11 December 2024 | How do we recognize the presence of God and the Holy Spirit—in the world, our communities, and ourselves? Is it an intellectual pursuit, an emotional encounter, or the fullness of life’s experience? Eduard Schweizer reminds us in The Holy Spirit that “we cannot capture him in anything like a mathematical formula.” Similarly, Clark […]
by Loren Seibold | 11 December 2024 | When I was a young pastor, I remember saying to an another pastor who thought like I did, “Won’t it be nice when our generation takes over and the church will be more open-minded, more progressive? When it can at least accept people across the spectrum of […]
9 December 2024 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Why is it that the same church that defends religious liberty and helps employees outside the church defend the right not to work on Sabbath, also requires its employees to work on Sabbath? Why is it suddenly okay to work on Sabbath if the employer is the church? […]
1. You’re a walking fire hazard Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a sweater with so many blinking lights, you could guide Santa’s sleigh through a snowstorm. Who needs a Christmas tree when you can be one? Just remember to keep a fire extinguisher handy – you’re one short circuit away from becoming a yuletide bonfire. […]
Loren Seibold | 6 December 2024 | I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. It shouldn’t be that hard to get up on Sunday and pick out a church and slip quietly into a pew. My excuse, most Sundays, has been that years after I’ve officially retired, Saturday is still a work day—mostly […]
by Reinder Bruinsma | 5 December 2024 | Recently I had a very pleasant visit with Dr. Arjan Plaisier, who was the secretary-general of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands between 2008 and 2016. I first met Dr. Plaisier in 2001 at a congress for Adventist ministers in Europe. I had invited him—at the time, […]
5 December 2024 | Controversial pastor Ron Kelly has announced that he has been dismissed from employment by the Michigan Conference as the senior pastor of the Berrien Springs Village Church. In a YouTube recording, he said, On Sunday, December 1, at the end of my Thanksgiving vacation, I got a phone call at 3:16 […]
4 December 2024 | The world’s fragility is precarious and keenly felt, and the election of Donald Trump brings increasing unpredictability. Yet two things seem certain. First, the United States, the leading economy in the world, is likely to shift from a stance of climate change denial to climate change defiance. This is bad news […]
by Solomon Renati | 3 December 2024 | History is not free of misconceptions. For example, some still say that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America in 1492. That’s not exactly true. Nor did Amerigo Vespucci, who gave the continents of the western hemisphere his name. A Viking explorer named Leif Erikson landed in America about five […]
2 December 2024 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Recently I came across a church apparently related to ours called the Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement. At first glance, I see little difference. Are they the same? Signed, Clarification Needed Dear Clarification, The Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement (SDARM) arose in Germany during World War I, out of a […]
