here’s no doubt that Roscoe Howard, the affable, always-on-the-go president of the Mid-America Union of Seventh-day Adventists, serves a big territory. The union covers 10 states: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming—and San Juan County in New Mexico. In 2008 some 62,000 baptized members worshipped in 449 Mid-America Union congregations.
In a recent conversation Adventist Review spoke with Howard about the state of this union, and his goals for the area.
How well recognized is the Seventh-day Adventist Church in your region?
We are finding out it’s not as much as we would like it to be; and that will be one of the areas that we will concentrate on in putting a face on Adventism. In Mid-America I would think that in some pockets Seventh-day Adventists are much better known—such as Shawnee Mission [, Kansas] , where we have a hospital. Shawnee Mission is a stellar hospital, so Adventists are known a lot better there than in some of the 10 geographical areas.
What are the challenges from your perspective?I really believe that we need to reach the postmodern mind, especially the Anglo. The work is really slowing down in areas like the Dakotas and other areas where the popu-?lation base is very small, and in parts of Kansas—parts of these rural areas where you don’t have a large population. But how do we reach the postmodern mind and how do ?we reach Anglos where traditional evangelism has not been effective? . . . We might have to start with something secular and meet people where they are and bring them to where they need to be. We are looking for strategies that we can use to effectively communicate to people in a postmodern way. . . .
The Hispanic work is growing rapidly in our union, and we are going to try and scratch where it itches. . . . People in transition periods are [usually more receptive] to the gospel. . . . I think we will see a burgeoning growth of Hispanics in our union.
The African-American population in Central States [Conference] actually had a banner year for baptisms. I think they baptized more in this Year of Pastoral Evangelism than they have baptized in the last 20 years.
So tell [us], how does a nice guy born in Wyoming wind up a union president in Lincoln, Nebraska?
You know, it’s a long story, and I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version. Everywhere I’ve been, and I believe I’ve been on God’s journey, my life has been filled with different phases of what I would call “diversity context.” From the time I was born, up to the present, I have been back and forth between various cultures, being able seamlessly to communicate with any culture that I find myself in. I think this is something that God has given me as a gift. . . . He had to teach me that [lesson] in a very difficult way, but He did teach me that while I was a hospital orderly [following graduation] from college. [I learned that] it was really about disinterested benevolence, serving people just because they needed to be served.
If we could get our people to wake up each morning and say, “I want to serve Christ in any way that I can and I am open to His Spirit,” I believe so many things would happen that we would be surprised. The Holy Spirit would come in and we would realize what true living is all about. It would make our board meetings a little sweeter, our homes a little kinder, and possibly our relationships with individuals in the community more blessed. People would really wonder: Who are these people who are always serving, always seeking to help someone, and not asking for something in return? Not trying to make them Adventists, but [serving] people because [they] love them.
What was the career path that led you to a union presidency?
I started out as a pastor in Seattle, Washington—as an intern. It turned out that I ended up as the senior pastor of the largest Black church in Seattle for six months. And as a result of that the president at the time [Glenn Aufderhar] was very impressed, and [he made me] the associate pastor of the Spruce Street church. When the senior pastor, Elder Whittaker, came, I left for the seminary. It was very interesting when I graduated from the seminary. . . . But before I tell you that, let me share something that happened earlier.
At Pacific Union College [PUC] I’d asked permission to do my last 30 hours off campus. I wanted to do a residency at Oakwood College, because in a White context they couldn’t teach me what I’d learn in a Black context, and I [thought] I would most likely be pastoring a Black church in a Black environment. I needed to know the culture and so forth and be a part.
So they granted my request. I went to Oakwood, and got the best of both worlds. I [studied] under E. E. Cleveland, E. C. Ward, C. E. Moseley, Benjamin Reaves, and all these professors, went back to PUC, graduated, and then started my pastoring. But after I graduated from the seminary Elder Aufderhar called me and said, “Roscoe, we have a dilemma. We don’t have a Black church to put you in.” He said, “Either we have to make you an evangelist, or put you into an all-White church.”
I said, “Look, God has called me to minister to people. I don’t care if they are green. I just want a church where I can minister to people and win them to Christ.”
So [Aufderhar] went to a church in Oak Harbor, Washington, and tested the waters. The people were excited about it, so I worked there and had a very interesting experience. (I believe I was the first African-American pastor that pastored two all-White congregations in the North American Division [NAD].)
There was one individual who didn’t want me there. God turned her into my best friend, my best supporter. I was there for four years and had a good success on the island. I think we baptized, in the four years I was there, about 29 people, which was a record for that area. Then I went back to Seattle and actually became the senior pastor at the Emerald City church, a Black church. From there I became the first Black youth director for the Washington Conference. Then I went to the union and became the assistant to the president and the youth director for the North Pacific Union. I served there for five years with Jere Patzer and had an excellent time. . . . Then I actually went from there to being the secretary—what they later called vice president for administration—in the Mid-America Union. I served there for five years under Charles Sandefur’s leadership. Then I went to the NAD and served there for six years as the secretary of the division. I guess the people back here in Lincoln appreciated my work, and they invited me back as president.
What is your vision for the Adventist Church in North America in terms of our future, in terms of what is going to happen in American society.
People who study diversity and are aware of the changes that are going to take place realize we are going to live in [an increasingly diverse] world. With that complex diversity comes conflict. How to manage that kind of conflict is really important, and I think the church in North America does need to be educated [in that respect]. We need to get the elephant out of the room, so to speak. We are going to have to show that people under the guidance of the Holy Spirit cannot only live together but can embrace their differences and realize that those differences are really the ways we bless [and complement] each other. What I don’t have, someone else has. The synergy that can be created can be a powerful tool, and people would look at the Adventist Church and say: “I want to belong to that church because they have it together. They brought all these people together, and they are working in harmony. They are respecting what Christ talked about, making them all one.”
Some people get confused when you say “unity.” Unity doesn’t mean there is a monolithic, myopic idea of what everybody believes and does. No. A classic example is the world church. There are things in North America that are indigenous to the NAD that may not be applicable to the world church in other areas. But I think the church is big enough for people to recognize that in various cultures there may be traditions or ways of doing things that are neither worse nor better than others. They are simply different. In that difference we celebrate, and we say, “God bless you if that’s the way you can communicate the gospel better.”
I think it will take a lot of education, training, and courage. People will fight for their little worlds that they think will change—and change is always difficult. But it happens, regardless of whether we are ready for it or not.
So I think if we can make a transition as we go down the road, the change can become one that is exciting, rather than causing fear.
____________
Mark A. Kellner is news editor of Adventist Review and Adventist World magazines. This article was published February 11, 2010.
