In the News:

 
Weekend Feature: Revival at Oakwood University is Traditional and Contemporary - ...If the goal was to increase attendance, it was a success. Hundreds came, many of whom had never visited the campus before. However, big names alone do not make a real revival. The focus was on “dynamic, Bible-based preaching, inspirational music, warm fellowship, and children’s ministries” for the average 200 children who attended nightly. Health screenings and free transportation were also provided....
 
Adventist Church Organizes Inter-faith Event in the Nation with the Largest Muslim Population - Leaders from the Hindu, Confucian, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian faiths were brought together in Indonesia for a “festival of religious freedom.” More than 2,000 people attended the event on May 5 in a public auditorium in Manado. Included were government officials and the event was organized by Pastor Noldy Sakul, president of the East Indonesian Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church....
 
Accusations Heard against Adventist Serving as Judge on Kenya’s Appeals Court - Judge David Maraga serves on the Court of Appeals in Kenya and appeared yesterday before the nation’s review board for judges and magistrates. The board is hearing corruption allegations against him brought by a regional bar association and an individual attorney in a case he decided. He elected to have a public hearing and “put up a spirited fight against the allegations,”...
 
East Coast Union Also Convenes a Constituency Meeting to Vote Ordination for Women Pastors - Today the executive committee of the Columbia Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church voted 34 to 6 to call a Special Constituency Session in the near future “for the purpose of authorizing ordination to the gospel ministry without regard to gender.” After reviewing a study of Scripture and Adventist heritage conducted by an assigned committee, the members of the denomination’s governing body for a region that includes eight states from Virginia up through New Jersey and west through Ohio concluded that it had a “responsibility to act morally and ethically” and that to continue to exclude candidates for ordination on the basis of gender is not moral or ethical....
 
Official News Release of the Columbia Union Conference - At its May 17 meeting, the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee received a report from an ad hoc committee assigned to study how to affirm women in ministry.
After discussing the report (included in article), the committee voted:...
 
 
Should These Men Go To Jail Because of a Church Name? - The leaders of the Creation SDAs, Walter “Chick” McGill and Lucan Chartier, have been ordered by Federal Judge J. Daniel Breen to stop using the name, fined $500 each and required to pay attorney costs to the GC....Do church members and pastors think that this is an appropriate way for the Church to deal with splinter groups? Do they believe that this is a good use of denominational resources? Is there a Bible basis for enforcement efforts that go so far as to put people in jail? Protecting the denomination’s name is a good idea, but how far is too far in accomplishing this goal?...
 
New Ellen White Compilation on Urban Ministry Published - Entitled Ministry to the Cities, a 224-page compilation of material written by Ellen G. White throughout her lengthy career as a cofounder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has recently been published. It includes some material that has been released for the first time with this publication...This latest compilation has some improvements over previous, similar publications. For one thing, the original source of each passage is noted. When additional citations are given for an item, it is clearly visible as a subsequent publication and appears to be included primarily in those cases where the original may be difficult to access. It also does a better job at noting the dates of the original materials....
 
Dismissal of Board Members at La Sierra University Reported by Riverside Newspaper - More than six months after the fact, The Press-Enterprise, the daily newspaper in Riverside, California, published a story Thursday (May 10) announcing the dismissal of three members of the board of trustees at La Sierra University (LSU). Why a respected newspaper is publishing the story now is unclear because these facts were publicly announced in October last year. The story makes no reference to the significant interval of time....
 

 


40 Ways My Labyrinth
Is Like My Life, #40
 
 
 
 
Bible quotations in Carousel are
used by permission from:
The Message (NavPress)
New Living Translation (Tyndale)
 
 


Newest Blogs
   
Education is Overrated - Stephen Foster
Perhaps we can all agree that the purpose of education and of scientific discovery is to gain an understanding of why things are as they are; and/or why some things are not as they appear to be. Understanding ourselves, our world, and our universe is the goal.  Information without understanding is not intelligence and knowledge without understanding is not wisdom....
   
   
Max Lucado Unveiled - Herbert Douglass
I have been watching something happen to Max's world view in the last six years or so. I find him connecting with other brilliant authors and preachers as they turn their interests in a trajectory that leads them away from solid biblical foundations into the lure of  the “journey” and the thrill of the “conversation.”...
   
   
Fleecing the Flock - Lawrence Downing
Hundreds of millions of dollars are stolen from well-meaning people who are scammed by skilled con artists who pose as sincere church members. I have witnessed the results when church members have lost their savings to these frauds. They have the key words and phrases down pat and they dump their piety upon unsuspecting church members, bleed them dry and take off with bags of cash. Some of these charlatans can pray like an angel, give testimonies like one of the apostles, and rip people off like a professional bandit....
   
   
Response to Comments - Harry Banks
I really hope that in the conversation in this blog it will be safe for any reader or commenter to express honestly where they are in the hostile, untrusting, wistful, timid, growing, intimate relationship between person and God continuum....
   
   
Is Your Local Church Healthy or Dying? - Monte Sahlin
It is really a simple question. It was asked of pastors and lay leaders in a random sample of more than 11,000 congregations of all faiths across America. “Would you agree? Our congregation is spiritually vital and alive.”...Overall, just 28 percent gave the most positive response. And among Seventh-day Adventist churches it was only 16 percent....
   

     Recent Comments:


stanley mcginty commented on Should These Men Go To Jail Because of a Church Name?
2012-05-18 9:34 AM

We are not putting these men in jail; this is a result of their refusal to obey the law and that in and of itself is not Christian. We are told in the New Testament to respect the laws of the land so this is not our doing but theirs. Further, we have...

David Geelan commented on Education is Overrated
2012-05-18 8:52 AM

Can you conceive of *any* 'bigger picture' that would make these actions morally right if done by a human being? I can't. How then can our moral arbiter and guarantor be held to a *lesser* moral standard than his creations. Sorry, you...

Timo Onjukka commented on "The Big 'But' "
2012-05-18 7:50 AM

""The danger, if any, is in “cheap works,” not in grace.""           You, sir, seem to have added pivotal change, upon which you claim the scripture to derive and support your meaning....

Kevin Riley commented on Southern California Conference Votes to Ordain Women in Pastoral Ministry
2012-05-18 6:11 AM

And the other side equally believes that neither the Bible nor Ellen White indicate anywhere that women may not be ordained as pastors (or anything else).  I thought Ellen White said somewhere that circumstances do affect the way in which words...

karimah B commented on The Sabbath and Same-Sex Marriage
2012-05-18 3:33 AM

Kendra I understand what you are saying as well as others who have commented about this sensitive topic...but it doesnt matter what happens in our society prophecy will and must be fulfilled....eventually our(SDA) rights will be taken away...but...

Tim Webster commented on Santa, Safety, and Specificity
2012-05-18 2:11 AM

Mark, Your argument here stikes me as a bit strange.  You describe what you call "safe prayer language," and while I understand what you're trying to say, it seems to simply be a mechanism by which one may better avoid having to...

Kevin Riley commented on Reading Into Isaiah
2012-05-17 8:48 PM

Elaine I agree we have no original mauscripts, but do you really mean that the Hebrew manuscripts of the OT and the Greek manuscripts of teh NT are 'translations of translations'?  And please do not include 'Latin'  'or...

Darrel Lindensmith commented on Dismissal of Board Members at La Sierra University Reported by Riverside Newspaper
2012-05-17 6:58 PM

DoctorF Could I ask your impute on epigenetices’codes?   We have the DNA code of course 10% of which codes for all the protein production and 90% acting like an operating system and dynamic blueprint execution coding to construct and...

Bob Pickle commented on Pacific Union Conference Calls Constituency Session to Vote Ordination for Women Pastors
2012-05-17 8:39 AM

Jim, That's what I was thinking. Note that the date on the above article is May 9, which is pretty quick. Meanwhile there has been no article on a vote against WO that occurred weeks ago. Even if an article finally does come out, for the...

JaNe commented on For Such a Time as This, Part 2
2012-05-17 1:48 AM

So there is an actual Adventist on AT? Nice to see....


Newest Columns
   
“The Ways of the Lord are Just, part II” - Donna Jean Walker Haerich
By bringing this court action, Hosea zeros in on the covenantal nature of God’s relationship to Israel...For many, then as now, covenant is seen as a legal agreement which God enters into in much the same way as would a powerful overlord or master.  They see God as offering his favors and protection in exchange for obedience.  If you do as you are told, if you obey me, then I will bless you.  If you disobey, and act contrary to my laws, you will be cursed. This gross misunderstanding of covenant and the erroneous teachings surrounding it has given laity and clergy alike an arbitrary God who dictates arbitrary laws and administers arbitrary punishments and rewards....
   
   
Santa, Safety, and Specificity - Mark Gutman
Objections raised to the track record of psychics (and the presentation of the track record) could also be raised about prayer. After all, people don’t usually go back and analyze how well their prayers have been answered, and references to answered prayer usually make no mention of all the prayers that didn’t work out....
   
   
The Sabbath, and Same Sex Marriage - Kendra Perry
Freedom of conscience for you and me means freedom of conscience for everyone.  The reason we can ask for Sabbath off in our workplaces is because we live in a country where a Muslim woman can ask to wear her hijab as part of her work uniform. And if we want to continue having our rights as a religious minority respected, we will continue to fight for the rights of other minorities, even if we disagree with them....
   
   
Know The Love of The Father - Don Watson
Every single one of us has our scars and pains and dark moments and skeletons that few if any one else knows, much less cares about – except God. God knows.  God cares, and He’s there.  I know many of you have felt God abandoned you.  But He hasn’t – He really is there....
   
   
Is Youth Ministry a Failure? - Ed Dickerson
Young adults are leaving the church, all churches, in droves.  By that measure, youth ministries have been and continue to be a failure.  But it seems to me that verdict is either mistaken or unfair -- take your pick -- on two counts...
   
   

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