May 24, 2014, Alex Bryan, the newly reinstated pastor of the Walla Walla University, gave a startling presentation. All sanctuary windows were shuttered and taped leaving the congregation in complete darkness during a 22-minute sermon followed by an additional 2 minutes of silent darkness. His sermon advocated the necessity of darkness for us to completely communicate with God in prayer.
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Laurie is the GLOW leader of her local church. Every year she goes with a childrens' ministry at her church, called Helping Hands, to distribute GLOW tracts at the local fair. This year Laurie and the kids ran into some trouble. The fair officials said they would not be allowed to distribute tracts to people everywhere on the fairgrounds, but that they would be restricted to a booth space.
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The manner in which these resolutions were processed brought disappointment instead of the respectful dialog and decisions we’d prayed for. We are left seeking understanding of the underlying issues that divide—and God’s answers to them.
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There is one argument for female ordination that always struck me as having considerable merit. It goes like this...
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The word biker conjures wild images of long-haired men sporting weathered leather cuts with skulls and crossbones tattooed on every inch of their body. So imagine what some pastors think when approached about starting a biker ministry at their church. Some embrace the idea, but others can’t get past the image of the Hells Angels sitting in their pews, dropping cocaine in the offering plate and insisting the tattoo parlor move next door.
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Carson told the Weekly Standard this week that he’s “starting to feel” a tug to possibly run for national office, highlighting the intense response he gets when he travels around the country speaking about contemporary issues.
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Bill Krick shares how he was able to touch a woman's heart by sharing GLOW tracts with her while he was setting up an account at the bank.
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On March 5th, Rich McCune, counsel for the LSU-3 (Beach, Bradley, and Kaatz), had a bad day in court. Riverside County law & motion Judge Edward D. Webster not only threw out the plaintiffs' case, he made McCune stay after school so he could tell Mr. McCune what he really thought of his case and his clients, “I think this case is extraordinarily ill-advised for a lot of different reasons."
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The Northern California Conference (NCC) 2014 constituency session is scheduled for May 18th of this year. Several churches have drafted additional agenda items to be discussed, including evolution, homosexuality, and women's ordination. These proposals are simply urging the conference delegates to vote to comply with the Bible and General Conference policy.
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Two stone altars frame their outline against the evening sky on a world newly touched by the impact of evil. The lush green grass, recently invaded by the thistle, bear silent witness to the depth of disobedience. Sin was here!
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The Southern California city of Pasadena has suspended its public health director, Dr. Eric Walsh, while it investigates statements the Seventh-day Adventist lay preacher allegedly made in several sermons.
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Southern California Conference (SCC) released a statement Tuesday distancing itself from the controversy surrounding past comments made by Pasadena Public Health Director and SDA associate pastor Dr. Eric Walsh regarding homosexuals, Catholics and Muslims. SCC spokeswoman Betty Cooney said, "[H]e does not hold ministerial credentials from the Adventist Church, does not speak on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, and as far as we know, does not represent his views as anything other than his own.”
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Do you love Jesus? Do you love yourself? Do you love yourself more than you love Jesus? What are you doing to strengthen your relationship with the One who sacrificed His life for yours?
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City of Pasadena's Public Health Director Eric Walsh, who is also an associate pastor at the Altadena Seventh-day Adventist Church, has come under intense criticism for comments made in sermons he delivered in church. Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck has placed Dr. Walsh on paid administrative leave while the city investigates his sermons.
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“I lost the baby”, Kris said, eyes red-rimmed and shame filled. “I feel so horrible and so relieved at the same time.” We were cross-legged in a peeling red vinyl booth in my small Arkansas town’s fish house. I was ill-equipped for this kind of situation, but then so was she. Kris was 17 and suffering from a lifetime’s worth of poor choices—some made by her, some of them made by others that affected her.
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Fifty-eight gray t-shirt clad travelers with bleary eyes and excited faces stepped off the buses into the crisp air 4,681 miles away from home. We had arrived in Peru! Our group consisting of high school students, parents, and teachers from Fresno Adventist Academy, along with others from the community, had traveled from Fresno, California, to join Quiet Hour Ministries to share Jesus in Urcos, Pinipampa, Cusipata, and Quiquijana, Peru from March 12-24. None of us knew exactly what to expect, but we were hungry for an adventure with God. What would He do with twelve days of surrendered service to Him? Here are just a few ways God worked on this trip.
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La Sierra University's student paper asked, “Are we the black sheep?” The theme of the 2013 holiday issue was identity--La Sierra's identity. Criterion editor Jonah Valdez kicked the issue off with a reference to David Read’s article “The failure of the Adventist Accrediting Association." After a brief summary of Read’s arguments, Valdez asked La Sierra students if Read’s critical remarks disturbed or angered them in some way.
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I am pleased to inform you that ADvindicate has just passed an important milestone today--1,000,000 pageviews. Thanks to each one of you for your faithfulness and interest in ADvindicate.
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Jesus declared in the synagogue at Nazareth, “Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country” (Luke 4:24). The Gospel of John records this statement with a slight variation: “A prophet hath no honor in his own country” (John 4:44).
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I was blessed by the time I spent with you at the recent TOSC, when we sat together for breakfast. I enjoyed hearing your conversion story, and seeing your commitment to the Sabbath. It was instructive to learn how you and your wife worked through a difference in understanding of proper Sabbath observance without it dividing your home. I recognized we share a common desire to understand and follow truth, wherever it may lead.
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