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  Moving Your Church: Becoming a Spirit-filled Community

  S. Joseph Kidder

  When did you last invite someone to attend church?

  Research reveals that only 2 percent of members invite an unchurched person to church in a given year. That means 98 percent of churchgoers never invite a seeker to church.

  If your church were to disappear, would the members of your community miss it?

  Seventy-five percent of the Seventh-day Adventist church members in North America who were asked this question responded, "They don't even know we are here." That's what happens when members view evangelism as something only pastors and professional evangelists do. Only when the members believe evangelism to be a way of life does the church begin to flourish.

  Moving Your Church was written to encourage and equip members and leaders to successfully carry out the vision and mission of Christ in their local community. Dr. Kidder offers us this encouragement:

  "Through the power of the Spirit, ordinary people like you and me can do extraordinary things for God." (publisher web site)

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  The Reformation and the Remnant

  Nicholas P. Miller

  In The Reformation and the Remnant, author Nicholas Miller examines crucial issues and questions facing the Adventist Church today through the lenses provided by the thoughts and ideas of various Protestant reformers. Miller discusses such topics as biblical authority and inspiration, the great controversy theme, religious liberty and public morality, last day events and Sunday laws, and righteousness by faith and perfection, as he reveals why the ideas that shaped the Christian church still matter.

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  Biblical Principles for Missiological Issues in Africa

  Bruce Bauer and Wagner Kuhn

  Students from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria and Brazil were part of an Andrews University Doctor of Ministry cohort that met at the Adventist University of Africa from 2011 to 2014. Chapter two in their dissertations focused on biblical principles that spoke to current cultural and ministry issues. Many of these chapters are shared with a wider audience in this book.

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  Understanding Ellen White: the Life and Work of the Most Influential Voice in Adventist History

  Merlin D. Burt

  The Seventh-day Adventist Church has become a truly global movement with almost twenty million members from diverse cultures and backgrounds; many of whom are unfamiliar with the history of God s leading and the prophetic ministry of Ellen White. While it does not attempt to provide the final answer for every question, Understanding Ellen White builds a foundation for interpreting her experience with God and her ministry. Basic to any understanding of Ellen White is her own walk with God. Two golden threads weave throughout her life and experience and are central to who she was and what she accomplished: the love of God in Christ and a focus on Scripture. When these two principles are correctly understood and integrated in examining Ellen White s life and experience, then all other issues addressed in this book are put in perspective. Perhaps the saddest reality regarding Ellen White s writings is that many dismiss them as irrelevant even before reading her work. A Kellogg s Corn Flakes advertisement from several years ago is apropos when applied to Ellen White s writings and ministry: whether you have lived with her writings your whole life or have never read her, the invitation is to taste them again for the very first time.

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  Current Issues in Priestly and Related Literature: The Legacy of Jacob Milgrom and Beyond

  Roy Gane and Ada Taggar-Cohn

  The single greatest catalyst and contributor to our developing understanding of priestly literature has been Jacob Milgrom (1923–2010), whose seminal articles, provocative hypotheses, and comprehensively probing books vastly expanded and significantly altered scholarship regarding priestly and related literature. Nineteen articles build on Milgrom’w work and look to future directions of research. Essays cover a range of topics including the interpretation, composition and literary structure of priestly and holiness texts as well as their relationships to deuteronomic and extra-biblical texts. The book includes a bibliography of Milgrom’s work published between 1994 and 2014.

  Features:

  • Comparisons with Mesopotamian Hittite texts
  • Essays from a diverse group of scholars representing a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and methodologies
  • Charts and tables illustrate complex relationships and structures

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  Questions and Answers About Women's Ordination

  Martin Hanna and Cindy Tutsch

  In Questions and Answers About Women's Ordination, Martin Hanna, PhD and Cindy Tutsch, Dmin take an indepth look at this much discussed issue of women's ordination in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Here is what many thought leaders in the church have to say about this work:

  I believe the Spirit of God has guided our community of faith into a prayerful, collective study of the role of women in gospel ministry. While church commissions and committees have already invested hundreds of hours in the study, this book's concise and clear Q & Q presentation will be an invaluable aid to all of us who seek God's will for our third millennial church. -- Dwight K. Nelson, Senior Pastor, Pioneer Memorial Church, Andrews University

  I believe that the editorial team for this book has been used mightly by God to provide an invaluable resource for the church. I highly recommend this work to all who are seeking solid, satisfying, biblically based answers to the key questions related to women's ordination. -- Richard M. Davidson, J. N. Andrews Professor of Old Testament Interpretation, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University

  If you are looking for understandable answers to the question of why Bible-believing Adventists support the ordination of women to pastoral ministry, this book is a great place to start. -- Teresa L. Reeve, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of New Testament Contexts, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University.

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  The Genesis Creation Account and Its Reverberations in the Old Testament

  Gerald A. Klingbeil

  How does the rest of the Bible relate to Genesis 1 and 2? Do the various biblical authors portray creation theologies that align or diverge? In this volume, ten scholars—each addressing a different section, genre, or topic from the Old Testament—grapple seriously with this question. Collectively, they find that the weight of the textual data of the Old Testament clearly portrays an overarching understanding and theology of creation that permeates every biblical genre and book. These findings should inform the thinking of every honest Christian, whether layperson, theologian, or scientist. At its core, creation theology is all about Who God is, who we are, what our destiny is, and how God chooses to save a world that is in direct rebellion to its Creator.

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  Church and Society: Missiological Challenges for the Seventh-day Adventist Church

  Rudi Maier

  The Church has a reservoir of wisdom and truth in the Bible, and a role to play in witnessing to that truth. The Bible is full of mandates and challenges that ask us, the disciples of Jesus Christ, to “Make our light shine, so that others may see our good works and give glory to our God in heaven” (Matt 5:16). The purpose of this book—written by 34 dedicated Christian scholars and community practitioners—is to help Christ’s church to understand how this “world” and the people who live in it think, feel, and react to some of the issues they face in their daily lives, and how to bring peace, justice and compassion to the society that surrounds our homes, churches, and communities. Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God (Matt 5:9).” Shalom, which we translate as peace means more than the absence of conflict. To live in shalom, as a peacemaker, means we actively live our lives in a way that brings healing, wholeness, harmony and well being to the lives of people we meet. This is not a prescriptive book that will provide answers to all the social and missiological woes in society (though there will be some guidelines for how to start various ministries). Instead, the authors have attempted to describe some of the problems that exist in our societies and churches and have encouraged the readers as individuals, as well as groups, to find their own answers to many of the issues raised. Some of the issues raised will not be comfortable to discuss in Church circles, but we all hope that they will be treated with the same respect and compassion that Jesus gives in response to each one of our needs.

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  The Love of God: A Canonical Model

  John C. Peckham

  "For God so loved the world . . ."

  We believe these words, but what do they really mean? Does God choose to love, or does God love necessarily? Is God's love emotional? Does the love of God include desire or enjoyment? Is God's love conditional? Can God receive love from human beings?

  Attempts to answer these questions have produced sharply divided pictures of God's relationship to the world. One widely held position is that of classical theism, which understands God as necessary, self-sufficient, perfect, simple, timeless, immutable and impassible. In this view, God is entirely unaffected by the world and his love is thus unconditional, unilateral and arbitrary.

  In the twentieth century, process theologians replaced classical theism with an understanding of God as bound up essentially with the world and dependent on it. In this view God necessarily feels all feelings and loves all others, because they are included within himself.

  In The Love of God, John Peckham offers a comprehensive canonical interpretation of divine love in dialogue with, and at times in contrast to, both classical and process theism. God's love, he argues, is freely willed, evaluative, emotional and reciprocal, given before but not without conditions. According to Peckham's reading of Scripture, the God who loves the world is both perfect and passible, both self-sufficient and desirous of reciprocal relationships with each person, so that "whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

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  Women and Ordination: Biblical and Historical Studies

  John W. Reeve

  "It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God." Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 322. "The biblical understanding of ordination is not that the act changes those who are set aside, but only that the church is acknowledging what God has already done by equipping them through the gifts of the Spirit." Jiri Moskala, dean, SDA Theological Seminary. "Wom­en's ordination to ministry does not violate the preservation of God's name, neither His pre­cepts written in the Holy Scriptures. Only two factors can limit the decision of the Adventist Church in favor of women's ordination: avoid­ing scandal and the hindrance of the evange­lizing mission to the world." Natanael B. P. Moraes, professor of applied theology, Adventist University of São Paulo, Brazil.

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  An Understanding of the Biblical View on Homosexual Practice and Pastoral Care: Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Position Paper

  Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

  The intent of this document is not to judge but to clearly set forth what Scripture teaches concerning homosexual practices and offer guidelines on how to interact with persons of same-sex orientation.

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  Servants and Friends: A Biblical Theology of Leadership

  Skip Bell

  Against the chatter of pop psychology and the latest list of must-have motivational habits, twenty Bible scholars and ministry professionals thoughtfully grapple with what the Scriptures, in their totality, actually have to teach us about the essence of true leadership. In Servants and Friends, Skip Bell and his team examine and correlate the breadth of evidence in the Old and New Testaments. They trace the nature of God's intent, and bring it all together in a fresh and challenging theological understanding that may radically alter what we have thought leadership really is.

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  Adventist Evangelistic Preaching

  Russell C. Burrill

  Whether you've preached hundreds of evangelistic sermons or you're preparing for your first, you'll find Adventist Evangelistic Preaching invaluable in making your presentations more persuasive, practical, and effective. In this book, Russell Burrill, veteran soul winner and evangelist, lays out the lessons he has learned over decades of evangelistic preaching and leads the reader, step by step, through every aspect of the evangelistic process from sermon preparation to calling for decisions.

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  Drinking at the Sources

  Jacques B. Doukhan

  The schism between Israel and the Christian Church is rooted in the most profound reality in history.

  When Jesus said that He was the Messiah, was His contention not to have consequences in a land occupied by Roman legions since 66 B. C.? In a land where leaders of resistance movements had regularly been proclaimed king and Messiah by their troops? Alas, messianic adventures were not uncommon in those times! Many of them ended in atrocious massacres.

  Drinking at the Sources separates historical fact from fiction in an attempt to discover what was responsible for the hatred between early Christians and Jews that carries on to this day. It seeks to identify, from each side’s viewpoint, the decisive factors and arguments both sides have used in constructing seemingly insurmountable walls.

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  The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia

  Denis Fortin and Jerry Moon

  This masterwork brings together hundreds of articles that describe the people and events in the life of Ellen White, as well as her stand on numerous topics. Everything from the hymns Ellen White loved to the homes she lived in are covered in heavily referenced articles. You’ll find a detailed chronology of her life and extensive articles on her ministry, her theology, and her statements in the light of advancing scientific knowledge. Whether you’re preparing a sermon, teaching a class, or finding answers to personal questions, this single resource has the answers you need.

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  Youth Speak: The Church Listens

  Kenley D. Hall and S. Joseph Kidder

  Twenty-three participants invested three days in October 2012 to brainstorm as a think tank on the topic of keeping and reclaiming youth in the Seventh-day Adventist church. The group was composed of pastors, researchers, practitioners, and academics.

  Three subtopics quickly emerged in the discussions. The first one dealt with why 50% of youth and young adults are leaving the church. Second, the groups dealt with how to keep them in the church. The final topic was how to reclaim those who left.

  This book includes papers and resources featured at the conference:

  • The Youth Speak: Research papers dealing with why some youth and young adults leave the church and some stay, and how to attract more of them to come back.
  • The Church Responds: Case studies of churches that are attracting youth and young adults back to the church. This section includes several reflection papers on specific churches that are successfully reaching the younger generation.
  • Appendices: Papers dealing with Church of Refuge, an association of churches devoted to actively keeping youth and bringing back those who have left.

  Among the 10 papers included in this book, you will find powerful ministry ideas presented by Roger Dudley, Barry Gane, Ron Whitehead and Jeff Boyd, and more. Topics include building a church that retains its young adults, how to attract young adults to the church, and creating a culture of acceptance.

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  Madaba Plains Project 6: The 1996 and 1998 Seasons at Tall al-'Umayri and Subsequent Studies

  Larry G. Herr, Douglas R. Clark, Lawrence T. Geraty, Oystein S. LaBianca, and Randall W. Younker

  This volume reports on the 1996 and 1998 seasons of the excavations at Tall al-‘Umayri and vicinity conducted by a consortium of colleges and universities principally sponsored by Andrews University.

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  The Concept of Divine Love in the Context of the God-World Relationship

  John C. Peckham

  The Concept of Divine Love in the Context of the God-World Relationship addresses the significant and far-reaching theological conflict over the nature of God’s love, which is deeply rooted in broader conflicts regarding divine ontology and the nature of the God-world relationship. After engaging the traditional historical theology of love and recent exemplars of competing and influential conceptions of divine love, John C. Peckham seeks an alternative to the impasse by an extensive inductive investigation of the entire biblical canon in accordance with a final-form canonical approach to systematic theology, offering an alternative model of divine love that draws on the richness of the biblical text as canon and holds considerable implications for the God-world relationship.

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  Quality Research Papers For Students of Religion and Theology

  Terry Dwain Robertson and Nancy Jean Vyhmeister

  This updated third edition of Quality Research Papers—fast becoming a standard reference textbook for writing research papers in the fields of religion and theology—gives improvements and added material for such things as the expanding field of online research and doing church-related research in a professional manner.

  Because so many new developments have taken place in the field of research, especially in terms of electronic research, this handy reference explores the ways to do research on the internet, including how to document such research.

  Quality Research Papers offers great opportunities to students today, especially in distant learning situations, to determine which resources can be used and which should be rejected. For this reason Nancy Vyhmeister brought in Terry Robertson, Seminary Librarian at Andrews University and professor of the seminary master’s level research courses. His expertise in library, computers, and the Internet are invaluable to the book.

  In addition to substantial, current information on electronic resources and online research, this third edition preserves all of the features of the original editions, now presented in a newly revised, more logical order.

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  Cleansing the Sanctuary of the Heart: Tools for Emotional Healing

  David Sedlacek and Beverly Sedlacek

  Struggling to pluck the sin from your life but having trouble conquering your past? Biblical counseling is a resource for Christians who need help locating the sin in their lives and cutting it out. David and Beverly Sedlacek offer the truths they have learned through years of clinical practice in this comprehensive guide to Cleansing the Sanctuary of the Heart. This book is a distillation of the biblical principles the Sedlaceks have used to heal others who have sought counseling for addictions, mental and emotional disorders, relationship problems, and abuse.

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  On the Unique Headship of Christ in the Church: A Statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

  Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

  We, the faculty of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, affirm that Christ is the only Head of the Church (Eph 1:22; 5:23; Col 1:18). Therefore, while there exists legitimate leadership in the Church, no other human being may rightfully claim a headship role in the Church. As Head of the Church, Christ provides the ultimate manifestation of God’s love (Eph 5:23, 25), demonstrating and vindicating God’s moral government of love (Rom 3:4, 25-26 5:8), and thus defeating the counterfeit government of the usurping “ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 16:11; cf. DA 758; 2T 2:211).

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  Adventist Maverick: A Celebration of George R. Knight’s Contribution to Adventist Thought

  Gilbert M. Valentine and Woodrow W. Whidden

  Dr. George R. Knight is a man on a mission. He wants people to know by experience the riches of God’s grace in Christ.

  Knight is an accomplished speaker and teacher, but writing has been his primary mode of communication. He began with the history and philosophy of Christian education and then added the history and theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He has also taken special interest in growing the church’s understanding of Ellen White and how her writings should be interpreted and applied.

  Adventist scholars admire Knight’s penchant for treating controversial issues such as the Shut Door, the 1888 General Conference, the 1901 reorganization, and Ellen White’s inspiration in an open, honest, and balanced way. At times, his method has reached beyond the controversial to the shocking. One of his books bears the name Myths in Adventism; a chapter in his book on the Crucifixion is called “The Bible’s Most Disgusting Teaching”; and he titled one of his articles “Adolf Hitler and Ellen White ‘Agree’ on the Purposes of Adventist Education.”

  But Knight doesn’t shock merely for effect. He does it to get people’s attention despite the noise that today’s culture has accustomed them.

  This book is a collection of writings that give a great overview of Dr. George R. Knight's many outstanding contibutions to the Seventh-day Adventist church. Topics covered are the issues of a hermeneutic for understanding and applying Ellen White’s writings, Christology, last-generation perfectionism, substitution and sacrifice as more than mere metaphors, and Ellen White’s counsels on lifestyle as based on principle rather than rigid literalism.

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  Beyond Imagination

  John Templeton Baldwin, Jerry D. Thomas, and L. James Gibson

  In this book, we will explore some of the wonders of the universe and of life on our little planet. But most importantly, we will explore the wonder of our own existence. Since the earliest days of human history, people have struggled with the big questions of life. Why are we here? Where are we going? What happens to us when we die?

  Some people believe that science offers all the answers we seek; others feel that science leaves them empty. It doesn't offer answers for some of the deepest longings of the human heart. But that doesn't mean that those answers can't be found.

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  ¿Adventismo Secular?: Cómo Entender la Relación entre Estiol de Vida y Salvación

  Fernando Canale

  Cualquier observador de la historia y la cultura adventista del séptimo día sabe que el estilo de vida adventista está cambiando profundamente. Las diferencias entre la iglesia y el mundo parecen diluirse. ¿Por qué los adventistas abandonan su estilo de vida característico y adoptan el de la cultura que los rodea? En este libro, Fernando Canale responde a esta inquietante pregunta invitándonos a analizar las causas detrás de la separación teológica y práctica que existe entre la vida cotidiana del creyente y la salvación, lo cual resulta en la creciente secularización del estilo de vida adventista. También explica con claridad los fundamentos bíblicos que conducen a la conclusión de que el estilo de vida forma parte de la experiencia de la salvación. Finalmente sugiere formas que pueden ayudar a los pastores, líderes y laicos adventistas a ocuparse en un ministerio donde la salvación y el estilo de vida cristiano se produzcan como una experiencia indivisible.

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  Secular Adventism?: Exploring the link between Lifestyle and Salvation

  Fernando Canale

  Any casual observer of the history and culture of Seventh-day Adventism knows that Adventist lifestyle is undergoing a profound transformation. The differences between the church and the world appear to blur. Why are Adventists renouncing their characteristic lifestyle and adopting that of popular culture? In this book, Fernando Canale addresses this perturbing question inviting us to analyze the causes behind the theological and practical separation that exist between salvation and the believer's everyday lifestyle. He also clearly explains the biblical foundations that lead to the conclusion that lifestyle forms part of the experience of salvation. Finally, he suggests methods that might assist pastors, leaders and lay Adventists to become involved in a ministry where salvation and Christian lifestyle are the result of an indivisible experience. --back cover