The Importance of Criticism

by Andy Hanson

I can clearly remember how I, as a teacher, felt on the last day of school when a student returned my copy of the high school year book. I hadn't seen it in a week. It had been passed around from student to student in a large high school. Where it had been, who had written in it, and what they had written were still a mystery as I drove home on Thursday afternoon. I was apprehensive. What had they said? Their grades had been turned in, and the seniors, at least, could really tell me what they thought of me as a person and as a teacher without fear of retribution. And there was always the possibility that unflattering anonymous messages might be scrawled across prominent signature pages.

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Reflections On The Homosexuality Conference

Guest post from apokalupto blogger, David Hamstra

There's still time for me to jot down a few final thoughts on the Marriage, Homosexuality, and the Church Conference I attended last week at Andrews University. It's also time for me to share my position on the debate over whether homosexual sex is sinful, since that will inform the comments that follow. My theology on this issue is informed by presuppositions I have found to be well articulated here.

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Worshiping the Sabbath vs Worshiping on the Sabbath

Guest post by Travis Claybrooks

Recently, we celebrated my oldest daughter, Abeni's 15th birthday. She was born October 2, 1994 and I remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember all the details of the experience – the labor, the delivery, the incompetent nurses that didn't believe that she was-a comin' right now! I remember feeling real good as I tastied her with my kisses, touching her with my hands, hearing her extremely loud cry, smelling that newborn baby smell, and just seeing the miracle of something that, just a short while ago, was not.

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Relevance, Part 3

A couple of things have happened in the last few weeks that inspired me to begin this series on relevance.  This will be the concluding post - but you may find this theme throughout much of what I write (both in the past, and in the future).  When I preach, when I write, when I do just about anything, I ask myself, what is the point?  And this becomes the question I have to ask about God, His Word, and His Church - what is the point?

For me, I've found meaning in God.  The Bible was a little more challenging - but once I moved past the cultural distortions, I have found great relevance in those words.  I'm still wrestling with the Church though.  I'm wondering, what is it that people are trying to do there?

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Exporting Adventism

Overseas not long ago, I had an interesting interaction with an Adventist pastor. I had just finished telling him about a person who had expressed to me a desire to begin keeping Sabbath and to be baptized. I would have expected him to be thrilled with the news, as this individual had been an ongoing ‘project’ for him for some time. To my surprise the pastor appeared disappointed, annoyed, and even a little angry.

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Egocentric mission or inclusivist gospel?

I've just finished reading an article in Adventist World about the "Roadmap to Mission" draft document to be edited and presented at the Annual Council of the General Conference Executive Committee in October 2009.

According to Mark Kellner's report, the document affirms that

"[t]he goal of Seventh-day Adventist evangelistic and outreach work among adherents of world religions is to bring people into a saving faith in Jesus Christ..."

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Event: Idea Camp Coming to Portland

Idea Camp followed us on Twitter a few days ago, but other than liking the name, I didn't think much of it.  Then, last night, two of my friends invited me to the Facebook event listing for the Portland event.  Now, I don't know about you, but I get a lot of "invites" on Facebook, and most aren't worth my time, but since I recognized the name, I took a look.

If you're familiar with the OpenSource software movement, or the openspacee format of the un-conference, you'll recognize this format.  I've attended various tech events locally, and have been thinking the Church needs to embrace this format of reaching out to our culture, but I haven't had the time to make it happen - yet.

In a nutshell, what this does is to take your online social networking into the real world - and vice versa...

But here it is, live, and coming to PDX!

More details here: http://theideacamp.ning.com/page/icpnw-details

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• Why You'll Love Portland, Oregon (centernetworks.com)

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Relevance, Part 1

Twenty-five years ago when I was wrestling with spirituality and religion, I struggled to find meaning.  After dabbling in various religions (e.g. Buddhism, Disco, Scientology, New Age, bowling leagues, and narcissism), I began to re-read the Bible.

My rationale for reading the Bible, wasn't in a search for truth, but rather to expand my rich literary background.  I considered myself well-read, and so, even though I was approaching this from an agnostic's skepticism, I thought it would be good to round out my knowledge.  Instead, I found God.

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We encourage your comments the various blog posts, and hope you will join the discussions. We can't respond to every comment, particularly those that deal with individual cases and issues. We review posted comments regularly, and those that are off-topic, abusive, offensive, or clearly promoting a commercial product generally won't make the cut. We also expect a basic level of civility; disagreements are fine, but mutual respect is a must, and profanity or abusive language are out-of-bounds.

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The purpose of this blog is to create a community for dialog that will strengthen the Advent movement and glorify God.  We recognize that healthy communities welcome disagreement, but we encourage everyone to be constructive in their participation.

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