SDA Articles

It’s been quite a while since I put together a reading list. Here it is: Volunteers in Action: Mike Kontes (Maranatha video, N.D.) A Cinderella Story (NAPS, N.D.) Washington Church Reaches Out to Migrant Farm Workers & Immigrants (Adv Today, 21 Apr 2012) Adventist Students Protest Chinese Industrial Development in the Solomon Islands (Adv Today, [...]

SDA Potpourri

Faith in the Public Sector? Young Adventist Professionals Speak Out (NARLA) Valley View University’s green campus [video] (ANN, 24 Feb 2012) Dangerous Redefinition: Candidates Recast Role of Religion in American Life (Jason Hines, Religious Liberty.TV, 24 Feb 2012) When Women Break the Bread of Life (Donna J. Haerich, Spectrum, 23 Feb 2012) A House Divided [...]

New Spectrum Series on Community Organizing

Introducing a New Monthly Series: On Mission and Chavez (Geoffrey Nelson-Blake, Spectrum, 30 Jan 2012) Once a month throughout 2012 I’ll be sharing stories on the Spectrum blog of how organized people are putting their faith into action in the public sphere, from issues as local as street safety to national issues such as the [...]

God’s Kingdom and Righteousness

“Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness/justice* (Matt. 6:33).” What does this mean to you? What does it look like? How does one do this? *NOTE: for more on translating justice/righteousness, see: http://concordances.org/greek/1343.htm http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/kjv/tsedeq.html http://www.basden.demon.co.uk/xn/tsedeq.html http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/TBv2i5_Fosterjustice.pdf (PDF) Now back to the main question: How do we seek God’s kingdom and righteousness/justice?

Early Church

Two quotes to think about followed by reflection from Alan Kreider: “We do not preach great things, but we live them.” — Minucius Felix (late 2nd or early 3rd century CE; Roman Christian apologist) “Why do we not observe that it is their [the Christians'] benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the [...]

Boulder (CO) & Project 5:2

Boulder SDA Church & Social Justice Kevin Bowen and I recently had a conversation via Skype regarding social justice. Kevin is a pastor at the Boulder SDA Church (CO), and he wanted to include portions of our conversation for a sermon to be preached there (Project 5:2). He warned me about some of the questions, [...]

Viewpoints: Bruce Boyd (Adv Today)

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a relative–Bruce Boyd–for the Viewpoints interview series at Adventist Today. We talked about conflict since he teaches conflict resolution at Canadian University College. Here’s an excerpt: Jeff: What advice do you have for the North American church regarding how to discuss sensitive issues like creation and evolution, homosexuality [...]

Faith beyond Borders — Adv Today Review

My review of Faith beyond Borders is now posted at Adventist Today. Though this statement does not appear in said review: I loved this book. Read it, yo. Art Gish, a life-long peace activist who died this past summer, once quipped, “Anyone can be a young radical. Where are the old radicals?”[1] Now well beyond [...]

Viewpoints: Adventist Perspectives on Peace, Justice and Righteousness

Adventist Activism and Adventist Today are teaming up to present an interview series on issues of peace, justice, righteousness, compassion and the Kingdom of God. The first interview of the series–a conversation with Nathan French, Peace and Justice Organizer at the Hollywood SDA Church–is now up at Adventist Today. The interview begins: Jeff Boyd: Please [...]

Easter and Success

Happy Easter! The final article in my Lenten series at Spectrum is now up — Success. Here are the 10 lessons from Holy Week that I discuss: How we define success is important. Success is not always obvious. Be patient with people who don’t understand your mission. Short-term failures can be seeds for long-term success. [...]