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Volume 2, Issue 1 (2024)Read More

The Next Big Thing

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Articles
1 June 2023

A New Opportunity: Transforming Trauma

David Sedlacek
Researchers and church administrators have a long-term interest in the stresses experienced by clergy and how these stressors relate to the ability of the clergy to minister effectively. Many of these stressors occur in pastors’ families of origin prior to ministry. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are forms of trauma that have long-term negative effects on one’s physical, mental/emotional, spiritual/relational, and behavioral health. This article describes research on the effects of ACEs and reports the preliminary results of the first three years of a longitudinal study of ACEs on Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) seminary students. It makes recommendations designed to positively affect the state of pastoral ministry in the SDA Church. Trauma-informed pastors discover how to overcome the negative effects of trauma on themselves, which enables them to create trauma-informed congregations.
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Articles
1 January 2024

A Vision for End Time Youth Ministries

Ricardo Bain
God has entrusted Seventh-day Adventists with a special task of encircling the world with relevant streams of light, from the Bible, to prepare all people, everywhere on this planet, for his return. This means all people are to be solicited with our end-time message. Present truth is always particularly pertinent at a given time and place. Including youth in extracting and expressing present truth is critical to propelling it. This paper is a plea to re-vision and envision what transformative ministry to and with youth could look like in the time of the end.
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Articles
1 January 2024

Divine Attachment as a Context for Discipleship Transformation in Youth

Kristina Freed
O ne of the most profound human lifespan needs, especially among youth, is to have a worthy purpose for living. A growing body of research has identified a serious discrepancy between a Christian’s doctrinal and experiential knowledge of God, leading to disengagement from the practice of discipleship. This may be related, in part, to an unfortunate null curriculum rooted in the assumption that believers understand God in such a way that predisposes them to a discipleship lifestyle. This paper suggests that the missing relational context and the discrepancy between doctrinal and experiential knowledge of God may be remedied by an intentional study of a biblical model of divine attachment that combines a positive doctrine about God that inherently supports a positive experience with him.
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Articles
1 June 2023

Purposely Changing Church Culture when a Pandemic Forces Church Change: How the COVID Pandemic Impacted One Large SDA Church

Steve Case, Benji Ferguson
T he Carmichael SDA Church, located in the suburbs of Sacramento, California, seemed to be a gem in the Northern California Conference, with the largest membership, highest tithe, and largest pastoral staff. The pandemic put a halt to most of this church’s ministry, exposing some weaknesses and preventing the ministry it had developed over the years. Simultaneously, new forms of ministry sprung forth because of the sudden changes. The long-term impact of the pandemic challenges this church to move forward in new ways rather than attempting a restart as though nothing happened. This is a case study of how one congregation responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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