Monday, April 26, 2010

Western Pennsylvania Church Board Dialogues

April 17 and 18 I had the privilege of meeting with several Church Boards in Western Pennsylvania to dialogue and listen on 2 major topics. 1.) Mission. 2.) Youth and Young Adults. I asked what each church was finding effective in Mission, what the church might like to dream about doing, if God made it possible, and what the Conference might do in support, training and resources for mission. Then I asked what the current status was for Youth and Young Adults in each church, what the church might like to do, if God made it possible in a Youth or Young Adult ministry and what the Conference might do in support, training and resources for mission to Youth and Young Adults.

This weekend, I met with the Boards of:
Pittsburgh and New Brighton


East Suburban and Greensburg
Derrick City, Mt. Jewett and Warren


I also met with the leadership of the Adventist Community Services—Greater Pittsburgh

While at Pittsburgh, I was drawn to a picture on the wall of the Church hallway, depicting various aspects of the Pathfinder law as lived out by the Pathfinders. Pittsburgh Church has a good Adventurer and Pathfinder program.


On April 24,25 I repeated the dialogue with additional Western Pennsylvania Churches, by meeting with Church Board members of:
Erie, Lowville and Seneca

New Castle, Shenango Valley and Meridian Road (Butler)
Washington, Uniontown, Mon Valley
Indian, Johnstown, Distant, Laurel Lake



Quite a few good ideas and dreams for mission came through from listening to these Church Boards. At each location I took extensive notes of what was shared, by typing each comment into my computer. At the same time, I projected up on a screen with a video projector for all the Board members to see, just what notes I was typing.

If you would like a copy of the notes from any of these dialogues, just let me know which ones you would like to see.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Washington Adventist University

Washington Adventist University broke ground, Friday, April 9, 2010 for a new Music Arts instructional building.







This will house the instructional space and practice rooms for the New England Youth Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse Rittenhouse



and the voice and choral groups under,). direction of Dr. James Bingham, Music Department Chair.

Jeanne and I attended the ground breaking and then enjoyed a reception/lunch with Blue Mountain Academy alumni Margaret McFarland and Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Haas.

Following the lunch, I attended the Washington Adventist University Board of Trustees meeting.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Non-functional Jewelry and the Adventist Christian

Non-functional jewelry and the Adventist Christian
(Something other than a watch, cuff links, wedding band, tie tac/bar, health
bracelet.)

What wearing non-functional jewelry is NOT:

• It is not necessarily a barometer of a person’s commitment or deep
spirituality.
• It is not a moral equivalent to the 10 commandments.
• It is not a test of fellowship or church membership.
• It is not just what women and men wear on their person.
(It can also include expensive cars, a 4 wheel drive truck with a gun rack, a
house larger than necessary, a Rolex instead of a Timex, a “trophy wife” or
husband, or anything thought to make a statement or show a status in life.)
• It is not able to fill the sense of inadequacy—which only Jesus Christ can fill.
• It is not able to make us more attractive – as compared to being a loving and
loveable Christian.
• It is not able to provide us a true source of well-being.
• It is not to keep us from seeing a cherished, loved and sought-for Child of Jesus
Christ.

What not wearing non-functional jewelry IS:

• It is a principal taught in the Holy Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy.
• It is a way for a Christian to express with their own person—that Jesus supplies
all of my personal self-image needs.
• It is a way for a Christian to live by a principle of asking, “Do I really need
this as a steward of God’s goods?”
• It is a way to express that a Christian has priorities that are higher than
fitting in to current cultural expectations.
• It is a way of demonstrating the freedom a Christian has in Christ from secular
influences and orientations that are not necessary.
• It is a reminder to live a simple lifestyle in all things. (Live simply – so
others may simply life.)

Not wearing non-functional jewelry -- It is a principle I am glad to live by!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Stroudsburg Church is on the Move, and so is Easton

The Stroudsburg Church is on the Move and so is Easton!










The Stroudsburg Church is on the move. They have the highest attendance in the Conference and the second highest tithe. Recently they have remodeled the bathrooms used both by the Church School during the week and by the Church family on Sabbath. For years an overhaul in the bathrooms was needed. The walls and the drains have now been re-done.


Soon, it is contemplated, energy efficient windows will be installed in the school classrooms. The bulletin board just off the foyer of the Church, had a good promotional though for the church school.

I had the privilege of sitting in Jim Yansen’s Sabbath School class. Jim has encouraged his class to work toward several local mission projects. One of those, was to pray for young adults to be invited to the Sabbath School class and attend church. Right now this class has 2 young adults taking baptismal lessons. Jim has also challenged a young adult Caucasian member to specifically invite his friends and other Caucasians, since the Stroudsburg Church family, which used to be mostly Caucasian, is now 80-90 percent made up of those of British West Indian descent.

On this Sabbath, there were 2 young adult Caucasians present in class, one young man had been invited by this initiative, and it was his first Sabbath in attendance!
Although I had only planned to sit in the congregation, I was invited to join the worship leaders and provide the welcome, the call to worship and the benediction.
During the announcement time, I shared with the congregation about our commitment to lead youth and young adults into Share Him evangelism. One family already inquired if their daughter could participate, and one adult lady agreed to pray about coming alone on the Guatemala trip Share Him evangelism trip this summer, as both a speaker and a chaperone for the young ladies.
Pastor James Clark, who is normally present, had committed to attend the youth Sabbath worship service in Easton, which were entirely presented by the youth.
After church, I joined with Thomas Pitts, the head elder and Pastor Bernard Charles, who is the building committee chairman, and reviewed the artist’s conception for a possible new church and activity center.


The steel buildings being considered are estimated to cost near $4.5 million. The building committee chairman, who had led out on building a similar project, shared with me that he believed it could be finished for $3.7 million, utilizing the many craftsman in the church who are involved in the construction business as a living.

Following several conversations with church members after the Stroudsburg Church service, I made my way to the Easton SDA Church.


Here a complete Sabbath Youth Day was being led out by Javier Mendez, the local youth leader. 3 other youth groups from other Conferences had been invited and come for the day. In the morning, the youth provided the entire worship service, including the preaching. I arrived a little before the 3 p.m. afternoon service. The church was full-packed all day!



Kris Eckenroth, PA Conference Youth Director was able to join the youth at Easton in the afternoon also, and he has been working with the Easton church in its youth ministry.


Kris and Javier have also developed a close working relationship with the PA Conference COOL camp summer ministry. Javier leads one of the summer teams which goes to PA Conference Churches or Schools and conducts a summer day camp for at least 1 week. Many, if not most of the kids coming to the summer day camp are non-Adventist and quite a few of those are un-churched. Javier works with our Adventist COOL Camp youth workers, and provides intentional leadership and spiritual development each day for the youth who are leading out, in addition to giving them direction in reaching summer day campers for Christ.



Afterwards I spoke at length with Paul Richards and his wife Kesha.
They both work in sales for Verizon and are in the top 10% of their 1,300 employees for sales. However, they are being pressured to work on Sabbath. We spoke for some time about possible actions they could take. I pointed them to Walter Carson at the Columbia Union and also offered to go to Scranton to meet personally with upper management on their behalf.

Please keep these fine Adventist members in your prayers.