“Twerk Miley, Miley, Miley!” SWRC Joins the Ranks of Secular Business Practices By Dumping Senior Ministers July 13, 2014

If you had a television or radio last year you couldn’t turn to any channel or station without hearing about the risqué performance on the MTV music awards. Miley Cyrus, beloved american teenager and role model stepped out in a very historic lewd performance with Robin Thicke…demonstrating the “twerk.” Twitter was booming with comments of astonishment and shock at how the industry could promote such a highly sexually driven and clearly 360 degree turn of this young singer/actresss. My thoughts were, why is everyone so shocked! We have seen this turn with so many young actresses/singers who choose to break out and display their sexuality for the public. From Michael and Janet Jackson to  Britney Spears, to name a few. I couldn’t get over why this was so shocking, young entertainers exposed to this business learn one predominant factor, SEX SALES. If they want to make money and stay relevant in this business they must sale the one thing that should be guarded as private and personal. Jay-Z said it best in a song he titles Somewhereinamerica, in his album titled Magna Carta, essentially the gist of his comment…..only in America can a Caucasian teenager “twerk” on national television and gain notoriety when  African-Americans invented the “twerk” many years ago. Jay-Z a.k.a. Sean Carter says….”twerk, twerk Miley, Miley, Miley, Miley,” with humor and laughter at the hypocritical approach of the entertainment industries obvious and overt methods to take black cultural music and brand it as a white cultural phenomenon. Well, my friends this is the direction and road our conference is headed as it relates to our new approach to business, especially in Southwest Regional Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Our president has aligned himself with secular practices of doing business which is contrary to the writings of Ellen G. White as it relates to how our workers should be taken care of by the church. The appetite to develop mega-churches and buildings that give a TD Jakesesque quality continues to plague every president and entices young workers in this field, this appetite has taken us down a path to financial crisis and mismanagement. How can I build a mega-church like Creflo, T.D., ask some of our young pastors at churches in cities like Austin, Houston, Dallas, etc? Look at some of your young pastors in the field, they hold more than one service on sabbath and they don’t even have a max capacity to fill seats for divine worship. They purchase video and technology, which could be a good thing, but they merely have attendance to substantiate such a venture. THIS IS YOUR MONEY! Our conference pours money into churches developing this persona of a mega-church, but yet cannot hold frequent and consistent revelation seminars and personal ministries for which we all know is the true connecting factor to gain souls. Some of our young ministers go as far as avoiding preaching the sabbath and end time prophecies during divine hour and rather focus on more general topics of christianity to avoid alienating our non-believers. Laodicea is here! We are neither hot or cold! Ellen G. White has never promoted the mega-church philosophy, churches are supposed to break apart and fulfill the mission of spreading the truth and creating local communities where our beliefs are spread to all who can hear it. Our conference is dumping its senior ministers because they do not share this philosophy. Our conference turning to financially support these mega-church lifestyles to bail them out of the mess they have created. Secular corporations capitalize on the mega-church concept and our conferences are now aligning themselves in this direction. I have yet to receive a single request for retraction by our beloved leaders in SWRC. Why? This is because they have no facts to refute. They are hoping this will go away that we will go to church, swallow their Kool-Aid and go home to our Dinner Roast and Special K loaf. My fellow lay workers ask questions, seek understanding, and demand answers. We are moving down a very dark and scary path. I ask any theologian for or against to demonstrate their committment to publish EGW’s writings that show our conference is moving towards or further from our true advent mission. Our public needs to know. I also challenge my critics, especially young ministers who claim they are not “politicians” stop trying to google search who I am and figure out who YOU ARE! Do you need ten cameras in your church? Do you need a television station when you have empty pews? How about you take your energy and erect a tent like so many did before you, why don’t you get your can and go ingathering to help our current financial crisis, or pass out bible studies to save those who will be lost because you have lost your way. This is how things were done when we needed to reach a financial goal, we recruited, we promoted stewardship and giving, we used the swords God gave us to fight the recession of the 80’s, and because of that work God blessed us, he enriched our work and gave our conference financial independence. So to the SWRC of SDA I say either go back to EGW’s teachings to care for the wise men who built this great conference or keep “twerking” to stay relevant in the pop culture of christiantity.

TFS