RAP SESSION: CHRIS BLAKE

BIOGRAPHY

Chris Blake was baptized a Seventh-day Adventist Christian in 1976, becoming the only Adventist in his family. Following his graduation with an English major from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he played NCAA basketball four years (point guard—great D, paltry hops), he began his teaching career at Valley View Jr. Academy in Arroyo Grande, California. That year he also created Bodywise, a children’s health magazine, which launched him into a remarkable publishing career. After teaching five years and earning an M.A. in English in 1980 from Pacific Union College (his first and only Adventist schooling), he joined Concerned Communications in 1982, where he edited and wrote the international seminars Eight Days to Resolving Stress and Learning to Love. In 1986, he became editor of Insight magazine, where he helped develop Youth Summits, Ultimate Workout, Expressions of Jesus prints, Giraffe Society, and A Reason to Believe. During the Insight years he won national writing awards for feature, humor, and editorial, as well as many awards for editing. As a columnist for Giraffe News, he wrote the Stan and Gloria column “Dreams and Visions.” In 1993, Chris joined the faculty of Union College, where he currently serves as associate professor of English and communication, and as sponsor of the Union College chapter of Amnesty International. In 1999, Chris published his best-selling book Searching for a God to Love, which has been translated into five languages. In 2001, with his wife, Yolanda, he wrote Reinvent Your Sabbath School. In 2002, with Andy Nash and Mark Smith, he helped launch The Front Porch, a periodical that reached a circulation of 1.8 million. In 2003, he started (with colleague Mark Robison) Union’s annual Squirreldance Film Festival. Chris’s latest book, Swimming Against the Current—the sequel to Searching for a God to Love--was released by Pacific Press in 2007. His current and future writing projects are a feature-length film screenplay, a children’s book (with Yolanda), and a book for a New York publisher. His family includes Yolanda (elementary teacher and administrator); son Nathan (lawyer) and his wife Andrea (nurse practitioner); and son Geoffrey (pastor) and his wife Natalie (counselor). Together they offer the annual Blake Family Peace and Social Justice Scholarship for students at Union College. Among his hobbies are playing disc golf, reading, traveling, and mountain biking over the precipitous peaks of Lincoln, Nebraska.

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What was your impression of the Adventist church when you first joined it?

CHRIS: One early impression was sitting in a Sabbath School class and thinking, This is more removed from reality than anything I’ve seen. The people sitting in the class showed no recognition of the complicated, myriad reasons “unbelievers” act and believe as they do. Another impression of Adventism—its noncombatant stance, its holistic healthfulness, its denial of eternal torture, its insistence on religious liberty and freedom, its emphasis on God’s love—coalesced in my thinking, This makes more sense than anything I’ve experienced.
I suppose those two ends of the see-saw characterize most succinctly my continuing frustration and romance with the church.

Your newest book, Swimming Against the Current, is aimed at an Adventist audience. Why write for the choir?

CHRIS: Because sometimes the choir is singing flat—or has misplaced the original sheet music, the score Jesus of Nazareth wrote in blood. And since I’m singing in this choir, perhaps I have more of a voice here. I’m trying to communicate clearly a melody of grace, integrity, and realism. Fortunately, there’s a lot of all three in the symphony of Adventism.

Unfortunately, Adventists often tend toward binary thinking—good/bad, religious/secular, Adventist/non-Adventist. But the better we can think, the better we can love. I spend much of my time exhorting people to understand the need for dispassionate, nuanced, lucid thought. In this context I teach, “Only when we can objectively hold our beliefs and opinions away from ourselves, so that if our thoughts are challenged we don’t feel personally attacked, can we be truly educated.”

The Adventist Church at times is like a teenager who believes everyone is looking at her when in fact no one is looking at her. That’s why the central theme of Swimming is from Micah’s chapter 6—do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. In other words, it’s really not about us.

As a college professor for the past 14 years, how would you describe the up-and-coming generation in the church? Is their outlook and attitude different from when you first started teaching?

CHRIS: This is the iPod@MySpace generation—the digital Millennials. As such, they tend toward more voyeuristic involvement (see: “reality” shows), an unquestioning pull to be entertained, skimming/surfing through life, amazing technical creativity, and a yearning for expression. They thrive on choice and instant results. The March 13, 2007 Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that on standard personality tests, Millennials outscore their GenX predecessors in warmth, abstract reasoning, emotional stability, social boldness, sensitivity, and openness to change. GenXers score much higher in self-reliance (cue laugh track).

I find these newcomers valuing the primacy of love and family. In addition, they tend to be more involved in volunteerism (paradoxically to the voyeurism trend), are more savvy to hucksterism (though not to clever advertising or the big lie), and more into blogs, concerts, and movies, less into newspapers, top 40 hits, and books.


Your first book was a monumental achievement. What has the response been to Searching for a God to Love?

CHRIS: Exhilarating. Encouraging. Humbling. I wanted to write something that hadn’t appeared before in the Adventist press—an honest, intelligent, broad-minded, fresh, fun, well-written treatment on why I love God. The target audience is what I call “believing unbelievers”—those people we all know (including present Adventists, ex-Adventists, friends, relatives, and acquaintances) who believe in God but don’t believe what they’ve heard about Him. It took me ten years to finish the book. I tried to pack at least one new idea into every page.

Moreover, I wanted to get outside to the world market. After Pacific Press published it in 1999, Searching was picked up by Word Publishing (a division of Thomas Nelson) and has been translated into Chinese, Indonesian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Scores of readers have contacted me to describe the book’s life-changing impact on them. Their stories—from a godly woman in California who supplied a copy to everyone at her funeral to a seeker who discovered it in a Baltimore sidewalk bargain bin—fill me with gratitude. God is always astounding me.

What do you love about God? How did He win you over? How has your picture of God changed since you became a Christian?

CHRIS: Like Jesus and John, Peter and Paul, I believe in righteousness by love more than righteousness by faith. My conversion story is more sunrise than lightning bolt, but I do recall falling deeper in love with God after reading two chapters of The Desire of Ages (“Judas” and “Gethsemane”) and the entire Gospel of Luke. To me, Jesus is like honey to the bee, like sugar to Little Debbie. He’s my raison d’etre. I cannot conceive of my purposeful existence without Him.

One picture-change over the years was discovering how much sense God makes. I get into these What if? hitchhiker tours of the universe and end with Whoa, that’s how it actually is. The simple but trenchant question “How could God do it better?” ought to be asked more often of atheists and agnostics. Let them play defense. I relish considering and deconstructing alternative constructs.

Two prominent epiphanies for me have been 1) Freedom is sacred to God. God would rather have us free than have us saved (otherwise, He would force us to be saved), and 2) Reality is where God lives. The new earth will be filled with reality. Each carries infinite ramifications.

Tell us about your recent involvement in lobbying on behalf of Amnesty International. What steps should Adventists take to move beyond merely a “peace-loving” narrative to practicing active “peacemaking”?

CHRIS: For eleven years I’ve served as the Amnesty International (AI) Union College chapter sponsor, a chapter that has regularly averaged the highest membership (25-40) in the state and has hosted two statewide AI conventions. In March this year AI asked me to lobby on its behalf for the people of the Darfur region of Sudan. Our task was to deliver one simple message to U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE): China must act responsibly to stop the killing in Darfur. AI believes that international pressure, particularly in light of China’s hosting of the 2008 Olympics, will avail much.

China is the leading foreign investor in Sudan, with an annual trade value of roughly $1 billion. Sudan represents China’s largest overseas investment, worth at least $3 billion, and Sudan is the third-largest supplier of oil to China. China’s trade also has close connections with arms dealing. By virtue of these connections, China is one of the few players who can pressure the Sudanese government to adhere to its responsibility to protect the civilians of Darfur.

After weeks of negotiating a time, three Union College students and I visited Rep. Fortenberry’s office in April to speak with him and two of his assistants. Afterward I received the following letter.

Dear Mr. Blake:
Thank you for taking time to meet with me recently. I appreciated the opportunity to discuss with you and your students the crisis in Darfur and related Chinese investment in Sudan.

I appreciated receiving your opinions, and I was pleased to see how engaged Katie, Katrina, and Julian are in this important issue. As you may know, I have sent a letter to President Hu Jintao encouraging him to stop the atrocities being inflicted upon innocent civilians in the Darfur region.

Please do not hesitate to contact me again to discuss any further thoughts and ideas.

Sincerely,

Jeff Fortenberry

Earlier that same week I participated in something that sounds like an opening for a joke: “Three Quakers, an Adventist, a Lutheran, and a Mennonite walked into a Republican senator’s office . . .” We entered the office of U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) to discuss avoiding the bombing of Iran and to encourage official U.S. dialogue with Iran. We found a receptive audience and left encouraged that we had been heard. Though I don’t know how much good we actually accomplished, that was a good week.

Jesus calls His disciples (individually and corporately) to be peacemakers. This extends well beyond being peace lovers—as distinct a difference as exists between “loving money” and “making money.” Last week the Kansas-Nebraska Conference, under the leadership of new president Ron Carlson, dedicated its first Sabbath camp meeting offering to help Darfur and raised $10,200. That makes me proud of my church.

In an age absolutely blighted with strife, Adventists need to spend more time and effort becoming the peacemakers our Prince of Peace yearns to see. In the true Lord’s Prayer in John 17, Jesus pointedly sends us “into the world.” We don’t need to sink into the green morass of guilt over this. Simply be a peacemaker.

I’m a member of the steering committee for Adventist Peace Fellowship, and I encourage all readers to join. For those who harbor misgivings: It’s not about partisan politics. It’s about dedicated Christian discipleship.





Lets say you just got elected as General Conference President. What's on your to-do list?

CHRIS: Well, I’d first bring back the intrepid New Zealander’s motion from the floor of the Toronto G.C. session to add three words to the “Remnant Church and Its Mission” fundamental: “. . . a part of the remnant church has been called out. . .” This would help to unravel decades of denominational exclusivity and arrogance. Oh, and find some way to include Micah 6:8 in the “Christian Behavior” fundamental so that members would be less likely to be wading into caffeine, pork, and jewelry while skipping substantive Christian requirements.

I would make certain that every level of Adventist church structure—from the local church on down to the General Conference—featured an officer called “change facilitator” so people knew where to go with suggestions, and everyone understood that change is an essential and inherent part of the church. I’d speak the truth in love, holding myself and others accountable in an atmosphere of liberating grace.

I would officially apologize for the church’s airbrushing of * Ella Robinson’s shell necklace, a deception that has led to misplaced priorities and untold heartache.

(Editor's illustration: Top picture - original version. Bottom picture - airbrushed version)

In evangelism, I would ensure emphasis on creating disciples over counting decisions, and would insist on a faithful accounting of every person who leaves a church, including an exit interview with the change facilitator. As my life revolves around education, I would revamp our academies in ways too numerous to discuss here.

I would make certain every church developed a functioning ministry-driven Sabbath School, following the Great Commission of Matthew 28, training disciples “to observe all that Jesus commanded.” I would institute three options worldwide for adult Sabbath School studies: Classic, Thematic, and Contemporary Events, with discipleship tracks for each option involving prayer, money, time, and social ministries (as conceived in a May thread on Sabbath School in the Spectrum Blog).

To graciously help our publishing houses, I would provide for every English-speaking church member a copy of Reinvent Your Sabbath School, Searching for a God to Love, and Swimming Against the Current. All the author royalties would go toward reviving and updating Youth Summits, an interactive program aimed at involving youth from public schools and small churches.

Somehow I would enable the NAD to approve women’s ordination. I would help conferences re-evaluate their pastors based on interpersonal skills and valid psychological testing, and encourage pastors to give more freedom to creative people in the public sector to lead out in ministries. I’d reward risk-taking leaders for their creativity, excellence, and fortitude—perhaps with cases of FriChik.

I’d emphasize a mentoring program for youth. I’d discourage the use of the words “liberal” and “conservative” in official church publications, replacing them with “classic” and “innovative” until we need to find alternate words to brand and divide people. I’d encourage the Adventist Review to develop at least two magazines, as it’s impossible to meet the diverse and divergent needs of a 19-99 target audience with one vehicle.

I’d institute prayerful think tanks to help the church with present and future direction. I’d fill our communication centers with godly, tech-savvy young adults to produce excellent, stunning productions brimming with verisimilitude, mystery, honesty, and hope. I would do my best to see that fun takes its rightful place at the beginning of our fundamentals, because when fun is gone all we’re left with is “da mentals.”

One local church emphasis around the world would be involving every member in meaningful, Jesus-centered, risky ministry in classic and innovative ways. I would combat and decry debilitating emphases on any perfection but Christ’s. I’d elucidate Jon Paulien’s statement, “The great Adventist heresy is making clear what is unclear and making unclear what is clear.”

I would call for church members to courageously stand against church bullying.

I would decree that once a year churches observe “Hannah More” Sabbath to celebrate our mandate to take care of the sojourners in our midst.

Recognizing that Jesus died at the age of 33, I’d set a quota that at least 25 % of each division’s delegates be under the age of 35 at every GC session.

On the second day . . .

Finally, I’d get rid of Blake as President. The guy is obviously not a committee wonk and is way too iconoclastic to spend the bulk of his days producing policy guidelines and attending publicity ops. Throw the bum out!

Where do you see God leading the Adventist church?

CHRIS: God always leads us to the foot of the Cross. Even on new earth we’ll have gracious reminders that we’re there by virtue of our Eternal Guest Pass.

My strong belief is that God cannot properly bless decisions and denominations if they are fear-based, controlling, and unloving. We can muddle through, I suppose, while we muck up lives in the process. Fortunately, in the midst of our dysfunctional doggedness and wonderful weirdness God remains a remarkable God of recovery.

I see the Seventh-day Adventist Church creatively joining other Christian churches in striving to create sanctuaries for the Spirit, celebrating the grace of the Son, and enjoying the unconditional love of the Father. Adventists can bring our ennobling, lovely, distinctive, liberating, new earth voices to the world’s conversation. We can live with defiant optimism tempered by humility and seasoned with reality—living in the now and looking always to Jesus. We can swim courageously against currents of institutional rigidity, ecclesiastical bullying, subtle deception, naked aggression, general indifference, and trivial pursuits.

We can, and out of love for God and each other many of us will joyfully swim together. That vision of a kicking, splashing church family provides me with realistic hope.

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* Photos are of Ellen White (seated on the right) with her granddaughter, Ella May Robinson. According to a posting on H0bbes' Place, "The presence of this item of jewelery in close proximity to Ellen caused the Review and Herald publishers to censor the photograph—removing the necklace—when it was published in the final volume of Arthur L. White’s biography Ellen G. White: The Later Elmshaven Years in 1982. The retouched photograph appears at the bottom of page p.243."

The copies shown in this article were taken from this page on a anti-Ellen White website.

Chris Blake's books can be purchased at the following websites:

Amazon.com
Pacific Press
Adventist Book Center


Read a chapter of the book here