This is my last editorial since at the end of January 2012 I enter the honorable and welcome state of retirement. Looking back over 40 years of ministry I praise the Lord for the way he has blessed His remnant church. When I began my ministry we had just over 2 million members; today we have more than 17 million. Forty years ago we baptized around 430 people per day worldwide; today almost 3000—a Pentecost every day! However, these successes cannot hide some developments in recent years that are of concern: theological pluralism poses a threat to the theological unity of the church.

In 1962, David Moberg, a sociologist, found that churches generally have five stages in their life cycle: In stage one there is little or no organization. Stage two is characterized by a formal organizational identity. Stage three represents the time of maximum efficiency; the organization is refined, institutions, boards and committees are added to meet the needs of the organization. During stage four formalism drains the movement’s vitality; the church becomes a bureaucracy. And stage five is characterized by overinstitutionalism, formalism, red tape, corruption and slow disintegration.¹

I do not believe the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a whole can be placed into any one of these stages. The world church is so diverse that all these stages may be found in some parts of the world field. For example, in some countries we may have believers without an organized church; while in others the church may be close to stage five.

The recent call for reformation and revival is a timely effort to remind us all of our identity and mission. We are not just one church among many. God has called the Adventist church into existence for a specific purpose–to proclaim the three angels’ messages and prepare a dying world for the Second Coming. If we lose sight of this vision we lose the reason for our existence.

During the time of the end for Judah, God was looking for a man who would “stand in the gap before me for the land” (Ezek 22:30 NASB). Today, we live in the time of the end of world history and God is looking for men and women who will “stand in the gap” before Him. He is looking for men and women who love the Lord and His church, and who are willing to stand up and be counted.

We are told that “before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times.”² I believe the time for this great revival is just around the corner. God’s remnant church will go through to the kingdom. The question is, “Will I, will you, be part of the church?” We can only look with confidence into the future, if we have been at the foot of the cross and experienced the joy of salvation.