Riverview Seventh Day Adventist

You can listen to my interview with Pastor Ortiz of Riverview Seventh Day Adventist Church here.

The only thing I knew about Seventh Day Adventists, is some people thought they owned my local town paper because it didn't deliver on Saturday.

I'm not sure if that's true or not (shout out to the folks in Vancouver, WA who might know). But that's about all I knew about Seventh Day Adventists - that they held their services on Saturday instead of Sunday like some people.

Sitting in on their services, one thing that struck me was how similar their services were to services I attended growing up in the Mormon church. Like other churches, the Adventist church starts out with opening hymns, not unlike what I sang in my youth. Opening prayer - sure. Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.

What surprised me was seeing some of the things I saw in my former time in the LDS (aka Mormon) church. While the pastor read the announcements, he asked for a raising of hands to agree to certain appointments of members to tasks.

Instead of just "Me pastor - you followers - obey!", there was that idea that the members of the local church should be in agreement with what's going on, and have the power to disagree with what's being proposed.

The other thing that set services in the Adventist church apart from others was testimony. Not to keep returning to the LDS church, but that's what I knew for 35 years. There, every 1st Sunday of the month, LDS faithful would be encouraged to give their testimony, or public statements of faith as they were moved. Some would simply speak to their faith in God or Jesus Christ, or of personal experiences that reaffirmed their faith.

The Adventist church has a similar expressions. The local members were asked if they had personal testimonies they wanted to share, and some did. A microphone was passed to them, and one young lady shared her experience speaking with a former college friend. Another person shared their experiences sharing the gospel with other people.

Another similarity with my Mormon upbringing was the emphasis on health - to the point that some members had even gone vegetarian or even vegan in order to have healthy bodies. As these are considered gifts from God, you don't want anything interfering with that relationship.

One thing I found beautiful is how giving these people were. At the beginning, there was a call for donations to help a single mother and her children, and without hesitation I observed the people around me opening up their purses and wallets.

I'm still not sure I could pinpoint what makes Adventists different from other Christian churches - save the Saturday services thing, of course. But from hanging around them, it didn't feel too different from going to church growing up.