Once a quarter, here at the Milton Adventist church, we celebrate communion. What is communion? It's your opportunity to have a close encounter with God! As a boy, I was raised in the Catholic church. However, we were not regular church goers. So, the experience of God in church was not part of my upbringing. When I was a young man, I attended a Pentecostal church with my mother, however, as a young man . . . I was not interested in church.
When I became a man, I attended a Seventh-day Adventist Church and there, in a school in South Dakota, I remember my first communion. Having just entered into the fellowship of the Adventist church, I was new to everything in the culture of Adventism. Our evangelism school had its regular communion scheduled, something that was a first for me. I remember being asked if I would serve.
Being ordained as a deacon to serve in the communion, I was honored and in awe at the solemnity of the moment. I was captivated by the service and its content. I was motivated to surrender my heart, mind, life to the Master Jesus. Communion for me was the pinnacle of my Christian experience while at school. Fast forward to now . . . I have seen that communion is dreaded in the Adventist church.
Many members find out its communion . . . and there is a mass exodus to leave and go to another church. Why? Because we have gotten too comfortable with such a meaningful service. What if the problem is not the service? What if the problem lies within us? This Sabbath don't run from this service. Embrace it, learn from it, grow because of it! May you find God closer to you because you came, stayed and received a blessing from communion today!
So, until the next time, this is Pastor Tello reminding you that thoughts do change lives!
Pastor Howard Tello