Those who are devoid of purpose will make the void their purpose. - Friedrich Nietzche In the last two articles, we explored a meaningful way to approach creation with emerging post-church culture. We have seen that in our contemporary age, two approaches to human origin exist. One is the modernist approach that places its faith in science a
Session presided by Artur A. Stele, General Conference Vice President Selected Reports on Mission G.T. Ng, Secretary of the General Conference Ng offered a brief historical incursion into the value Adventist pioneers placed on foreign missions. From the early phase of its existence, the Adventist church had a foreign mission board, chaired b
I want to leave, to go somewhere where I should be really in my place, where I would fit in… but my place is nowhere; I am unwanted. – Jean Paul Sartre In his debate with Ken Ham, American television presenter Bill Nye opened his remarks saying, “Here tonight we’re going to have two stories. And we can compare Mr. Ham’s story to the story fr
If there’s a God, why’d he make me? All of these flaws is all that I see. –Illenium & Call Me Karizma The ontological self-abandonment of God reveals that God is far from the self-interested being many religionists have made him out to be. Instead, God is other-centered. And yet, this very revelation drives us toward an ethereal riddle that tra
The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust. - Thomas Jefferson What are we talking about when we talk about God? The answer differs depending on who you are and who you are interacting with. For the traditional Christian talking about God revolves around exploring his attributes such as omnipotence
In his infinite mercy and love God has given us light from his word, and Christ says to us, “Freely ye have received, freely give.” Let the light God has given you shine forth to those in darkness. As you do this, heavenly angels will be beside you, helping you win souls for Christ. The Master is saying to us: “Come to me. Right counsel and sound j
"If we distance ourselves and our point of view, a culture will always look peculiar to us." — Shahar Fisher We are nearly ready to begin reimagining Adventism. So far, we have seen three very important points that call us to reimagine our evangelistic approach. The first is that the secular mind is immersed in absurdity—an experience most people o
“Fundamentalists live life with an exclamation point. I prefer to live my life with a question mark.” — Amos Oz The state of absurdity (the tension between meaninglessness and meaning) is a very real experience that must be understood and appreciated by Adventists if we wish to develop a meaningful approach to evangelism in the secular spher
“Meaningless! Meaningless! ... Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” — The Preacher, Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIV Through the years, I have developed a passion and desire to reach those whom the church fails to reach most often—the secular, western individual. I have read and written blogs and books on the topic, listened to and preached
24-year-old Rick is a young man full of life running around town catching up with his buddies. He works full time 5 days a week. He is old enough now to have seen life's up and downs and the consequences of the bad decisions others make. He has also learned from a few of his own mistakes. He realizes it’s time to start sorting himself out. But he k
