Comments of the Week July 14-20
Comments of the Week July 14-20
“I often wonder about the people who lived before 1844. The way I was raised, only SDAs will make it to heaven, only if they follow all the rules. That leaves a lot of people out!” –Ruby Parmele MacFarlane on Aunt Sevvy’s answer to whether we are supposed to be telling other Christians that they’re lost.
Comments on My Calves & the Future of Adventist Journalism, Dear Elder Kohler: Will you make room for people like me in the church?, Is Elder Wilson Sending a Message to His Successor?, Elder Kohler Compares His Challenges to the Pope’s in AP Interview, “Sisterhood” Women Evangelists Stir Up Community With Helping Ministries, and Are we supposed to go around warning other Christians that they’re lost, Aunty?
EDITORIAL: My Calves and the Future of Adventist Journalism
“You seem to be a glutton for punishment, Bjorn. Good luck with your feet and calves as you do another ‘impossible’ run!”
Dear Elder Kohler: Will you make room for people like me in the church?
“A great letter written from the heart – I hope, given Elder Köhler’s willingness at the GC [General Conference] to dialogue with those who are not ‘mainstream,’ that he’ll read this letter and be open to the suggestions contained within.”
–Angela Logan
“Dear Reinder,
Is Elder Wilson Sending a Message to His Successor?
“I got married in 1980. ‘The ring’ was not very acceptable for SDA (Seventh-day Adventists) then. Now, SDA weddings still don’t have ring boys but only Bible boys.
–Rachel Ngoclien Nguyen Tom
“My wife was asked out for a breakfast date by one of her male coworkers when she was a nurse in the hospital. We went out that week and got cheap wedding rings and we both have worn them ever since. She has never been asked out again in the three places she has worked since. However, I continue to ask her out regularly.”
–Kris Widmer
Elder Kohler Compares His Challenges to the Pope’s in an AP Interview
“Interesting. I like, ‘We’re here to serve, we’re here to love, and we’re here to make a difference.’ And on WO [women’s ordination] there were some good things, *BUT* if now is not the time to open discussion, when is? And the saints cry out, ‘How long!?!?!?!’
‘And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.’”
“This is a very nice group, and they’re doing ‘evangelism’ in the right way: by bringing people into community and helping them in things they identify as their needs.”
“I often wonder about the people who lived before 1844. The way I was raised, only SDAs will make it to heaven, only if they follow all the rules. That leaves a lot of people out!
–Ruby Parmele MacFarlane
“Let’s take this a step further. Telling other Christian believers they are wrong may be tantamount to saying all other Christians will not be ‘saved.’ What a difference it would make in our evangelism if we took the position that other Christians already know Jesus and have faith in him, and thus not target them with our efforts. What if we only approached those who do not already believe in Jesus? I don’t think we know how to do that very well. We seem to make an assumption that our target listeners already give credence to the Bible, and that we just have to correct their understandings. In other words, our underlying assumption is we need to engage in doctrinal correction. In actuality, the Kingdom would be better served by helping people find a new experience of rest in Jesus rather than rearranging the Christian chairs on the deck. I recognize that this may be a North American perspective, that in other countries evangelism may mostly be directed toward non-Christians.”
–Edward Reifsnyder
