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How Do You Answer the Press When One of Your Members Runs for President?
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During the 2016 US presidential campaign, Chad Stuart, Senior Pastor of the Spencerville Adventist Church, received a daily barrage of questions from the media about one of his members, Ben Carson, who was running for president. In an interview with CALLED magazine, Chad shares how he used this opportunity to share the mission of the Adventist church without exposing his church to the seedy side of politics. This is one of dozens of stories on local church communication featured in 1Q16 CALLED Digital Magazine for Clergy. Read More
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 When I met with Troy and his fianc� a couple of months ago, they had not yet nailed down a venue or exact time for the big event, so I called Troy to see how things were going. We chatted a few minutes about wedding details, then he turned the conversation. Was there any chance he and another young man could join me for a day on snowshoes in the mountains. What makes this conversation remarkable is that the Troy is an atheist. Why did Troy, the atheist, ask an old Adventist pastor to officiate at his wedding? Why would he and his agnostic friend want to spend time in the mountains with me? Read More |
3 Reasons Why I Don't Want My Child To Be A Pastor
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As you may or may not know, my wife Sarah and I are expecting a little baby boy in mid-May! Yes, we're super excited and have even started keeping a daily journal to write to him. The hope is that he'll read it when he's older. We'll all cry from all the love. It'll be a great day. Being our first child, there are so many questions that we have about parenting and much of it can really be overwhelming.
Although the due date is a few months away, I'm writing my first actual parenting article today. One of the most common questions that I heard before the pregnancy (besides "So, when are you guys having a baby?") was, "Wouldn't it be great if your child were to grow up to be a pastor?" I'm sure that these inquiries are well-meaning and said with the best of intentions. Being a pastor's kid myself, though, there is a lot of baggage that gets brought up internally when I hear that question. Read More
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As I was making breakfast today Dylan came out in a suit asking if I'd help tie his tie. It's spirit week at school and I knew it was hero day. Dylan has lots of super hero costumes that he plays with so I asked him, "What's up with the suit?" He said his heroes are pastors.
Benji Fergusen is youth pastor for the Carmichael church in Sacramento, California
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5 Simple Ways to Deal
With the Media:
Thanks to Donald Trump
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"I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don't know about. I just don't know about." Those are the words spoken by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that threw the doors wide open to the media. He was questioning the faith of fellow GOP candidate, Dr. Ben Carson.
It didn't take long for national media to walk right through that door. Immediately news organizations began to ask, "Who are the Seventh-day Adventists?" Read More
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Events, Resources, Announcements
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A Christian Netflix? - Disapointed by the lack of quality, online streaming options for his family, Edward Veve, a member of Pennsylvania Conference's Landsdale church, created Morningstar Video, a Christian subscription DVD and streaming service with Sabbath-appropriate content for families.
Seven Ways Churches Should Die With Dignity - It is estimated that 14 churches die every single day in America. So what can we offer the leaders of dying churches? How can we help them help their churches die with dignity? Here are seven recommendations from Thom Rainer-
Seven Things to Do After You Look at Pornography - A lot of Christian advice about porn addicts is unhelpful-meaning, it doesn't contribute to real progress in repentance, healing, restoration and recovery. Most of all, it fails to address the issues that underlie porn use. Often, Christian advice either has its head in the clouds of theology and biblical references, or is a list of superficial how-tos, and gets knocked beneath the sand of real life-of failure, and the struggle to hope. How is the gospel relevant to failing and trying again? And failing and trying again? And failing and trying again?
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