Located on the main street of Duluth MN, a few blocks east of downtown, is a 1940s-era building housing the First Seventh-day Adventist Church. This church, like most SDA churches, meets weekly on Saturday mornings. Sabbath School is 9:30 a.m. Saturdays with its adult Bible classes and discussions. There are classes for children and youth, all taught by competent, volunteer teachers. About one Sabbath a month features a videotaped report from foreign lands called Mission Spotlight. The Duluth MN SDA church is at 1331 East Superior Street, ZIP 55805-2429, (218) 724-8561. Worship services are at 10:45 a.m. These generally include a children's story, congregational singing, special music, and a sermon. Most Sabbaths, the service is over by 12 noon.
Current pastor is Sherman McCormick, Ph.D., a resident of Duluth. His previous pastorates were in Thief River Falls MN, Lincoln NE, and Tulsa OK.
Seventh-day Adventists in Duluth operate the Stone Ridge Christian School, for grades 1 to 8. Stew Hunter is the teacher. He is assisted by volunteer members who help with such subjects as music. The school kids and teacher often take educational field trips. The school is in a modular building designed as a school at 115 East Orange St., Duluth MN 55811-5507; 218-722-7535.
An unique aspect of the Duluth church program is Camp Shirlee, located at Island Lake, some 32 km north of the church. There, church fellowship dinners, afternoon recreation and relaxation, or Bible studies are conducted during the summer. During the rest of the year potlucks occur at Stone Ridge Christian School, located in Duluth Heights.
Opportunities abound for spiritual refreshment through annual "Adventfests," or campmeetings. These are usually in a central location in a state, such as at an Adventist academy or high school campus. They bring together nationally prominent speakers plus area pastors for worship, instruction and inspiration. They usually run for an entire week, including the weekends preceding and following. Separate men's and women's retreats are part of many states' programs. These usually occupy a weekend. The Minnesota men's retreat is in the spring, and the women's retreat is in the fall, at Cragun's Conference Center near Brainerd. Recreational camps occur at places like North Star Camp, Brainerd MN, Camp Arrowhead, near Lexington NE, and Broken Arrow Ranch, near Olsburg KS. Camping occurs for youth, families, church workers who sell Christian literature, and the blind.
The denomination runs Christian Record Services in Lincoln NE. Braille Bibles, tapes and other aids are available. The church's publishing and printing services include Review and Herald Publishing Association, Hagerstown MD. Another ministry is Amazing Facts, with radio personality Doug Bachelor of CA as its head.
Occasionally, the church or various members produce "Breathe-Free" stop smoking seminars, conduct evangelistic meetings, or offer cooking schools. Other seminars deal with coronary problems and a healthy lifestyle. The Duluth church has a small coordinate congregation in Grand Marais MN. That church holds weekly meetings and fellowship dinners Sabbath mornings at the United Church of Christ building, 300 W. Second St., Grand Marais MN 55604; 218-387-1193. Other area Seventh-day Adventist Churches are in Thunder Bay ON, Moose Lake MN, Grand Rapids and Blackberry MN, Superior and Rice Lake WI. We also help local Sunday-keepers by allowing Kirk of the Lake Presbyterian Church to use the Duluth MN SDA church building the first day of the week.
Certain Characteristics of the Adventist Church
The Minnesota churches are in the Mid-America Union of Seventh-day Adventists, while the Wisconsin churches are in the Lakes Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The word "union" doesn't mean the Adventists cozy up to the labor movement; indeed, its relationship to organized labor has been strained, with organizing activities at its various hospitals largely avoided. Individual church members who are in unions, however, are welcomed, and have made a great contribution to the operation of various local churches. "Union" instead refers to an amalgamation of churches that is subdivided into "conferences." It is at the conference level that pastors are paid, after receiving regular "tithes" of the members. A tithe is one-tenth a person's income, or 10 percent of a business' "net gain" after taxes. Rather than the individual church paying the pastor, the tithe money is forwarded to the conference office, and then the pastors are paid. This prevents any one pastor from getting too rich (or too poor)! It might be said that the pastors enjoy "equitable resources." The tithe also pays for the staff at the conference and Union offices, and a portion of that goes to pay for the worldwide missionary efforts and staff at the denomination's national headquarters in Takoma Park MD, a suburb of Washington DC.
Seventh-day Adventists are conservative in their theology, recognizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the need for personal salvation in Christ, and emphasizing evangelism both in North America and worldwide. For more information, visit the official SDA website at www.SDA.org.
An interesting aspect of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is its discouraging using guns and having the young people serve in the military as combatants. Adventists do recognize the need to serve their country, but prefer that those in the military be non-combatants, such as in the medics. During World War II, at least one Seventh-day Adventist won the medal of honor. Adventists believe in saluting the flag, but respect the rights of those who have objections to doing so, they pay taxes and they believe in the strict separation of church and state. The latter is because of a fear of national Sunday laws being passed, which would forbid the buying and selling on Sunday, forcing more commercial activity into God's Sabbath (Saturday). Adventists want government out of legislating morality, and they don't favor any national Saturday laws either!
Adventists welcome visitors at either the Duluth MN SDA church, or at an Adventist Church in your area. As you travel, it's fun to visit other churches on a Saturday morning. Saturday, our Sabbath, in fact, is an excellent idea both for the physical body and spiritually. You might be a hard worker during the week, maybe a virtual workaholic with your business, but by sundown Friday it's good to take a 24-hour break from work and contemplate things spiritual. Enjoy nature, take a walk in the country, attend church in the morning, fellowship with other Christians, or perhaps relax in the afternoon. We reckon the Sabbath as starting at sundown Friday and continuing until sundown Saturday. Thus in the summer Sabbath starts later and ends later, while in the winter it starts by late afternoon and ends the next day late afternoon.
Are Adventists vegetarians? You may have heard about their diet. About 50 percent of Seventh-day Adventists avoid meat. Like the Jews and Moslems, Adventists shun pork, lard, ham, shrimp and bacon. The latter are spoken of in Leviticus as "unclean" meats. Some Adventists are vegans, who also avoid animal products like milk and butter. They do so for health reasons. The original diet of man in the Garden of Eden was without meat, consisting of fruits, grains, nuts and beverages. Rare is the Adventist who hunts and fishes! Usually church pot-lucks are entirely vegetarian; visit one to sample the rich variety of interesting and delicious foods. Adventists started the cold cereal industry with brothers W.K. and John Harvey Kellogg in Battle Creek MI inventing corn flakes. Adventist food processing industries continue, however, in Germany, Sweden, the United States (Worthington Foods and Loma Linda Foods) and Australia, helping to meet the demand for vegetarian food and meat analogs the world over. LIttle Debbies snack cakes originated at Adventist bakeries in Tennessee run by the McKee family.
Early in its history the Adventist church spoke out against tobacco use. That was long before the 1964 edict by the U.S. surgeon general stating that smoking is harmful to the health. Adventists rail against alcohol, and even the communion service consists of grape juice and unleavened bread. Communion in virtually all SDA churches occurs quarterly, although the Bible does not command how often we are to commemorate Christ's substitutionary death. The communion emblems represent the blood and flesh of Jesus Christ. We do not, however, believe in trans-substantiation, in which the bread and wine are thought to be the actual blood and flesh of Christ. We are not cannibals!
The Adventist diet and lifestyle has resulted in Seventh-day Adventists living, on average, seven years longer than the general population. Much as Heaven is a wonderful place--yes Adventists believe in an afterlife with Heaven and Hell being literal places--we don't believe you go there immediately upon death. It will seem immediate to the person who dies, but Adventists, like many other Christians, believe a person stays in the ground or cremated until Christ comes again. Then there will be a resurrection of the dead in Christ and a "translation" of those living on Earth. Both groups will go to Heaven. All living people will see Christ coming; there will be no "secret rapture." The sinful (unsaved) will be judged and sent to Hell for destruction, not to burn forever. One of Adventism's leading authors is Samuele Bacchiocchi, retired professor at Andrews University. He is one of the few Adventists to have graduated from the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome. He wrote his dissertation on the change of the day of worship to Sunday. His views are so conservative that he opposed the church's allowing women elders. Nevertheless, here are popular subjects to be covered in an upcoming book of his: Biblical inerrancy, immortality of the soul, Sunday sacredness, eternal torment, speaking in tongues, once saved always saved, the Rapture, Papal infallibility and intercession of the saints. These "are heresies contrary to the teachings of the Word of God."
Whether you're conservative or liberal, there is room in the great Advent movement for you!. It is a church that emphasizes freethinking, not carrying around centuries-old baggage of religious dogma, and upholding humankind's law while keeping in check any attempt to break down the wall of separation of church and state. It recognizes the acceptance of Christ by members of other denominations, and thus allows open communion to Christians. The communion service is preceded by the "ordinance of humility" or footwashing. Just as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, Adventists each quarter wash one another's feet, with men washing other men's feet and women washing other women's feet.
Evidences of Growth in Adventism
Truly the Holy Spirit is at work in the Adventist worship service, including communions and footwashings. We believe the Holy Spirit is blessing the denomination nationally, with the second-largest Protestant parochial school system, its welfare outreach to disaster victims, an extensive hospital and sanitarium system, its vigilance in working with other countries having regimes that repress Christians, and a worldwide growth rate, now accounting for over 13 million members. In the United States, about 600,000 people are baptized members. This does not include infants and young children. Baptism is by immersion and occurs only after the person (adult or older child) perceives the need for a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Adventists believe in the Trinity, consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
From its humble beginnings in the mid 1800s in America, this church has rapidly expanded into a world-wide movement, with the vast majority of members being found outside its country of origin. Only eight percent of Adventists currently reside in North America, with the largest portion (34 percent) being found in Africa, and another 33 percent residing in South and Central America. The denomination was founded by such church pioneers as James White and Hiram Edson. Edson conceived the idea of the "investigative judgment" while walking across a cornfield in Illinois with a friend. There had been, in 1844, a "great disappointment." Christians from several denominations sold their land, expecting the Second Coming of the Lord, as calculated by one William Miller a decade or so earlier. Christ didn't come! That not all the Christians who were disappointed returned to their former denomination is testimony to Edson's reasoning that Christ, in 1844, began the work of judging those who have died and who are living, in Heaven. This led to the doctrine, unique to Adventists, known as the investigative judgment. A webseach of "investigative judgment" will lead to myriad articles on the subject.
A leader of the church, indeed one regarded as a prophet, lived 100 years ago. Ellen G. White had a limited formal education, but was an avid Bible student, and authored many books and articles, which are designed to point people toward the Bible. Her books include The Great Controversy, Steps to Christ and Desire of Ages. White's leading out in worship occurred when it was almost unheard of for a woman to do so in Protestant churches. At almost every meeting of the once-in-four-years' "General Conference" (the most recent in Toronto), resolutions are put forth to foster change within the denomination, so long as the change resides within a Biblical context.
Adventism has been studied by Christians of other denominations, notably by the late Walter Martin, and found to be a Bible-believing Christian denomination whose main difference from other churches is its emphasis on the Saturday Sabbath. After all, Jesus worshipped on Saturday, and the Ten Commandments say to "remember the Sabbath Day and to keep it holy." Adventist scholars believe the change in the day of worship was never sanctioned by God. The Old Testament, the Ten Commandments were not done away by the Cross. Indeed, Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it! The Roman Catholic Church takes credit for changing the day or worship in the early centuries of its existence to Sunday, and most other denominations follow that lead.
Adventists: Leaders in Radio and TV Ministries
Adventists were pioneers in the use of radio, with the Voice of Prophecy having been on many powerful commercial AM stations since the 1930s. Three Angels Broadcasting Network ("3ABN") and 3ABN radio are carried on low power TV and FM stations scattered across the county, as well as being on Sky Angel satellite TV. Mark Finley hosts the well-known TV ministry It is Written. As you travel, tune in many student-run FM stereo stations at Adventist Colleges. These include WAUS *90.7 Berrien Springs MI-South Bend IN, WGTS *91.9 Takoma Park MD, WOCG *90.1 Huntsville AL, WSMC *90.5 Collegedale- Chattanooga TN, KNDL, "The Candle," *89.9 Angwin CA, KJCR *88.3 Keene-Fort Worth TX and KGTS *91.3 College Place WA. For a guide to the FM stations, an FM radio newsletter and catalog listing modified FM radios, all of which can help you tune in Christian programming as you travel, consult this website. The Adventists have a satellite television system, the Adventist Communication Network. That network is used for announcements of church seminars, and for transmissions of evangelistic meetings for viewing on wide screen theatre-type TV in various churches. The Adventist church is truly one of the most high-tech of any denomination in Christendom!
Any errors or omissions in or on this site are solely those of its author, Bruce F. Elving, Ph.D., former communications secretary, Duluth MN Seventh-day Adventist Church, who can be e-mailed. Thanks to son-in-law David Stuart, a pastor in the Dakota Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, for help in setting up this website.