tightly dressed women singers; lots of drum music; brainless theatrical skits; and rather brief, shallow saved-by-grace sermons. (By the early 1990s, Snyder had left the Adventist ministry and quickly became a Protestant minister, pastoring a Sunday church.

 

 In 2004, the pastor of the other, largest celebration church left his wife and married the woman senior pastor of a nearby Adventist Church, breaking up two families.)

 

From the mid-90s, down to the present time, pastors

slated to start “planted churches” have been sent

to the immense Willow Creek Church, on the south side of Chicago. Here they are taught every possible aspect of entertainment church services—ways to attract people off the street and keep them coming back to experience the music, motion activities, and all the rest.

 

A faithful historic believer, who regularly attends

an Adventist church in the Atlanta area, wrote this:

 

“The church that Alex started was essentially a rockand-roll church. I visited there once—and let me tell you it was a loud, hard rock Adventist church! They had drums, electric guitars, singers; and while the music played, it was not uncommon for people to stand in the aisle and wave their arms in the air. I went once to see what it was about, and could not stand it.”

 

As others have done elsewhere, Alex quickly learned

a very important lesson. The kids on the streets were

not interested in going to church on Saturday mornings. Neither are the young adult, unchurched moderns. People who enter those of our churches which have striped themselves of doctrine—quickly leave.

 

Why attend a Saturday church, when there is no

worldly sense in doing so? The only reason for such a

practice are definite commands given in the Bible,—but the new Z generation doesn’t believe in obeying the Bible.

 

And Bryan, and the other entertainment pastors in our

denomination, preach that obeying the Bible is old-fashioned. All that is needed is to accept Jesus and, instantly, one is saved! Well, the Protestants teach that already; and they get together on Sunday.

 

So, shortly after starting this new type of church,

Bryan decided that, instead of holding his church worship services on Saturday,—he would switch them to Sunday morning.

 

But, after this had continued for a time, Georgia

Cumberland Conference officials tactfully suggested that Alex had better change back to Sabbath meetings.

This went on for a number of months; but, ultimately,

when he kept refusing to abandon Sunday morning

church services,—Bryan was fired.

 

However, Alex recognized that it was coming; and,

so, he prepared his congregation for the event. (The conference made the mistake of not getting rid of him before he won over his church members.) The liberal

Adventists in the Atlanta area had initially flocked to

his church out of curiosity, but many had become enchanted by the high excitement and loud entertainment they experienced there. So Bryan carefully transferred their loyalties from the denomination to himself.

 

When he was finally discharged from the ministry,

he took all of his members—about 70—with him.

This is something of a backwards way to plant

churches. The denomination is losing more members

than it is gaining! Yet “church planting” continues down to the present time.

 

It does seem that there are those in high places in

the denomination who want to eradicate every last vestige of beliefs and standards from the churches, leaving only a hollow shell. Sabbathkeeping continues; but, when the National Sunday Law is enacted, the great majority of our members will find it far easier to submit to the law of the land than to continue observing the Bible Sabbath.

 

Currently, Alex’s church, located in a northern suburb

of Greater Atlanta, is called The New Community

Church of Roswell. He holds services only on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. That should not be surprising; for neither celebration churches nor their planted offspring were interested in placing the name, “Seventh-day Adventist,” on their church signs.

 

While faithful believers treasure that name (and

sometimes are sued for using it), the liberals among us want to move away as far as they can from it.

—Oh, by the way, there is more to the story!

 

The Carolina Conference is the next conference just

north of the Georgia Cumberland Conference.

Their leaders were anxious to provide speakers to

entertain their young people at their May 28-June 3 camp meeting at Lake Junaluska in North Carolina. But it is not easy to find way-out, rock-and-roll experts who are still in the church. But, after scrounging around, they remembered Alex, who had been fired, disfellowshipped, and was now a full-fledged, independent Sunday church apostate pastor. They were not concerned about the fact that, having lured 70 members out of the church, he was an expert at taking people out of the denomination. —So they invited him to give the young people in North and South Carolina guidance throughout the week at their annual camp meeting! They also invited Sam Leonor, a young Loma Linda Hospital chaplain.

 

Bryan spoke at all the morning meetings (11:00 a.m.-

12:00 noon) for the young adults. One of the two camp meeting pages on the Carolina Conference website mentioned that Alex continues to write articles for the Review.

 

Go to carolinasda.org, then click on “Tuesday Morning with the Young Adults,” and you will find a description of Bryan’s meetings. (Because it may be removed not long after this tract is mailed out, it is reprinted on the next page.) My brethren, these things should not be!

 

 

YOUNG ADULT SCHEDULE AT THE CAMP MEETING

(FROM THE CAROLINA CONFERENCE WEBSITE)

 

 

Tuesday Morning with the Young Adults

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

 

“This was great—the best start we’ve ever had! Our

attendance is like we usually have on the weekends at

Camp Meeting.” Almost 100 young adults filled room

305 in the Terrace Hotel to hear speaker Alex Bryan

present some of “Jesus’ Most Puzzling Words.”

 

REPRINT OF THE WORDING ON THE WEBSITE:

 

 

It seems unbelievable that the Carolina

Conference would do this. But here is the evidence.

 

Reprinted below is a portion of the 2006

Carolina Conference Camp meeting website

announcement about Alex Bryan’s weeklong

meetings with the youth of the conference.

 

Their website:

Carolinasda.org

Reprinted on the left is a portion of

Bryan’s website, which tells you about him,

his Sundaykeeping church, and his doctrinal

beliefs (which consist of grace and love).

His website:

thenewcommunitychurch.com

 

 

Additional info on the above article may be found at this address. Scroll down past the lawsuit article to the above article.

 

http://www.sdadefend.com/MINDEX-T/Trademark06.pdf