By Debbonnaire Kovacs, 4-13-17 [Editor’s note: This story was originally posted June 2012. I am reprinting for those who read this week’s feature and want to know more about Tony. DLK] “I’ve decided to leave the church. Please join me.” So reads an invitational email promoting Pastor Tony Romeo’s new venture, called “Reach […]
By Anthony Romeo; foreword by Debbonnaire Kovacs, 4-13-2017 This is a different kind of feature—a bittersweet one. Pastor Anthony Romeo is a one-of-a-kind Christian who takes the Sermon on the Mount (and all the rest of Jesus’ words) seriously. When Jesus said to love everybody, Tony assumed he meant everybody. At his church in Manhattan, […]
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, April 6, 2017 Every year the Richland, Washington Seventh-day Adventist church meets together in the fall for a visioning process that will inform their ministry during the coming year. Len Harms, whose title is Executive Pastor/Head Elder, described this process for me: After lunch, and after both group and individual prayer, […]
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, Mar 30, 2017 Many if not most churches count their growth in numbers of bodies in the pews. Not this one. In 2013 and 2014, the small Summerville, GA, Seventh-day Adventist Church was in crisis. Pastor Edward Skoretz described it this way (adding that he’s fuzzy on the chronology): Their head elder […]
If you would like more information about the refugee ministry at the Paradise Valley SDA church or Pastor James’ book on the topic, here are a list of links. See Quick Chat–Refugess Part 1: Refugees and Professing Christians here. Paradise Valley SDA Church Website Friendships for Hope Website The Joys of Partnering With God by […]
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, March 23, 2017 In the five years I’ve written for Adventist Today, I have “met” (online or by telephone usually) many, many amazing people, and sometimes researching an AT story even makes me cry. Amistad International is one of those. “Amistad” is Spanish for “friendship” and that’s what it is—the kind of […]
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, posted July 14, 2016 [Photo: children sign “I love you.” Pixabay, public domain] The Australian Union Record reports that the Adventist church, for the first time, will be broadcasting a weekly church service signed in AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language). A church plant at Quaker Hill in the west of Sydney, in […]
Adventist Today Executive Editor Loren Seibold talks with two innovative leaders in the North American Division (NAD)–Mike Cauley and Dave Weigley–about plans to redesign the organizational structure of the church in the NAD.
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, Nov. 12, 2015 Dr. Lee Berk, MPH, DrPH, a specialist in preventive care and lifestyle health at Loma Linda, started getting interested in the health field in about sixth grade. It’s not that unusual to find a sixth grade boy interested in “being a doctor when he grows up,” but young Lee’s […]
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, Oct. 29, 2015 On a busy street in the small town of Java, South Dakota stood a bank. People passing by on this day in 1927 were startled to see a very small girl (three years old, in fact) standing before the bank, singing happily. Some began offering her coins, and before […]
By Briana Pastorino, Media Relations Specialist, Loma Linda University Health; posted October 21, 2015 [Editor’s note: We have written about Loma Linda’s PossAbilities Program for differently abled athletes before (here and here). Here is a story sent to me about a pro-surfer who knows what it’s like to have your life turned upside […]
By Debbonnaire Kovacs, Oct 14, 2015 “I hope this program will inspire new and innovative ideas we have never seen before. I don’t even know what those will be! Students will be coming with their own creative minds and innovations, and the Holy Spirit working on their own hearts with ideas that will be new […]