Marriage, Homosexuality, and the Church Conference

Marriage, Homosexuality, and the Church Conference recently concluded at Andrews University. For those who could not attend, here are a number of posts by David Hamstra on Apokalupto:

• Reflictions On The Homosexuality Conference
• Interview: Nicholas Miller
• Top Five: Things I Learned At The Homosexuality Conference
• Blogging the Homosexuality Conference [this has extensive links to coverage on other blogs and sites]

Spectrum: Walter Wink Video

Spectrum posted a presentation by Walter Wink on 2 November 2009 — Walter Wink: Nonviolence for the Violent (Alexander Carpenter).

In the comments section, I listed this article by Wink: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/7227. Greg added, “I’d like to put in a good word also for Wink’s award-winning trilogy on ‘The Powers,’ especially the first, and thinnest, volume.”

Movember

In October we focused on fighting breast cancer and abuse of women. In November we shift to prostate and testicular cancer. That’s right–Movember.

Here’s an explanation from the LA Times for those not yet initiated in the ways of the ’stache (Adam Tschorn, 1 Nov 2009):

It’s been derided as a soup strainer, cookie duster, lip spinach and even face fungus, but if Australian expat Adam Garone has his way, each November the maligned mustache will become as potent a symbol in the fight against cancer as the pink ribbons that blossom each October in support of breast cancer awareness.

“I call it our hairy ribbon,” said Garone, explaining that supporters of the movement start the month of “Movember” (“mo” is Aussie slang for mustache) cleanshaven and, for the next 30 days, cultivate the facial forest between nose and mouth (no beards and no goatees, please) as a way to raise money and awareness in the battle against prostate and testicular cancers. [more]

My co-conspirator, Travis, first introduced me to Movember. Here’s a shot of him in all of last year’s glory. Truly scary, just like male cancers can be.

In a fund-raising/promo email, Travis explained more about Movember:

The funds we raise during our Moustache journey go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG).

What many people don’t know is that 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime and that testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 18-35.  Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved.

To join my Movember team called Strategic Mo’s go to http://us.movember.com/register/22048.

Once registered you’ll be sent all the information needed to get donations and get growing as part of my Movember team.

Resources for Learning More and Getting Involved

• http://us.movemberfoundation.com/movember-campaign/
• http://www.movember.com/
• http://movember.org/
• http://twitter.com/movember
• http://www.flickr.com/people/movemberphoto/
• http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org/site/c.itIWK2OSG/b.3256365/k.DA5F/Movember.htm

Lakeview SDA Church Cheers for a Cure

October is not only National Domestic Violence Awareness Month,

it’s also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Pastor Jose Bourget was preaching at his new church in Chicago when he noticed a large event going on outside. Avon’s Walk for Breast Cancer route went directly in front of the church. The next year when he saw the 3,000 walkers coming by the church again, he admitted to the congregation, “We should be out there with them, not in here.”

True to his word, Jose contacted Avon to see how they could participate. By the next year they were an official cheering section for the walkers; thus was born We Cheer.

Members of surrounding SDA churches were invited to come encourage participants. Fifty to seventy-five showed up, and they were joined by approximately 200 Avon cheerers. The event went so well that they ramped it up for the next year with balloons, noise makers and snacks. Through this involvement with the community, Pr Jose was invited to become the Faith-based Coordinator with the local police district.

The Lakeview SDA Church is also involved in community service in other ways. For example, they recently hosted a wellness day where they provided free health services, including massage and a number of medical tests — blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, computerized health age, and peak air flow. The Harvard STEP test was also given, and three doctors offered health counseling. Next year even more services are planned. The church did not have all of these resources, but functioned as a broker to bring the volunteers and professionals together to serve the community.

I’ll also mention the Thanksgiving meal the church helps provide for roughly 200 refugees each year. This feast is hosted by the North Shore SDA Church and is served in conjunction with Oasis, a group of SDA young adults across Chicagoland. To further serve the refugees, the North Shore Stars Pathfinder Club times their food drive to end just before the event so the collection can be given to the guests.

May we all look for creative ways like these to serve our communities. How could your church partner with other local congregations? There’s a lot of love to go around!

NOTE: All pictures retrieved from the Lakeview SDA Church website and used by permission.

NATIONAL BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION

National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This is an issue for the Adventist Church, not just the “other.”

Websites & Articles

• 

• Adventist church, ADRA launch campaign to stop violence against women (Adv News Network)
• End It Now (ADRA site & campaign). This looks like brilliant work; so we hope to see it be amazingly successful. How can you get involved?
• End it Now Video (Adventists about Life, YouTube channel).
• Abuse in the Adventist Church (René Drumm, Ph.D., Marciana Popescu, M.S.W., Ph.D., Gary Hopkins, M.D., & Linda Spady, Adventist Review)

Partnership or Proselytizing in Benton Harbor: An Adventist Case Study

I sat in chapel, a senior at Andrews University, watching in horror as a friend of mine performed a skit advertising Campus Ministries’ Outreach in a struggling town 20 minutes from campus. He sat on a couch on Pioneer Memorial Church’s stage pretending to cry and, when a friend asked why he was upset, sobbed, “Because I’m from Benton Harbor!” His friend answered, “Well, Benton Harbor is the second most depressed city in the United States.” They then invited students to come to Benton Harbor Sabbath afternoon and make a difference in the lives of those in need.

Benton Harbor, those connected to Andrews University will recall, is (39%) poor and (92%) black. Both actors on stage were upper-middle class, white, and not from Benton Harbor or the surrounding area. I had worked in Benton Harbor for a Habitat for Humanity affiliate, was currently an Obama campaign intern in Benton Harbor, and felt a bit protective. I didn’t like that students with little understanding of the Benton Harbor’s background had the gall to mock it as a means to entice other students to volunteer. Further, I was annoyed that the volunteering undertaken on Saturday afternoons, going door to door praying with people and witnessing, playing with and providing programming for kids, was largely religious in a town which is probably more religious than any of the wealthier, white towns surrounding it. I felt this was patronizing and possibly racist.

I’ve since graduated, and am again working in Benton Harbor for Harbor Habitat for Humanity. I feel great affection for this eccentric, messy town, and hate to see it degraded and simplified. With this in mind I wrote a fairly long essay critiquing Andrews University’s involvement in Benton Harbor. When I finished the essay, I went back and read what Andrews’ Campus Ministries is currently doing in Benton Harbor and nearly said out-loud, “Well, that’s not actually so bad.” Andrews is undertaking soft community development – development which may not work, and which AU will not be able to take responsibility for if it does happen, but which, especially the mentoring of young people, may have subjective positive effects. Some of the multi-million dollar state development projects can’t even be said to have had those.

Below is the beginning of the article – the rest will be available through a link to my blog, notesfromthefault.blogspot.com. If you choose to read it, read it as a provocation – I do not think that Andrews University harmful to Benton Harbor, just not as good as it should be. And paternalism is a real threat. I still have not heard a meaningful reason why AU should send young people to witness in Benton Harbor and not in the middle class and wealthy communities surrounding it. If you have any thoughts, let me know:

Development work is not simple. Missionary work is not simple either, but in missionary work there is the same, clear objective in most projects. A good bit of the time, barring extensive cultural barriers, war, or oppressive governments, methodologies for missionary work can be similar. Take away language barriers and things get even easier. If it is possible to drive twenty minutes from the comfort of home to undertake missionary work, all the better. (Read More)

Web Roundup

SDA Articles/Posts

ONE Sabbath Campaign (Doug Morgan, Peace Messenger, 19 Sep 09)

The ONE Sabbath campaign launched on September 16 with the purpose of mobilizing people of faith to address the issue of extreme poverty and preventable diseases.  Find out more from the clip below and at www.ONE.org/ONESabbath.

T.R.M. Howard – Adventist Physician and Civil Rights Activist (Doug Morgan, Peace Messenger,30 Aug 09)

Dr. Howard was a graduate of Union College and the College of Medical Evangelists at Loma Linda. The North American Informant described him in 1966 as “a physician, civic leader, and humanitarian” who “has long been associated with, and has been a friend of Seventh-day Adventists” (Mar.-Apr 1966, p. 5).

Conference on Innovation, Day One (Rachel Davies, Spectrum, 5 Oct 09)

Dr. Michael Lindsay began by making clear to us the difference between creativity and innovation: creativity develops ideas; innovation implements them…. [W]e must create a revolution or “culture” of innovation within our institutions (i.e. the church). That we don’t have to swim upstream.”

Adventism I can believe in (Ryan Bell, Spectrum, 21 Sep 09)

What I ultimately long for is an Adventist Christianity that is open enough, theologically, to allow God’s people to follow the movements of God’s Spirit in response to the challenges we face today.

It’s Really All About God (Nathan Brown, Adventist Today, 28 Sep 09)

Selmanovic has sought to model this approach to those of other faiths in the form of Faith House Manhattan, a multi-faith ministry project he founded in New York City. Described as “an experiment in the kingdom of God,” Faith House seeks to create a space in which believers from the world’s three major monotheistic religions can worship together, learn from each other’s traditions and serve together in the world.

Moltmann on the Mystical Experience of the Sabbath (Ryan Bell, Intersections, 28 Aug 09)
American Civil Religion and the Theology of Hope (Ryan Bell, Intersections, 28 Aug 09)

“‘God bless America’ is often heard on the lips of American presidents. But whether God blesses America will become apparent when it emerges whether America is a blessing for the peoples of the world, or their burden and curse; for one is blessed only in order to be a blessing oneself” (Moltmann, A Broad Place, 144).

The Truth About Government-run Health Care (Monte Sahlin, Faith in Context, 2 Sep 09)

“Medicare recipients fare better than not only the uninsured, but also the privately insured.” In fact, the privately insured had 25 percent more deaths (within a week of hospital admission) than the older group covered by government-run health care!

Multi-Generational Church Leadership (Marcel Schwantes, Reinventing the Adventist Wheel, 1 Oct 09)

How many relationships with people of different generations do folks at your church have? If the answer is “not many” or “none” then it’s time to investigate the kinds of activities and events that are actually relationship building.

Sleeth on Sabbath — Catalyst Conference ‘09 (Adventists for the Environment, 8 Oct 09)

Let’s remember the real victims (My Fenhop, 22 Sep 09)

Canning, and other old-fashioned ideas (Tentative Kansan, 15 Sep 09)

Roadside Pet Rescue (Tentative Kansan, 4 Sep 09)

Saturday Potpourri (Jeff’s Peace & Justice Journal, 10 Oct 09) [added 10 Oct 09]

Other Articles

Facebook: A Conversation on Discipleship

Here’s a Facebook conversation from the weekend:

Jeff: On Luke 14:25 “…whereas modern churchmanship tries to make membership attractive to the great number, Jesus was here moving away from the crowd…. [T]o be a disciple is to share in that style of life of which the cross is the culmination.” J Yoder, The Politics of Jesus, p. 38

Any thoughts on that?

Charles: Yes, but a disciple for the larger community…which contradicts that

Jeff: I just came across this article (YW tweet) where Rob Bell partially speaks to this. Maybe this is similar to what you meant by the larger community, Charles (Red, AIDS…). Maybe not. http://www.youthworker.com/resources/ministry/11609276/

Jeff: Earlier tonight I read in Peace on Earth (Grassi) on Luke 12:51-52, “His message is not that of external complacency that avoids conflict, dissension, and disagreement. The Word of God in the prophets tended to polarize people…. Likewise, followers of Jesus who stand up for their values of true peace resulting from nonviolent but positive action will meet with strong opposition…

As a prophet, Jesus had to go to the capital city with his message about good news for the poor as a priority. Yet he knew this meant risking his life” (p. 123).

I’d like to change the last sentence to something like “And he knew this meant offering up his life, which was his ultimate mission.” But my desire to edit probably detracts from the main point.

What am I willing to give of my life for the work described in Jesus’ mission statement (Luke 4:18-21) — deliver “good news” to the poor (economichumanrights.org [+ micahchallenge.us]), release captives (amnesty.org), recover sight (doctorswithoutborders.org [+ physiciansforpeace.org]), free the oppressed (ijm.org & cpt.org), and proclaim jubilee/cancel debts (data.org)?

Brad: Christ attracted the multitudes during His lifetime like moths to a Light. His Words, wondrous works and good deeds to society’s outcasts caught their attention (in Scripture, much of Christ’s life is devoted to serving and healing vs. “preaching”).

Training: Community Organizing

Monte Sahlin submitted the following announcement about community organizing training that he will be offering in the spring. Sounds excellent. –Jeff

I have just started the sixth year of teaching for the Tony Campolo Graduate School at Eastern University in the M.A. in Urban Studies program. Each fall I teach a course in Community Organizing. In the spring I teach a course in Foundations of Community Development, and I teach (optional) courses in Grantsmanship and Disaster Response from time to time.

This fall we are doing something quite different. I am teaching the course on Thursday evenings via Webinar technology on the Internet. Prior to this the course was taught in an intensive, week-long residency with the students taking the rest of the semester to do the reading, write their papers and do their assignments. I also have 20 students this year; I have never had more than 9 in past years.

I was trained as a community organizer by the L.A. branch of the Industrial Areas Foundation in 1971-72. In addition to training many pastors, lay leaders and student interns over the years, I have previously taught the same course for Penn State University and the Center for Metropolitan Ministry at what is now Washington Adventist University.

Next spring I plan to teach the course via Webinar as an open, non-credit class because of the many people over the years who have asked if they could get this course without being enrolled as a grad student. I would encourage people to pass on this information and ask those who may be interested to contact me via Email at msahlin@creativeministry.org so they can get the specifics.

Adv Today: Reviews

Adventist Today has had two reviews recently that may be of interest to you.

Film Review: Food, Inc. (Reviewed by Tompaul Wheeler)

Book Review: Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. (Reviewed by Jeff Boyd–me)