I have learned many lessons throughout my experience in ministry, and there is one that I believe stands at the top in importance. It is the realization that the most important outcomes of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s work are hidden from most of the people who help make that work possible. 

Consider with me the stories of two young adults. They come from very different backgrounds. They have never met. Yet a common thread runs through both of their stories. One is a young woman we will call Jane, from the central part of the United States. The other is a young man we will call David, who lives on the West Coast.

Jane carries deep wounds from her adolescent years; she had suffered years of trauma and abuse. Jane describes a brokenness most people could not imagine.

A number of years ago Jane met a young woman at a ballet class. Her new friend told her about a program at her Adventist church. Every Easter weekend the church presented a live portrayal of the events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The church had shared that program with many people for more than 10 years.

One evening Jane’s friend invited her to help coach the angels. Someone had to choreograph their positions and movements so every scene carried its full weight. Jane agreed to attend the next rehearsal.

The script moved her. So did the sincerity of the people telling the story. She stepped in with her whole heart, and on the Sabbath before Easter 2017 Jane experienced the greatest story ever told from two perspectives, coach and spectator.

But her personal life still held the old patterns. Pain pushed back against the new hope she had found in a safe community of Jesus followers. She entered relationships that repeated the same old destruction. She tried another church for a season, and instead of a home to heal in, she found judgment. Still, through most of the next 10 years, Jane returned each spring to help tell the story, as an actor and as a coach.

Then came 2026. The director recognized Jane’s gifts and her years of faithful involvement and invited her to serve as one of the scene directors. The new role drew her past the auditions, the costumes, the scripts, and the rehearsals, and into the full mission of the church. Weekly worship became important to her as she participated along with the leaders in updates to the congregation.

That year landed differently. The presentation was among the most powerful in the program’s history. When it ended, Jane told the director she wanted to be baptized. She wanted to be a member, not just a visitor for a few months each year. A short while later she was baptized. Today she tells others what a difference Jesus has made in her life, and the spiritual family she always wanted has welcomed her with open arms.

David had a different experience growing up. His parents came from families active in the Adventist Church and its ministries, and both had received Adventist education.

David’s parents worked at the same conference summer camp one year. The friendship they began led to marriage and family a few years later. 

David was also born into a church family rich with ministries for children. Pastors mentored him. He grew active in youth ministry and in worship. David attended the same Adventist school from the elementary grades through academy, and then he enrolled at an Adventist university to prepare for pastoral ministry.

In his senior year David joined his fellow ministerial students for the annual interviews with conference presidents from across the union. One president looked twice at David’s last name and asked about his parents. David learned that this conference president had directed the camp during the very summer David’s parents met. He went on to share a few warm memories about them with David. 

David graduated with a degree in ministerial studies. He now serves on the staff of a local church, and has begun to realize his life’s calling.

I have watched this pattern repeat across a lifetime of ministry. A program is developed and stands ready before anyone knows who will need it. A camp, a classroom, a congregation waits, quietly funded and quietly staffed, until God brings someone with an open heart through the door.​​

Here are two young adults in different places, with different histories, and one thread runs through both of their stories. Inside that thread sits a question neither of them can answer. Who provided the resources that empowered the ministries that changed their lives?

No one knows. God designed it that way. Faithfulness is anonymous by design. Faithfulness is more than generosity. While we choose to bring our tithe as He has directed, it is not a gift. These funds actually represent people who return what God declares actually belongs to Him. Returning it to Him is an act of obedience, a spiritual discipline practiced quietly, week after week, year after year. In addition, offerings spring from hearts of gratitude for God’s blessings.

God moves a member to tithe, and the funds they bring are combined with that of thousands, even millions, of others. Together these resources sustain the work of ministry, from the pastors who mentored David, to the camp where his parents met, to the educators in the schools that shaped him, to the congregation that told the Easter story year after year until Jane felt ready to join the family.

Jane and David were both nurtured by God’s Spirit to make a decision to follow Jesus, and both sensed God’s call to ministry. David heard a call to pastoral ministry, and Jane seeks to share the hope of Jesus with others who walk difficult paths. The ministries that reached them stood in place at the exact moment of need. They did not appear by accident. Kindness alone did not build these ministries. Obedience did. People returned what is His because He asked, and they trusted Him with outcomes they would never see.

Somewhere a person returned tithe in an ordinary moment. An envelope in the offering plate. A click of a mouse button or a few taps on a phone. That person will likely never learn Jane’s name or shake David’s hand, and on this side of eternity that person may never know that their faithfulness helped choreograph angels, staff a summer camp, educate children, or place a mentor in a young man’s path.

But heaven keeps better records than we do. One day the thread will show, from end to end, every gift, every ministry, every life. Until then, we give the way God gives to us. Freely. Faithfully. Quietly. Right on time for ministry.

— Phil Robertson currently serves as a part-time pastor in the Texas Conference. He retired from full-time ministry after serving as executive secretary/treasurer for the Texico Conference for more than 11 years.