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December 19, 2007

 

 

 



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In this Edition:
Daughters of Abraham Book Club
Practitioners: Mike Fortune, Toledo
Editor: Fading Adventist Orthopraxies
Resources & Ideas
Reader responses to "Not a Good Sabbath"
Calendar of Events
BP Video
An idea for reaching across religious boundaries: The Daughters of Abraham Book Club.
Daughers of Abraham book club
To the Point:
Ideas

"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it is your only idea."
 - Henri Alban-Fournier

Let every worker in the Master's vineyard, study, plan, devise methods, to reach the people where they are. We must do something out of the common course of things. We must arrest the attention.
 - EGW, Evangelism p122


"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."
 -Howard Aiken

"The people who oppose your ideas are inevitably those who represent the established order that your ideas will upset."
 -Anthony D'Angel

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral."
- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

"Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good."
 -Thomas Sowell

"Old ideas give way slowly; for they are more than abstract logical forms and categories, they are habits, predispositions, deeply ingrained attitudes of diversion and preference."
 -John Dewey

"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
  - Daniel Webster


"Good ideas are common - what's uncommon are people who'll work hard enough to bring them about."
 - Ashleigh Brilliant

"Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they're looking for ideas."
 - Paula Poundstone

Got a favorite quote? Send it to BestPractices@ameritech.net
Mike FortunePractitioners
Mike Fortune, Toledo, OH

Mike Fortune always has great ministry ideas. This Christmas, it's the HeartSong Community Sing. LGS

I can see it now. Walkers being parked like cars. Coats being checked. Smiles a mile wide. Grandmothers and grandfathers piling out of cars and buses. Pouring, er, shuffling into our church escorted by the arms of their sons and daughters with their sons and daughters toddling in their wake.

So we called all the nursing homes in all of Toledo and got the names of all the activities directors. We sent them personal invitations to bring the ambulatory residents of their nursing homes with their family members in their buses to our church for the HeartSong Community Sing-our Christmas ordinary outreach.

The idea is once a month in the winter to treat the ambulatory residents and family members of the two nursing homes we serve and sing in each Sabbath to be our guests instead of the other way around. The response has been very encouraging! One nursing home director couldn't believe we went through all that work to find her name. Though we have never met, she committed 16 guests and their families to all 4 planned events so far.

During each of these outreaches, classes from our James Meade Learning Center (daycare) and students from our Toledo Junior Academy (K-8) and their parents (half of whom do not attend our church or perhaps any church) will play a role in the program too, making this the perfect opportunity to get them into our sanctuary and mingle with them in the fellowship hall afterward, where we'll be taking and printing digital family pictures.

In addition to special musics and children's songs, we're going to include well known hymns and congregational singing and a variety of Christmas carols to lift their spirits and remind everyone that "God loves them like crazy!" Which is what I believe God meant when he inspired the prophet Isaiah to write in Isaiah 46:4 [NLT], "I will be your God throughout your lifetime--until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you." We'll serve refreshments, and the afternoon will conclude at 4:00 pm.

Write Mike at mike4tune@gmail.com. Check out Mike's blog.

Do you have an innovative idea for a ministry activity? Write me at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
Loren's picture 5Thinking Aloud:
Fading Adventist Orthopraxies
by Loren Seibold, Best Practices editor


In my lifetime two pieces of practical Adventist theology have noticably faded from our collective agenda.

One is the notion that the 6th commandment is as important as the 4th, particularly in its application to war.
Tens of thousands of us registered for the Vietnam draft with conscientious objector status. Today, though, noncombatancy is, for any practical purpose, gone as a category. Nor have we Adventists intentionally explored a more conscientious just war theology, one that is skeptical of war and the reasons for it. (I recommend Chris Hedges' thought provoking book War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.) Only the Anabaptists and Quakers still make a stringent application of Matthew 5:38-40.

The other I thought of again a couple of weeks ago as I listened to Mitt Romney's speech about his religion. OK, I'll grant that Mormonism is strange (of course, a lot of people think we're a little strange, too). Still, I don't want to judge a man's fitness for leadership solely by that; after all, no president has held precisely our theology. No, what bothered me was that he didn't, as JFK did in 1960, delineate that wall of separation between church and state that was so important to our Adventist ancestors. There was much in the speech I liked. But he also spoke of bringing religion back into government--just not his particular religion. It seems to me we should analyze carefully the words of any political leader who is trying to win favor with religious people by saying religious things.

As I talk to Adventists now, I sense that the fear of religion becoming too cozy with government and thereby eroding our freedoms, that Ellen White warns about, is decreasingly understood. I meet too many SDA laypeople who are impressed by candidates' promises to enforce Christian values once elected. But the leader who legislates Christian values you agree with may legislate some you don't agree with. Again, see Ellen White

The prophecies warn that in the end, no human government, not excepting the unusually good ones we have in the United States and Canada, is entirely to be trusted. As long as time lasts, I'll prefer a leader who treats his office as a secular responsibility, and tries to protect the religious freedom of everyone (including, if need be, atheists).

The kingdom I give highest loyalty to doesn't have a capitol down here anyway.

What do you think about the change in Adventist church-state attitudes? Write  BestPractices@ameritech.net.
Resources, Reflections and Ideas

  • Yes, we do have an archive of previous issues of Best Practices; sorry I gave you the wrong address last issue.
  • Fan mail:
    • From Marty Thurber: "Just a quick rave to you guys.  I like what I see each month, keep it up."
    • From Bob Mason: "May I say that I really love Best Practices? I will not herein make comparisons to clergy journals that seem to be more of an outlet for writers to write than an engaging and beneficial offering for readers to read. Maybe I'm just ADD, but the format and the content suit me well."
    • From David Wright: "I just wanted to drop you a line and thank you all so much for the ministry of your newsletter. It certainly has been a blessing to our church in Blairsville, GA.  I have been richly challenged, encouraged, motivated, and blessed by your practical articles and concise approach.  Just wanted to let you know that you all are making a tremendous difference in my life and in my congregation."
  • The Golden Compass, one final time:
    • Ryan Bell writes, "Here's my conspiracy theory: Hollywood wants to sell tickets and make money! ... And proof of that is that the producer of [The Golden Compass] has completely softened the atheistic and even anti-theistic message." Ryan adds, "And besides, why can't Christians engage with culture? I mean, why not ask bigger questions like, what does it all mean? What can we, as Christians, learn from the fact that all this is transpiring? Why so defensive? Defensivness to me indicates desperation. Are Christians at the point of desperation relative to the culture? Good! It's about time. Perhaps Christianity will soon demonstrate some of the native creativity that it has lost."
    • From Lynnetta Murdoch: "I think I would be a little reserved about saying that the Atlantic Monthly's secular perspective is any more 'balanced' than a Christian's, especially when it comes to reacting to an athiestic writer..." She recommends two Christian articles, one from Christianity Today, and the other from The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod website.
  • Articles worth reading this week:
  • In a few days you may be looking for some warm, fuzzy illustrations to use for a Christmas sermon or program. Best Practices to the rescue! Check out 1, 2, or 3.
  • Willow Creek:
    • From Greg Schaller: "Interesting [Adventist Review] piece on Willow Creek.  I'm not taking the position that everything they do is right; however, upon many visits there they sure have a lot going for them.... It's interesting to me how the Adventist community attempts to understand sustained growth and spiritual impact in other faith communities; we seem to have the need to find the crack in their armor and drive the sword right through it--in the name of defending our more meager impact and lack of spiritual disciplines."
    • From Bruce Blum: "I wanted to find out the context of Willow Creek's 'shocking confessions,' so I did a little searching. It turns out that what Willow Creek really seems to be doing is selling a self-study program to other churches--not to say that they didn't study themselves or that they aren't making changes, but the 'shocking confessions' certainly come across differently in the context of selling a survey program, than they do in some of the articles written by people like me who suspect Willow Creek is too shallow. Having said that, I also ran across this blog in which a Christian sociology professor takes a look through his professional glasses at the whole affair."
  • Of interest: the security guard who was given credit for shooting the gunman at the Colorado Springs New Life church grew up in the Sioux Falls, SD Seventh-day Adventist church and attended Union College. In case you missed the story (though I don't know how you could have) find out about it here.
  • "CHRISTMAS AT CADILLAC JACK'S." From the press release: "In a story about love and forgiveness, see how an unexpected road trip to find a long-lost daughter becomes an unforgettable Christmas Eve.... It will be shown on the Hallmark Channel on December 23, the Hope Channel and local affiliates. Check with your local TV affiliates and encourage them to pick it up, if they haven't already."
Got a tool, resource, idea or seminar that you like a lot? Share it with us at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
Backtalk:
Not a Good Sabbath
Best Practices readers respond to the editor's problem-filled Sabbath service.

My friend, have you considered that perhaps your worship style is too artificial? When the Beast shuts off our electricity, the only power left will be conviction of the Holy Spirit. But it will not be felt by those who have grown accustomed to worldly messages. All the bells and whistles can't make up for obedience.... Frankly, your Sabbath troubles were an answer to prayer. In His mercy, God may be giving you a wake-up call.
Adam Hendron

We had a baptism that was planned for months. Parents, relatives, neighbors, and friends came. But there was a problem: the water heater wasn't functioning. It was late January; the water was ice cold. The deacons boiled water, and during the Sabbath school you would hear the hot water sizzling as it hit the icy cold water. I stepped into the tank; and as I was addressing the congregation, my lips began to shudder and my body became numb. I warned the church and the candidate that this was going to the fastest baptism in the history of the church. Just then, the candidate stepped in, and he turned paper white before my eyes. As I lifted him up out of the water, he jumped straight up, almost 4 feet into the air shouting "The water is cold!"  As he came back to planet earth and landed upright, he exclaimed "But the heart is warmed by the spirit." He was up to the steps and gone in 2 seconds.
Angel Rodriguez

It was communion service. Someone had made the communion bread from white pastry flour. After everyone had been served I took a piece of bread, holding it between my fingers and sat down. All of a sudden the bread went poof! turning into white powder all over my dark suit. Since I no longer had any bread, I faked it.
L.D. Mays

I was excited about my first baptism, held at a small church that hadn't had one in a decade.  When the lid was removed from the baptistry, (recessed in the floor of the 100-year-old structure) the plume of steam that issued forth announced to the congregation what I would shortly discover for myself: the makeshift heater had been installed in such a way that it super-heated the surface, yielding a virtually impenetrable layer of scalding water I had to stir with my leg for several minutes, before the elderly lady who stood awkwardly in her robe could descend for the baptismal rite. By that time, she had already been steam-cleaned.
Dave Kobliska

It's funny how we always seem to be our worst critics. I don't know how it works but often when I think I am in the worst shape, people tell me they were blessed by the message. That always seems to confirm to me that the work is truly God's.
Victor Marshall

It seems that once in a while, God, on purpose, makes things go awfully wrong just to make this point: "Your preaching stunk, your music reeks, your drama was off, your timing was non-existing, your volunteers were dragging and your wife was mad, and I still blessed!" Here is to the few not so good Sabbaths that makes us appreciate the great many others.
Roger Hernandez
Events
Do you have an SDA-sponsored event that you'd like to invite NAD pastors to? Tell us about it at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
NAD Church RESOURCE Center
Best Practices is an e-publication of Vervent
NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER
Editor: Loren Seibold
Senior Pastor, Worthington Ohio Seventh-day Adventist Church