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BestPractices
 February 24, 2010
A. Allan MartinFree Young Adults Webinar Tomorrow with Allan Martin: Please note time change!

Tomorrow at 2PM Eastern time, Dr. A. Allan Martin from the seminary, and one of our church's best at working with young people, is doing a webinar for Best Practices readers on reaching and keeping young adults. I am especially an admirer of Allan's because he is not just a theorizer, but a practitioner. He is one of the creators and authors of GodEncounters. He doesn't just talk about young adults: he works with and worships with them. The date is February 25, 2 PM Eastern time.. Go here for your reading and sign-on link.

Registration: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/island/webinar/registration.tmpl;jsessionid=abc1O37g-JYfQ4jqo0cCs?id=403942272
IN THIS ISSUE
Nicholas Zork: What shapes our worship?
Resource: Logos 4
Reading: Where Easter eggs come from
Media: Nick Zork on worship
Quote: "Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody....-
Dan Day on discipleship
News & ideas: New Bible studies from College Press
Events: Young Adult Relationships webinar
Worship
Nicholas ZorkWhat Shapes Adventist Worship?
By Nicholas Zork

Nick Zork is the originator of the Vervent worship conferences, and is the new editor of Best Practices for Adventist Worship. If you'd like to get on the mailing list for BP/Worship, click here.

Worship is, in theory, at the center of Adventist theology.  We emphasize the Sabbath, a temple in time set apart for rest and worship.  We have traditionally defined our mission according to the Three Angels' Messages (Rev 14:6-12), which underscores whom we should (and should not) worship. And worship is a motif running through even our most distinctive doctrines (e.g., the sanctuary, the great controversy between good and evil).  But even though worship is at the center of our theology, is theology at the center of our worship?  
 
What is it that determines what we do when we gather on Sabbath mornings?  Do our worship services grow out of carefully considered and deeply held theological convictions?  Or, is Adventist worship a loose collection of practices in search of a theology?  Is what we do a truly incarnational gathering, uniting God's Word and action with human need and circumstances?  Or, is our worship just an awkward blend of inherited practices and the pragmatic concerns of the day?
 
Worship scholar Robert Webber suggested in an interview that "the major issue" facing Christian worship today is that it has become "divorced from all theological reflection.  Worship has therefore become subject to the cultural narrative, and worship has been shaped more by the cultural narrative than it has been shaped by the story of God."

What is the narrative that shapes our worship?  Is it the story of God revealed in Scripture?  Or, is it something else?  And how can our worship ministry be more effective and congruent with our deepest convictions and values?  These are complex issues with no simple answers; but as we dialogue together in this newsletter, we hope to at least begin asking the right questions.  And as we grow in knowledge and grace, it is our prayer that in worship we might honor God more fully and minister more effectively to both our congregations and the wider world.
 
To continue this discussion, we invite you read we invite you to read the new Best Practices for Adventist Worship newsletter and share your thoughts.  We look forward to hearing your ideas.
Resource Review

Logos platinumLogos 4 speeds Bible study
By Martin Weber

With the release of version 4, Logos Bible Software has incorporated almost Google-like speed into the searching of its massive library of commentaries, dictionaries, maps and other resources. Version 4 also improves and expands numerous other features.

Logos comes in nine package options, starting with basic Home edition. I'm using the Platinum version, with 1,250 resources-including the venerable Lexus of lexicons, BDAG. To see the various bundles and their features, visit www.logos.com/products.
Reading For Pastors

To go along with Allan Martin's webinar, this piece on young adults. (They still believe, but they don't want to affiliate.) Monte Sahlin also comments on the study.

Learning to see: Jesus is the lens through which Christians look at the world - and that makes everything look different.

More on Haiti:
  • Crying, Praying & Working for Haiti:  Quote: "Authentic followers of Jesus will be praying for the people of Haiti, giving to help fund the workers who are there and need massive supplies, and preparing for the long haul. It is not just a matter of feeding the hungry or caring for babies while CNN is talking about it; it is what we do "in the closet" (to quote Jesus) when the spotlight of the news media has moved on to a new story, that is a genuine witness to the compassion of Jesus."
  • Case Studies: How not to help
Where do Easter eggs come from? In fact, they do have a religious origin.

The "Dirty 31": Ohio pastors are challenging the tax-exempt status of religious organizations they believe have improperly dabbled in partisan politics.

Most Americans still believe in miracles, according to another Pew study.
Featured Media
Although Adventists have a well developed theology of the proper day of worship we have not sufficiently explored the theology of corporate worship. To my knowledge there are no professors at Adventist institutions of higher education that have earned degrees in the theology of worship, nor are there any departments of worship at conference union or division level (with the exception of South Pacific Division). I believe that if we had a stronger foundation for a theology of worship we would be better equipped to address corporate worship in our diverse cultures.  The NAD Church RESOURCE Center continues to lift up the agenda of worship by sponsoring music and worship conferences and expands their support by launching a new worship newsletter. This week's media presentation features Nick Zork's presentation on the Roots of Worship.  Nick is also serving as editor of the upcoming Best Practices For Worship email newsletter.  Subscribe now so you won't miss out on the very first issue.

-Dave Gemmell

To the Point
Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.
 - Benjamin Franklin

I was always taught to respect my elders and I've now reached the age when I don't have anybody to respect.
 - George Burns

Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you - if you don't play, you can't win.
 - Robert Heinlein

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
 - Friedrich Engels

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.
 - Michel de Montaigne

We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us.
 - George Eliot

I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.
 - E. V. Lucas

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
 - Arthur C. Clarke
Discipleship
Dan DayDiscipleship Elements: How to become a nurturing community
Dan Day, Director, NAD Church Resource Center

There are three key discipleship challenges around which the upcoming discipleship curriculum from the Adventist Church in North America is constructed: (1) Discovering how to follow Jesus; (2) Learning how to grow in Christ; and (3) Experiencing how to become a nurturing community. In this segment, we'll look specifically at the third one.

Experiencing how we become a nurturing community centers on God's church becoming all that it could be in life, ministry and service. When we baptize new members, the critical question we should be asking ourselves is: how are we going to keep them? How are we going to make the church into the sort of place where a child who is growing up, a new member who is just being introduced-or the community as a whole, which is looking at the church expectantly-can see something happening that is embracing, supportive, and relevant.

We can't assume that because we are God's church that we represent a safe haven for any or all of these groups. What recent research demonstrates, on the contrary, is that young people and secular professionals in our society have rapidly declining opinions of the church. They see us as irrelevant, preoccupied only with getting more members, generally mean-spirited and rigid, more interested in being right than in making a difference. This is largely because we've allowed ourselves-as institutions-to be captured by leadership perspectives that are shallow, insular and parochial.

For our witness in the community to have the powerful impact God wants it to have (and expects it to have), we need to revitalize the church. We need to focus on making it welcoming, oriented toward service in the community, and representing more fully the character of Christ. In short, the church must become a true nurturing community. The rest is yet to come...
News, Ideas & Reminders
Any advice? A question from Tim Mitchell at PUC: "The Pacific Union College Church is looking into starting a post-collegiate class.  One of the challenges of forming such a group is that "Extra Grace Required" people tend to show up and be disruptive in one way or another.  Do you have any advice for forming a healthy group to attract young adults, while managing those who are natural group killers? Contact Tim Mitchell at tmitchell@puc.edu."

From Bruce Babienco: A new set of Bible studies. "The new set of Bible Studies is called Lifting Up Jesus,and is published by Color Press in Washington State. The reason I was interested is that they claimed the new series of Bible Studies were field tested by giving them to 26 non-SDA's. Now hold your hat because of the 26 non-SDA's who took the lessons, 25 - you read it right - 25  became Seventh-day Adventists!"
Got a tool, resource, site, article, idea or seminar that you like a lot? Share it with us at BestPractices@ameritech.net.
Upcoming NAD Events

Do you have an event you'd like to invite NAD pastors to? Send details to BestPractices@Ameritech.net.
Best Practices is a Vervent publication of NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER. Editor: Loren Seibold, Senior Pastor, Worthington Ohio Seventh-day Adventist Church. E-mail: Best Practices. You are free to republish pieces from Best Practices in your own newsletter or blog, with attribution to the Best Practices newsletter and the author of the piece.