This Month's Issue | Seventh-day Adventist Church

Editorial: Though He Slay Me

Editorial by Celeste Ryan Blyden

My mother was born and bred in Brooklyn, N.Y., during the Great Depression. She often went to bed hungry and rejoiced when she was given a penny to buy an orange for supper. At 14 she was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church and began a faith journey with Jesus that sustained her throughout life. She always had a sanguine smile on her face and praise to God on her lips. So, you’d never know that she buried two children, got divorced after 50 years of marriage and struggled to make ends meet.

Nueva directora para CURF

Historia de V. Michelle Bernard

A partir de Abril 1, H. Candace Nurse se desempeñará como secretaria/ tesorera de Columbia Union Revolving Fund (CURF). Nurse, actualmente tesorera (CFO) de la Conferencia de Allegheny West (AWC), ha trabajado en AWC desde 2008 en diversas funciones, incluyendo asistente de tesorería y coordinadora de Recursos Humanos.

"Candace ha demostrado su perspicacia y habilidades en la Conferencia de Allegheny West y ha realizado un excelente trabajo", dice Dave Weigley, presidente de la Unión de Columbia y presidente de la junta de CURF.

Editorial: About Our Father’s Business

Editorial by Frank Bondurant

I opened my Bible this morning to Luke 2:49. These are the first recorded public words spoken by Jesus: “‘Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?’” (NKJV). He said these words when He was 12 years old, and then, 21 years later, in one of His last prayers, He said in John 17:4: “‘I have finished the work You gave me to do’” (NKJV). Like bookends, these statements frame a well-lived, purpose-driven life. Jesus clearly understood and completed the mission the Father gave Him.

7 Takeaways from Successful Church Plants

Story by Michele Joseph

The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting churches,” says Rubén Ramos, the Columbia Union’s vice president for Multilingual Ministries, quoting from C. Peter Wagner’s book Church Planting for a Greater Harvest: A Comprehensive Guide. Here are some tips Ramos and Peter Casillas, who most recently served as associate director for pastoral ministries in evangelism and church planting and volunteer lay pastors in Potomac Conference, say any leader can use in their ministries:

Why Every Church Needs to Get Pregnant ... and Multiply

Story by Michele Joseph

The Bible gives a specifc command: multiply, says Peter Casillas, most recently the associate director for pastoral ministries in evangelism and church planting and volunteer lay pastors in Potomac Conference.

However, as a church gets bigger, it is easy to go into institutional mode.

“Church planting reminds us to come back to the movement and not stick with the institution,” he says. “Church planting is ... like blood to the body. It’s the moving dynamic action of the body. If you kill church planting, you kill the movement.”

For that reason, he believes every church should get “pregnant.”